Subjects Archives: Ecology

As the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report tells us, there is still a chance to keep warming at no more than the 1.5°C target, but tipping points to climate catastrophes much worse than we are witnessing now will kick in if this target is breached. It is now crystal clear that ongoing wars, in particular the Ukraine war, create huge obstacles to the global cooperation necessary for any chance of meeting the 1.5°C warming target. Following the lead of China’s peace plan, we should support the call for an immediate ceasefire in the Ukraine war, and for all parties involved to negotiate.

Only an ecosocialist revolution can stop our demise, but capitalism’s behemoth keeps people deceitful and mostly unaware of being on the verge of a catastrophic end. We must arise—now!

After scoring half a million from oil and gas interests, New York’s Democratic governor wants to allow utilities to burn fossil fuels for decades longer than currently permitted.

It may be recalled that after Japan alarmingly announced in April 2021 its plan to start releasing around 1.3 million metric tons of contaminated wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, countries in the rest of eastern Asia and the Pacific region protested. Environmental groups and even the Japanese people opposed it.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) synthesis report recently landed with an authoritative thump, giving voice to hundreds of scientists endeavouring to understand the unfolding calamity of global heating.

Ian Angus on chemical warfare against insects.

Is it still possible to limit future global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels? Or has that ship sailed?

In an action that is a flat reversal of his election campaign pledge of “no more drilling on federal lands,” President Joe Biden decided Monday to approve an $8 billion oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, to be operated by ConocoPhillips.

The world’s insects are among the principal victims of capitalist agricultural concentration.

There is an overwhelming asymmetry between the level of “development” and the possession of natural resources among countries of the world.

While the giant U.S. energy corporations and banks seek out every way to profit from the climate change emergency that they inflicted on the world, extreme weather events are becoming the new normal. 

Canadian firms benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity at the expense of human rights and the environment.

Beyond all the hype and all the anxiety about climate policymaking, the upbeat newsmaking about energy transitions and the growing dread of civilisational collapse, what have we learned about the climate system in the last year? 

Defined as an equitable and democratic reduction of energy and material throughput targeted at rich nations and the globally wealthy, degrowth has grown in popularity over the last few years with growing political support.

The campaign to defend the forest in Atlanta, Georgia has become one of the most vibrant movements of the post-Trump era, interweaving environmentalism, abolitionism, and the fight against gentrification. Yet as police shift to employing lethal violence and indiscriminate terrorism charges, it has reached a critical juncture.

Much has been written about climate change or, to use a more truthful term, global warming. But not much has been written about “Organising Responses to Climate Change,” which is the title of Daniel Nyberg, Christopher Wright and Vanessa Bowden’s new book.

The #NordStream sabotage released 300,000 metric tonnes of this gas into our atmosphere–a climate and environmental crime.

“It’s too late to avoid the climate storm altogether,” said a study co-author. “Our ability to steer out of the storm is frustrated by having to manage the impacts of the storm on the ship.”

Wang assures that his country’s response to US aerial objects intercepting Chinese airspace has been both professional and responsible.

Australian anti-war and environmental activist Dr. Helen Caldicott warns that policymakers who understate the danger of nuclear weapons don’t have the public’s best interest at heart.