Just two years ago, amid global fanfare, the Paris climate accords were signed — initiating what seemed, for a brief moment, like the beginning of a planet-saving movement. But almost immediately, the international goal it established of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius began to seem, to many of the world’s most vulnerable, dramatically
As part of the Paris agreement, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was asked “to provide a special report in 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 [degrees Celsius] above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways.” That report was released on October 8.
To be honest, today I’m terrified. The world’s most authoritative voice on climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), just released their report on what it will take to limit global climate change to 1.5°C. The bottomline: any hope for a safe climate hinges on ceasing fossil fuel expansion, immediately.
AROUND THE MIDDLE of the last century, the chemical DDT was found to pose a risk to human and animal health. The ultimate response — after a prolonged fight between environmentalists and the chemical industry — was a federal ban on all uses of the substance found to be unsafe.
In a stunning ruling that came just minutes after the jury was seated in the so-called valve turners trial in Clearfield County, Minn., the judge ruled that prosecutors had failed to meet their burden of proof that a group of activists had damaged a tar sands pipeline when they trespassed on private property to shut down the pipeline.
This article was originally published by The Guardian on Oct. 8, 2018. It was republished as part of climatedesk, a journalistic collaboration dedicated to exploring the impact — human, environmental, economic and political — of a changing climate.
