The Heat is On: U.S. Temperature Trends. Global warming isn't uniform. The continental U.S. has warmed by about 1.3°F over the past 100 years, but the temperature increase hasn’t been the same everywhere: some places have warmed more than others, some less, and some not much at all. Natural variability explains some of the differences, and air pollution with fine aerosols screening incoming solar radiation could also be a factor. Our state-by-state analysis of warming over the past 100 years shows where it warmed the most and where it warmed the least. We found that no matter how much or how little a given state warmed over that 100-year period, the pace of warming in all regions accelerated dramatically starting in the 1970s, coinciding with the time when the effect of greenhouse gases began to overwhelm the other natural and human influences on climate at the global and continental scales. Support the EPA's proposal to limit industrial carbon pollution from power plants.
Exxon Contributes $86,000 To ALEC, Which Then Helps Promote Weak Fracking Regulations. By Public Lands Team on June 4, 2012 at 4:45 pm "Exxon Contributes $86,000 To ALEC, Which Then Helps Promote Weak Fracking Regulations" By Jessica Goad As the New York Times reported last month, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-wing corporate front group, has been behind various efforts to enact watered down state regulations for the natural gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
The Times noted that ALEC’s model legislation being shopped to state legislators was sponsored by Exxon Mobil. According to Exxon’s 2011 corporate giving report, ALEC was listed as the recipient of $86,500: American Legislative Exchange Council, Washington, D.C.- General Support: 74,000- ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit: 12,500 The “ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit,” to which Exxon gave $12,500, took place in Scottsdale, Arizona, in December 2011. Ohio is “in the final stages” of enacting regulations address hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure.
Oddkalzj Shared by jp966. Watch 131 Years of Global Warming in 26 Seconds. Don't Have Flash? Watch this video on your iPad or iPhone here While temperatures soared for many this summer, this video takes the longer historical view. It comes to us from our friends at NASA and is an amazing 26-second animation depicting how temperatures around the globe have warmed since 1880.
That year is what scientists call the beginning of the “modern record.” You’ll note an acceleration of those temperatures in the late 1970s as greenhouse gas emissions from energy production increased worldwide and clean air laws reduced emissions of pollutants that had a cooling effect on the climate, and thus were masking some of the global warming signal. The data come from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures. Developing Business Continuity and Risk Management capability to meet Climate Risk. Changing the future ... The Continuity Forum has been working for a number of years looking at how the expertise and experience gained by Risk and Business Continuity professionals can help change our future. Climate Change is a very real threat that needs united action by the public and private sector if the risks it brings are to be effectively countered. UPDATE - A Special Programme of Climate Risk and Adaptation related events commences in February 2013 featuring research, face to face workshops and the start of our Webinar series!
Across disparate areas, expert opinion has confirmed everyone needs to be more active and to start considering how Climate Chnage may affect them. What has become clear over this time is that there are very few people in better positions to understand the risks and consequences to organisations and communities than the BC and Risk Management Communities. British butterfly defies doom prediction to thrive in changing climate | Environment.
A modest but resilient British butterfly has bucked the trend of worried predictions about the species' health, with scientists reporting it appears to have benefited rather than lost out from climate change. The Brown Argus, Aricia agestis, named after a 100-eyed giant in Greek mythology because of the multiple eye-like dots on its underwing, has long been dependent in the UK on a single plant species, the rockrose Helianthemum nummularium. It appears this is probably because the plant tends to grow on south-facing slopes and absorbs the warmth and sun which the butterfly's caterpillars need. But hundreds of records kept by amateur butterfly enthusiasts since 1990 show that Brown Arguses have expanded their range by 40 miles in the past two decades, moving north at more than 2.3 times the average pace of other flourishing insect species.
Australian Project Simulates Runaway Climate Change. By Oliver Milman, The Guardian An Australian university has embarked upon an ambitious project — hailed as the first of its kind in the world — to simulate how the environment would cope with runaway climate change. The decade-long study, at the University of Western Sydney’s Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, will subject Australian bushland to heightened CO2 levels and altered rainfall patterns consistent with a “business as usual” global increase in greenhouse gases. The centerpiece of the study is the Eucalyptus Free Air CO2 Enrichment experiment, which has involved the construction of six fiber glass and steel ring structures 92 feet high and 82 feet in diameter in native woodland in Richmond, New South Wales.
The structures contain an array of sensors that will deliver a concentration of CO2 to the trees within the rings. It has been predicted that a 40% increase in CO2 would result in an average global temperature increase of about three degrees centigrade. Comments. Rubene De Sousa: Graphic: An Iceberg the Si... Graphic: An iceberg the size of New York. Live Stream. Greenhouse Gases Rise by Record Amount. The global output of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has jumped by a record amount, according to the US department of energy, a sign of how feeble the world's efforts are at slowing man-made global warming.
The figures for 2010 mean that levels of greenhouse gases are higher than the worst case scenario outlined by climate experts just four years ago. "The more we talk about the need to control emissions, the more they are growing," said John Reilly, the co-director of MIT's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. The world pumped about 564m more tons (512m metric tons) of carbon into the air in 2010 than it did in 2009, an increase of 6%. That amount of extra pollution eclipses the individual emissions of all but three countries, China, the US and India, the world's top producers of greenhouse gases. Extra pollution in China and the US account for more than half the increase in emissions last year, Marland said.
India and China are huge users of coal. . © 2011 Associated Press. Businesses Invest Early to Comply with California’s Carbon Market. California Air Resources Board drives pollution reduction projects California’s recently approved cap-and-trade regulation—which doesn’t take effect until 2013—is already driving investments in pollution reduction projects. In late August, Shell Oil became the first company to buy allowances for the program by purchasing contracts for 100,000 tons of California Carbon Allowances for delivery in 2013.
In late September, Constellation Energy, announced it was going to replace coal with biomass at its coal-fired power plant – a move similar to what has been happening at California’s remaining coal plants in recent years. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) first proposed the text of its cap-and-trade in October 2010 and adopted the final regulation last week. The rule will require between 18 and 27 million metric tons of pollution reductions in 2020 from about 600 different facilities in California. This entry was posted in Cap and trade, Global Warming Solutions Act: AB 32. Polar Bear Probe Careens in New Directions. WASHINGTON - October 26 - A controversial investigation by the Interior Department Office of Inspector General (IG) into a 2006 peer-reviewed journal article on drowned polar bears has veered off into new directions which appear to solidify rather than impeach the article, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Among the revelations by the IG was that it has received oral reports of more drowned polar bears in open Arctic waters than had been officially reported. Today, the IG interviewed Dr. Jeffrey Gleason, PhD, an avian ecologist in the Gulf of Mexico region of the Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM). The inquiry, which began in March 2010, remains focused on a 2006 observational note authored by Dr. Gleason and a colleague, Dr. Charles Monnett, PhD, a BOEM wildlife biologist who was suspended and reinstated this summer without explanation in connection with this IG investigation. Geoengineering Goes Legit | Jeff Goodell.
Syd Walker: Ozone loss over Arctic thi... Little Preparation Under Way for Climate Change at World's Seaports. State Farm Pays $5 Billion in Weather Claims. Scientists Say Atlas Is Wrong on Greenland’s Glaciers. Not the way climate scientists see it. “Fiasco” was the word chosen by one scientist in an e-mail to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo., alerting his colleagues to erroneous claims made by the publishers of the atlas (whose name derives from The Times of London) about the speed at which ’s glaciers are melting.
He also feared that a map in the atlas, along with news accounts repeating an error in the news release, could pull climate scientists into another vortex of damaging controversy. The news release, echoed by the news media, claimed that Greenland had lost 15 percent of its permanent ice cover from 1999 to 2011. That translates to 125,000 cubic miles, according to a rough calculation by Etienne Berthier, a glaciologist with the University of Toulouse, enough melted ice to raise sea levels three to five feet. The corresponding map in the atlas itself indicated that significant portions of Greenland’s coastline had become ice-free. “We use data supplied by the U.S. On climate change, it's all-out war. 'The carbon tax is only the first step along the path of sustainability.' Photo: Reuters The world continues to pour billions into fossil fuels.
It makes no sense. AN OLD Chinese proverb points out the longest journey starts with the first step. And even a warming of the planet by 2 degrees will be no picnic. Under the Gillard government's proposed carbon tax, the revenue will be recycled to ensure that 90 per cent of households will be no worse off and that compensation will be paid to the most trade-exposed industries. Advertisement The Coalition opposes a carbon tax and has promised to spend $3.2 billion on carbon abatement projects over four years, financed by unspecified expenditure cuts. But the Coalition has no mechanism to discourage new investment in high-emission industries such as coal-fired power stations, providing they adopt ''best practice'' in order to minimise emissions.
No wonder there is a huge gap between the science community and the political community. Arctic ozone loss at record level. 2 October 2011Last updated at 18:05 By Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News The Arctic ozone hole lay over over populated regions for parts of winter and spring Ozone loss over the Arctic this year was so severe that for the first time it could be called an "ozone hole" like the Antarctic one, scientists report. About 20km (13 miles) above the ground, 80% of the ozone was lost, they say. The cause was an unusually long spell of cold weather at altitude.
It is currently impossible to predict if such losses will occur again, the team writes in the journal Nature. Early data on the scale of Arctic ozone destruction were released in April, but the Nature paper is the first that has fully analysed the data. "Winter in the Arctic stratosphere is highly variable - some are warm, some are cold," said Michelle Santee from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). "But over the last few decades, the winters that are cold have been getting colder. Longer, not colder. Suicide epidemic hits bankrupt farmers of India. A child of a salt pan worker plays on the parched dry bed in the Khadaghoda Sector in the Little Rann of Kutch (AFP Photo / Sam PANTHAKY) (25.0Mb) embed video Devastated by one of the worst droughts in decades, farming does not get much tougher than in India where thousands left with poor harvests and big debts have been driven to take their own lives.
Sadly, the government has turned a blind eye to the growing problem. The farmlands in Telangana region in southern India are commonly known as the country’s ‘rice bowl’. Ramalaxmi, the widow of a farmer who took his own life, reveals that Ramalaxmi’s husband was one of many who succumbed to the problems brought by drought and debt. Some of the driest weather in decades and an increase in the use of pesticides and fertilizers have rendered their land barren. For the grieving families left behind, the future is grim. Ramalaxmi laments. Studies show that during the 1990s, farmers were able to make around $60 per acre of land every year. Simarprit Singh: Headlinesworld.com - Melti... Al Gore: clear proof that climate change causes extreme weather | Environment. Al Gore speaking at the Scottish low-carbon investment conference. Photograph: www.universalnewsandsport.com Al Gore has warned that there is now clear proof that climate change is directly responsible for the extreme and devastating floods, storms and droughts that displaced millions of people this year.
Speaking to an audience of business leaders, political leaders including Scotland's first minister Alex Salmond and green energy entrepreneurs in Edinburgh, Gore said the world was at a "fork in the road". The former US vice-president and climate campaigner also argued that America has suffered a "breakdown in democratic governance", because members of Congress are obsessed with appeasing special interests in return for campaign funding, rather than confronting climate change. The former vice president and climate campaigner said that US democracy had been undermined. "Observations in the real world make it clear that it's happening now, it's real, it's with us," he said. Will Climate Change Make National Parks More Dangerous? Yosemite National Park's Vernal Falls, where three hikers died in July. Alaskan Dude/Flickr Earlier this summer, a few friends and I went on a backpacking trip in Yosemite National Park.
We had been told that the waterfalls were especially spectacular this year, on account of the spring melt of an unusually large snowpack. We were unprepared for just how impressive the rushing water would be. On our first day, we came to a bridge over the formidable Wapama Falls. White water poured over the railings, making the floor slick and dousing us as we scampered across. That was just the beginning of a very deadly summer in Yosemite. The scientists I talked to agreed that there's not enough evidence to lay the blame for this year's high Yosemite death toll squarely on climate change. But he also believes that down the line, the connection between rising temperatures and hazardous conditions will become clearer. Pennsylvania Crushed By Climate Disaster After State Withdraws From Global Warming ‘Endangerment’ Cases.
FDL Book Salon Welcomes Christian Parenti, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. German state minister: The Kochs are ruining U.S. renewables. Too Hot for Chocolate? Climate Change Could Decimate the $9 Billion Cocoa Industry, Study Finds. Crisis worsens in flood-hit Pakistan - Central & South Asia. Floods hit Indian farmers hard - Central & South Asia. Time to Face the Facts Regarding Climate Change - Opinion - St. Norbert Times.
Climate change: The heat is on. Local View: Climate change policy could make Keystone XL obsolete. When you talk too much for Twitter. World Bank Urges Scrapping Fossil Fuel Subsidies To Help Poor Nations Adapt To Climate Change. Deep oceans can mask global warming for decade-long periods. Fire fighters battle Central Australian blazes. Global Warming Could Cost Canada Billions, Study Warns. Melting Glaciers: Monitoring Global Warming at World's 'Third Pole' - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International. You Aren’t Hearing About Pakistan’s Biggest Problems | Afghanistan / Pakistan | FRONTLINE. Too Hot for Chocolate? Climate Change Could Decimate the $9 Billion Cocoa Industry, Study Finds. Climate fix technical test put on hold. Danish Government Aims To Cut Emissions By 40 Percent By 2020. Europeans fear climate change more than financial turmoil, poll shows | Environment. Climate Change and the End of Australia | Politics News. Canada's Arctic ice shelves breaking up fast - US news - Environment - Climate Change.
Climate change could cost Canada billions of dollars yearly, study group says. Dirty, Muggy Summer Air Reminds Us Why We Need Stronger Air Quality Standards that Cut Pollution | Kim Knowlton. Typhoon makes landfall in central Japan. As Drought Continues, Some Texans Resort to Feeding the Wildlife | The EnvironmentaList | Earth Island Journal | Earth Island Institute. Sea Level Shenanigans. News in Nepal: Fast, Full & Factual. Most of NJ Placed Under Flood Warning. EPA Delays Greenhouse Gas Regulations, Raising Concerns Over Climate Change And Public Health. Climate change threatens Yellowstone region. Blow to US airlines in emissions fight.
Environment Victoria: Oh dear, not good! Fire fi... Rick Perry officials spark revolt after doctoring environment report | Environment. How Climate Change Could Hurt Yellowstone National Park. Arctic Ice Cover Hits Historic Low, Due to Global Warming Says Scientists. Weather breaks September records - Home News, UK. Malcolm M. Campbell: The cost of ignoring the #...
Scientists Say Climate Change is Contributing to More Extreme Weather Now | Steve Fleischli. Insurance Companies Unprepared for Climate Change, Report Says. American Cattle Ranching is Outgunned by Climate Change.