Tag Archives: Global Warming

Study Warns Even With Emissions Cuts, West Antarctic Ice Sheet Melt ‘Unavoidable’

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“It looks like we’ve lost control of melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,” said one author. “The bright side is that by recognizing this situation in advance, the world will have more time to adapt to the sea-level rise that’s coming.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 10-23-2023 by Common Dreams

A view from the ship of the edge of the Ronne Ice Shelf, the world’s second largest ice shelf located in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. Photo: Ricarda Winkelmann/CC

Even if humanity dramatically reduces planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet faces an “unavoidable” increase in melting for the rest of this century, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is the continent’s largest contributor to rising seas and contains enough ice to increase the global mean sea level by over 17 feet, the study explains. Enhanced melting of ice shelves, “the floating extensions of the ice sheet, has reduced their buttressing and caused upstream glaciers to accelerate their flow” toward the Southern Ocean. Ice shelf melting could “cause irreversible retreat” of the glaciers.

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Shell Employees Urged to Revolt as Oil Giant Faces Internal Backlash for Ditching Renewables

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“Shell bosses sacrifice our safety for short-term profits, even their employees see it,” said one campaigner. “No point waiting for them to grow a conscience.”

By Julia Conley. Published 9-29-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: rawpixel

Anti-fossil fuel campaigners on Friday urged employees of oil and gas giant Shell to speak out as loudly as possible about their objections to the company’s pivot away from renewable energy, after thousands of workers expressed support for an angry open letter penned by two of their colleagues.

On the company’s private platform, a letter published by Lisette de Heiden and Wouter Drinkwaard of Shell’s low-carbon division garnered 1,000 “likes” and 80,000 views earlier this month and was reported on by Reuters Wednesday.

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Demanding an End to ‘Deadly Fossil Fuels,’ Tens of Thousands Take the Streets in NYC

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“It’s time for Biden to declare a climate emergency and phase out the fossil fuels killing people and wildlife around the world.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 9-17-2023 by Common Dreams

Thousands of activists, indigenous groups, students, and others take to the streets of New York City for the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17, 2023. Photo: Mollie Heckerling/X

Tens of thousands poured into the streets of New York City on Sunday for the largest climate mobilization in the U.S. in years, with organizers and marchers telling President Joe Biden to stop approving planet-wrecking fossil fuel projects and start doing everything in his power to accelerate the nation’s renewable energy transition.

Campaigners expressed outrage that Biden has refused to declare a national climate emergency and is planning to skip United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres’ Climate Ambition Summit on Wednesday.

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Carbon markets that benefit the West will not solve Africa’s climate crisis

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Western interests dominated the Africa Climate Summit. Time for African nations to put themselves first

-By Claire Nasike and Peter Osogo Published 9-15-2023 by openDemocracy

The First Africa Climate Summit was held at the Kenyatta International Convention Center in Nairobi, Kenya on September 6 2023. Photo: Paul Kagame/flickr/CC

The Africa Climate Summit 2023 in Kenya last week united African leaders for a discussion on the climate crisis, with a specific focus on Africa and its policy stance ahead of COP28 in Dubai.

One would have expected African leaders to propose sovereign solutions to the challenges faced by their countries. These include recurrent hunger, flooding, drought, resource exploitation, water and soil pollution, and control of food systems by Western corporations.

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400+ Actions to End Fossil Fuels Planned Around the World for Sept. 15-17

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“When we the people use our collective power we can win,” said one campaigner.

By Julia Conley. Published 9-11-2023 by Common Dreams

Photo: Extinction Rebellion

“September 15-17, 2023. Everywhere.”

Those are the dates and location of the international mobilization against fossil fuels set to take place this coming weekend, and the last word is hardly an exaggeration as organizers with the Global Fight to End Fossil Fuels report that more than 400 actions, marches, rallies, and other events have already been registered around the world.

More than 780 organizations have endorsed the day of action—up from 500 less than a week ago—and millions of participants are expected to rally from Cape Town, South Africa to Manila, Philippines and Lahore, Pakistan, as well as in dozens of cities and towns across the United States, the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in history.

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‘Absolutely Devastating News’: Antarctica Warming Quicker Than Models Projected

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The new study’s lead author said that “it is extremely concerning to see such significant warming in Antarctica, beyond natural variability.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 9-8-2023 by Common Dreams

Crumbling glacier in Antarctica. Photo: Pedro Szekely/flickr/CC

Antarctica is warming at about double the rate of the rest of the planet and far more quickly than widely cited models projected, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature Climate Change that swiftly alarmed scientists around the world.

“This is absolutely devastating news,” declared climate scientist and University College London professor emeritus Bill McGuire.

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US Billboard Campaign Blasts Fossil Fuel Giants for Causing Extreme Heat

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“From Alaska to Maui, our communities are struggling to survive the rapidly worsening impacts of the climate crisis, all the while, Big Oil is raking in billions at our expense.”

By Julia Conley. Published 8-24-2023 by Common Dreams

A billboard in Austin, Texas shows a U.S. map with high temperatures across the nation. (Photo: Fossil Free Media)

As about 111 million people in nearly two dozen states continued to face heat advisories, with temperatures reaching as high at 115°F in some cities, the nonprofit media lab Fossil Free Media unveiled a multicity campaign with one simple goal: ensuring that all Americans understand that the intense heatwaves across much of the country this summer have not been a natural phenomenon, but the result of continued fossil fuel extraction.

Starting Thursday drivers along stretches of highway in Phoenix, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and Fresno, California will pass by prominent billboards displaying a map of record-breaking temperatures that have been recorded across the U.S. this summer.

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‘Could Be a World Record’: South Florida Ocean Temperature Hits 101.1°F

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“I have no doubt a dip in Manatee Bay today would have been a hot tub-like experience,” said one meteorologist earlier this week.

By Jake Johnson. Published 7-26-2023 by Common Dreams

Hawksbill Turtle swimming underwater in Florida Keys. Photo: Matt Kieffer/flickr/CC

A buoy positioned roughly 40 miles south of Miami recorded a sea surface temperature of 101.1°F earlier this week, stunning scientists who say the reading could mark the latest in a string of global records as fossil fuel-driven extreme weather around the world brings unprecedented heat.

Meteorologist Jeff Masters wrote that the temperature in Florida’s Manatee Bay reached hot tub levels on Monday and “could be a world record.”

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‘Ancient Heat Records Will Be Broken’: Southern Europe Braces for Unprecedented Temperatures

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“If the disasters we’re seeing this month aren’t enough to shake us out of that torpor, then the chances of our persevering for another hundred and twenty-five thousand years seem remote.”

By Jake Johnson. Published 7-16-2023 by Common Dreams

People cool off in a water fountain during a heatwave, at Trafalgar Square in London. Photo: Vatican News

Southern Europe faced dangerously high temperatures on Sunday amid a continent-wide heatwave that’s expected to get worse in the coming days, potentially shattering longstanding records as the climate crisis rages.

Reuters reported that a “new anticyclone dubbed Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead, pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday and could lift temperatures above 45°C (113°F) in parts of Italy early this week,” prompting Italian officials to issue heat advisories for more than a dozen cities on Sunday.

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‘Nothing Short of Outrageous’: Attorneys for Youth Climate Plaintiffs Blast Biden DOJ

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“It is our hope and expectation that the courts will see through the DOJ’s tactics and ensure that this constitutional case gets to trial immediately,” said a lawyer with Our Children’s Trust.

By Jessica Corbett Published 7-7-2023 by Common Dreams

The 21 youth plaintiffs in the constitutional climate case Juliana v. United States pose for a photo in New York City. (Photo: Our Children’s Trust)

Nearly eight years since 21 young Americans launched a landmark federal climate lawsuit against the U.S. government, their lawyers this week called out President Joe Biden’s administration for trying to get the case dismissed using recycled arguments.

In a Friday statement responding to the U.S. Department of Justice’s most recent push to have Juliana v. United States dismissed, Andrea Rodgers, one of the Our Children’s Trust attorneys for the youth plaintiffs, charged that “the DOJ’s conduct throughout the course of this case has been nothing short of outrageous.”

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