COPE VCC News
[May. 17, 2026] The American epoch of oil is collapsing.: Jonathan Watts presents an excellent analysis of the on-going energy transition from fossil fuels to electricity in the article titled “The American epoch of oil is collapsing. What comes next could be ugly” published in the Guardian. China is the leader in this energy transition, and global leadership may well shift back to China.
[May. 08, 2026] Injustice in the Emergency: In the article “Inequality causing 100,000 extra deaths a year from heat and cold in Europe” published in the Guardian, the author Ajit Niranjan reports on findings reported in the research paper “Socio-economic factors impact vulnerability to and burden of heat- and cold-related mortality in Europe” in Nature. Importantly, non-optimal temperatures disproportionally affect disadvantaged populations. This points to a growing climate-change related injustice.
[Apr. 19, 2026] Earth Energy Imbalance is Increasing Rapidly: Finally the extreme increase in the Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) is slowly starting to make headlines - far too late, though. The article “ What are zettajoules – and what do they tell us about Earth’s energy imbalance?” by Jonathan Watts published in the Guardian explains some of the basics. Importantly, the EEI double within only 13 years. In another article by Watts also in the Guardian and titled “ Earth being ‘pushed beyond its limits’ as energy imbalance reaches record high” the author points out that the World Meteorological Organization warned that Earth is struggling with a record energy imbalance, which is warming the oceans to unprecedented levels, making weather more extreme and threatening health and food supplies. Considering that Earth is more like a pool house with a very large pool than a greenhouse, the ocean is only delaying the heating of the atmosphere but not preventing it.
[Apr. 09, 2026] There Is No Way Back: In her latest blog, Jessica Wildfire gives a very clear and shilling description of the recent months, in which those who are in power have lost all pretense. There is no way back from that. It is now crystal clear that those wealthy people in power do not care for anything else than themselves. They realize that they may need far less of us others than they thought and can care even less about us. A very clarifying read!
[Mar. 06, 2026] Global Warming Appears to be Accelerating: In the article titled “Humanity heating planet faster than ever before, study finds” the author Ajit Niranjan reports on a study by G. Foster and S. Rahmstorf. After subtracting the estimated influence of El Niño events, volcanic eruptions and solar variations from the global temperature curve, the researchers find a significant acceleration of warming since about 2015. For the last 10 years, the increase is at 0.35o per decade. This acceleration of warming indicates the insufficiency of the efforts made so far to slow down global warming.
[Mar. 04, 2026] Carbon dioxide overload: Potentially Toxic Atmosphere Within 50 Years: A study by Alexander N. Larcombe and Phil N. Bierwirth titled “Carbon dioxide overload, detected in human blood, suggests a potentially toxic atmosphere within 50 years” published in The Lancet indicates that the anthropogenic activities increasing the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere could lead to a toxic atmosphere already in 50 years from now. “There is mounting experimental evidence that lifetime exposure to these increasing atmospheric CO2 levels can negatively impact the normal physiology of organisms.”
[Mar. 04, 2026] Sea Levels are Already Higher Than Previously Estimated: In an article in The Guardian titled “Global sea levels have been underestimated due to poor modelling, research suggests&rdquo, Tara Russell discusses a new study “ Sea level much higher than assumed in most coastal hazard assessments” by Katharina Seeger Philip S. J. Minderhoud published in Nature. The authors reach the conclusion that average sea levels are 30 cm higher than thought globally, and up to 150 cm in south-east Asia and the Indo-Pacific. This establishes an urgent need to revise many risk assessments and efforts to develop coastal resilience.
Platform News
[May. 22, 2026] DRG VCC opened: The "Disaster Risk Governance VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[May. 21, 2026] NEXUS VCC opened: The "Food-Water-Energy Nexus VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[May. 11, 2026] ILie VCC opened: The "I Lie and Why it Needs to Stop VCC" has been initialized and is open now.
[May. 09, 2026] Doomsday Clock is Getting Closer to Midnight: In January, the Doomsday clock was set to 85 seconds before midnight, the closest setting since it was established in 1947 in response to the threat of nuclear war. Sophie McBain in her article “‘The odds are not in our favour’: who sets the Doomsday Clock – and what can they tell us about the future of humanity?” emphasizes that with the wars on Iran and on the Ukraine, the rapid and largely uncontrolled development of AI and the climate breakdown all together increasing the likelihood of a nuclear war, the clock now stands closer to midnight than ever before. She asks the question of whether we can buy ourselves more time.
[Apr. 25, 2026] World Happiness Report Finds Positive Impacts of Collaborative Platforms: The World Happiness Report 2026 has a strong focus on the impacts of social media and the Web in general on human happiness. The results of most studies indicate that the use of most social media seems to have a negative impact on happiness, while those tools that generate trust and collaboration have a positive impact. The report sumarizes: “Internet activities fall into two groups. Communications, news, learning, and content creation are associated with higher life satisfaction. Social media, gaming, and browsing for fun are associated with lower life evaluations.” This supports the mission of Place4Us as a trust-focused collaborative platform for intercreativity and learning.
