Climate Change Science

Ecological footprint accounting, first introduced in the 1990s and continuously developed, continues to be the only metric that compares overall human demand on nature with what our planet can renew—its biocapacity—and distills this into one number: how many Earths we use.

COVID-19, monkeypox, bird flu, SARS, HIV, AIDS, Ebola; we are living in the Age of Pandemics – one that we have created. As the climate crisis reaches a fever pitch and ecological destruction continues unabated, we are just beginning to reckon with the effects of environmental collapse on our global health. Fevered Planet exposes how the way we farm, what we eat, the places we travel to and the scientific experiments we conduct create the perfect conditions for deadly new diseases to emerge and spread faster and further than ever.

Alle Maldive le spiagge spariscono, a Miami si ricostruiscono le strade sollevate di un metro, la Louisiana sprofonda a vista d’occhio, in Franciacorta il vino diventa ogni anno più difficile da produrre, e mentre a Venezia l’acqua salata consuma un patrimonio artistico inestimabile, altre città si svuotano di automobili e si riempiono di animali. Negli ultimi dieci anni la crisi climatica è passata da essere un problema delle generazioni future a un’urgenza di quelle presenti.

Almost daily, scientists are sounding dire warnings about the effects of climate change. Our young will bear an unprecedented burden. They are eager to discover what can be done, as time slips away. But few of them - or us - are aware that global warming is but one facet of a looming planetary catastrophe.

Demokratie und Wohlstand, ein längeres Leben, mehr Gleichberechtigung und Bildung: Der Kapitalismus hat viel Positives bewirkt. Zugleich ruiniert er jedoch Klima und Umwelt, sodass die Menschheit nun existenziell gefährdet ist. "Grünes Wachstum" soll die Rettung sein, aber Wirtschaftsexpertin und Bestsellerautorin Ulrike Herrmann hält dagegen: Verständlich und messerscharf erklärt sie in ihrem neuen Hörbuch, warum wir stattdessen "grünes Schrumpfen" brauchen. Die Klimakrise verschärft sich täglich, aber konkret ändert sich fast nichts.

Desde hace unos años se suceden episodios de muerte súbita y generalizada de árboles en bosques de todo el mundo. En muchos casos el cambio climático y las sequías desempeñan un papel importante, pero no son la única causa, ya que se combina con la historia de la explotación humana y con la proliferación de plagas y de incendios cada vez más virulentos. El profesor Francisco Lloret recorre algunos de los bosques más importantes de Norteamérica, Patagonia, Europa y África para mostrarnos, con luminosa claridad y rigor, los procesos que están provocando su colapso.

At first, Erika Bolstad knew only one thing about her great-grandmother, Anna: she was a homesteader on the North Dakota prairies in the early 1900s before her husband committed her to an asylum under mysterious circumstances. As Erika's mother was dying, she revealed more: their family still owned the mineral rights to Anna's land—and oil companies were interested in the black gold beneath the prairies. Their family, Erika learned, could get rich thanks to the legacy of a woman nearly lost to history.

Wie wir mit dem Wissen über die Alpen unser Wetter und den Klimawandel besser verstehen. Meteorologe Sven Plöger und Wissenschaftsjournalist Rolf Schlenker erklären, wie die Alpen als Taktgeber für unterschiedlichste Wetterphänomene auch im Flachland wirken. Wie Hitzerekorde, Trockenperioden, Saharastaub und Starkregen, Föhnstürme und Orkanböen entstehen. Mit welchen Strategien Alpentiere überleben; wie das evolutive Gedächtnis von Alpenpflanzen funktioniert. Und welche Ideen es vor Ort gibt, mit denen wir dem Klimawandel entgegentreten können.

Taking its title from a chilling warning made by the United Nations that the world’s soils could be lost within a lifetime, Sixty Harvests Left uncovers how the food industry is threatening the planet. Put simply, without soils there will be no food: game over. And time is running out.

Since it was first proposed in the US House of Representatives, the Green New Deal has been hotly debated. The intent was not simply to fight climate change or address a specific environmental concern, but rather to tackle how climate change and other environmental challenges affect the economy, the vulnerable, and social justice—and vice versa. In Science for a Green New Deal, Eric Davidson dissects this legislative resolution.

From wood to coal to oil and gas, the sources of energy on which civilization depends have always changed as technology advances. Now renewables are overtaking fossil fuels, with wind and solar energy becoming cheaper and more competitive every year. Growth in renewable energy will further accelerate as electric vehicles become less expensive than traditional automobiles. Understanding the implications of the energy transition will prepare us for the many changes ahead.

Il comportamento dissennato degli umani ha portato alla loro autodistruzione. Ma il pianeta e le altre creature viventi sembrano vivere un periodo rigoglioso. L’estinzione riguarda quindi solo gli uomini che non si riproducono più. Può esserci ancora una speranza di rinascita? E, soprattutto, chi sopravvive capirà e saprà cambiare? Questo racconto ci conduce in un percorso che apre quegli orizzonti e quelle sensibilità che solo se si praticheranno potranno condurci a ripensare ai nostri egoistici stili di vita. Pena la nostra stessa fine.

Die Meldungen über Auswirkungen der Erderwärmung treiben mich um. Schlechte Nachrichten und Zukunftsangst bestimmen das Leben von vielen. Dabei steht fest: Wir können nicht länger abwarten oder nur verhalten reagieren. Und wir können die Mammutaufgabe auch nicht allein an die Politik delegieren. Wir müssen alle mitmachen! Aber wie kann es gehen? Wie können wir Nachhaltigkeit und Wirtschaft sinnvoll zusammenbringen? In meinem Buch gebe ich Antworten auf viele der drängenden Fragen und beschreibe eine umsetzbare Vision für ein nachhaltiges Leben.

Der Klimawandel zählt zu den größten Herausforderungen, die wir derzeit als Gesellschaft zu bewältigen haben. Doch die bisherigen Maßnahmen der Politik reichen nicht aus. Deshalb braucht es ein zuverlässiges und gerechtes Konzept, um der Erderwärmung und den Grenzen unseres Planeten in derselben Größenordnung wie dem Problem selbst zu begegnen.

With vivid, observant reporting, veteran environmental journalist Fred Pearce transports listeners to the remote cloud forests of Ecuador, the remains of a forest civilization in Nigeria, a mystifying mountain peak in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and the boreal forests of western Canada and the United States, where devastating wildfires are linked to suppressing the natural fire cycles of forests and the maintenance practices of Indigenous peoples. Throughout the book, Pearce interviews the people who traditionally live in forests.

Distinguished British historian Geoffrey Parker spent 15 years writing this ambitious history of the tumultuous 17th century, when nations were in the grip of what was known as the General Crisis. First published in 2013, Global Crisis reveals that freak weather was a key reason why the people of the 1600s lurched between droughts, famines, and countless wars.

Veteran journalist Peter Annin shows that wastewater has become a surprising weapon in America's war against water scarcity. Annin probes deep into the water reuse movement in five water-strapped states—California, Texas, Virginia, Nevada, and Florida. He drinks beer made from purified sewage, visits communities where purified sewage came to the rescue, and examines how one of the nation's largest wastewater plants hopes to recycle one hundred percent of its wastewater by 2035.

Evocatively chronicled, Erickson tells what it is like trying to stop the unstoppable. Bad Smoke, Good Smoke gives voice to the particular pains that ranchers must face in our era of climate change and ever more powerful natural disasters.

Wer von uns kann schon genau erklären, wie der Treibhauseffekt funktioniert? Was das CO2 in unserer Atmosphäre macht? Oder warum es so viel regnet, obwohl alle von der Klimaerwärmung sprechen? Kinder stellen 1000 Fragen. Wir Erwachsenen hingegen trauen uns oft nicht mehr, genau nachzufragen. Schließlich müssten wir es ja längst wissen. Doch es gibt so viele spannende Dinge, interessante Fakten und unzählige Selbstverständlichkeiten, die lohnen, genauer verstanden zu werden. Schließlich geht es um unsere Zukunft!

¿Cuál es el futuro de la humanidad ante la inminente tragedia de haber dañado profundamente a la Tierra, el único hogar con el que contamos hasta el día de hoy? En Un mar de esperanza, Andrea Sáenz-Arroyo, una bióloga marina con un doctorado en Economía ambiental, nos guía por un viaje personal a través de sociedades e ideas contrastantes, y llega a la siguiente conclusión: el arribo de la era de la comunicación nos revela que degradar nuestro entorno y despojar los recursos de otros para satisfacer nuestras necesidades no sólo es poco inteligente, sino evolutivamente inviable.