The White House released a report this morning from the Council of Economic Advisers that shows the consequences of not doing something about climate change NOW. Our sister publication, CleanTechnica, has the full story, along with a word from noted Penn State climatologist Michael E. Mann. One important section of the report discusses a number of […]
By Brad Walker – Rivers Director, with illustrations and other contributions from Joe Mohr Part 4: Solutions In the three (1, 2, 3) previous segments of this series we have discussed the problems created on and within our rivers when special interests work together to manipulate the political system. In order to justify the destruction of […]
Great Lakes waterspouts (NOAA file photo of Lake Huron) Very common over the warm water in September, when water temperatures peak after summer months and cooler air temps start moving in, Great Lakes waterspouts are cropping up early this year because of odd cool weather this July. (We won’t mention possible climate change links here.) A waterspout […]
This is part 3 of a 4 part series by Brad Walker of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment analyzing The Nefarious Connection Between Agriculture and Our Rivers. Read parts 1 and 2 Part 3: Small steps towards river repair There are currently effective Congressionally-authorized programs on the Missouri, Illinois and Upper Mississippi Rivers that […]
This is part 2 of a 4 part series by Brad Walker of the Missouri Coalition for the Environment analyzing The Nefarious Connection Between Agriculture and Our Rivers. Read Part 1 Part 2: The major culprit There are many well-documented critiques of the industrialized agricultural system, so we will not dwell in detail about why […]
In July of 2012, the Haida Salmon Restoration Corporation in conjunction with American businessman Russ George, carried out an audacious and completely unauthorized ocean fertilization experiment. Approximately 100 tonnes of iron sulfate were spread across the surface of an ocean eddy, some 300 kilometers off the west coast of Canada’s Queen Charlotte Islands. When details of […]
Underwater habitat at Aquarius Reef Base (photo provided to Flickr courtesy of Stephen Frink, www.stephenfrink.com/) On July 2, 2014, ocean scientists who have spent the last 31 days living in an ocean-floor habitat 63 feet underwater will decompress and return to the surface. They’ve been down there on “Mission 31” intensively studying ocean acidification and climate […]
This is a 4-part article as written by Brad Walker, Rivers & Sustainability Director for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment (bio below). I provided the illustrations and a few other minor contributions. The article will run one part per week for the next four weeks. Part 1: Introduction — What we have wrought on […]
In a couple of hours, everyone in the United States with access to cable TV and Showtime can hear President Barack Obama say he favors making the energy industry absorb the real price of the carbon it introduces into earth’s atmosphere. In other words, ante up the cost of carbon emissions. From Years of Living […]
A panel of extraordinary military leaders—16 men and women generals and admirals, including prior commanders, commandants, and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—came to a pretty devastating conclusion recently about climate strategy. The Military Advisory Board of the Center for Naval Analyses, a 70-year-old federally funded think tank, says that current actions by the […]
Global warming? Fuggedaboutit — we’re in the age of global heating! This firenado (aka fire tornado, fire devil, or fire whirl), filmed recently in California, is a rare breed, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a lot less rare in the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyNxdxRRx5U Here’s Wikipedia’s current writeup on firenado formation: A fire whirl consists of […]
More imminent than deadly viruses or terrorists at national events is the phenomenon of climate change, a force examined in a groundbreaking new report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Titled National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods and Wildfires are Threatening the United States’ Most Cherished Historic Sites, the study examines […]
There are the good wildfires, and there are the bad. Unfortunately, the latter often overwhelm the beneficial ones. We’ll go on with stories from San Diego in a minute—it’s a long story of an actually short time—but here’s a word about the bright side first. Whoopi Goldberg had a thought that’s worth repeating: When you […]
Brush burning fast at one of the mid-May San Diego fires, 2014 (photo from KHQ compilation). Fires are part of the Western North America lifestyle, unfortunately. “Every summer, smoke fills the big skies yet people continue to build in the places that burn most,” said Felicity Barringer Taubman, a senior reporter for The New York […]
Cherry blossoms in the foreground of Mount Fuji (image: ladyadventurer.co.uk) So far, at least, the famed blossoming cherry trees of Japan don’t discriminate geographically. This time of year, they grace even the surroundings of nuclear power generators shaken by earthquake, tsunami, and meltdowns three years ago. Otherwise, though, the Fukushima landscape remains desolate. Despite widespread […]
http://youtu.be/7sWWeQLBdWc Hypocrisy in the GOP? No way! From NextGen Climate: In a new web video, NextGen Climate is calling out Michigan Senate candidate Terri Lynn Land after her shameful ad made false accusations over funds pledged toward the victims of wildfires. But it’s Land who welcomed millions in outside money into her race—including the Koch brothers’ PAC. […]
(All figures are from the 2014 National Climate Assessment draft.) Later today (Tuesday, May 6), at 8 a.m. EDT, the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee of experts meets by conference call to approve the final version of the Third National Climate Assessment. The gist of their message, as Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian […]
I just read a wonderful article about and interview with Al Gore on POLITICO. Worth your time, I believe. Al Gore is such an excellent communicator. One of the best out there on the topic of global climate change. However, if you aren’t drawn to read the full thing, here are some key excerpts from the interview part picked out […]
Last week something rare and extraordinarily positive occurred on American television. Fortunately, through YouTube and 350.org, the rest of the world got to see it too. “Something positive?” a critic questions. “If climate change is as bad as you tree-hugger people claim it is, how can anything about it be positive?” The phenomenon tends to […]
Not again. Last year, as PlanetSave’s James Ayre reported, dead giant oarfish—-bizarre and terrifying serpents of the sea (Regalecus glesne) five and six yards long—-washed ashore at separate locations off the California coast during one week in October. Also last year, National Geographic documented video by a remotely operated undersea vehicle of a giant oarfish […]
This is absolutely hilarious… but also absolutely sad. Most of what is in this Daily Show fracking video is no joke at all. The ramifications from fracking that are highlighted here are real — even the earthquakes. And Chevron’s attempt to pacify a community that had just seen an explosion that killed one of its […]
By Dayna Reggero The upcoming SHOWTIME® docu-series, Years of Living Dangerously, premiering on April 13, provides an opportunity to meet the people and see the places affected by climate change. Sharing these stories is a host of major film, television and news figures, including Jessica Alba, Mark Bittman, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, and many more. […]
Occasional spring thaws began several weeks ago in parts of the country. As Lewis and Susan Case hiked along Felchner Brook in the placid, mid-March woods of Vermont, they thought they were just making a nice amateur video of a brief walk on a cloudy day. Suddenly, things changed. A roar smacked into the peaceful […]
March 22, 2014, killer landslide near Seattle (photo: Kings County Sheriff’s Office). Last Saturday’s horrific mudslide 55 miles northeast of Seattle may unfortunately herald the shape of landmass movements to come, if climate change has its way with us. A new study in the European Alps elaborates. In a draft article for Elsevier’s Science of […]
Greetings faithful readers… Well, March is turning out to be a fine month for apocalyptica of seemingly every sort…So, as your faithful reporter of all things cataclysmic and eschatological (well, I try), I give you this friendly round-up of end-full news items for your reading pleasure, with brief commentary. To wit: Maize Can’t Take the Blaze […]
I can’t tell for sure if the guys in this video are making fun of Elon Musk or just having fun with him, but they are definitely making fun of almost everyone else famous in the video (barring Copernicus), so I have a feeling they are. Odd, considering he offers two of the best solutions […]
When the hydraulic fracturing measure passed the Los Angeles City Council today, several tweeters posted photos of this meeting (source of the above: Walker Foley on twitter). The City Council of Los Angeles, second-most populous metro in the United States, voted 10-0 today to prohibit hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and other “unconventional” deep-underground drilling methods to produce […]
Climate scientists have been predicting more intense seasonal temperature variations and storms for several years now and recent winter ice storms in the deep south of the US, as well as ‘super storm’ Sandy, seem to lend much credence to this forecasting. And although this past hurricane season was less than spectacular — discounting Sandy, […]
Last week, residents of Bobtown, PA were awoken by a massive, fiery blast at the town’s Chevron-owned fracking well. The explosion is believed to have killed at least one person- but Chevron knows how to make it all OK: with pizza!
In 2010, strong seismic activity in the Eureka (Humboldt County) area included an offshore quake of magnitude 6.5 at the Pacific Plate boundary (Photo: public domain). Seismic effects of fracking have finally started percolating in the American public consciousness this winter, with sturdy shoves from an outspoken government scientist, a famous television journalist, and the […]
Yesterday at the annual Science (AAAS) meeting here in Chicago, a panel of climate experts convened for a symposium to present their research and discuss the risks and challenges facing the science as it seeks to model and predict climate changes — such as the probability of “extreme events” — due to global warming […]
http://youtu.be/J_QAdup7G0o Legendary rocker Neil Young, born in Toronto, recently went on a tour in Canada aiming to support the rights of First Nations when it comes to tar sands development. Needless to say, First Nations citizens are being almost completely ignored and greatly harmed by reckless development of the tar sands. Young asserted that Canadian […]