Financial Times [alt free link]: “Financial institutions often did not understand the models they were using to predict the economic cost of climate change and were underestimating the risks of temperature rises, research led by a professional body of actuaries shows. Many of the results emerging from the models were “implausible,” with a serious “disconnect”… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Environmental Law
Drought and Public Health: A Roadmap for Advancing Engagement and Preparedness
Drought.gov: “Drought is one of the costliest and deadliest climate-related disasters in the United States, necessitating public health engagement at a national level. Although drought is not typically thought of as a health hazard, the pathways to human health outcomes are prevalent and numerous. To better understand these pathways, and actions that could be taken… Continue Reading
Human health depends on thriving oceans
The Lancet, June 7, 2023: Human health depends on thriving oceans: “Healthy oceans, from coastal waters to remote high seas and deep seabed areas, are integral to human health, wellbeing, and survival. Covering over 71% of the Earth’s surface, the oceans serve as an essential carbon sink. Oceans also regulate climate-associated human health risks between… Continue Reading
The Air Quality Index and how to use it, explained
Vox – 8 things you should know about the number that measures bad air: “It’s not enough to trust the senses to know when it’s a bad air day. Well before you can see or smell smoke, it can start wreaking havoc on the lungs. That haze you can see and smell on a particularly… Continue Reading
The melting Arctic is a crime scene
Alaska Beacon – Microbes warned of this catastrophe – but also drive it: “The Arctic’s climate is warming at least four times faster than the global average, causing irrevocable changes to this vast landscape and precarious ecosystem – from the anticipated extinction of polar bears to the appearance of killer whales in ever-greater numbers. A… Continue Reading
Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Tagged by Source
“Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most prevalent greenhouse gas driving global climate change. However, its increase in the atmosphere would be even more rapid without land and ocean carbon sinks, which collectively absorb about half of human emissions every year. Advanced computer modeling techniques in NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office allow us to disentangle… Continue Reading
Maps Distort How We See the World
Unchartered Territories: “Maps twist our perception of the world. Countries closer to the equator—which happen to be poorer —seem smaller than they are. This is because the world is a 3D sphere, but maps are 2D projections on a plane. That means distortion. So we develop a poor intuition for comparative region sizes. The biggest… Continue Reading
ShowYourStripes – visualizations tracking rises in global temperatures
ShoYourStripes: “These ‘warming stripe’ graphics are visual representations of the change in temperature as measured in each country, region or city over the past 100+ years. Each stripe or bar represents the temperature in that country, region or city averaged over a year. The stripes typically start around the year 1900 and finish in 2022,… Continue Reading
45 million people in the U.S. may be exposed to dangerous heat today
Washington Post Heat Tracker – “Extreme heat kills more people in the United States than any other weather hazard, and the risk of longer and more frequent heat waves is only expected to increase as climate change worsens. The Post is tracking the potential for dangerous heat this summer using the heat index, which accounts… Continue Reading
There Is Always An Alternative
Remarks presented to York University’s Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Graduating Class of 2023 The human condition is…not good. We’re in the polycrisis, a widening gyre of climate emergency, inequality, infrastructure neglect, rising authoritarianism and zoonotic plagues. But that’s not the bad part. Stuff breaks. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is not up… Continue Reading
Climate Reanalyzer
“Climate Reanalyzer is a platform for visualizing climate and weather datasets. The site is coded and maintained by Dr. Sean Birkel through support from the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine. Support has also been provided by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Grinnell Memorial Trust, and the Comer Family Foundation. On this… Continue Reading
The data on 40 years of California wildfires is alarmingly clear
Quartz: “Wildfires in northern and central California increased fivefold between 1971 and 2021, according to a new study published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The scientists behind the study found that those fires were mostly caused by anthropogenic climate change, the kind accelerated by human actions like burning fossil fuels… Continue Reading
