Extreme Heat

3 Dead as Iraqi Crowds Protest Electricity Outages in 124° Heat; Have US and Climate Crisis left Iraq Unviable?

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On Tuesday, the temperature in Baghdad hit 124° F. (51.2°). Just for perspective, the all-time highest temperature recorded for Asia was in Kuwait five years ago, at 129° F. Scientists consider an average temperature of 95° the highest consistent with habitability. Since these temperatures and higher will become more and […]

Climate Crisis

Emissions of methane – a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide – are rising dangerously

The Conversation

By Pep Canadell, Ben Poulter, Marielle Saunois, Paul Krummel, and Rob Jackson | – Fossil fuels and agriculture are driving a dangerous acceleration in methane emissions, at a rate consistent with a 3-4℃ rise in global temperatures this century. Our two papers published today provide a troubling report card on the global methane budget, and […]

Climate Crisis

New research shows the South Pole is warming faster than the rest of the world

The Conversation

By Kyle Clem | – Climate scientists long thought Antarctica’s interior may not be very sensitive to warming, but our research, published today, shows a dramatic change. Over the past 30 years, the South Pole has been one of the fastest changing places on Earth, warming more than three times more rapidly than the rest […]

Climate Crisis

100 degrees in Siberia? Top 5 ways burning Coal, Gasoline is causing Astonishing Transformation of Arctic

The Conversation

This Arctic heat wave has been unusually long-lived. The darkest reds on this map of the Arctic are areas that were more than 14 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the spring of 2020 compared to the recent 15-year average. Joshua Stevens/NASA Earth Observatory By Mark Serreze, University of Colorado Boulder The Arctic heat wave that sent […]

Climate Crisis

The other Pandemic: Siberia hits over 100° F, hotter than Miami, 80 Years Early, because Coal and Gasoline

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – As if the coronavirus pandemic, depression-era unemployment, and a mad President in the White House were not enough, Mother Nature has decided to remind us what the Big Kahuna really is. It is the climate emergency. May was not only the hottest May since 1880, it was 18° F. (10° […]

Climate Crisis

The Other Pandemic: We haven’t Even begun to Flatten the Curve on the Climate Crisis

H. Patricia Hynes

Greenfield, Mass. (Special to Informed Comment) – We are living with two life-threatening crises: Covid-19 and the climate crisis. They pose a common stark fate for us – the risk of illness in the case of Covid, and injury and destruction of our environment in the case of climate; both are harbingers of death for […]

Climate Crisis

Heat the Earth more than 3.6° F. and Rain Forests will Release Hundreds of Billions of Tons of CO2

The Conversation

By Aida Cuní Sanchez and Martin Sullivan | – As they photosynthesise and grow, tropical forests remove enormous amounts of carbon from the atmosphere, reducing global warming. However, forests are also themselves affected by this warming. If it gets too hot or too dry, trees will grow less and may start to die faster, decomposing […]

Climate Crisis

Global warming now pushing heat into territory humans cannot tolerate

The Conversation

By Tom Matthews and Colin Raymond | – The explosive growth and success of human society over the past 10,000 years has been underpinned by a distinct range of climate conditions. But the range of weather humans can encounter on Earth – the “climate envelope” – is shifting as the planet warms, and conditions entirely […]