Energy, Resources and the Environment

An overnight train view of China’s Anthropocene – Part 2

Conor Purcell August 22, 2018

Tiananmen Square in Beijing, enveloped by heavy fog and haze. (Credit: Argonne National Laboratory, distributed via Flickr)

Science fiction is no match for industrial non-stop China. Electric bikes zip across the cities of Shanghai and Beijing, and soundtrack the neon nights with their passing whirr. Here, some kind of two-wheeled revolution has taken place which are we completely unaware of in the West. It’s Blade Runner meets Total Recall in a future which has already come to pass. The very existence of our ele ...[Read More]

An overnight train view of China’s Anthropocene – Part 1

Conor Purcell August 15, 2018

Air pollution in Shanghai's Pudong region in July 2017. Credit: Conor Purcell

The nighttrain from Shanghai to Beijing is a comfortable affair. The train is new and clean. My travel partner and I can charge our phones and relax on soft beds. The railway is almost frictionless, and overall the experience is similar to any ride in the West. But outside, as the vehicle roars through the early night, things become increasingly hazy. As we reach further out from the Shanghai metr ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Wildfires leave their mark on Jasper National Park

Olivia Trani July 23, 2018

A powerful story about forest resiliency and renewal. Credit: Jennifer Ziesch (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Jasper National Park is the largest national park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, spanning across nearly 11,000 square kilometres of Canadian wilderness. The park is known for its rugged landscape, extensive trails, and abundance of deer, bighorn sheep, wolves, mountain lions and bears. This region is also very susceptible to blazing wildfires, a result of human activity that began more than a ce ...[Read More]

Giving back to the city: First EGU Public Lecture at the General Assembly 2018 in Vienna

Claudia Volosciuk June 21, 2018

Climate scientist Stefan Rahmstorf presenting at the the inaugural EGU Public Lecture. Credit: Robert Manoutschehri

The inaugural EGU Public Lecture, titled ‘After Paris: Are we getting the climate crisis under control?’, took place last April at the 2018 General Assembly in the Natural History Museum of Vienna. In this first public lecture, Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, took the audience on a fascinating journey through the climate system ...[Read More]