‘No safe place’: Kiribati seeks donors to raise islands from encroaching seas – the Guardian
Pacific state needs billions for its ambitious plan – its president demands wealthy nations act to help now
Developing countries vulnerable to the worst ravages of global heating have spent the past week at United Nations climate talks urging more support from wealthy nations. The Pacific state of Kiribati has a very specific and unusual demand – that its islands be physically raised up to escape the encroaching seas…
CLIMATE CHANGE FROM A TO Z – the New Yorker
In an urgent and beautifully composed call to action in the format of an “A to Z” narrative accompanied by bold illustrations by Wesley Allsbrook, Elizabeth Kolbert mixes serious informative facts with a dash of wry humor to acknowledge our collective failure to adequately address our climate crisis while offering some possible tools to help us try harder and do better.
Corporate Greenwashing
Advertising is an incredibly powerful tool for convincing us to buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like. Last year the United States spent nearly $300 billion on advertising, and now that we are only about six weeks from Christmas, we can expect to be inundated with ads to convince us to get out our credit cards and close out the year on a spending spree. According to the latest data from the National Retail Federation, individual American consumers spend an average of $998 on gifts and holiday stuff each Christmas, which is the same as the median pre-tax weekly salary of $1,001…
Surfrider’s State of the Beach Report Finds Coastal States Most At Risk Are Least Prepared For Climate Impacts – The Inertia
This week, the Surfrider Foundation released its sixth annual State of the Beach Report…For the second year in a row, the report reveals that 67 percent of coastal areas assessed are performing at ‘adequate’ to ‘poor’ levels, with some of the lowest grades earned by states that are most often affected by extreme weather and worsening climate events.
How Belize Cut Its Debt by Fighting Global Warming – the New York Times
Belize faced an economic meltdown. The pandemic had sent it into its worst ever recession, putting the government on the brink of bankruptcy.
A solution came from unexpected quarters. A local marine biologist offered Prime Minister Johnny Briceño a novel proposal: Her nonprofit would lend the country money to pay its creditors if his government agreed to spend part of the savings this deal would generate to preserve its marine resources.
Cop27: coral conservation groups alarmed over ‘catastrophic losses’ – the Guardian
You don’t have to travel far from the sprawling convention center that’s staging the UN climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to see what’s at stake. This coastal resort town is fringed by an ecosystem seemingly facing worldwide cataclysm from global heating – coral reefs….
Sea Turtle Sanctuary Has Survived 40 Years. Climate Change May Kill It – New York Times
“When the turtles saw people, it was like they saw a ghost,” said Mario Pascobello, a resident of Apo Island in the Philippines…Now, the endangered green turtles…peacefully graze in the shallows off Apo’s coast…But if the turtles are no longer menaced by the fishermen here, they do face another man-made threat: climate change.
A Fossil Museum Uses the Past to Reimagine Climate’s Future – The New York Times
As the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum undergoes a major redesign, its leaders hope it can do more to engage the public and educate visitors about the realities of climate change.
“How we present this information in a way it can help communities is a challenge,” she said. “If you go too far in the hope direction, it goes against the science. But we need to bring people in.” – Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga
The Earth is Heating Up
The entire planet is feeling the effects of a warming atmosphere and ocean, from Sudan to Siberia, and we are way passed denial or debate. Whether forest and brush fires, or droughts and water shortages, we are all in this together and we need to continue to take the steps needed now to get off of fossil fuels and move to renewables as fast as humanely possible. I think of action in terms of sober optimism and aggressive incrementalism…