Just in case you weren't sure quite how far climate change has already gone, the EU climate monitoring service notes that for the 11th month running last month (April) was the hottest on record.
As Hayley Fowler, (NewcastleU), asks:
'At what point do we declare we've lost the battle to keep temperatures below 1.5? ... [I think] we've already lost that battle & we really need to think very seriously about keeping below 2C & reducing our emissions as fast as we can'!
Belgian Police Arrest 132 Climate Activists During Act of Peaceful Civil Disobedience
10–12 minutes
HeadlineMay 07, 2024
In Belgium, over 100 students have begun a peaceful occupation at Ghent University demanding the school sever ties with companies connected to Israel’s military and enact urgent actions to deal with the climate crisis
"If #Biden continues his current course, extraction of the lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and manganese vital for a green-energy transition will come at the cost of Indigenous lands and trust... it could also cost Biden the election."
Concordia Leads Creation of Montreal Climate Data Hub
After a year of consultation and co-design, a Concordia-led initiative to create a Climate Data Hub for Greater Montreal is launching publicly.
The Climate Data Hub will provide a single federated point of access to emissions-related data held by a range of government offices, private companies and academic researchers
Can economic growth be decoupled from emissions? Yes, for sure, easily even.
Can economic growth be decoupled from environmental degradation in general? Absolutely not. The sheer throughput of materials through the economy, from extraction to waste disposal, must decrease. If we address GHG emissions in isolation from topsoil and biodiversity loss, we will fail to preserve the ecosystems on which we depend for life.
Barrel of oil: ~$80 on the global market. Consider: power of that price: driven extensive human endeavor, $Ts in invest., tech. breakthroughs, creation of some of the world’s largest cos. -all to extract FFs from wherever in the world -can be found. Burning of those fuels +other things, will put ~36B tons of CO2 into: atmosphere this yr. Policymakers would like to push -number to 0. -requires a powerful incentive -why govts must put a price on carbon ASAP. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-05-07/climate-change-carbon-pricing-can-be-incentive-to-reduce-emissions
Sheffield used campaign contributions in DC/TX to amass influence on oil & gas policy, until now. Price-fixing scheme: contributed to: effects of gas price inflation in the US -potentially accounted for upwards of 27% of price⬆️in 2022. Excess profits accrued by the IDU: 2021-22 reached a record high of $205B -might've cost every American consumer $2,100. FTC could push for a criminal case agst. him for #collusion.
Investigation: BP’s (efforts to “confidently & conspicuously” wage campaigns of climate disinfo. aimed to protect their brand & their mission to extract oil & gas indefinitely. HSE CMTE's docs implicates Princeton’s Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI).
BP’s relationship w CMI: >20 yrs. Senate report: might be the most powerful signal yet that universities have to sever ties with oil cos.🚨We're being used on a large scale.
Why Highway 1 is the climate challenge that California can’t fix
It is beloved by Big Sur road trippers and is vital for local businesses. But intense storms, slides and fires imperil this highway. What does the future hold?
Nature can’t run without parasites. What happens when they start to disappear?
It was climate change. It made a lot of sense: Complex parasites can only survive if everyone one of those host species are around. If just one type of host goes missing? “Game over
Our argument is that parasites are just species. They’re part of biodiversity, and they’re doing really important things in ecosystems that we depend upon them for
Indigenous climate activists honored for defeating offshore drilling effort
Each year, the Goldman Prize awards scientists, activists and artists for their work for environmental causes.
We speak to Sinegugu Zukulu and Nonhle Mbuthuma two of this year's winners from South Africa's indigenous Wild Coast community, who banded together to defeat an offshore drilling effort