Environment

Posted by: John Phoenix Imagine, a hot summer day anywhere in Central Europe and / or the United States, followed by a warm and cozy summer night. When the temperature does not drop below 20 degrees celsius, north of the Tropic of Cancer (about 23.4 degrees north of the Equator), meteorologists call it a “tropical night.” Of course, the occurrence of tropical nights depends on many factors, such as season, climate, and location. The precise number of tropical nights cannot be predicted. However, there are patterns that can be observed. Perhaps you too have observed a year-by-year trend of ever fewer tropical nights, regardless of the daily sunshine and temperatures. It is not uncommon in July and August to register up to 35 deg C daytime temps – say, in Central Europe, an...

BY ERICA CIRINO Photo by John Cameron Louisiana’s “River Parishes,” located along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, shoulder some of the worst industry impacts in the United States. As a result, this region has acquired a grim reputation as “Cancer Alley.” Stretching across 85 miles of rural land along both banks of the Mississippi River are around 200 industrial plants—many of which process fossil fuels to produce petrochemicals and plastics, “reportedly the largest concentration of such plants in the Western Hemisphere,” according to a 2024 Human Rights Watch report. Across the U.S., most regions show a cancer risk of around five to twenty-five in a million, based on my assessment of 2019 Environmental Protection Agency data...

By: John P. Ruehl Around the world, significant issues are negatively impacting water security. While the situation appears dire, cooperation initiatives show some signs of relief. In May 2023, the Arizona Department of Water Resources imposed restrictions on the construction of new housing in the Phoenix area, citing a lack of groundwater. The decision aims to slow population growth in one of the fastest-growing regions in the U.S. and underlines the dwindling water resources in the drought-stricken southwest. As water levels in the Colorado River have declined, the states dependent on it (Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming) are increasingly at odds over how to distribute the declining supply. The U.S. is not alone in conte...

BY ROBERT HUNZIKER Image courtesy National Park Service. Global warming can add one more notch to its gun belt. The rapid onset of global warming is turning Alaska’s wilderness rivers orange. Global warming impacts Arctic temperatures 2-4 times warmer than the global average, and permafrost has been around since humans sat round crackling cave fires is rapidly melting. Eons of frozen stuff is making its first appearance in tens of thousands of years, clobbering wilderness rivers with deadly toxicity. Researchers believe the cause(s) is/are (1) acid from minerals leaching iron out of bedrock exposed to water for the first time in millennia and/or (2) bacteria mobilizing iron from the permafrost soil in thawing wetlands prompted by global warming. A group of scientists at Al...

‘Climatic warfare’ has been excluded from the agenda on climate change. MICHEL CHOSSUDOVSKY “The term “environmental modification techniques” refers to any technique for changing – through the deliberate manipulation of natural processes – the dynamics, composition or structure of the Earth, including its biota, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere, or of outer space. (Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques, United Nations, Geneva: 18 May 1977) “US military scientists … are working on weather systems as a potential weapon. The methods include the enhancing of storms and the diverting of vapor rivers in the Earth’s atmosphere to produce targeted droughts or floods.” (The late Rosal...