We asked 380 top climate scientists what they felt about the future…
by Damian Carrington in The Guardian…In the face of such colossal danger, why is the world’s response so slow and inadequate? The IPCC experts overwhelmingly pointed to one barrier: lack of political will. Almost three-quarters of the respondents cited this factor, with 60% also blaming vested corporate interests.
How scared should you be of bird flu?
by Jennifer B. Nuzzo in The New York Times….No one knows whether H5N1, if left unchecked, will become the deadly pandemic that public health experts like me worry it could. Many of us have been watching H5N1 with alarm for more than 20 years.
America’s climate boomtowns are waiting
by Abrahm Lustgarten in The Atlantic….Rising temperatures could push millions of people north.
Here’s what is wrong with the national academies’ long COVID definition
by Leonard Jason in MedPage Today…Because a large percentageopens in a new tab or window of primary care patients have unexplained symptoms, healthcare workers often do not know what is causing their symptoms or how to help them. Physicians might feel better providing a nebulous diagnosis like the proposed National Academies long COVID definition, but in the long-run, I doubt this helps patients.
Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
by Chris Bing and Joel Schectman in Reuters….The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk.
Canada’s big worry: A US civil war
by Alexander Burns in Politico…Justin Trudeau probably won’t ask Joe Biden if the U.S. is headed for a war between the states. But a report from within his government says it’s time for Canada to get ready.
An object lesson from covid on how to destroy public trust
by Zeynep Tufekci in The New York Times….Big chunks of the history of the Covid pandemic were rewritten over the last month or so in a way that will have terrible consequences for many years to come.
Are we doomed? Here’s how to think about it
by Rivka Galchen in The New Yorker…..Climate change, artificial intelligence, nuclear annihilation, biological warfare—the field of existential risk is a way to reason through the dizzying, terrifying headlines.
Shrink the economy, save the world?
by Jennifer Szalai in The New York Times….Economic growth has been ecologically costly — and so a movement in favor of ‘degrowth’ is growing.
The case for hope
by NICHOLAS KRISTOF in The New York Times…The truth is that if you had to pick a time to be alive in the past few hundred thousand years of human history, it would probably be now.
Indicators of Global Climate Change 2023: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence
by Piers M. Forster, et al. in Earth System Science Data….This paper tracks some key indicators of global warming through time, from 1850 through to the end of 2023. It is designed to give an authoritative estimate of global warming to-date and its causes.
Is AI lying to me? Scientists warn of growing capacity for deception
by Hannah Devlin in The Guardian….Researchers find instances of systems double-crossing opponents, bluffing, pretending to be human and modifying behaviour in tests
3ºC Neighbourhood
by Civic Square in Neighbourhood Public Square…..We can ultimately control how much warming the world experiences, based on our choices as a society, and as a planet. Doom is not inevitable.
A review of ‘navigating the polycrisis’: A map of collapse, utopia, and the many paths in between
by Ben Shread-Hewitt in Resilience.org…The Polycrisis is the breakdown of our future.
Southern Africa drought flags dilemma for loss and damage fund
by Joe Lo in Climate Change News….Scientists blame the current drought on El Niño – which could exclude those affected from receiving aid for climate-change damage
North America’s biggest city is running out of water
by Caroline Houck in Vox…..Mexico City is staring down a water crisis. It won’t be the last city to do so.