Two oceanic systems have been in the news recently – el Nino and AMOC. One oscillates on an approximate 2 to 7 year cycle, the other is far more stately but appears to be slowing due to climate change. Both affect our weather. Short term we are in for a warmer than usual summer in Canada with stormy weather in the west. Longer term the weather could be far more dire. We need to pay attention.
It’s Earth Day and ur beautiful but fragile home seen in crescent phase behind our lifeless moon reminds us we must take better care. Current trends in emissions and warming show no effect of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. I wish for positive tipping points to get us back on track.
COP30 finished two weeks ago without much fanfair or much accomplished. Perhaps global inequality and rampant capitalism is to blame? I remember when Naomi Klein’s book, This Changes Everything, came out in 2014. It was an impressive book about the climate crisis, but I found her assumption that we’d not be able to deal with climate change until we had got rid of laissez faire capitalism maybe a bit over the top. Now I am not so sure.
I am writing this on January 20th 2025. I could have written it closer to the start of the year but today convinced me concerning some actions I have been considering in recent weeks. Various bits of environmental news were… Read More »22nd January 2025. Another New Year in This Rather Strange World.
Have the world’s coral reefs already passed a tipping point? That is the headline of an article in Grist this week concerning the latest circumtropical coral bleaching event now taking place. It’s a sad question in several respects. First, it’s… Read More »Reefs Passed the Tipping Point Long Ago.
I’ve recently returned from a small conference in Mexico. It concerned the state of the coastal ocean. I listened to the same discussions of the same problems that have featured at such conferences for decades. We are overfishing. Our coastal… Read More »Wildfires in Canada, The Complexity of the Mess We Make
As I reflect on 2022, I am buoyed by all the evidence of progress being made in our global efforts to confront the damage we are doing to our only home. But I am, if anything, even more pessimistic than… Read More »CoP27, CoP15, the Party’s Over. Where Does the World Stand as 2022 Comes to its End?