by Laurie Laybourn, et al. in IPPR…Recent governments have not considered climate change a priority national security issue. But climate-security threats are non-linear and are escalating, posing profound challenges to national and international security.
Hurricane Helene isn’t an outlier. It’s a harbinger of the future.
by John Morales in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists…And then came the rain.
Preliminary storm-total rainfall measured on the ground included nearly 31 inches (782 millimeters) in Yancey County, northeast of Asheville, North Carolina. Radar estimated totals in areas where there were no rain gauges exceeded 40 inches (1,000 mm) just over the state line in South Carolina’s Greenville County.
How rising global heat connects catastrophic floods on four continents
by Scott Dance in The Washington Post…At this time of year, that flood potential amped up by global warming can become especially evident.
Publication: Extreme temperatures and the profitability of large European firms
by Bellocca, Gian Pietro Enzo, et al in e-Archivo…The lack of a clear negative effect of extreme temperatures over firm’s profitability points out one of the reasons why it is so difficult to fight against climate change, while being harmful, it can be profitable.
Canada’s wildfires were a top global emitter last year, study says
by Manuela Andreoni in The New York Times…The blazes produced more planet-warming carbon than almost any country, researchers found. That could upend key calculations on the pace of global warming.
A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing
by UNEP in Navigating New Horizons…As the leading global authority on the environment, the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) plays a critical role in keeping the environment under review and finding solutions that inspire,
inform and enable nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.
More in this category
‘Nanoplastics’ could be worse than ,microplastics and we know almost nothing about them
by Mirjam Guesgen in Vice….”From the public point of view, this could be the next asbestos.”
500+ pages, 200+ researchers: Global Tipping Points Report delivers comprehensive assessment of tipping point risks and societal opportunities
by T.M. Lenton, et al in Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research…Tipping points pose some of the biggest risks to our planet’s life-support systems and the stability of our societies. In an unprecedented effort by the scientific community, researchers have now published a comprehensive report on Earth system tipping points and their potential impacts and opportunities for societal change. More than 200 scientists from around the world contributed to the ‘Global Tipping Points Report’. The report with more than 500 pages provides an authoritative guide to the state of knowledge on tipping points, explores opportunities for accelerating much needed transformations, and outlines options for a new governance of tipping point risks and opportunities.
Is it too late to keep global warming below 1.5 °C? The challenge in 7 charts
by Jeff Tollefson in Nature…Chances are rapidly disappearing to limit Earth’s temperature rise to the globally agreed mark, but researchers say there are some positive signs of progress.
Multisolving: making systems whole, healthy, and sustainable
by Elizabeth R. Sawin, et al, in Stanford Social Innovation Review…Crossing system boundaries to build partnerships and solve shared problems will strengthen communities and build resilience.
The ‘flickering’ of Earth systems is warning us: act now, or see our already degraded paradise lost
by George Monbiot in The Guardian…Every hour is now an “if only” moment: offering a better chance of avoiding collapse than the hour that follows. Grim as our time on Earth is, future generations will look back on it as a golden age. A golden age of wildlife, of mild weather, stability, prosperity, of opportunities to act. Our living world is a grey shadow of what it once was, but a vibrant paradise in comparison with what it will be. Unless, unless.
2023 Executive Summary
from the Executive Summary UNEHS…Today, we are moving perilously close to the brink of multiple risk tipping points. Human actions are behind this rapid and fundamental change to the planet. We are introducing new risks and amplifying existing ones by indiscriminately extracting our water resources, damaging nature and biodiversity, polluting both Earth and space, and destroying our tools and options to deal with disaster risk.
Climate change has toppled some civilizations but not others. Why?
by Kate Yoder in Grist…Of course, there’s no guarantee that a better system will replace the vulnerable, unequal one after a collapse. “You still have to do the work of putting in the reforms, and having the support of those in power, to be able to actually set and reinforce these kinds of revisions,” Hoyer said. “So I would argue, if that’s the case, let’s just do that without the violence to begin with.”
Rehabilitating Lahaina
by Travis Hartman, et al. in Reuters…After Hawaii’s worst wildfire killed scores of people in August, local and federal agencies are reckoning with the toxic chemicals created when a built environment burns
The world’s top industrial countries are in treacherous waters
by Richard Heinberg in Resilience.org…Whatever is coming will be as historically unique as our present circumstances. The ever-louder rumblings from just over the horizon suggest that, whatever it is, it’s not far off.
Drought in Brazil’s Amazon reveals ancient engravings
in Phys.org…”Unhappily it is now reappearing with the worsening of the drought,” Carneiro said. “Having our rivers back (flooded) and keeping the engravings submerged will help preserve them, even more than our work.”
The 2023 state of the climate report: Entering uncharted territory
by William J Ripple in BioScience…..Rather than focusing only on carbon reduction and climate change, addressing the underlying issue of ecological overshoot will give us our best shot at surviving these challenges in the long run. This is our moment to make a profound difference for all life on Earth, and we must embrace it with unwavering courage and determination to create a legacy of change that will stand the test of time.
For a Coming Extinction
BY W. S. MERWIN Gray whaleNow that we are sending you to The EndThat great godTell himThat we who follow you invented forgivenessAnd forgive nothing I write as though you could understandAnd I could say itOne must always pretend somethingAmong the dyingWhen you have...
Climate extremes call for resilience and adaptation, not just repair
by Jorn Birkmann in Nature…..Through international research and local collaborations, the Institute of Spatial and Regional Planning at the University of Stuttgart is changing the way the world prepares for a future of extremes.
I study climate change. The data is telling us something new.
by Zeke Hausfather in The New York Times…Staggering. Unnerving. Mind-boggling. Absolutely gobsmackingly bananas.
Extreme weather leading to food and water shock
from Lloyd’s futureset and Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies…Without collaboration, protection and risk mitigation, the potential impacts of extreme and systemic weather events could prove devastating to the global economy. Our ‘Extreme weather leading to food and water shortage’ scenario uses modelling and analysis to expose the potential cost of a weather and food event unfolding over the next five years, at three different levels of severity. The analysis is based on the historic impacts of climate events and uses plausible projections to demonstrate economic and insurance impacts over the next five years..