Over the past decade, as news on the looming threat from global warming has continued unabated and become increasingly dire, public opinion has stayed static or become more indifferent to the need to take drastic action. Most polls paint a worrying picture for scientists, environmentalists and activists: that attitudes have not just remained static over…
If there was a tougher moment over the last 40 years to be a leader in the American environmental movement, it would be hard to put your finger on it.
The Anthropocene does not represent the failure of environmentalism. It is the stage on which a new, more positive and forward-looking environmentalism can be built.
Natural climate variability is extremely unlikely to have contributed more than about one-quarter of the temperature rise observed in the past 60 years, according to a pair of Swiss climate modellers who conclude that most of the observed warming — at least 74 % — is almost certainly due to human activity.
We cannot say for sure what kind of a home Earth will offer in 2080, but averages made across thousands of model runs help paint a picture of what a 2 degrees Celsius warmer world would look like.
In the last few weeks major reports by the International Energy Agency and the UN Environment Programme have concluded that we can still meet the UN’s target of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. But climate scientists are far less optimistic. Many say the chance to avoid a 2 degrees Celsius rise…
Climate adaptation: reconfiguring our world’s economies and policies to work under a more extreme climate. While that might seem like an old conversation, it’s not; mitigation—reducing greenhouse gases—has been the main topic of climate discussion in the past 20 years. But attention is shifting to the once taboo topic of adaptation.
The carbon footprint of the science community is tiny by comparison with the rest of society. Yet changes will not happen if nobody takes the lead. And people who have benefited from a great education and earn by comparison a very good income should surely be well positioned to take on some ethical leadership. Perhaps…
Scientists say the Earth will warm in response to increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, but since the 1970s, they have not made much headway in narrowing down exactly how much it will warm.
Eric Beinhocker’s “The Origin of Wealth” offers exciting metaphors for rethinking Darwinism and evolutionary theory.