by Jeffrey Kluger in Time…By century’s end, up to 20% of all Earth’s land could experience abrupt ecosystem transformation, such as forests becoming grasslands, with attendant extinction and collapse of ecosystems. Farming could suffer too.
A ‘doom loop’ of climate change and geopolitical instability is beginning
by Laurie Laybourn in The Conversation…It is a common refrain to say that geopolitics gets in the way of climate action. From the war in Ukraine to trade tensions, each year seems to bring another immediate priority that diverts focus from the imperative to act on climate change.
Does talking about climate ‘tipping points’ inspire action — or defeat?
by Kate Yoder in Grist…Kopp said that the emphasis on climate tipping points might have made sense as a call to action 20 years ago, when the consequences of climate change weren’t so obvious. But in 2024, the hottest year ever recorded, its effects are apparent, with floods, fires, and heat waves noticeably worse than they used to be.
Global emergence of regional heatwave hotspots outpaces climate model simulations
by Kai Kornhuber, et al. in PNAS…Multiple recent record-shattering weather events raise questions about the adequacy of climate models to effectively predict and prepare for unprecedented climate impacts on human life, infrastructure, and ecosystems. Here, we show that extreme heat in several regions globally is increasing significantly and faster in magnitude than what state-of-the-art climate models have predicted under present warming even after accounting for their regional summer background warming.
Trees as infrastructure
from Dark Matter Laboratories…An open source model to support municipalities in transitioning toward resilient urban forest management practices
Heat-related mortality in Europe during 2023 and the role of adaptation in protecting health
by Eliso Gallo, et al. in Nature…The year of 2023 was the warmest on record globally and the second warmest in Europe. Here we applied epidemiological models to temperature and mortality records in 823 contiguous regions from 35 countries to estimate sex- and age-specific heat-related mortality in Europe during 2023 and to quantify the mortality burden avoided by societal adaptation to rising temperatures since the year 2000.
More in this category
European summers will be hotter than predicted because of cleaner air
by Michael Le Page in the New Scientist…By ignoring declining air pollution, regional climate models have greatly underestimated how hot Europe’s summers and heatwaves will become
‘Inside an oven’: sweltering heat ravages crops and takes lives in south-east Asia
by Rebecca Ratcliffe in The Guardian….Governments issue health warnings as schools shut and crops fail, with fears that worse is to come as heatwave tightens grip
The flooding will come “No Matter What”
by Abrahm Lustgarten in Propublica…The complex, contradictory and heartbreaking process of American climate migration is underway.
These century-old stone “Tsunami Stones” dot Japan’s coastline
by Danny Lewis in Smithsonian Magazine….“Remember the calamity of the great tsunamis. Do not build any homes below this point.”
Climate crisis → drought → food deficit → migration
by Mohan Mainali in Nepali Times….Half-century of eastern Nepal’s rainfall data points to a link between chronic drought and depopulation
Tenth consecutive monthly heat record alarms and confounds climate scientists
by Johathan Watts in The Guardian…If the anomaly does not stabilise by August, ‘the world will be in uncharted territory’, says climate expert
The Eco-Civilization Framework
As the planet burns, authoritarian populists dominate politics, oil executives direct the COP process, and the wealthy elite pull further away from everyone else, it is difficult not to draw the conclusion that the movement for a beneficial future is failing. We...
Global energy-related CO2 emissions hit record high in 2023 – IEA
by Reuters in Climate Home News…Global emissions from energy rose by 410 million tonnes, or 1.1%, in 2023 to 37.4 billion tonnes, hitting a record hight
Forget the partisan hype, Aust farmers are preparing for the extremes of climate change
by Jamie Seidel in Cosmos Magazine…Farmers consider the animal breeds and crop types they produce to be flexible choices. Others are prepared to relocate operations to chase the conditions their particular produce needs.
Pivotal moment for humanity as disasters threaten to converge
by David Nield in Science Alert…The researchers warn of a catastrophic loss of crop-growing capacity with up to half the global area for growing wheat and maize potentially lost, putting the “stability of our societies” under threat. These processes are already well underway, with more than 27 million children driven into hunger by extreme weather in 2022 alone.
What a major solar storm could do to our planet
by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker…Scientists can’t predict what will happen in space. All they can do is try to identify a threat quickly enough to minimize its impact on everything that it might damage or destroy.
Rebecca Solnit: Slow Change Can Be Radical Change
by Rebecca Solnit…..We are impatient creatures, impatient for the future to arrive and prone to forgetting the past in our urgency to have it all now.
Critical Atlantic Ocean current system is showing early signs of collapse, prompting warning from scientists
by Laura Paddison on CNN….For decades, scientists have been sounding the alarm on the circulation’s stability as climate change warms the ocean and melts ice, disrupting the balance of heat and salt that determines the currents’ strength.
The perverse policies that fuel wildfires
by Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker…Strategies intended to safeguard forests and homes have instead increased the likelihood that they’ll burn.
Hurricanes becoming so strong that new category needed, study says
by Oliver Milman in The Guardian…Scientists propose new category 6 rating to classify ‘mega-hurricanes’, becoming more likely due to climate crisis