'Existential' Risk of Climate Crisis Could Lead to Civilizational Collapse by 2050, Warns Report

Common Dreams

Drivers near Ponoka, Alberta face smoke from wildfires burning further north.
2019 photo by TaqaSanPedroAko.

"The world is currently completely unprepared to envisage, and even less deal with, the consequences of catastrophic climate change." More here.

Loss of Canadian Arctic sea ice stokes summer heat waves in southern U.S.

PHYS ORG

Drift ice in the Arctic ocean. Wickimedia commons.

Over the last 40 years, Arctic sea ice thickness, extent and volume have declined dramatically. Now, a new study finds a link between declining sea ice coverage in parts of the Canadian Arctic and an increasing incidence of summer heat waves across the southern United States. Story here.

Downpours of torrential rain more frequent with global warming

PHYS ORG

Flooding in Saskatchewan. A PinP photo.

The frequency of downpours of heavy rain—which can lead to flash floods, devastation, and outbreaks of waterborne disease—has increased across the globe in the past 50 years, research led by the University of Saskatchewan (USask) has found. Story here.

Climate change is already affecting global food production—unequally

PHYS ORG

A soy field in Canada. A PinP photo.

The world's top 10 crops— barley, cassava, maize, oil palm, rapeseed, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane and wheat—supply a combined 83 percent of all calories produced on cropland. Yields have long been projected to decrease in future climate conditions. Now, new research shows climate change has already affected production of these key energy sources—and some regions and countries are faring far worse than others. Story here.

Manitoba's Opposition NDP Leader, Wab Kinew, Favours Cap & Trade Over Carbon Tax.

Backyard chickens.

Climate chicken. 

Conservationists find protected areas worldwide are shrinking

PHYS ORG

Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada.
A PinP photo.

A large international team of researchers reports that the amount of land designated as protected around the globe is shrinking. Story here.

A warming Arctic produces weather extremes further south!

PHYS ORG

The Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream can be seen crossing
Cape Breton Island in Eastern Canada. A NASA photo.

Atmospheric researchers have developed a climate model that can accurately depict the frequently observed winding course of the jet stream, a major air current over the Northern Hemisphere. It demonstrates that the jet stream's wavelike course and subsequent extreme weather conditions like cold air outbreaks in Central Europe and North America are the direct results of climate change. 

Story here.

Jane Fonda Speaks Out on Behalf of Greenpeace. "The Environment Needs Our Help!" (Video)

Stop using taxpayers’ money to destroy the world: Guterres

UN News

Fires around Fort McMurray, Alberta, 2016. 
The red dots show active fires.The European Space Agency.

The idea that subsidizing fossil fuels is a way to improve people’s lives could not be more wrong, says António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, because it means spending taxpayers’ money to “boost hurricanes, spread droughts, melt glaciers, bleach corals: destroy the world.” Story here.

Soil communities threatened by destruction, instability of Amazon forests

ScienceDaily

 In this image, intact forest is deep green, while cleared areas are tan (bare ground) or light green (crops, pasture, or occasionally, second-growth forest). The fish-bone pattern of small clearings along new roads is the beginning of one of the common deforestation trajectories in the Amazon. 

A NASA photo.
The clearing and subsequent instability of Amazonian forests are among the greatest threats to tropical biodiversity conservation today. Story here.

Will the rich escape climate apocalypse?

New Internationalist

The dirty grey is smoke from Alberta wildfires this year.
Photo by NASA.
The billionaire class is preparing for doomsday. Only problem is, the rest of us aren't invited. Story here.