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.
He’ll try, but Trump can’t stop the clean energy revolution
by Matt Simon in Grist…The cost of renewables is plummeting, heat pumps are selling like crazy, and red states are raking in cash from the IRA.
Mike Davis, California’s ‘prophet of doom’, on activism in a dying world: ‘Despair is useless’
by Lois Beckett in The Guardian…lHis warnings of ecological and social breakdown have proved accurate. But with months to live, Davis is anything but defeated
More in this category
WEP2018 TV: Energy, money and technology – From the lens of the superorganism
During Nate Hagens’ #WEP2018 keynote, he will discuss how all of our lives will be influenced by how we react to the coming era of harder to extract and more costly fossil fuels that will be combined with cleaner but more stochastic energy types.
‘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.