Climate Change: Voices from Global South Muted by Climate Science
Climate change academics from some of the regions worst hit by warming are struggling to be published, according to a new analysis.
From the BBC
Protecting the Ozone Layer is Delivering Vast Health Benefits
Montreal Protocol will spare Americans from 443 million skin cancer cases
An international agreement to protect the ozone layer is expected to prevent 443 million cases of skin cancer and 63 million cataract cases for people born in the United States through the end of this century, according to new research. The research team developed a computer modeling approach that revealed the effect of the Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments on stratospheric ozone, the associated reductions in ultraviolet radiation, and the resulting health benefits.
Source:National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
From Science Daily:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/10/211006134930.htm
The Case Against the Concept of Biodiversity
It’s more controversial than you might think.
In 2017, an evolutionary biologist named R. Alexander Pyron ignited controversy with a Washington Postcommentary titled “We don’t need to save endangered species. Extinction is part of evolution.” He wrote: “Conserving a species we have helped to kill off, but on which we are not directly dependent, serves to discharge our own guilt, but little else.”
From Vox
https://www.vox.com/22584103/biodiversity-species-conservation-debate
Environmental Law Is Getting in the Way of Climate Action
The path forward requires a new understanding of our burning world.
LAST WEDNESDAY, REFUGIO Manuel Jimenez Jr. was called before the Superior Court of San Bernardino County, just over a year after a smoke bomb at his unborn child’s gender reveal party sparked the El Dorado fire that consumed almost 23,000 acres in California. Jimenez and his wife face 30 felony and misdemeanor charges, including involuntary manslaughter in the case of an elite firefighter who died battling the blaze. Together, the charges […]
Weaving Indigenous knowledge into the North American Model
For many wildlife biologists in the United States and Canada, the approach to wildlife management is embodied by the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation—a concept that wildlife is held in trust for the public to use and enjoy. It’s a concept that grew from conservationists witnessing the impact of market hunting after European colonization. For some scientists, though, the model could be improved by better weaving in millennia of Indigenous knowledge that preceded the settlers’ arrival.
From The Wildlife Society
Conservationists set out ‘nature positive’ vision for global biodiversity deal
The IUCN Congress has come up with a blueprint for a “transformative” deal to protect plants and wildlife, which members hope governments will embrace in Kunming.
Conservationists have called on countries to make the world “nature positive” by 2030 as they hope to shape slow and difficult international negotiations to protect the planet’s plants and wildlife.
From Climate Home News
Doctors Worldwide Call for Emergency Action on Climate Crisis
A joint editorial published simultaneously in biomedical journals across the globe calls for swift and decisive action, noting that only fundamental and equitable changes to societies worldwide will reverse our current trajectory.
From the New England Journal of Medicine
EPA just detailed all the ways climate change will hit U.S. racial minorities the hardest. It’s a long list
If the planet warms 2 degrees Celsius, new report warns, Black people are 40 percent more likely than other groups to live in places where extreme temperatures will cause more deaths.
From the Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/09/02/ida-climate-change/
Fires in the Amazon are out of control. Again.
Hundreds of wildfires have already scorched the rainforest this year, and the worst is likely yet to come.
In the summer of 2019, the Amazon captured the world’s attention when large chunks of the iconic rainforest went up in flames and smoke darkened the afternoon sky above São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city. The following year proved to be even worse.
And this year?
From Vox
https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/2021/8/27/22639885/amazon-rainforest-fires-climate-change-2021
Ocean Justice: Where Social Equity and the Climate Fight Intersect
Marine biologist Ayana Elizabeth Johnson sees her work on ocean conservation as linked to issues of social justice and climate. In an e360 interview, she talks about the need to diversify climate science and activism and bring in the perspectives and energy of people of color and women.
From Yale Environment 360
https://e360.yale.edu/features/ocean-justice-where-social-equity-and-the-climate-fight-intersect