Tag Archives: Climate

Earth is About to Enter a 30-Year ‘Mini Ice Age’ as the Sun Hibernates, Scientist Warns

Earth could see temperatures drop, resulting in food shortages on a global scale.

By Elias Marat. Published 2-4-2020 by The Mind Unleashed

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

A scientist has warned that Earth could be facing a mini ice age due to the Sun radiating less energy and heat toward our planet. According to the expert, this would mean that the planet would be plunged into a period of extreme winter and chilly cold storms during the next 30 years.

According to NASA, the Sun will reach its lowest activity in over two centuries in 2020. As a result of it going into a natural period of hibernation, Earth could see temperatures drop, resulting in food shortages on a global scale. The temperature could also drop by as much as one degree Celsius over a period of roughly 12 months—an incremental yet significant change in climate conditions that could have unpredictable results. Continue reading

Share Button

These Climate Scientists’ Tweets About the Unusually Warm Arctic Might Scare Your Pants Off

Cities in Europe, meanwhile, are getting hit with unusually cold temperatures and snowfall. That’s days after the U.S. East Coast had record highs.

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 2-26-2018

People take part in the Women’s March in San Francisco on Jan. 21, 2018. (Photo: Kathy Knorr/flickr/cc)bluebird womens march Women’s March SF Jan 21 2018

“Shocking,” “absolutely astonishing,” and “remarkable.”

That’s how climate scientists are describing the recent unusually warm temperatures in the Arctic.

As the Washington Post reported last week, the region is “stewing in temperatures more than 45 degrees (F) above normal. This latest huge temperature spike in the Arctic is another striking indicator of its rapidly transforming climate.” Continue reading

Share Button

Chanting ‘Keep It In the Ground,’ Thousands Descend on German Coalfields

“We want to fulfill our historic responsibility. That’s why we go to the coal mines, to protect the climate there.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for CommonDreams. Published 11-5-2017

“Germany’s lignite mines are among the biggest coal mines in the world,” Zane Sikulu, a Climate Warrior from Tonga, said in a statement. (Photo: Code Rood/Twitter)

Demanding an end to coal and all forms of dirty energy extraction, over 4,000 activists descended on the Rhineland coalfields in Germany early Sunday in a mass demonstration just a day before COP23 climate talks are set to kick off.

“On the international stage, politicians and corporations present themselves as climate saviors, while a few miles away, the climate is literally being burned,” Janna Aljets, a spokesperson for the environmental alliance Ende Gelände, which helped organize the action, said in a statement. “We do not want to be world champions in extracting and burning lignite anymore. We want to fulfill our historic responsibility. That’s why we go to the coal mines, to protect the climate there.” Continue reading

Share Button

If Trump Ditches Paris: ‘A Crime Against the Future of People and Planet’

Climate groups slam reports that President Donald Trump is expected to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement

By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-31-2017

A protest at the Eiffel Tower in December of 2015. (Photo: Carlos Felipe Pardo/flickr/cc)

Multiple news outlets reported Wednesday that President Donald Trump was about to make good on his campaign pledge to pull the United States out of the historic Paris climate agreement—a decision environmental groups said would be “a travesty” and “historic mistake.”

Axios cited “two sources with direct knowledge of the decision,” and an unidentified White House official said to the Associated Press that there could be “caveats in the language” Trump uses to withdraw. Politico adds: “Administration officials cautioned that they are still sorting out the details of how exactly Trump will withdraw, and one noted that nothing is final until an announcement is made.” Continue reading

Share Button

World Worries as Trump Set to Dump Paris Climate Deal

Trump has called climate change a “hoax.” Tweeted: “This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bullshit has got to stop.”

By Common Dreams. Published 5-7-2017

Heads of state cheer after the Paris Climate Change Agreement was signed at COP21, 2015, by 197 parties. (cc/Wikipedia)

The world is worried as Decision Day nears.

At a April 29th rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Trump said he would make a “big decision” on Paris within the next two weeks and vowed to end “a broken system of global plunder at American expense.”

Now the Trump administration has a meeting scheduled this Tuesday to decide whether to drop out of the Paris Agreement. Continue reading

Share Button

In Photos: Peoples Climate March Draws ‘One Hell of A Lot of People’

An estimated 200,000 take part in Peoples Climate March in Washington, D.C., with tens of thousands showing solidarity from afar

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 4-29-2017

Photo: @AltUSDA_ARS/Twitter

From coast to coast and across continents, people marched for environmental justice on Saturday, sending a clear message to the climate-denying Trump administration: we’ll fight your fossil fuel-soaked agenda every step of the way.

Organizers said that an estimated 200,000 participated in the flagship Peoples Climate March in Washington, D.C., while tens of thousands more demonstrated at more than 350 solidarity events in cities across the United States as well as in Asia and Europe.

“I can’t begin to describe how long and lovely the #climatemarch is,” 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben wrote on Twitter. “It goes on essentially forever.” Continue reading

Share Button

To have impact, the People’s Climate March needs to reach beyond activists

 

File 20170425 22270 6zzjmv

The 2014 People’s Climate March in New York City. Annette Bernhardt/flickr, CC BY-NC-SA

Jill Hopke, DePaul University

Following closely on last week’s March for Science, activists are preparing for the People’s Climate March on Saturday, April 29. This event will mark President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office, and comes as the Trump administration is debating whether the United States should continue to participate in the 2015 Paris Agreement on limiting global carbon emissions. The Conversation

Organizers have worked for over a year to build an intersectional movement that brings together diverse constituencies under the banner of climate justice. They hope to replicate the first People’s Climate March in September 2014, which was the largest climate change mobilization in history. Continue reading

Share Button

A Message to Donald J. Trump

Inauguration (left,) vs Women’s March (right). Photo: Mashable (composite of EarthCam screengrabs)

You are now President of the United States of America.

We, the People, have already noticed a few things, and we’d like to tell you what you apparently are not being told by your “advisors.”

Your removal of the term “Civil Rights” from the White House website implies that these are no longer a concern to a man that was elected to serve ALL Americans, not just those that “look” like you.

Your removal of all information regarding Health Care from the same website implies that the health care of the people of this country is not important enough to you to even indicate what you plan to do now that measures have already been taken to effectively terminate coverage under the ACA.

Your removal of all discussion of Climate Change is a clear example that you are not willing to listen to science and reason when it comes to protecting America’s valuable resources for generations to come.

You attack through tweeting those that offend you, as though it makes you look “presidential.” It instead reveals the immature, narcissistic individual you are, one that must have instant gratification whenever a pimple in life appears on your ugly face of divisiveness.

You brag about assaulting women, and insult the victims of your misogyny.

You indicate you want the equivalent to a “Christian caliphate” in this country: emulating what the enemy is demanding makes one weak, not strong. Even 1st graders know that, Mr. President. It also validates what ISIS is doing.

You asked for military style parades during your inauguration, while veterans that have served go without medical care, homes or jobs. You have stated you intend to fly war planes over our cities to remind us that our military is great, while we feed homeless veterans living in our parks, the planes drowning out our conversations with them.

America is a nation of law. We are not governed by corporate organizational structures. You won’t get your way all the time, and you can’t scream “You’re Fired!” at everyone that sees things differently.

Your first act was to claw back a relief package for low to middle income mortgage holders that would have saved them on average $500 a year. That doesn’t sound like much money to you, but to the American people you are supposed to serve, it can make the difference between having a home and not having a home. You proved to these people your heartlessness right from the beginning of your term.

You claim to have a mandate. Let us remind you that you were elected by 46% of the vote, from which only 30% of the population even chose to participate in. This means, in fact, you hold office because only 14% of eligible voters in this country decided to vote for you, and many did so simply in objection to your opponent. This is not a mandate.

A MANDATE is what happened the day AFTER your inauguration, when the entire world sent you a rejection notice.

I expect you won’t like what I’ve said here, and so much so that you will try to shut this website down. That doesn’t matter, because you see, where I am is a place all of America is. You seem to think you hold the power to shut down the MINDS and CONSCIOUSNESS of every American, you DON’T. We won’t stop.

You seem to think that attacking media for reporting things you don’t like is your right. You appear to think that executive power includes control of the nation’s press. As an American and a journalist, let me remind you that your oath of office is to protect the US Constitution. You apparently are not familiar with that document, so here is the 1st Amendment to it, protecting the media from what you threaten them with. To act against the 1st Amendment is a violation of your oath and is an impeachable offense.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Shape up, or we will ship you out as easily as you were shipped in.

Share Button

Tillerson Called Out for ‘Lying About Climate’ During Confirmation Hearing

‘Listening to his hearing, it would be easier to conclude Tillerson is under criminal investigation than under consideration for secretary of state’

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 1-11-2017

Joined by 15 T-Rex dinosaurs, more than 200 people demonstrated mass public opposition to the appointment of former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson for secretary of state, urging senators to #RejectRex. (Photo: Eman Mohammed/350.org)

At his senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, U.S. secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson on Wednesday dodged questions about ExxonMobil’s long history of denying climate science, lending credence to claims his tenure would be a disaster for the planet.

When pressed by Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) about the major charges unearthed by the ongoing ExxonKnew investigation—namely, that the oil company hid evidence going back to the 1970s of how the burning of fossil fuels impacts the climate, and funded misinformation campaigns to spread skepticism about growing scientific consensus—former Exxon CEO Tillerson “essentially pled the fifth,” said Oil Change International executive director Stephen Kretzmann. Continue reading

Share Button

‘Incredible Victory’: Obama Bans Drilling in Parts of Arctic and Atlantic

Move comes in response to efforts by climate activists urging president to secure environmental protections before new administration takes power

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 12-20-2016

Although green groups welcomed the announcement, they cautioned that wide swaths of land and sea remain open to plunder. (Photo: The Sierra Club/flickr/cc)

Update:

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that he would permanently protect parts of the Arctic and Atlantic from offshore drilling. That includes 3.8 million acres in the north and mid-Atlantic Ocean.

“These actions…protect a sensitive and unique ecosystem that is unlike any other region on Earth,” he said in a statement.

Green groups welcomed the announcement and credited grassroots climate justice movements. Continue reading

Share Button