Corporate giants are driving the world towards environmental disaster. Will self-preservation force them to pull back and end the destruction?
Book Review
Archive | Climate Change
Climate and hunger
Warmer climate = more hungry insects = less food
New research: Each one degree rise in global temperature will increase insect-driven losses to rice, corn and wheat crops by 10 to 25 percent
On the precipice
To overcome climate paralysis, unite for system change
On the precipice of disaster, we have vast numbers of potential allies. All our differences pale next to the overwhelming urgency of our common task.
Technofixes
Engineering the climate could cost us the earth
Geoengineering is a political technology, part of institutional apparatus that is preventing effective climate action and delaying structural change
John Bellamy Foster:
‘There is still time for an ecological revolution to prevent Hothouse Earth’
We need hundreds of millions of people to mobilize in an independent, revolutionary campaign to reconstitute global production and consumption.
The Rising Tide of environmental destruction
Arundhati Roy: The deadly flood in Kerala may be only a gentle warning
‘Unbridled greed, denuding of forest land, illegal construction, destruction of natural water systems, and mismanagement of dams, have all played a huge part.’
Reading matters
Ecosocialist Bookshelf, August 2018
Six new books for reds & greens. Marxist History of Capitalism. Superbugs. Rising Oceans. Capitalism in Critical Theory. Food Bank Nations. American Oligarchy
Movement building
The fires this time: Implications for ecosocialist strategy
A call for public discussion of the role of deindustrialization in building an alternative to the catastrophic course of 21st century capitalism.
Review
Climate change in the Anthropocene: An unstoppable drive to Hothouse Earth?
Can the global climate be stabilized before runaway change creates conditions that are too hot for human civilization and deadly for most species?
Dry Deniers
Australia: Worst drought ever, but don’t mention climate change!
“At the federal level there is a climate information vacuum of truth and at the state level there is no action.”
Crisis deepens
State of the Climate Report: It’s hot and getting hotter
It’s official: 2017 was the third-warmest year on record, and the hottest non-El Niño year. Greenhouse gases hit record highs and sea levels kept on rising
Science
Studying the health impacts of global environmental change
Planetary Health, a new field of scientific research, focuses on the human health impacts of the growing disruption of Earth’s metabolic systems
Emissions rising
Energy and Climate Change: No progress in 20 years
BP statistics show we are far from meeting the emission reduction targets adopted in the Paris Agreement. In 2017, we took a step backwards.
Extreme Weather
Are tropical cyclones getting wetter and stronger?
Climate scientists: A global increase in the most intense tropical storms due to global warming is not just predicted by models but is already happening.
In Review
Making the case against geoengineering
The Big Bad Fix powerfully exposes the dangers of deliberate climate modification, and presents alternatives. A deeper focus on fighting the fossil industry would strengthen the argument.
Movement Building
Climate change and Canada’s next left
At a time when the activist left is weak and divided, it’s vital to focus on common goals and principles, rather than obsessing over difference and division
Climate change
Sea level rise endangers sewage treatment in U.S.
Global warming gets toxic: The number of people who will lose sewage treatment could be five times more than those directly affected by flooding
Metabolic Rift
The Keeling Curve at 60: A portrait of climate crisis
If you’ve ever wondered what a scientific representation of metabolic rift might look like, check out this graph.
Resilience
Project Life: Cuba’s action plan prepares for climate change
As an island nation, Cuba is particularly vulnerable to climate change. Project Life (Tarea Vida), now being implemented across the country, aims to increase the country’s resilience and minimize future damage
Corporate liars exposed
Shell knew about climate threat decades ago
Secret documents reveal that the giant oil company’s scientists warned executives about the global impact of fossil fuels as early as 1981