The Guardian (April 24)
“Amid the misery and chaos caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there are some short-term consolations. The precipitous drop in road and air traffic has left the air cleaner and the skies clearer.” Hopefully, when it is finally “safe to emerge from economic survival mode,” we will reflect “on which kinds of productive activity actually enrich our lives – and which among these our planet can sustain.”
Washington Post (February 26)
We will soon find out whether a global crisis can “unite the planet and encourage everyone to pull together…. This outbreak is manageable with good medicine, good information and global cooperation. But it’s going to be a bumpy ride for a while.”
Tags: Bumpy, Cooperation, Global crisis, Information, Manageable, Medicine, Outbreak, Planet, Unite
Newsweek (April 29)
“Following a string of remarkable discoveries over the past two decades, the idea of alien life is not as far-fetched as it used to seem.” Amino acids “have been found in the tails of comets. There are other organic compounds in Martian soil.” And since the first habitable planet was discovered in 1995, “astronomers have catalogued thousands.” Discovery of alien life, “now seems inevitable.”
Tags: Alien life, Amino acids, Comets, Discoveries, Discovery, Habitable, Inevitable, Martian soil, Organic compounds, Planet, Remarkable
US News & World Report (December 28)
“It was about 37 degrees Fahrenheit warmer in the Arctic in November than it usually is this time of year. The week before Christmas, it was 50 degrees above the usual average. That is, to put it mildly, something quite out of the ordinary.” Even more troubling, “what every scientist in the world studying the Arctic knows is this: what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic; and global warming is now permanently altering the region in ways that will have untold consequences. In fact, the Arctic system has changed so dramatically that it may now be vulnerable to tipping points that affect the entire planet.”
Tags: Arctic, Christmas, Consequences, Global warming, Planet, Tipping points, Troubling, Vulnerable
LA Times (October 6)
“President Obama could be right in saying history may judge the ratification of the Paris Agreement as ‘a turning point for our planet.’ But if meaningful reductions in carbon emissions don’t follow, then history will judge this as the moment when the world acknowledged it had a problem, yet failed to fix it. The longer the world—and governments—dillydally, the more likely future generations will regard us as fools.”
Chicago Tribune (August 3)
“Shrinking ice caps, rising seas, more flooding, more intense heat waves—these phenomena are happening now. The question is whether we can band together as a planet in time to reverse the effects.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just announced limits for greenhouse gas emissions from power generating stations. The EPA’s plan is a step in the right direction. “The more seriously the U.S. acts, the more likely other polluting nations like China and India will do the same in Paris.”
Financial Times (July 18)
“Pluto is indeed a heavenly body and deserves to be treated with full planetary respect.” It’s status as a planet should be reinstated. “Far from being the featureless frozen fuzzball visible from the most powerful terrestrial telescopes, Pluto turns out on close inspection by the Nasa probe to be an adorably colourful character…. Inside, too, Pluto has an unexpectedly warm heart, heated by processes that remain a mystery…. Pluto has all the attributes that common sense associates with a planet.”
Tags: Common sense, NASA, Planet, Pluto, Reinstated, Telescopes
Los Angeles Times (January 25)
We mustn’t forget that any solution to climate change is centrally linked to limiting population growth. “It is not a sustainable scenario to keep producing larger young populations. Our finite planet cannot host infinite growth. It’s already showing the strain.” Family-planning programs can “make a real difference, both in slowing the rate of warming and in helping vulnerable nations adapt to its effects.”
Institutional Investor (July 30)
“As the planet becomes more crowded and as many of its inhabitants enjoy ever higher standards of living, the stresses on our economy and environment will deepen. The global consumer class is forecast to grow by 3 billion in the next 30 years. To stave off unwanted outcomes affecting global stability, we will have to make fundamental changes in the ways we approach energy, infrastructure, development, agriculture, health care and social safety nets.”
Tags: Agriculture, Consumers, Crowded, Development, Economy, Energy, Environment, Health care, Infrastructure, Planet, Safety nets, Stability, Standard of living, Stresses
National Geographic (April 1)
“The world is not ready for the impacts of climate change, including more extreme weather and the likelihood that populated parts of the planet could be rendered uninhabitable,” according to 772 scientists who worked on a report released in Yokohama by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The report “warns that the world is close to missing a chance to limit the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution.”
Tags: Climate change, Extreme weather, Global warming, Impacts, Industrial Revolution, IPCC, Planet, UN, Uninhabitable, Yokohama
