Global

Aug 18, 2020

The West is in freefall.

Liberal-democratic institutions have suffered a near-fatal blow in the United States; Europe, caught leaderless as the United States vacates this position, is in disarray.

Three words have come to define this moment: I can't breathe.

14 Aug 2020

Thinktank says changes to forecasts reflect accelerated shift away from fossil fuels

The world’s largest listed oil companies have wiped almost $90bn from the value of their oil and gas assets in the last nine months as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates a global shift away from fossil fuels.

In the last three financial quarters, seven of the largest oil firms have slashed their forecasts for future oil market prices, triggering a wave of downgrades to the value of their oil and gas projects totalling $87bn.

13 August 2020

The amount of oil spilled from the Japanese-owned ship nearby the lagoons and coastal areas of south-east Mauritius is relatively low compared to the big oil spills the world has seen in the past, but the damage it will do is going to be huge and long-lasting, experts say.

Unlike most previous offshore spills, this has taken place near two environmentally protected marine ecosystems and the Blue Bay Marine Park reserve, which is a wetland of international importance.

7 Aug 2020

Last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic lost more than 40% of its areas in two days at the end of July

The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed, losing more than 40% of its area in just two days at the end of July.

The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.

JULY 31, 2020

July 31st 2020

Last September, I travelled from Western Canada to New York City to see human rights lawyer Steven Donziger. Donziger cannot travel. He cannot even stroll the hallway of his Upper West Side apartment building on 104th Street without special court permission. He remains under house arrest, wearing an ankle bracelet.

July 3, 20-20

For a century our cities have been transformed by the car industry, making way for drivers at the expense of cyclists and pedestrians. A renewed movement for urban public transport is pushing back. 

Review of James Wilt, Do Androids Dream of Electric Cars?: Public Transit in the Age of Google, Uber, and Elon Musk (Between the Lines, 2020)

June 22, 2020

Five studies, all published in the past six weeks, indicate that global heating is intensifying more rapidly than expected, giving increased urgency to our common cause.

1. Climate sensitivity measures how much global temperatures will rise for a given increase on atmospheric carbon dioxide. Getting it right is essential for predicting how hot it is going to get.