We all need to eat. Experts imagine how the next agricultural revolution can feed us while fighting climate change and habitat destruction, instead of accelerating it.
Alex Lenferna, University of Washington; Ilona M. Otto, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and Jonathan Donges, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Social tipping interventions have the potential to pave the way for rapid change and avert climate change.
Though its use has grown in the last decade, the Anthropocene concept has been around since the 19th century.
John Cobb/Shutterstock
The term Anthropocene - previously known only to geologists and academics - has hit the mainstream. Now it’s being tweeted as shorthand for the negative effects humans have had on the planet.
On November 12, 2019, in Venise, the sea rose 1.87 metres above its normal level, flooding much of the city.
Ihor Serdyukov/Shutterstock
More than 1 billion euros were donated after Paris’ cathedral was grievously damaged by fire in April. By comparison, just a few million euros were given after catastrophic flooding in Cité des Doges.
Montreal climate march, September 27 2019.
Maria Merlos/Shutterstock
Australian winemakers have lost smoke-tainted crops and political leaders apparently cannot solve the Murray Darling crisis. Perhaps climate change is getting the better of us.
Even without air conditioning, there are still many things you can do to prepare for extreme heat and stay comfortable on hot days.
fizkes/Shutterstock
Air conditioning isn’t the answer for everyone, especially for residents of the less affluent – and often hotter – suburbs of our big cities. But there are other ways to make hot days more bearable.
The UK’s official climate advisor recommends up to 50,000 hectares of new woodland each year by 2050.
In this October 2011 photo, members of the Royal New Zealand defense force pump sea water into holding tanks ready to be used by the desalination plant in Funafuti, Tuvalu, South Pacific. The atolls of Tuvalu are at grave risk due to rising sea levels and contaminated ground water.
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
A recent ruling by the UN’s Human Rights Committee recognized that climate refugees do exist, and acknowledged a legal basis for protecting them when their lives are threatened by climate change.
Punta Ventana, a popular tourist attraction near Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, before and after the Jan. 6 earthquake.
AFP/Getty/Wikipedia
Puerto Rico was once home to about 110,000 Taínos, an indigenous people decimated by the Spanish conquest. Their ancient homeland was located in the area hit hard by recent earthquakes.
Sonoma County, California hired this herd of sheep from Sweetgrass Grazing to reduce invasive plants and flammable fuels and make room for native plants on protected land.
Sonoma Open Space
A new generation of ranchers is exploring sustainable ways to raise cattle, sheep and goats in California. Some are grazing herds on fire-prone lands, reducing wildfire risks and improving soils.
Satellite photo showing a river of moisture extending from Hawaii to Calfiornia, Oct. 24, 2021.
NOAA
Earth’s biggest rivers are streams of warm water vapor in the atmosphere that can cause huge rain and snowfall over land. Climate change is making them longer, wetter and stronger.
Activist Greta Thunberg was among attendees who want the world’s leaders to prioritize fighting climate change.
AP Photo/Michael Probst
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos put environmental risks at the top of its agenda, while the world’s CEOs see overregulation as their biggest threat.
Oil tankers load up in a port at twilight.
Avigator Fortuner/Shutterstock
Two centuries after it was first sighted by Russian explorers, Antarctica is a key site for studying the future of Earth’s climate – and for global scientific cooperation.
The Sun by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
NASA
Solar activity is sometimes blamed for climate change but the data suggests otherwise.
As smoke from Australia’s bushfires streams over South America, bankers are beginning to take seriously the possibility of extreme events.
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Both opinions the three-judge panel handed down warned of a potential climate catastrophe. Only one judge said the courts have an active role to play in making the government change course.
Some lakes in the Arctic are expanding and others are disappearing as permafrost thaws.
This lake north of Inuvik, N.W.T., is expanding as the ice wedges (darker lines leading away from the lake) around this lake melt and the ground subsides.
(Philip Marsh)
Hundreds of thousands of lakes, rivers and streams in the Arctic exist only because of the permafrost that lies beneath them. The warming Arctic threatens to change that.
Lake Jialong in the Central Himalaya is a new lake created by glacial meltwater.
Tobias Bolch
Meltwater lakes forming at the head of glaciers are causing them to shrink faster, which will affect the flow of big rivers that supply millions of people downstream in Asia.
Climate change affects power plants in Indonesia, eventually disrupting energy supply to consumers.
The United Nations predicts the world will be home to nearly 10 billion people by 2050 – making global greenhouse emission cuts ever more urgent.
NASA/Joshua Stevens
To be clear, I’m not advocating compulsory population control, here or anywhere. But we do need to consider a future with billions more people, many of them aspiring to live as Australians do now.
Without a radical change of course on climate change, Australians will struggle to survive on this continent, let alone thrive.
AAP/Dave Hunt
For decades Australian scientists have, clearly and respectfully, warned about the risks to Australia of a rapidly heating climate. After this season’s fires, perhaps it’s time to listen.