by K.O. in Atmos…NEOM has been hailed as the future of the climate-resilient, smart city. But, for local communities, its construction threatens displacement and exploitation.
Silicon dreams and carbon nightmares: The wide boundary impacts of AI
by Nate Hagen in The Great Simplification…What are the environmental implications of a tool with unbound computational capabilities aimed towards goals of relentless growth and extraction? How could artificial intelligence play into the themes of power and greed, intensifying inequalities and accelerating the fragmentation of society? What role could AI play under a different set of values and expectations for the future that are in service to the betterment of life?
Column: How ‘Sesame Street’ can prepare kids for climate disasters
by Sammy Roth in the LA Times…Twenty-three years ago, “Sesame Street” aired a remarkable series of episodes during which the iconic puppets and their human friends must recover from a hurricane. One focus is Big Bird’s struggle to come to terms with the destruction of his nest.
Living Landscapes: rethinking biodiversity in Southern Africa
by Oak Foundation….One of the strengths of the course is that the students taking part already work in conservation areas where they can make a difference, such as biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, and governance (land, water, and the ocean).They come with a wide range of expertise – from government agencies, conservation organisations, climate justice, and not-for-profit organisations. This means they bring experience with them, which they can share with the group.
Extreme wildfires have doubled in frequency and intensity in the past 20 years
by Victor Fernandez Garcia & Christina Santin in Wired.com….The doubling in extreme wildfires adds to a complex picture of fire patterns and trends. This new evidence underscores the urgency of addressing the root causes behind worsening wildfire activity, such as land cover changes, forest policies and management, and, of course, climate change. This will better prepare us for these extreme fires, which are near-impossible to combat using traditional firefighting methods.
NEOM is a city of the future. The land is the cost.
by K.O. in Atmos….NEOM has been hailed as the future of the climate-resilient, smart city. But, for local communities, its construction threatens displacement and exploitation.
More in this category
Canada in the year 2060
by Anne Shibata Casselman in Maclean’s….“Some years we’re going to have to restrict water and essentially ration it. And there’ll be other years when we’ll perhaps be one of the few places in the world that can still produce food reliably.”
Climate-changing human activity could lead to 1 billion deaths over the next century, according to new study
by Jeff Renaud in Phys.org…..”If you take the scientific consensus of the 1,000-ton rule seriously, and run the numbers, anthropogenic global warming equates to a billion premature dead bodies over the next century. Obviously, we have to act. And we have to act fast.”
We are witnessing the first stages of civilization’s collapse
by Michael T. Klare in The Nation….Will our own elites perform any better than the rulers of Chaco Canyon, the Mayan heartland, and Viking Greenland?
Global heating likely to hit world food supply before 1.5C, says UN expert
by Fiona Harvey in The Guardian….“Climate change is a pandemic that we need to fight quickly. See how fast the degradation of the climate is going – I think it’s going even faster than we predicted.”
Atlantic collapse: Q&A with scientists behind controversial study predicting a colder Europe
by Peter Ditlevsen in The Conversation…..But what we see now with more and more frequent extremes, heat waves and storms and floodings, is the possibility of actually hitting a nonlinearity, a tipping point. That’s a much more challenging phenomenon to model.
From debt to diversity: A journey of rewilding, carbon capture and hope
by Elizabeth Fitt in Mongabay….A study also shows that the rewilded farmland at Knepp absorbs more carbon dioxide than conventional farms, providing hope for climate change mitigation and soil restoration.
Instead of moving to escape climate chaos, build social trust where you are
by Bill McKibben in Common Dreams….And I think it’s on a lot of minds, especially right now, as it becomes clear that many parts of our Earth won’t be habitable going forward.
Economics for the future – Beyond the superorganism
by NJ Hagens in Ecological Economics….Our environment and economy are at a crossroads.
Climate variability and natural hazards like floods and earthquakes can act as environmental shocks or socioecological stressors leading to instability and suffering throughout human history.
by Creon Butler in ChathamHouse.org…The stark disconnect between climate science and financial market sentiment will eventually end. It looks increasingly likely to be a sudden and painful adjustment..
Extreme heat is deadlier than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined
by Terri Adams-Fuller in Scientific American….When dangerous heat waves hit cities, better risk communication could save lives
Top 40 impacts of climate change
by Eliot Jacobson in Climatecasino.net….I am not suggesting that this is a list of problems that will be “solved” by addressing climate change. It’s too late for that. The events in this list will happen with ever increasing severity the deeper we get into the climate crisis.
With our food systems on the verge of collapse, it’s the plutocrats v life on Earth
by George Monbiot in The Guardian…Climate breakdown and crop losses threaten our survival, but the ultra-rich find ever more creative ways to maintain the status quo.
The struggle for environmental justice in Africa
by Nnimmo Bassey at resilience.org….Today, Africa is facing multiple ecological challenges. All of these have resulted from the actions of entities that have seen the continent as a sacrificial zone.
Earlier collapse of Anthropocene ecosystems driven by multiple faster and noisier drivers
by Simonn Willcock in Nature…..Accelerating stress levels, increasing frequencies of extreme events and strengthening intersystem connections suggest that conventional modelling approaches based on incremental changes in a single stress may provide poor estimates of the impact of climate and human activities on ecosystems.
Disrupting and diversifying the values, voices and governance principles that shape biodiversity science and management
by Anne Salomon in The Royal Society….With climate, biodiversity and inequity crises squarely upon us, never has there been a more pressing time to rethink how we conceptualize, understand and manage our relationship with Earth’s biodiversity.