Green Planet Monitor

In the wake of the worst wildfires in California history, thoughts from an expert in fire dynamics. And, forest and atmosphere. Two tightly coupled systems, both in high peril.

In today’s edition of the Green Blues Show: Latin American migrants: climate change refugees? And a safe ecological operating space for livestock production. Have we wandered out of bounds?

Billions of viruses lurk in the animal wilderness, threatening to hop over to humans and trigger the next pandemic. Scientists are mapping them. And, an increasing number of observers have concluded that Israel is a settler-colonial apartheid state. One Palestinian voice calls for justice and the rule of law.

Reflecting on the Palestinian people and their seemingly endless struggle for justice, American public intellectual Richard Falk summons up the opening line of a classic Charles Dickens novel.

Scientists warn that Earth may soon slip into hothouse mode. An update on Palestine’s case against Israel at the International Criminal Court, and air pollution from Alberta’s tar sands threatens to acidify lakes across the region.

Earth’ surface is one degree warmer today, on average, than it was at the start of the industrial revolution 200 years ago. One degree doesn’t seem like much. The Paris Agreement would limit global temperature rise to two degrees. Sound like a conservative precautionary measure? Perhaps it isn’t.

Who’s to blame for climate change – ‘Us’? The Royal ‘We’? Or global capital and neoliberalism? Automation and artificial intelligence in the workplace – a revolution against labour? And, one prominent Israeli is worried about where Israel is heading.

The impact of oil spills on shipwreck microbiomes, Canadian peacekeepers head to Mali, and the nexus between the global arms trade and the global flood of refugees.

In Tanzania, bloggers are now government-regulated. Unarmed Gazan protestors wounded by Israeli snipers are being tended to by a team of doctors from the ICRC. And — forget about Donald Trump and his second Supreme Court nominee. Check out the radical conservative judges he’s been appointing to American court benches, coast to coast.

Good food makes good neighbors. Traditional agriculture is also a form of cultural and political resistance. And, digital carbon footprints – all that browsing and clicking generates Earth-warming CO2. Smart computing tips for a low carbon economy.

Earth’s cryosphere, all that ice and snow that reflect solar radiation, keeping Earth cool, is melting. Do Israeli soldiers aim to maim unarmed Palestinian protesters when they gun them down? And on a more mundane topic – carbon taxes!

The toxic legacy of American chemical warfare in Vietnam. A report card from Canadian Auditors General on Canada’s climate change performance (disappointing). And, the information economy isn’t anywhere near as clean as you’d think. But, Web servers are reducing their carbon footprint.

The social costs of burning carbon exceed the value of the Big Five Tar Sands producers, and the province of Alberta’s entire GDP, by a country mile. Reflections on this rock humans live on, and what happens when it melts. And, the plight of children in war-ravaged Yemen.

A landmark scientific report warns of degraded land and vanishing biodiversity; cars, everywhere to be seen; commemorating Rwanda’s hundred-day genocide; and mapping climate change: where it’s at, where we’re heading, and what Canadians are doing about it.

Voices from the vault about energy and climate; an African friend talks about his new book; light rail transit in Hamilton, Ontario; sounds good – but for whom? And the voice of an unforgotten urban activist, urging urban dwellers to make a difference.