As Tom Toles says in a column today: First it was called the Greenhouse Effect, then Global Warming, then Climate Change. Each accurate enough, as far as that goes, but all woefully inadequate at conveying the catastrophe we’ve been creating. The short column eloquently describes the extreme weather that scientists have warned us to expectContinue reading “Not climate change: Climate Rupture”
Category Archives: climate
Pope Francis: The universe is calling to us
Francis, the Pope, has made headlines by visiting Washington and calling for action on climate change, on poverty, on immigration, and for religious freedom. But that’s nothing! In his startling Laudato Si he actually lays out an even more ambitious agenda. How could it be more ambitious than solving the problems of climate change, poverty,Continue reading “Pope Francis: The universe is calling to us”
The silence of the deniers: Toles
Besides being the best political cartoonist on the subject of climate and the environment, and actually funny as well, Tom Toles publishes almost as many sketches as he does full-fledged cartoons, plus he has a fiery but smart blog in the Washington Post which he often talks about, yes, climate. As in today’s The SoundContinue reading “The silence of the deniers: Toles”
El Niño in charts: August 2015
An Atmospheric El Niño index surges into unprecedented warmth: Today sets the record for our Atmospheric El Nino index with a +4.62 sigma amplitude. Pretty remarkable. pic.twitter.com/4uWi5HZcEw — Michael Ventrice (@MJVentrice) August 30, 2015 //platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsMichael Ventrice, a scientist with the Weather Channel, notes that the amplitude is most comparable to the epochal warming that wentContinue reading “El Niño in charts: August 2015”
CA leading on climate as well as water: LA Times
Yesterday the NYTimes’ lead op-ed in the Sunday Review was about how California is Winning the Drought (as discussed here a couple of days ago) from a respected author on water issues. Today the lead op-ed in the editorial pages of the LATimes comes from a well-known expert on drought, who argues that California isContinue reading “CA leading on climate as well as water: LA Times”
Patzert: El Niño 2015 a potential Godzilla. Maybe.
On a slow news day in August, NOAA’s prediction yesterday that El Niño will continue to strengthen and may well bring big precipitation to the southern half of the country (not just SoCal) made headline news across the nation. But the focus in the LATimes — and several other news outlets — came not fromContinue reading “Patzert: El Niño 2015 a potential Godzilla. Maybe.”
Hansen sees sea level rise of ten feet this century
James Hansen and a team of researchers have published a paper that foresees huge sea level rises changes this century, of ten feet in fifty years, which would doom much of developed south Florida and lower Manhattan, just to cite a couple of obvious examples. But the paper has not been peer reviewed, and researchers suchContinue reading “Hansen sees sea level rise of ten feet this century”
Blogging the Pope’s “Praise Be”: on Nature as a book
In Chapter 12 of Pope Francis' encyclical, "Praise Be," in our language, just before he launches into an appeal to all people to come together to save the world, the pontiff brings up the idea of nature as a book. He writes (in a passage that is, may I say, too rich to be truncated): 12.Continue reading “Blogging the Pope’s “Praise Be”: on Nature as a book”
Can Las Vegas grow without limits in a drought?
Abraham Lustgarten, a top-notch reporter for the public interest site Pro Publica, a couple of years ago wrote the toughest story on fracking ever, in my limited experience. Here's the money quote from that piece from 2012: …in interviews, several key experts acknowledged that the idea that injection [of oilfield wastes in underground wells] isContinue reading “Can Las Vegas grow without limits in a drought?”
Blogging the Pope’s Encyclical: Praise Be
Where do we start with a document as vast and thought-through as Pope Francis' "Praise Be?" With listening, I think. Try this, from the Vatican's translation into English, section 11: If we approach nature and the environment without this openness to awe and wonder, if we no longer speak the language of fraternity and beautyContinue reading “Blogging the Pope’s Encyclical: Praise Be”
Kit Stolz 