Region: International
Are Pandemics An Argument Against Cities?
COVID-19 spread shows governance matters more than density
With the COVID-19 virus shutting down cities and countries all over the world, anti-urban advocates are seizing the moment to argue that pandemics prove urban density is bad. For example, longtime sprawl booster Joel Kotkin argues that shelter-in-place orders and fear of contagion will push people to demand more lower-density homes, far from crowded and …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Hot Will Things Get?
Identifying a realistic worst case scenario is complicated.
How hot will the world be in 2100? The answer partly depends on how much carbon we dump in the atmosphere between now and then. It also depends on how sensitive the climate system is to those emissions. Scientists have used 4.5 °C as the high end of the likely possibilities. That estimate derives from …
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CONTINUE READINGEurope Mulls its First Climate Law
What would it do in terms of emissions targets and likely actual mitigation?
The European Union is, if one treats it as a country, the world’s third greatest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHGs). It has also been a leader in emissions reduction (“mitigation”), and its per capita emissions are merely 43% of the US’s. The EU government is presently considering a major new climate law that will set …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change Threatens Tropical Fish Stocks. How Should Countries Respond?
As climate change warms the world’s oceans, marine scientists have paid special attention to how this will influence the movement of fish. Recent articles have shown that fish stocks are migrating toward colder waters in the poles. In a piece published yesterday in Nature Sustainability, a group of economists, marine scientists, and I examined for the first …
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CONTINUE READINGLessons of the Little Ice Age
What can we learn from the climate disruptions of the previous millennium?
The Little Ice Age wasn’t actually an ice age, but it was a period of markedly colder temperatures that began in the 1200s and lasted into the mid-1800s, with the 1600s a particular low point. It was a time when London winter fairs were regularly held on the middle of a frozen Thames river, glaciers …
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CONTINUE READINGValentine’s Day and Climate Change
Global warming will change much of our everyday lives. Even Feb. 14.
How is climate change connected with Valentine’s Day? In many ways, as it turns out. That’s an indication of the myriad ways in which climate is entangled with our lives. Whether it’s roses and chocolate, or courtship, nothing will remain quite the same as global temperatures go up and up. What about climate change and …
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CONTINUE READINGTracing Trump’s Trillion Trees
The president’s embrace of massive tree planting has a remarkable — and questionable — backstory
During last week’s State of the Union address, US President Donald Trump said: To protect the environment, days ago I announced that the United States will join the One Trillion Trees Initiative, an ambitious effort to bring together government and private sector to plant new trees in America and all around the world. Astute regular …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Change and the Financial Industry
How is one of the world’s largest industries responding to climate change?
As of 2018, the U.S. financial industry contributed $1.5 trillion to GDP. How is the financial sector responding to climate change? The short answer is “slowly so far, but there are signs of progress.” For instance, just last Friday, the NY Times reported that European Central Bank began a strategy review with climate change on …
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CONTINUE READINGAntacids for the Sea: Artificial Ocean Alkalinization
A potential tool for adaptation and carbon removal, but more research is needed.
The carbonate cycle helps make the oceans one of the largest carbon sinks on the planet. As the oceans’ surface waters mingle with the open air, they absorb enormous amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), storing it in the water as carbonic acid and carbonates and as limestone on the seafloor. The carbonate cycle is a …
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CONTINUE READINGDeciding a Climate Case in the Shadow of the Supreme Court
Juliana Judges Surely Had The Higher Court in Mind in Drafting Their Decision
The irony of the Ninth Circuit decision dismissing the Juliana v. United States case this week is plain to see. Two branches of government — the legislative and executive – have failed to act to address an environmental problem that may cause the destruction of the federal government itself. The third branch, the judiciary, recognizes the …
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