It was, no doubt, incomprehensible for the U.S. to begin the process of pulling out of the UN Paris Climate Agreement, for all the reasons widely reported since President Donald Trump made the fateful announcement June 1st. The move undermines our reputation and relations overseas, risks weakening other countries’ commitment to the accord, and threatens
Last week, the British journal Nature Climate Change published study findings linking anthropogenic warming caused by the burning of fossil fuels and atmospheric release of carbon dioxide with weather events. Climate change has caused about 75% of all hot-temperature extremes worldwide in the past 100 years. Climate change has also caused about 18% of heavy rainfall. The
We took up some basics about mangrove forests in a previous article, including how widespread and productive these ecosystems can be. Now people have begun to realize the importance of mangrove forests to the health of the planet. Not just for the obvious reasons, but for the single fact that mangroves are benevolent guardians of
Years ago, countries of the world committed to lock in a new international climate agreement at the 2015 U.N. Climate Change conference in Paris, informally called COP 21. It’s coming up fast, considering that for the past 50 years, scientists have been expressing their sense of an impending showdown between the people of earth and
Remember the difference between weather and climate? We know what happens when the weather changes—it’s obvious. Climate is another story. Read on. When it rains, you put on a raincoat or take your umbrella when you go out. It snows: time for high boots, a heavier coat, scarf, and warm gloves. And sunny days, well,
If you’re concerned about the world’s climate (including what’s happening in the United States), today’s a great day to self-educate. Two good news for climate watchers opportunities are available. First, 24 Hours of Reality: 24 Reasons for Hope starts today at noon and continues for the next 24 hours, live from Brooklyn, New York. The program
As you may know, PlanetSave posts important health stories as well as the popular science, nature, and climate reports we’re usually known for. (In fact, we’re working toward 500 health posts over these few years!) Today we excerpt from Examiner.com some news that follows up our Ebola story and exclusive interview with public health expert Vince Silenzio
If you have concerns about climate, or even if you don’t, set aside a day in September for learning and another 24 hours within the next year for doing. And please tell your friends. The September day begins at noon on September 16. At this time, 24 Hours of Reality: 24 Reasons for Hope will come to
Or do you? It’s time to pay attention to climate change now—as if it wasn’t back in 1800, when our current problems started. We all need to acknowledge that stunning industrial achievements can carry with them enormous unforeseen risks and challenges. Americans should take particular note, because on the whole we are wa-a-a-y behind on this.
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
Fabien Cousteau, ocean explorer and grandson of famed Jacques-Yves Cousteau, began a historic subsea mission on Sunday. He’s studying ocean impacts of climate change (especially acidification, which occurs as the sea absorbs atmospheric carbon dioxide), effects of plastic and other pollution on marine life, and overfishing of marine resources, which diminishes the ocean’s biodiversity. You
US “clean gas” wells in operation (Irekia-Eusko Jaurlaritza in blogs.lse.ac.uk) Turns out that just about everyone (including President Obama) has been hugely underestimating the methane pollution levels of so-called “clean gas.” The booming American economy now seems to come at a greater cost than we originally thought when we found out that natural gas produces
BREAKING: Late this evening (8 pm EST, or tomorrow, March 31, at 9 am in Tokyo), something large and unpleasant will hit the fan about climate change. At a press conference in Yokohama, the Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release its Fifth Assessment Report on impacts of human activities on current and
North wing of the Capitol, containing the Senate Chamber (public domain photo). Watch
Thanks to electronic communication—a force we usually consider an ally—humans have come to live under a 24/7 barrage of misinformation. For those of us on the progressive side of things, climate denialism on talk shows, sermons, and facebook posts can arouse instant indignation, even ire—but we don’t always get around to refuting the fallacies. (Above
Thanks to George Takei on Facebook! for this great Groundhog Day photoon!
Officials open the 2013 UNFCCC meetings with determination and louder warnings…. (Photo source: http://ow.ly/qL43P) It’s time for the governments of the world to struggle with climate change policy again. Every year, late in November and early in December, representatives of 195 nations gather for two weeks to try to negotiate global responses to the increasingly
Today’s suds are an endangered species, says Willy Blackmore, food editor for TakePart. (Photo: Cafe Bink, Carefree, Arizona.) So are the grapes and wines of the 20th century. Blackmore relates the phenomena to the power of climate change. The geography of earth’s agriculture will shift as global climate alterations disrupt historic weather patterns and raise
Thoracosaurus neocesariensis, a fossil crocodile that lived 65 million to 100 million years ago, when the oceans were higher, in the ancient warm, carbon-dioxide-rich mangrove swamps of present-day southern New Jersey. Crocodiles have been chasing fish for a very, very long time–since the Late Cretaceous, in fact–says paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara of Philadelphia’s Drexel University. The
Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey studying ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt’s Nile Delta have documented the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a massive drought that happened approximately 4,200 years ago and is thought to have seen the demise of Egypt’s Old Kingdom. “Humans have a long history
It is not news that climate change is having a devastating impact on African communities, causing droughts, floods, and any number of other sorts of disasters. These climatic interruptions are also having a trickle down impact on social and other aspects of Africa society. Now, a group of researchers with the Climate Change and African
British and Australian researchers working on data collected over a ten-year period from robotic probes wandering around the Southern Ocean have discovered an important method of how carbon is drawn from the surface of the Southern Ocean to the deeper waters below. The research shows that carbon is not drawn down uniformly by the ocean
As we approach the quintessential ‘green’ holiday — April 22, Earth Day — one academic study should provide important perspective on the United States role in the world. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI), a project of the Yale University Center for Environmental Law & Policy, this year ranked the United States 49th in overall
Trees, coral, and ice cores provide us a very reliable method of looking at the past climate, but there isn’t as much human recorded data. New research has analysed scholarly writings from Iraq written during the Islamic Golden Age between 816 and 1009 AD in an effort to reveal more information about our planet’s
A recent story that celebrates spontaneity, cycling, urban wanderlust, and the wonderful wave of sustainable bike-sharing programs is a welcome happiness to all of us wanting more biking freedoms. From an article found on the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) website: “Bike sharing is like a big advertisement for bicycling,” says Darren Buck, a Virginia Tech (VT) student. “Folks walking by
The month of November and the overall September to November autumn season were warmer than average across the contiguous United States according to scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center. Not only were they warmer, but precipitation totals across the country were also above average during November, though the totals
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s latest analysis of global temperatures, October 2011 was the 8th warmest October ever recorded since 1880. NOAA’s National Climatic Data Centre provide a series of reports as part of their services to the government, business and community leaders, which have been helping everybody keep a track of
QUICK NEWS: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has created an awesome “Hot Map” of global warming effects around the world. You just click on the familiar google maps bubbles to see the effects happening in or projected for different places around the world. Of course the effects are diverse. UCS lets you turn various
Increasing climate change due to global warming and human activity is having a toll on the Great Wall of China. Once spanning 3,900 miles, Chinese scholars estimate the wall only spans roughly about 1,500 miles long.
A few weeks ago we were sorely reminded of the extremism of the majority of the current Republican candidates. Among many other alarming things said, Republicans suggested eliminating or privatizing: FEMA, NASA, the EPA, the Federal Labor Relations Board, Medicaid and food stamps. Herman Cain promised not to appoint any Muslims who want to kill Americans to his cabinet. Michele Bachmann supports states’ rights on gay marriage, but also supports a constitutional amendment outlawing it. Rick Santorum wants to “a system of discipline” to “punish” gay soldiers, which suggests that his problem with pornographic Google results is not likely to abate. Tim Pawlenty views Iraq as “one of the shiniest examples of success in the Middle East.”
The 2000s were Earth’s warmest decade in record keeping, but it wasn’t until 2010 that a single year broke past the mark for warmest year on record, previously set in 1998. In other words, the warming trend had flattened out for a little bit. Why was this?
According to researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia, Earth’s deep oceans at times absorb enough heat to flatten the rate of global warming. In fact, they can do so and affect the global warming for up to a decade at a time.
According to America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2011’s August was the eighth warmest since record keeping began back in 1880 and the period of June to August was the seventh warmest such period as well.
Researchers from Boston University have estimated the effects near-term increases in global average temperatures will have on summertime temperatures across the globe, based on current warming trends and a desire to minimise overall warming to 2°C.
A first of its kind study has laid convincing evidence for the possibility that natural global climate cycles have the potential to increase the likelihood of civil warfare.
Planet Earth suffered its seventh warmest July since record keeping began back in 1880, and July’s Arctic sea ice extent was the smallest on record since records began in 1979.
Here are some good environmental and climate science stories from around from the past week. Check ’em out:
Some of the folks at one of my favorite sites on the internet, Skeptical Science, are going to make t-shirts and mugs broadcasting one portion of the scientific consensus on global warming, the fact that 97% of climate experts conclude global warming is happening and is caused by humans (while 2% are undecided and 1% are/is “skeptical”).
Dr. Ray Bradley, one of the lead authors of the famous (and, to some, incorrectly infamous) study that included the “hockey stick” temperature graph, has spoken out about the harassment he’s received and attempt of some politicians to thwart scientific and societal promise.
New research that has been published in the journal Science has showed that the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) may have played a key role in shifting the global climate some 38 million years ago, and provides the first clue that the early ACC may have played a critical part in the formation of the current structure of our oceans.
Focusing their attention on the collapse of the Barents ice sheet which took place some 140,000 years ago, scientists from Bangor University and the University of Sheffield have used a computer climate model to understand how different states of freshwater entering the oceans affect the circulation of the oceans.
A two-part study investigating the impact of methane – one of the most potent of greenhouse gases – has found that millions of tonnes of methane currently frozen in sediment beneath the Arctic Ocean will wreak havoc if released into the oceans.
Gallup surveys conducted in 111 countries throughout 2010 have yielded interesting results that, once again, show America to be behind the times on accepting fault for the current climate change.
This is such a tremendous comment by a friend of Climate Denial Crock of the Week’s Peter Sinclair that I thought it needed to be shared. Great notes on some of what it means to be a climate scientist as well as on what the typical non-scientist does these days. Enjoy
There’s no surprise that scientists would like to better understand what the current change of climate will do to concrete, immediately and over the long run.
With scientists unsure as to the endgame of the current climate change affecting our planet, one big question is always on peoples’ lips; how severe can climate change get? According to the results of a study published in the latest edition of the journal Science, the answer is not good. An international team of scientists
Researchers led by members of the University of Pittsburgh have extracted a sediment core from the lakebed of Castor Lake in north central Washington which provides a six thousand year climate record of the region. What they have found is that the traditionally rain-soaked region of the American Pacific Northwest is not going to be
Scientists have hypothesized that evergreen forests will increase their growth at the margin of present tundra areas, while simultaneously declining at the margins of temperate forests to the south. New research highlights this shift in biomes caused by a warming climate by combining data gathered from satellite imagery and tree rings. The study, which will
