Climate Change
Australian youth speak out against climate change
By our reporters, 6 May 2019
The climate strikes are part of a growing politicisation of young people in Australia and internationally.
Join the fight for international socialism!
To halt climate change, capitalism must be abolished
By Tessa Pietsch: SEP Senate candidate for Victoria, 2 May 2019
The attempts to channel the climate strike movement in Australia and internationally behind the political establishment must be resisted.
Police arrest over 1,000 climate change protesters in London
By Robert Stevens, 23 April 2019
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has issued no statement condemning the mass arrest of peaceful protesters.
UK home secretary demands climate change protesters face “full force of the law”
By Laura Tiernan, 20 April 2019
More than 682 climate change protesters have been arrested since Monday.
Hundreds of peaceful climate change protesters arrested in UK
By Paul Mitchell, 18 April 2019
There have been no serious incidents of public disorder except when the police arrived in large numbers and swooped in to arrest people.
Youth at climate rally in Leeds, England speak out to defend Julian Assange
By our reporters, 16 April 2019
WSWS reporters spoke about the arrest and imprisoning of Julian Assange with young people who attended last Friday’s rally against climate change in Leeds, England.
Germany: Tens of thousands demonstrate against climate change
By Iason Stolpe, 2 April 2019
On March 29 around 25,000 demonstrated in Berlin alone. The main speaker in Berlin was the initiator of the protests, Greta Thunberg from Sweden.
Ocean degradation accelerated by global warming
By Henry Allan, 19 March 2019
The decline in oceanic oxygen caused by climate change is at least as dangerous to marine life as ocean acidification.
Thousands of New Zealand students join climate change protests
By our reporters, 18 March 2019
Students defied pressure from school principals and the media to join climate strike walkouts on Friday in cities across New Zealand.
More voices from the Australian climate strike
By our reporters, 18 March 2019
“We have people in power, not just the government, but massive corporations, who are about profit and power.”
Voices from UK climate change protests
“Climate change is a class question—we need socialism”
By our reporters, 18 March 2019
World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to some of the demonstrators attending last Friday’s climate change protests in Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Bournemouth.
Millions of students and youth march against climate change
By Bryan Dyne, 16 March 2019
The internationally coordinated protests, the largest in sixteen years, were organized in response to the failure of world governments and the ruling class to do anything to halt global warming.
Youth at global climate protests speak out on capitalism, socialism and scientific planning
By our reporters, 16 March 2019
Reporting teams from the World Socialist Web Site interviewed students who protested in countries around the world for action on climate change.
The Youth Climate Strike and the fight against global warming
By Bryan Dyne, 14 March 2019
That the demonstration planned for Friday has evoked a broad response is an indication of both the serious nature of the ecological crisis and the radicalization of youth all over the world.
Extinction Rebellion: “Green” capitalism versus world socialism
By Steve James, 14 March 2019
The global environmental crisis is a powerful argument for the socialist reorganisation of society.
The struggle to stem climate change is the political fight to end capitalism!
Join the International Youth and Students for Social Equality!
By the IYSSE (Australia), 14 March 2019
The IYSSE will distribute the following statement tomorrow at high school student strikes demanding immediate action to resolve climate change and environmental destruction.
The fallacies and evasions of the Green New Deal
By Bryan Dyne and Barry Grey, 5 March 2019
Democratic no less than Republican administrations have imposed austerity policies and prosecuted the decades-long social counterrevolution that continues today.
UK school pupils and students protest climate change
By our reporters, 18 February 2019
Up to 15,000 young people demonstrated throughout the UK on Friday, protesting in every main town and city.
Veteran Trotskyist Barbara Slaughter addresses Leeds climate change demo
By our reporters, 18 February 2019
Slaughter, of the Socialist Equality Party, was warmly welcomed, especially when she described the global character of the crisis and the necessity for global action to address it.
Climate change and the fight for socialism
By International Youth and Students for Social Equality (UK), 15 February 2019
Young people are organising across national boundaries in recognition that climate change has global causes and global consequences. In doing so, they are meeting up with an international resurgence of the class struggle.
Six dead as record-breaking Arctic air mass hits US Midwest
By Niles Niemuth, 31 January 2019
The onset of exceptionally frigid temperatures has once again exposed the failure of American capitalism, which is unable to maintain the infrastructure required to withstand extreme weather events.
The working class and the environmental crisis
By Patrick Martin, 19 December 2018
It is not “humanity” that is guilty of contributing to climate change or the destruction of the ecosystem. It is the capitalist class.
Greenland ice sheet melting at an accelerating rate due to global warming
By Philip Guelpa, 14 December 2018
Data obtained from ice cores taken from the Greenland ice sheet reveal that the past decade has seen the fastest melt rate in 350 years.
Australia: Thousands protest climate change and new Adani coal mine
By our reporters, 10 December 2018
The environmental groups that organised the rally are seeking to subordinate an emerging movement of young people to the very parties responsible for environmental destruction.
Australia: Newcastle participants in high school climate strike speak out
By our reporters, 3 December 2018
IYSSE campaigners stressed that the danger of climate change could only be resolved through the socialist re-organisation of the world.
Thousands of Australian high school students join climate change strike
By our correspondents, 1 December 2018
The rallies showed the growing politicisation of a generation that has grown up amid continuous war, growing inequality and worsening environmental destruction.
Australian prime minister denounces students’ climate-change protests
By Oscar Grenfell, 28 November 2018
Scott Morrison’s comments expressed the acute fear of the ruling establishment that students and young people are beginning to enter into political struggle.
Climate change, capitalism and socialism
New climate change report: Impact of global warming “already being felt”
By Bryan Dyne, 26 November 2018
The latest report from the US Global Change Research Program confirms the danger posed by climate change and the inability of capitalist governments to address it.
Australia: Youth speak out against environmental destruction, poverty and war
By our reporters, 24 November 2018
Geelong high school students joined one of many planned “walk-outs for climate action.”
To stem climate change, capitalism must be ended
By the IYSSE (Australia), 22 November 2018
The following statement will be distributed at high school “walk-outs for climate change” across Australia.
Death toll from California fires likely to soar, with nearly 1,300 people still missing
By David Brown, 19 November 2018
There is growing popular outrage as details emerge pointing to the culpability of the state’s energy giants and government officials in creating the conditions for the deadly inferno.
Hurricane Michael leaves trail of death and destruction in southeastern US
By Daniel de Vries, 12 October 2018
The death toll, which currently stands at six, will almost certainly rise as emergency personnel gain access to more communities laid to waste by the storm.
Hurricane Michael makes landfall in Florida as category four storm
By Matthew Taylor, 11 October 2018
The storm is one of the most powerful on record to impact the US
UN report warns of catastrophic consequences of climate change within 20 years
By Bryan Dyne, 10 October 2018
The increasingly dire warnings from scientists about the impact of human-caused global warming stand in stark contrast with the tepid and complacent response of world governments.
Proposed methane rule repeal continues Trump’s deregulation of polluters
By Daniel de Vries, 14 September 2018
The EPA announced a plan Tuesday to enable oil and gas companies to release more greenhouse gases.
Hurricane Florence exposes disastrous state of US infrastructure
By Tom Hall, 13 September 2018
Trump’s self-congratulation for his response to last year’s devastation of Puerto Rico, even as Carolina residents brace for one of the worst Atlantic storms in history, sums up the callousness and criminality of the American ruling class.
Severe drought hits large regions of Australia
By Frank Gaglioti, 5 September 2018
Government indifference has exacerbated the plight of many farmers and rural communities that are reeling under the dry conditions.
Verizon throttled emergency data during California wildfires
By Henry Allan, 25 August 2018
While many workers have lost their homes and lives, the telecommunications giant has seen the disaster as an opportunity to make some extra profits.
Firefighter casualties mount from California wildfires
By Rafael Azul, 16 August 2018
The deadly fires which have claimed the lives of six firefighters, are part of a wave of wildfires affecting the entire western United States and British Columbia in Canada.
A year after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, victims still face long recovery
By Trévon Austin, 16 August 2018
Federal assistance has been slow and ecological issues in Houston make future flooding more likely.
Scientists reveal global warming’s impact on Great Barrier Reef
By Frank Gaglioti, 23 May 2018
Warming events are becoming more frequent, giving coral insufficient time to recover.
Climate scientists warn about “methane time bomb”
By Matthew MacEgan, 23 May 2018
Climate scientists are warning that human-driven atmospheric changes could lead to a mass extinction event rivaling the one that killed the dinosaurs.
Study finds alarming decline in biodiversity worldwide
By Philip Guelpa, 14 May 2018
The increasingly rapid loss of plant and animal species threatens a sixth mass global extinction.
Trump administration axes Obama-era clean car standards
By Daniel de Vries, 5 April 2018
The EPA’s decision is the latest in a series of efforts aimed at gutting environmental regulations, particularly related to climate change.
Scientists warn of health costs of Australian heatwaves
By Frank Gaglioti, 15 February 2018
The extreme heat conditions have intensified and become more frequent due to the effects of global warming, resulting in a rising death toll.
Thousands of undocumented immigrants among those affected by Northern California wild fires
By Rafael Azul, 14 October 2017
So far at least 31 people have died and 600 have been reported missing.
Tanker makes solo voyage through melting Arctic Sea
By Daniel de Vries, 29 August 2017
The natural gas tanker’s passage marks a new milestone in the decay of the Arctic Ocean ice cap.
South Asian floods kill more than 800 and affect over 24 million people
By Sathish Simon and Arun Kumar, 23 August 2017
Monsoonal flooding hits millions of people in South Asia each year, but the region’s governments fail to take adequate flood mitigation measures.
Greenland is burning
By Daniel de Vries, 21 August 2017
Unprecedented wildfires have burned for the past three weeks on the icy island, where temperatures are rising twice as fast compared to the global average.
Will the Trump administration censor climate scientists?
By Daniel de Vries, 15 August 2017
A draft of an authoritative federal study by US scientists was released amid fear of suppression.
One week after widespread flooding
New Orleans drainage system in shambles with more rain on the way
By Tom Hall, 12 August 2017
Mayor Mitch Landrieu seized upon the catastrophic failure of the city’s drainage pumps to announce plans to privatize the entire system.
Wildfires in California burn three times the average annual acreage
By Adam Mclean, 1 August 2017
The Detwiler Fire has forced evacuation near Yosemite National Park, while inmates are being used to control the blaze.
Climate change and the struggle against capitalism
By Patrick Martin, 14 July 2017
The main obstacles to a rational climate policy are capitalist private ownership of the means of production and the division of the world into rival nation-states.
Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement: The socialist solution to climate change
By Bryan Dyne, 3 June 2017
A serious response to the dangers posed by climate change is not possible within the framework of the capitalism and the nation-state system.
People’s Climate March protests Trump attacks on environment
By Patrick Martin, 1 May 2017
The march's agenda overlapped with that of the April 22 March for Science, but it was more closely tied to the Democratic Party and the trade unions.
New discovery sheds light on the deep roots of the Agricultural Revolution
By Philip Guelpa, 27 March 2017
The discovery of 23,000-year-old tools used to harvest cereal grains in northern Israel adds to our understanding of the processes leading to the development of agriculture.
Death toll rises from Peru’s El Niño flooding
By Cesar Uco, 20 March 2017
The disaster has exposed the inability of the Peruvian government to either prepare for or properly respond to increasingly frequent climatic catastrophes.
Federal employees resist administration attempts to impose media gags
By Bryan Dyne, 3 February 2017
Scientists at various government agencies are concerned that any mention of climate science will be silenced.
Eighteen killed in Mississippi, Georgia as tornadoes descend on southeastern US
By Shelley Connor, 23 January 2017
A system of storms that developed on the Gulf Coast on Saturday has claimed 18 lives, and continued to threaten through Monday morning.
Global temperatures set new highs for third consecutive year
By Bryan Dyne, 20 January 2017
After eight years in which the Obama administration did nothing to address climate change, the incoming Trump government is set to fully deregulate greenhouse gas emissions.
Record climate warming recorded in Australia for 2016
By Patrick Kelly, 12 January 2017
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology detailed several record-breaking temperature anomalies caused by global climate change.
Record-low sea ice as Arctic temperatures soar
By Daniel de Vries, 22 November 2016
Never since satellite monitoring began in the late 1970s has such little ice covered the polar seas this time of year.
State of emergency declared in Maryland suburb after record-breaking flooding kills two
By Nick Barrickman, 3 August 2016
The storm is being called a “1-in-a-1,000-year rain event” by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
El Niño and the acceleration of global warming
By Matthew MacEgan, 1 June 2016
The abnormally warm ocean waters caused by El Niño induce much more extreme weather patterns than normal, including droughts, cyclones, and floods.
SEP candidate challenges Labor, Greens, pseudo-left on climate change, war
By our reporters, 1 June 2016
In addition to outlining the necessary socialist policies required to resolve the climate change crisis, Fulgenzi exposed the pro-war agenda of the Labor Party and the Greens.
Australian election: SEP candidates campaign against war
By our reporters, 31 May 2016
Workers and young people denounced the billions being squandered on the military and the bipartisan assault on education, healthcare and jobs.
Devastation from Alberta wildfire continues to spread
By Roger Jordan, 9 May 2016
While Canadian capitalism has extracted immense riches from the Fort McMurray area, little was spent to counter wildfires despite persistent warnings that they were a major threat.
US blizzard: At least 27 dead, hundreds of thousands without power
By Nick Barrickman and Eric London, 25 January 2016
In the supposedly most advanced country in the world, the ability of storms to bring life to a standstill is an indictment of an economic system devoid of any rational planning.
House Republican committee chairman attacks climate change scientists
By Matthew MacEgan, 12 January 2016
Lamar Smith has issued a subpoena to a group of climate change scientists who have shown that a global warming slowdown has not occurred over the past 15 years.
Australia: Over 100 houses destroyed in Victorian bushfires
By Margaret Rees, 4 January 2016
Victoria has been hit by more than 2,500 bushfires since October but the hottest months, when the most dangerous fires usually occur, are still to come.
The climate crisis and imperialism
By Andre Damon, 16 December 2015
Far from fostering the international collaboration that would be required to reverse climate change, capitalist society is increasingly characterized by xenophobia, international conflict and war.
Paris agreement papers over failure to act on climate change
By Patrick Martin, 14 December 2015
Even in the face of a growing threat to human survival, the leaders of rival capitalist nations are incapable of serious action to combat global warming.
Global warming compounds Atlantic cod fishing industry problems
By John Marion, 8 December 2015
Recent scientific studies point to the effects of global warming on Atlantic cod populations already reduced to historically low sizes by decades of overfishing.
Pacific Island nations “bearing the brunt” of climate change
By John Braddock, 7 December 2015
Rising sea levels and extreme weather events are beginning to destroy Pacific Islands and threaten their existence.
Paris climate talks accomplish nothing to curb global warming
By Daniel de Vries, 5 December 2015
The expected agreement from the summit falls woefully short, even in its ambition, of what is necessary to protect humanity from the worst consequences of a warming planet.
Strongest hurricane ever recorded makes landfall in Mexico
By Evan Blake, 24 October 2015
As of this writing, there have been no reported deaths or injuries from Hurricane Patricia, but many are predicted to perish in the days to come.
Australia, New Zealand reject stronger climate measures at Pacific Islands Forum
By John Braddock, 15 September 2015
Many of the small Pacific Island states are low-lying and particularly vulnerable to the rising sea levels produced by higher global temperatures.
US imperialism and the new race to the Arctic
By Clara Weiss, 2 September 2015
The US is increasingly vehement in its efforts to secure claims in the Arctic, with Obama becoming the first sitting US president to make an official visit to the region.
Obama administration finalizes climate rules
By Daniel de Vries, 6 August 2015
The Clean Power Plan is a signal to Wall Street and the energy giants that their profits bound up with natural gas are safe.
Drought-fed fire hits California’s San Bernardino Mountains
By Adam Mclean, 3 July 2015
The Lake Fire, one of several fires in the US southwest fueled by high temperatures and drought, now covers 30,000 acres.
Atmospheric temperatures rise to record levels as glaciers disintegrate
By Matthew MacEgan, 3 July 2015
Two new reports show that global warming and climate change are becoming larger threats than ever before.
Over 1,100 killed by heat wave in Pakistan
By Sampath Perera, 27 June 2015
The victims have died because of electricity outages, water supply shortages, inadequate healthcare facilities and government indifference.
Study finds that one in six species are in danger of extinction due to climate change
By Philip Guelpa, 25 June 2015
A meta-analysis of 131 earlier studies predicts that widespread species extinctions will occur at an accelerating rate unless measures are taken to reduce global warming.
Record storms, flooding continue to ravage Texas and Oklahoma
By Charles Abelard, 30 May 2015
The response of state and federal authorities has thus far been minimal, leaving thousands of the displaced to fend for themselves.
Two cyclones devastate areas of northern and eastern Australia
By Will Morrow, 28 February 2015
Thousands of people have been left to fend for themselves, with little or no government support, and been forced to turn to charities, friends and family to survive.
Planetary boundaries—a systems approach to the environmental crisis
By Bryan Dyne, 3 February 2015
Environmental degradation by a range of metrics, of which climate change is only one, has the potential for large-scale disruptions of both biological and social life.
US agencies rank 2014 as Earth’s warmest recorded year
By Bryan Dyne, 22 January 2015
The weight of scientific evidence points to the increase of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere as a result of human activity as the cause.
Australian bushfires underline impact of global climate warming
By Will Morrow, 6 January 2015
Firefighters in South Australia are struggling to control bushfires that have torn through 12,000 hectares of land and destroyed at least 26 homes.
Peru climate change negotiations again dominated by great power rivalries
By Patrick Kelly, 16 December 2014
The failure to take any significant measures to address an escalating environmental crisis sees Lima join the long list of failed UN summits.
Australian “Direct Action” climate plan to reward corporate polluters
By Barry Andrews, 18 November 2014
The scheme is even more of a travesty than the previous Labor government’s carbon tax regime, which also sought to boost business profits.
Climate change behind recent extreme weather conditions
By Matthew MacEgan, 23 October 2014
Data compiled by 91 climate scientists suggests that human-induced climate change has increased the severity and likelihood of extreme weather events in 2013.
Once again, UN climate meeting comes up empty
By Daniel de Vries, 25 September 2014
The leaders of major capitalist countries, including the US, Britain and France, offered nothing more than platitudes and empty pledges about action on global warming.
The impact of climate change—“This is a great injustice”
By our reporters, 22 September 2014
Scientists and students were among those participants at the climate march who spoke with the WSWS.
Climate change marches draw large crowds
By Daniel de Vries, 22 September 2014
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in New York City to demand action on climate change.
Climate change and the capitalist system
By Patrick Martin, 20 September 2014
This statement will be distributed at a climate change demonstration this weekend in New York City.
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
By Philip Guelpa, 31 May 2014
Human-induced climate change and environmental degradation threaten to cause a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth.
Study warns of “unstoppable” West Antarctic ice shelf melting
By Gabriel Black and Evan Blake, 14 May 2014
A study shows that the melting of the West Antarctic ice shelf will raise global sea levels substantially beyond the predictions of the UN.
Heat wave and bush fires engulf southern Australia
By Zac Hambides, 17 January 2014
Fire services are already stretched to the limit by the number and spread of the fires, heightening the danger of a catastrophe.
Nearly a billion ocean-dependent people at risk because of global warming
By Henry Allan and Bryan Dyne, 29 November 2013
A recent study published in PLOS Biology has analyzed the chemical changes in the Earth’s oceans caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate scientists warn of more super-typhoons
By Peter Symonds, 15 November 2013
Global warming raises the chances of more intense storms, such as Super Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated the Philippines.
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