Climate Change

A slew of recent studies corroborate the scientific consensus on climate change. It is both a current day reality and a serious threat to life on Earth. In recent decades we have witnessed a sharp increases in the number of floods, storms, heat waves, droughts, hurricanes and wildfires. This is corroborated by the daily news which shows wildfires in the West and storms in the East. Thus far in 2020 we have seen 25 named storms in the Atlantic, making this only the second time that the the World Meteorological Organization has run out of human for storms in the...

Many first responders are suffering from inhaling the toxic fumes in the wake of the World Trade Center terrorist attack. This year these people are especially vulnerable to COVID-19. The pandemic has already claimed more than 193,000 American lives that is more than 60 times the number of people that died in 9/11. Every few days the death toll from this virus in the U.S. equals the number of people who died in the twin towers. The devastating environmental impact of 9/11 continues to take a toll 19 years later. The felling of the twin towers in Manhattan killed 2,606...

Once again we are witnessing the bi-coastal carnage of hurricanes in the east and wildfires out west. However, this year these record breaking disasters are being compounded by a global pandemic. Extreme weather is one of the most pervasive and persuasive manifestations of climate change. We have seen decades of data that conclusively demonstrate the world is warming. CLIMATE CHANGE AND COVID-19 A warming world threatens to unleash a host of diseases and other threats to human health. Carbon Brief explored how climate change and biodiversity disturbance, including habitat loss and human-animal conflict, could influence the risk of diseases being...

Here are fifty recently published books on the subjects of global warming, climate mitigation, and social change. This is a companion piece to the 25 books in The Green Market Oracle's well-informed readers list. These books are divided into the following six categories: 1. Climate impacts 2. Sustainability and business 3. Climate action 4. Justice 5. Agriculture 6. Health CLIMATE IMPACTS Disposable City: Miami’s Future on the Shores of Climate Catastrophe by Mario Alejandro Ariza, 2020 A deeply reported personal investigation by a Miami journalist examines the present and future effects of climate change in the Magic City -- a...

Month after month, year after year temperature records keep being broken. Last July was the hottest month ever recorded and 2019 was the second hottest year on record. The five last years have been the hottest on record, as was the decade from 2010-2019. The five warmest decades on record have all occurred in the last 50 years and each successive decade was warmer than any preceding decade. We have seen 425 consecutive months of above-average surface temperature and 43 consecutive years with above-average global land and ocean temperatures. Since the 1970s global temperatures have risen an average of 0.2...

The world is preoccupied with coronavirus, however, our health is also being impacted by climate change in a number of ways. There are a host of serious diseases that are being unleashed as the world continues to warm. Melting ice and rising seas are expected to add to the number of pathogens that undermine human health. One of the most terrifying climate-related diseases is something called "zombie pathogens" that are being released from melting permafrost. These frightening diseases come from a resurgence of deadly bacteria and viruses that have been dormant for thousands of years. Warming temperatures have caused outbreaks...

Month after month, year after year, decade after decade we keep setting new temperature records. The world’s five warmest years have all occurred in the last five years and the period from 2010-2019 was the hottest decade ever recorded. We have seen 421 consecutive months of above-average temperatures. The five warmest decades on record have all occurred in the last 50 years and each successive decade was warmer than any preceding decade. Last July was is the hottest month ever recorded and 2019 was the second hottest year on record. This was the 43rd consecutive year with above-average global land...

We are facing biodiversity crises and the actions we take this year will determine the fate of life on Earth. Humans have altered three-quarters of the land and two-thirds of the seas and in the process, we are destroying the natural world and driving mass extinction. The combination of habitat loss, pollution, exploitation of natural resources, population growth, environmental degradation, and climate change have pushed the creatures that inhabit this planet to the brink. For many species, it is already too late.Most studies estimate that current extinction rates are 100-10,000 times greater than background extinction rates over the last 10...

Greenhouse gas emissions are rising and our carbon budget* is dwindling. Between 2014 and 2016, global carbon emissions remained mostly flat, but emissions began to rise again in 2017. They rose in 2018, and there is good reason to believe they have risen again in 2019. According to the UN's 10th Emissions Gap Report, global emissions are expected to keep climbing putting us on track to push past dangerous upper threshold temperature limits. A report from the Global Carbon Project expects that emissions from industrial activities and the burning of fossil fuels will add an estimated 36.8 billion metric tons of...

The heat records keep adding to the mountain of data points that demonstrate that we are suffering from ever worsening global warming. This year (2019) is likely to be the second warmest year in the hottest decade on record. This year will also be remembered for the month of July which is the hottest month ever recorded. The months of June, September, October also broke records. November was the second hottest on record. Except for January of this year, each month in 2019 has been in the top three hottest on record.We have seen 419 consecutive months of above average...