MINNEAPOLIS (The Borowitz Report)—Scientists have discovered a powerful new strain of fact-resistant humans who are threatening the ability of Earth to sustain life, a sobering new study reports.
The research, conducted by the University of Minnesota, identifies a virulent strain of humans who are virtually immune to any form of verifiable knowledge, leaving scientists at a loss as to how to combat them.
The stable climate of the last 12,000 years is over, warns an author visiting B.C. this week. But will human civilization survive the new age?
Welcome to the Anthropocene.
On Aug. 29, geologists on a high-level international working group voted 30 to three to officially declare our time an entirely new geological epoch — one in which humans have “profoundly” affected almost every single system on our planet.
Ian Angus, Facing the Anthropocene: Fossil Capitalism and the Crisis of the Earth System (New York: Monthly Review Press)
(Full disclosure: Ian Angus and MR Press sent me a review copy of this book, which isn’t otherwise available in the UK yet, and Angus re-posted a piece from Made Ground at Climate & Capitalismthe other day.)
Dharna Noor of Real News Network interviews C&C editor Ian Angus about the proposal to declare a new geological epoch, and his new book, ‘Facing the Anthropocene.’
Scientists’ warnings that the rise of the sea would eventually
imperil the United States’ coastline are no longer theoretical.
NORFOLK, Va. — Huge vertical rulers are sprouting beside low spots in the streets here, so people can judge if the tidal floods that increasingly inundate their roads are too deep to drive through.
Five hundred miles down the Atlantic Coast, the only road to Tybee Island, Ga., is disappearing beneath the sea several times a year, cutting the town off from the mainland.
Vancouver — Climate change is the greatest global health threat of the 21st century, one of Canada’s leading advocates on the subject, Dr. James Orbinski, told physicians attending the Canadian Medical Association annual meeting Monday, urging them to do more to lessen harms.
Orbinski, a humanitarian and founding member of the Nobel-Prize winning Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), said climate change is unrelenting as evidenced by the fact that 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history and 2016 is projected to surpass it.
TransCanada’s Energy East project is the largest tar sands pipeline proposed yet. Stretching from Alberta to New Brunswick, Energy East could carry over 1 million barrels per day of tar sands crude to the Atlantic coast. Despite TransCanada’s promises that Energy East is for domestic gain, they are making plans to export the vast majority and leave us to bear the real costs of climate change, spills and clean-up.
Dr. Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).
This year’s Fraser River sockeye run is the lowest in more than 120 years, and the Watershed Watch Salmon Society says it all has to do with climate change.
“The salmon are suffering because of the changing environment of which we, as British Columbians, have some responsibility for,” said WWSS fisheries adviser Greg Taylor of the fishery, which ended Aug. 12.
“There ‘s a great link between (Premier) Christy Clark’s inaction on climate change and river temperatures that are lethal to salmon.”
A wildfire with a ferocity never seen before by veteran California firefighters raced up and down canyon hillsides, instantly engulfing homes and forcing thousands of people to flee, some running for their lives just ahead of the flames.
By Wednesday, a day after it ignited in brush left tinder-dry by years of drought, the blaze had spread across nearly 47 square miles and was raging completely out of control. The flames advanced despite the efforts of 1,300 firefighters.
