In the outcome clause of the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the phrase “accelerating efforts toward the phase-down of unabated coal power” suspiciously aligns with a common political phrase: “we will make meaningful progress.” However, both of these nonbinding statements — with little to no supporting […]
Tag: Global Warming
Nauru’s Citizenship for Sale: Golden Visas and the Price of Survival
Imagine lazing on a beach on an island in the South Pacific — the temperature is always 80 degrees, the water always perfect, a mimosa in one hand and a pair of sunglasses in the other. Life has never been better on the paradise of the Nauruan shores. This isn’t real. What won’t be noticeable […]
The End is Nigh (Again): How Media Alarmism Numbs Voters
On January 28, 2025, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock forward one second toward midnight, bringing the world 89 seconds to nuclear apocalypse. The idea of the apocalypse is nothing new, whether or not one has the misfortune of regular media notifications. In December 2012, half the world was convinced that the […]
Denialism vs Doomerism: Navigating a Warming World
“Drill baby drill.” “The Green New Scam.” “It’s freezing in New York—where the hell is global warming?” It’s nearly impossible to feel like there is any hope left for the environment when the next President of the United States has effectively denied the existence of climate change. As an undergraduate student studying climate change and […]
Volcano Fears Heat Up in Iceland
In November of last year, after detecting a flow of moving magma stretching nine miles long under Grindavík, a fishing village in southwest Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, officials ordered an evacuation of at least 3,000 people living in the area. Although the evacuation took place as a preventative measure, not because citizens were in immediate danger, […]
CA Isn’t Ready to Close Its Last Nuclear Power Plant— But It Can’t Stay Open
On the first of February, 79 top energy experts signed an open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, urging him to halt the decommission of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California’s very last operational source of nuclear power. The group behind this letter includes dozens of prominent energy executives, professors from Berkeley, MIT, Stanford and more, […]
The Earth is Begging for a Carbon Border Tax
In 2015, the US signed on to the Paris Agreement, vowing to work towards a goal of reducing global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels, by 2100. Scientists argue that even this increase is too high, ideally it should be below 1 degree. But, as of right now, we are on […]
The Climate Change We Forgot to Calculate: An Interview With Kristina Hill on Groundwater Rise
In January, after an unusual observation during a routine procedure, West Oakland County officials received a report that a toxic substance may be contaminating the soil below McClymonds High School. McClymonds had been conducting environmental tests on its property where a pool-heating tank had recently been removed, just to be sure that no petroleum leakage […]
“Carpooling Can Save the Planet,” and Other Lies Exxon and Shell Want You to Believe
During the Cold War, students learned to duck and cover under their desks in the event of a nuclear bomb. The flimsy wood wouldn’t have made an appreciable difference in whether or not they survived, of course, but it must have felt better to have some tiny piece of control over an otherwise terrifying and […]
Heating up in the High Arctic
The idea of global warming has physically manifested itself most clearly in the melting ice caps. Series of satellite images can quantitatively determine that polar ice is receding at an alarming rate. Most often the narrative goes towards saving polar bears and seals, but rarely do people’s minds jump to the thought of warships steaming […]