By Chris Wood, Natural Security columnist How wide to cast the net when examining the environmental damage a proposed industrial development might do, is a contested issue. In Canada, panels weighing the impacts of proposed oil pipelines from Alberta to
Read More →Leading up to the UN Climate Conference in Paris in December, Reuters has a series of photo-essays titled “Earthprints,” each installment aiming to “show the ability of humans to impact change on the landscape of the planet,” accompanied with NASA satellite images showing the scale of the change. Here,
By Ed Struzik, Yale Environment 360September, 2015 In the summer of 1955, a floatplane flew a small group of American climbers to the edge of a massive icefield straddling the Continental Divide along the Yukon/Northwest Territories border in northern Canada. When the group saw
CLIVE HAMILTONJuly, 2015 Among the great crimes of the 20th century the most enduring will surely prove to be human disruption of the Earth’s climate. The effects of human-induced climate change are apparent now and will become severe this century, but the
A Dutch court recently ruled that greenhouse gas reduction is a state obligation. Here’s what that could mean for the rest of the world. By Sophia V. Schweitzer, Ensia July, 2015 On June 24, 2015, a court in The Hague ordered the Dutch
Pope Francis, on the eve of the most contested papal writing in half a century, said on Wednesday that all should help to save “our ruined” planet and asked critics to read his encyclical with an open spirit. The document is
The prevailing perception of humans as inherently at odds with nature is not only false, it’s counterproductive By Philip Loring June, 2015 It goes without saying that humans are good at causing problems. Climate change, overfishing and widespread environmental contamination from chemical
CHRIS WOOD: NATURAL SECURITY May, 2015 It’s hard to know what to make of the news that Pope Francis is planning an encyclical on climate change. On one hand, any intervention that pushes us to save the climate our species grew up with
To hear the company chief tell it, Tesla’s new battery will change the world. Tesla Motors Inc. CEO Elon Musk announced the release, at an event live-streamed online, of a new Tesla battery design he described as “like a beautiful sculpture on
CHRIS WOOD: NATURAL SECURITY April, 2015 ‘Human Rights’ are, in general, bunk. But a Dutch group is at least putting the idea of them to good use. They are taking their government to court for idling while the Earth burns. Specifically, these low
January 23, 2015 Scientists, including 17 Nobel laureates, this week moved the minute hand of their terrible Doomsday Clock two minutes ahead, as they urged world leaders to defuse nuclear and climate-change threats to the world and humanity. We humans have, metaphorically, just