"Politicians Discussing Global Warming" by Isaac Cordal, a statue in Berlin

"Politicians Discussing Global Warming" by Isaac Cordal, a statue in Berlin

See also: Billionaires are a leading cause of climate change

World Economic Forum: Climate change is speeding up. Our response needs to be even faster

There is no more room in the atmosphere for our carbon.pollution

"The race is on. This northern summer’s deadly, record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires leave us in no doubt that the impacts of global warming are accelerating, in many cases much faster than scientists predicted. 

One of the most important, but least understood, aspects of the Paris Agreement is that it legally obliges every country to deepen its emission reduction targets every five years. I call this five-yearly cycle the Agreement’s beating heart, because it provides the life force for achieving the temperature goals that will keep the worst impacts of global warming at bay."

Read the WEF article 

 #carbon #china #usa #coalmining #globalwarming #climateaction #carbondioxide #1.5 degrees

The Guardian: Gina Rinehart company revealed as $4.5m donor to climate sceptic thinktank

"Billionaire’s company gave significant donations to the Institute of Public Affairs in 2016 and 2017

Australia’s richest person, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has been revealed as a key funder of the rightwing thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs – a consistent promoter of climate science scepticism.

Rinehart’s company, Hancock Prospecting, donated $2.3m to the IPA in 2016 and $2.2m in 2017, according to disclosures made to the New South Wales supreme court."

Read The Guardian article 

 #carbon #china #usa #coalmining #globalwarming #climateaction #carbondioxide #1.5 degrees

BBC News: Climate change: COP24 fails to adopt key scientific report

"Attempts to incorporate a key scientific study into global climate talks in Poland have failed. 

The IPCC report on the impacts of a temperature rise of 1.5C, had a significant impact when it was launched last October.

Scientists and many delegates in Poland were shocked as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting "welcoming" the report."

Read BBC News article 

Related: Australia's silence during climate change debate shocks COP24 delegates

WEF: Climate change is making our food less nutritious

Vital crops from wheat to rice are at risk of becoming less nutritious due to rising carbon levels.

Image: REUTERS/Desmond Boylan DB/jk

"Rising carbon emissions could make vital food crops from wheat to rice less nutritious and endanger the health of hundreds of millions of the world's poorest, scientists said on Monday.

Certain staple crops grown in open fields with elevated carbon dioxide levels had up to 17 percent lower levels of protein, iron and zinc compared to those grown amid less of the gas, according to a study in the journal Nature Climate Change."

Read WEF article.

NY Times | The Depravity of Climate-Change Denial

Aftermath Paradise Fires

Risking civilization for profit, ideology and ego.

The Trump administration is, it goes without saying, deeply anti-science. In fact, it’s anti-objective reality. But its control of the government remains limited; it didn’t extend far enough to prevent the release of the latest National Climate Assessment, which details current and expected future

impacts of global warming on the United States.

Washington Post: It’s time to face the inescapable truth: We’re running out of time on climate change

THE WORLD is heading in the wrong direction, and it does not have much time left to change course. After several years in which global greenhouse-gas emissions leveled off, they spiked to record 

levels this year, according to projections a group of scientists released Wednesday. Along with some major developing nations, emissions in the United States are projected to grow substantially. So much for all those assurances that the market would take care of the problem.

The news comes just after the United Nations released a report finding that climate change will disrupt human society, kill many people and permanently reshape the Earth unless stemmed aggressively, and soon.

Read The Washington Post article

Read more:

Max Boot: I was wrong on climate change. Why can’t other conservatives admit it, too?

Eugene Robinson: Climate change is real. Welcome to the new normal.

Robert J. Samuelson: We’re on mission impossible to solve global warming