7 November 2020 “We are putting a final end to the fossil era,” said Denmark’s’s climate minister, Dan Jorgensen, last week. What he meant was that the European Union’s biggest oil and gas producer is officially getting out of the petrochemical business after 80 years. There’s still more oil under the North Sea off Denmark’s …
25 October 2020 It’s the last week of October, and the main nursery of new Arctic Ocean sea ice has not yet started to refreeze. Hardly surprising, since 2020 is on course to be the second-warmest year on record, but it’s still a matter of concern. It should have started refreezing about five weeks ago. …
15 January 2014 Geo-Engineering in Trouble By Gwynne Dyer Bad news on the climate front. It was already clear that we are very likely to break through all the “do not exceed” limits and go into runaway warming later this century, because greenhouse emissions have not dropped, are not dropping, and probably will not drop. …
6 January 2014 Supervolcanoes: Another Thing to Worry About By Gwynne Dyer The good thing about volcanoes is that you know where they are. If you don’t want to get hurt, just stay away from them. The bad thing about supervolcanoes is that you may know where they are, but there’s no getting away from …
26 December 2013 2013 Year-Ender By Gwynne Dyer It’s always dangerous to declare “mission accomplished.” Former US president George W. Bush did it weeks after he invaded Iraq, and it will be quoted in history books a century hence as proof of his arrogance and his ignorance. British Prime Minister David Cameron did it a …
20 November 2013 Bad Times in Libya By Gwynne Dyer A little over two years after the former Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, was captured and killed by rebel militiamen outside the town of Sirte, the Libyan state is teetering on the brink of collapse. A dozen different militia organisations have more authority than the central …
18 November 2013 Chinese Demographics By Gwynne Dyer The big news of the week is that China’s one-child policy is being relaxed. After 34 years when most Chinese families were officially limited to only one child, most couples will now be allowed to have two children. The reality, however, is that it will make very …
13 November 2013 Early Warning System By Gwynne Dyer “We’ve been telling the rest of the world we don’t want what’s happening to us to happen to everyone else,” said Lucille L. Sering, the vice chair of the Philippines’ Climate Commission,, as the country struggled to cope with the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. “This is …
16 October 2013 Mediterranean Cemetery By Gwynne Dyer “I don’t know how many more people need to die at sea before something gets done,” said Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat. “As things stand we are building a cemetery within our Mediterranean Sea.” He was talking about the part of the Mediterranean between the North African …
21 August 2013 Another Defeat for the Environment (and for us) By Gwynne Dyer “The world has failed us,” said Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa. “I have signed the executive decree for the liquidation of the Yasuni-ITT trust fund and with this, ended the initiative.” What might have been a model for a system that helps …