Ecology/Environment

03/05/20
Author: 
Scientific American
Credit: Taylor Callery

SARS, Ebola and now SARS-CoV-2: all three of these highly infectious viruses have caused global panic since 2002—and all three of them jumped to humans from wild animals that live in dense tropical forests.

30/04/20
Author: 
The Hill

Apr 28, 2020

Academy award-winning filmmaker Michael Moore and associates discuss their new documentary, 'Planet of the Humans,' a documentary that says we are selling out the green movement to wealthy interests and corporate America.

Watch here. (22 min.)

22/04/20
Author: 
William E. Rees
In two centuries, human population has spiked seven-fold and consumption by 100 times. ‘The Earth will have its revenge,’ warns noted UBC systems ecologist William Rees, co-inventor of the ecological footprint concept. Photo by Joseph Stevenson via Flickr/Creative Commons.
6 Apr 2020

As the pandemic builds, most people, led by government officials and policy wonks, perceive the threat solely in terms of human health and its impact on the national economy. Consistent with the prevailing vision, mainstream media call almost exclusively on physicians and epidemiologists, financiers and economists to assess the consequences of the viral outbreak.

22/04/20
Author: 
Sharif Abdel Kouddous
Spraying against Corona virus
March 30, 2020
 
The coronavirus pandemic is overwhelming to comprehend. There are now hundreds of thousands of confirmed cases. Tens of thousands have died. Nations are on lockdown as the disease continues to spread. The planet is in crisis.

How did this happen?

What are the underlying political, economic and environmental structures that paved the way for this global outbreak? Where do pandemics emerge from? Is our capitalist way of life biologically sustainable?

22/04/20
Author: 
Andrea Germanos, staff writer
A sign on a farm trailer reading "Food grows where water flows" hangs over dry, cracked mud at the edge of a farm April 16, 2009 near Buttonwillow, California. (Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
April 17, 2020

"We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we're on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts."

The western United States is likely being gripped by an "emerging" megadrought partly fueled by the climate crisis, says a study published Friday.

Researchers claim the region's 19-year drought, from 2000–2018, already rivals that of any over the past 1,200 years.

22/04/20
Author: 
Laura Spinney
 A Chinese poultry farm. China stepped up surveillance after bird flu outbreaks. Photograph: China Photos/Getty Images
28 March 2020 
 
Scientists are tracing the path of Sars-CoV-2 from a wild animal host – but we need to look at the part played in the outbreak by industrial food production

Where did the virus causing the current pandemic come from? How did it get to a food market in Wuhan, China, from where it is thought to have spilled over into humans? The answers to these questions are gradually being pieced together, and the story they tell makes for uncomfortable reading.

21/04/20
Author: 
Dutch academics
Dutch Manifesto April 2020
 April 20, 2020
170 Dutch academics sign manifesto for sustainable, equal and diverse societies based on international solidarity

The following statement, signed by 170 academics from eight universities in the Netherlands, has been widely reported in the Dutch press, becoming a focus for discussion on how to avoid repeating past mistakes when in planning for the future.

20/04/20
Author: 
Damian Carrington
Jason Kenney speaks at the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa on Feb. 10, 2018. Alberta premier Jason Kenney’s government has pledged $5bn in support for the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline. File photo by Alex Tétrault

April 19th 2020

This story was originally published by The Guardian and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration

Polluting industries around the world are using the coronavirus pandemic to gain billions of dollars in bailouts and to weaken and delay environmental protections.

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