In The News

“Warning Cry From the Arctic”: Reuters

Matthew Green and Emma Farge June 25, 2020
Rapid Arctic warming poses dire consequences for the planet. Record-breaking heat – 38 degrees Celsius, or 100 Fahrenheit – is reported from the Arctic, with dry peatlands and conifers that serve as tinder for wildfires. “That extreme heat is fanning the unusual extent of wildfires across the remote, boreal forest and tundra that blankets northern Russia,” reports Reuters. “Scientists fear the...

Capitalism as Victim of Covid-19? Salon

Matthew Rozsa June 18, 2020
The pandemic and climate change demonstrate that survival depends on the ability to learn while relying on best evidence. Political leaders who downplay or deny the consequences of Covid-19 and climate change – trying to protect economies for the short term, rejecting early warnings and refusing to adapt – actually risk more economic damage. Such disasters also show that the free-market...

Ethiopia to Plant 5 Billion Trees: Quartz Africa

Samuel Getachew June 11, 2020
Ethiopia has an ambitious plan to plant 20 billion trees by 2024, including 5 billion this year, part of the Green Legacy Challenge to confront climate change. The program costs more than 4 billion Birr, or $117 million, reports Samuel Getachew for Quartz Africa, adding, “The initiative has been getting support from nations including Norway, Sweden and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP...

How We Broke the World: NYT

Thomas L. Friedman June 2, 2020
Global insecurity has intensified with the gradual dismantling of protections. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve been steadily removing man-made and natural buffers, redundancies, regulations and norms that provide resilience and protection when big systems – be they ecological, geopolitical or financial – get stressed,” explains Thomas Friedman for the New York Times. Obsession with short-term...

Covid-19 and Green Recovery? Euronews

Darren McCaffrey May 27, 2020
Economic shutdowns due to Covid-19 demonstrate a quieter world with cleaner air, wiht carbon emissions reduced by more than 8 percent between January and April from the same period in 2019. “This is massively significant: 8 per cent is roughly half of what America emits in an entire year and would be the biggest drop since the Second World War,” writes Darren McCaffrey for Euronews. For the world...

Governance and Climate Disruption: Mail & Guardian

Sipho Kings May 4, 2020
Climate change is changing communities and their surrounding environment, exacerbating floods, droughts, wildfires, storms and other challenges associated with human interventions. “It has a cruel way of exposing existing failures, which is why good governance is so important in countries preparing for a changing climate,” explains Sipho Kings for the Mail & Guardian. He offers examples: Dams...

Climate Migrants Under Himalayas: New York Times

Bhadra Sharma and Kai Schultz April 12, 2020
Nepalese living under the Himalayas are suffering as the climate warms and must leave their homes to earn a living. Millions of South Asians who rely on agriculture in Bangladesh, India and Nepal are at risk with extreme weather, including glacial melt, droughts and erratic flooding. In addition, scientists have found that rising temperatures might allow malaria and dengue to spread at higher...