Climate change is already irreversible

Published on Jun 15, 2018
Simon Clark

Start your journey towards coding your own EMIC with Brilliant! https://brilliant.org/simonclark – Carbon capture paper: https://www.cell.com/joule/fulltext/S… – Solomon paper: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/6/1704 – More about EMICs: https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_… – Further paper on capture capture: http://science.sciencemag.org/content… – Species extinction due to climate change: http://science.sciencemag.org/content… and https://www.theguardian.com/environme… – How to make a difference if you’re a student: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&vide…

Why Divest?

Climate One
Published on Sep 20, 2018

Tom Steyer of NextGen America talks divestment with Climate One. Divestment from fossil fuels on the part of major institutions, he says, makes an important statement regardless of its capital impacts for the industry.

‘Like a Terror Movie’: How Climate Change Will Cause More Simultaneous Dis asters – The New York Times

By John Schwartz Nov. 19, 2018

Want climate news in your inbox? Sign up here for Climate Fwd:, our email newsletter.

Global warming is posing such wide-ranging risks to humanity, involving so many types of phenomena, that by the end of this century some parts of the world could face as many as six climate-related crises at the same time, researchers say.

This chilling prospect is described in a paper published Monday in Nature Climate Change, a respected academic journal, that shows the effects of climate change across a broad spectrum of problems, including heat waves, wildfires, sea level rise, hurricanes, flooding, drought and shortages of clean water.

Such problems are already coming in combination, said the lead author, Camilo Mora of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He noted that Florida had recently experienced extreme drought, record high temperatures and wildfires — and also Hurricane Michael, the powerful Category 4 storm that slammed into the Panhandle last month. Similarly, California is suffering through the worst wildfires the state has ever seen, as well as drought, extreme heat waves and degraded air quality that threatens the health of residents.

Things will get worse, the authors wrote. The paper projects future trends and suggests that, by 2100, unless humanity takes forceful action to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, some tropical coastal areas of the planet, like the Atlantic coast of South and Central America, could be hit by as many as six crises at a time.

….(read more).

Project offers holistic view on environmental issues – Harvard Gazette

In reaction to the growing challenges posed by global environmental change, author and Harvard Divinity School writer-in-residence Terry Tempest Williams and Sam Myers, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health principal research scientist and Planetary Health Alliance director, have launched the Constellation Project.

This new collaboration includes the Planetary Health Alliance, Harvard Divinity School, the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Center for the Environment, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School. Together, the participants hope to ignite interdisciplinary, community-based conversation around fundamental questions — about our place in the world, our relationship with and reverence for nature, our “beautiful, breaking planet,” home.

“Consider these facts,” Myers and Tempest Williams write in their description of the Constellation Project, “to feed ourselves, we annually appropriate about 40 percent of Earth’s land surface for pastures and croplands. We use about half of the planet’s accessible fresh water to irrigate our crops; and we exploit 90 percent of global fisheries at, or beyond, their maximum sustainable limits.

“In the process, we have cut down half of the world’s forests and dammed more than 60 percent of its rivers. The quality of air, water, and land is diminishing around the world because of global pollution. Our production of greenhouse gases is changing Earth’s climate. These and other processes are driving species to extinction while the numbers of individual mammals, fishes, birds, reptiles, and amphibians have fallen by half in the past 45 years. We are holding nature under siege.”

…(read more).

For further information see:

• The Constellation Project

Overpopulation: The Making of a Myth

Population Research Institute
Published on Jul 23, 2009

The pilot episode of PRI’s POP 101 series, this video takes a fresh, humorous approach to the demographic issues facing the world today. Be sure to watch the sequel here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBS6f-… Visit www.overpopulationisamyth.com and spread the word: the world is not overpopulated!

Inside a Neo-Nazi Group With Members Tied to the U.S. Military | FRONTLINE + ProPublica

Noam Chomsky – Confronting Climate Change

A Sustainability Success Story: Canadian Canola

Climate Change Omitted from List of EPA Research Objectives – Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Date: October 24th, 2018
Agency: EPA, Federal
Explanation: Government Censorship, Research Hindrance
Scientist: Climate

On October 24, 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a draft “Air and Energy Strategic Research Action Plan” (Action Plan) for the period from 2019 to 2022. The Action Plan identifies research needed to “address[] EPA priorities and mandates” with respect to air pollution. Unlike previous versions, adopted during the Obama administration, the Action Plan does not list “prepar[ing] for and respond[ing] to changes in climate” as a “research objective.”

If finalized, the Action Plan would replace the “Air, Climate, and Energy Strategic Research Action Plan,” adopted in November 2015. That document listed three key research objectives, including:

“Prepare for and Respond to Changes in Climate and Air Quality—Provide human exposure and environmental modeling, monitoring, metrics and information needed by individuals, communities, and governmental agencies to take action to prepare for and mitigate the impacts of climate change, and make public health decisions regarding air quality.”

That objective has been removed from the 2019-2022 Action Plan. The plan does, however, call for “developing and implementing research activities” on “extreme events and emerging risks.” In discussing the need for research in this area, the plan states:

“It is clear from recent experience that future conditions are not likely to mirror those observed in the past. Environmental conditions are changing, as we have seen with increases in drought, extreme precipitation events (as experienced in Houston in 2017 during Hurricane Harvey), and more and higher high-temperature events. These are outside the range experienced in the past, whether in frequency, magnitude, or both, and such conditions are increasingly likely to become the norm. The United States’ dynamic economy and past successes in reducing emissions mean that future air pollutant types and sources of concern will change as technologies are developed and deployed.

Changes in atmospheric emissions and concentrations affect air quality, water quality (through deposition and changes in precipitation patterns), flood and fire frequency and magnitude, and coastal and forest ecosystems. These changes can affect air quality management effectiveness, vulnerabilities of water treatment and waste management infrastructure, and, ultimately, public health and ecosystems. The focus of the . . . Research Program on these issues is to improve and expand our understanding of the potential long-term connections between change

…(read more).

NYT Investigation: How Facebook Used A Republican Firm to Attack Critics & Spread Disinformation

Published on Nov 16, 2018 Democracy Now!

https://democracynow.org – “Delay, Deny and Deflect.” That’s the name of a new bombshell investigation by The New York Times revealing that Facebook executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, were aware of a Russian misinformation campaign on the social media network and took a series of extraordinary private actions to preserve the company’s reputation, launching an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat critics and spread misinformation.

The New York Times investigation reveals that Facebook hired the Republican opposition-research firm Definers Public Affairs to discredit critics of Facebook, linking them to the billionaire liberal donor George Soros. Facebook also allegedly lobbied the Anti-Defamation League to condemn criticism of the company as anti-Semitic. Since the publication of the investigation, Facebook has announced it will cut ties with Definers. We speak with Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the organizations targeted by Definers Public Affairs. We also speak with Siva Vaidhyanathan, the author of “Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.” He is a professor of media studies and director of the Center for Media and Citizenship at the University of Virginia. Vaidhyanathan’s new article for Slate is titled “Facebook Is a Normal Sleazy Company Now.”