Nature Is Speaking: Mother Nature. This herb could be the secret to curbing cows’ climate-changing burps. Oregano may seem like an unlikely ingredient in the fight against climate change. But this modest herb could make cows’ methane-heavy belches — a big contributor to the warming of our planet — a little less potent. Oregano’s essential oil contains carvacrol, an antimicrobial that kills off some of the methane-producing bacteria in the cow’s rumen. Danish researchers who are investigating oregano’s methane-suppressing abilities hope that it could reduce cows’ methane emissions by a quarter.
Nearly 15 percent of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to livestock, and 65 percent of that total comes from raising beef and dairy cattle. NPR points out that oregano oil isn’t the only solution to cutting down cows’ ballooning emissions. We could just eat less dairy and beef. City resilience: Sandia analyzes effects of rising sea levels in Norfolk. The Pope on Climate Change, Science, and Morality: Can His Message Change the Conversation? Pope Francis has something important to say about climate change, and deniers who have used religion as their last bastion should take note.
In this Pope’s world, science and religion are calling in harmony – and with urgency – for action on climate. The Pope is a leader of many firsts: the first Latin American pontiff, the first Jesuit, likely the first with a chemistry degree, and the first to issue a formal teaching for Catholics around the world that equates climate action with caring for one another. A recent poll indicates he will reach a very receptive audience. I first learned of the Pope’s pending encyclical on climate change while preparing to make remarks on climate change during the Earth Day service at my church. A workshop organized by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), and Religions for Peace on April 28, 2015 concluded with this decisive and urgent statement on climate change.
Jonathan Franzen is confused about climate change, but then, lots of people are. Jonathan Franzen, noted author of depressing literary fiction, has taken to the pages of The New Yorker to lament that no one cares about saving birds any more because all anyone cares about is climate change, and anyway, maybe we should just let humanity burn from climate change and save the birds because birds aren’t big jerks like people. The essay is … not good. Just qua essay, really not good. I can’t imagine The New Yorker publishing it under any other byline.
It is odd to read in the pages of that august magazine, for instance, criticism of a peer-reviewed study the author admits he has not seen but has judged “from the Web site’s graphics.” More to the point, the essay pivots on several misconceptions: that climate mitigation is in fundamental tension with conservation and biodiversity; that aggressive deployment of renewable energy would be “disfiguring” to the earth; that continuation of current energy trends would be palliative and sympathetic to ecosystems. Greenhouse gases linked to past African rainfall | UCAR - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. BOULDER — New research demonstrates for the first time that an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations thousands of years ago was a key factor in causing substantially more rainfall in two major regions of Africa. The finding provides new evidence that the current increase in greenhouse gases will have an important impact on Africa’s future climate.
The study, led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), is being published this week in Science. “The future impact of greenhouse gases on rainfall in Africa is a critical socioeconomic issue,” said NCAR scientist Bette Otto-Bliesner, the lead author. “Africa’s climate seems destined to change, with far-reaching implications for water resources and agriculture.” The research drew on advanced computer simulations and analyses of sediments and other records of past climate. It was funded by the National Science Foundation, which is NCAR’s sponsor, and the Department of Energy Office of Science. A mysterious period of rain. Crops play a major role in the annual CO2 cycle increase. Nov. 19, 2014 While the area of farmed land has not significantly increased, the production efficiency of that land has.
Intensive agricultural management over the last 50 years has had a profound impact, UW-Madison researchers say. Photo: Jeff Miller Each year, the planet balances its budget. The carbon dioxide absorbed by plants in the spring and summer as they convert solar energy into food is released back to the atmosphere in autumn and winter.
Levels of the greenhouse gas fall, only to rise again. But the budget has gotten bigger. In a study published Wednesday, Nov. 19, in Nature, scientists at Boston University, the University of New Hampshire, the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and McGill University show that a steep rise in the productivity of crops grown for food accounts for as much as 25 percent of the increase in this carbon dioxide (CO2) seasonality. Chris Kucharik. Warming reaches maximum 10 years after carbon dioxide emission. Wednesday, December 3, 2014 Washington, D.C.
—The climate warming caused by a single carbon emission takes only about 10 years to reach its maximum effect. This is important because it refutes the common misconception that today’s emissions won’t be felt for decades and that they are a problem for future generations. For the first time, a study conducted by Carnegie's Katharine Ricke and Ken Caldeira has evaluated how long it takes to feel the maximum warming effect caused by a single carbon emission. Their work is published in Environmental Research Letters. "A lot of climate scientists have intuition about how long it takes to feel the warming from a particular emission of carbon dioxide," Ricke said. Many climate model simulations focus on the amount of warming caused by emissions sustained over decades or centuries, but the timing of temperature increases caused by particular emission has been largely overlooked.
Caption: Photo by Michael Drummond courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net. Must-See Video: Jon Stewart Tackles Climate Deniers in Congress. In last night’s segment of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart commented on Sunday’s People’s Climate March in New York, asking, “You may be thinking, do we really need a march to raise awareness of global climate change? I mean, it’s an accepted scientific phenomena pretty much everywhere.” “Here’s why you need the march,” he says, answering his own question. “It’s accepted pretty much everywhere—but there’s one place called the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology.” In one clip, Texas Congressman Steve Stockman explains that he doesn’t believe in rising ocean levels, saying, “When your ice cube melts in your glass, it doesn’t overflow—it’s displacement!”
In another clip, Indiana Congressman Larry Bucshon offers that climate change has been disproved because “there’s public comments out there that that question has been asked and answered saying no.” It wouldn’t help. Must-See Jon Stewart Roasting Republicans Who Willfully Deny Climate Change. How climate change is like street harassment. When I was in grad school I took a small seminar course on Reasons and Persons, the landmark work of British analytic philosopher Derek Parfit.
It’s an extraordinary book, and a difficult one. I recall it made me extremely agitated, even angry — it helped push me away from analytic philosophy for good — though the reasons why are lost to the fog of memory. (That would have been about 16 years ago, he said, oldly.) The one tidbit from the book that’s always stuck in my memory is one of Parfit’s thought experiments, the case of the “harmless torturers.”
There are variations, but one goes something like this. Imagine a room in which 1,000 victims lie strapped to tables. Now imagine the same room: 1,000 victims strapped to tables, only this time the tables are all connected by long wires to a single device. There are two important moral distinctions to make here: one, whether an act (or the effect of an act) was intended or unintended, and two, whether a harm is individual or aggregate. Berkeley Lab Scientists ID New Driver Behind Arctic Warming. How to get Republicans to stop using the “I’m not a scientist” dodge.
In 2012, when Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) was asked by GQ how old the Earth is, he demurred, “I’m not a scientist, man.” This was not a smooth move. It made him sound like a dumb frat boy. You don’t need to be a scientist to know the Earth is roughly 4.54 billion years old, any more than you need to be a scientist to know the Earth is round or it revolves around the sun. All you need to know is what scientists have determined, which Rubio, who sits on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, should know.
What Rubio feared, of course, was alienating the religious extremists in his party, who believe the Earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old because the Bible, if taken literally, says it is. As Juliet Lapidos of The New York Times observed, “Mr. But in May of this year, when Rubio was asked about climate change by ABC’s Jonathan Karl, he expressed no such reluctance to weigh in on matters beyond his area of expertise. Obama calls out climate deniers, asks young people to force climate change issue. In giving the commencement address at the University of California-Irvine on Saturday, President Obama called on young people to push the climate change issue past its current partisan divide.
The speech was particularly notable for Obama’s forthright confrontation of climate change deniers. He took oblique shots at the silly pseudo-scientific proclamations of Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). From Obama’s speech: When President Kennedy set us on a course for the moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it wouldn’t be worth it; it was going to be too expensive, it was going to be too hard, it would take too long. Obama noted that Republicans used to support environmental protection and that majorities of the American public say climate change is a serious problem.
It was Republicans who used to lead the way on new ideas to protect our environment. Unfortunately, activating the American people may not be enough either. Boehner Says He's 'Not Qualified' To Talk About Climate Science. Here's How Scientists Responded. By Emily Atkin "Boehner Says He’s ‘Not Qualified’ To Talk About Climate Science. Here’s How Scientists Responded. " House Speaker John Boehner. CREDIT: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite When House Speaker John Boehner told a group of reporters on Thursday that he would not discuss climate change on the grounds that he, himself, was not a scientist, he joined the ranks of other prominent Republican politicians who have refused to talk about the issue on the same grounds. “I’m not a scientist,” said Florida Governor Rick Scott last week, when asked if he thought man-made climate change was affecting the weather. The tactic is an interesting (and seemingly effective) way for politicians to avoid acknowledging or denying the reality of climate change while still getting to fight against any regulation to stop it.
“Personally, I don’t think it proper for any American to use that argument,” said Donald. “What if we asked ‘Senator: do you advocate drinking toxic sludge?’ Find climate change terrifying? Stephen Colbert has a refreshing solution. It’s been a bummer couple of weeks when it comes to apocalyptic climate change news.
First, the National Climate Assessment came out, letting us know that, hey, climate change got our invitation and may be showing up a little early to the party – in fact, it’s already in the corner eating all the dip, guzzling all the drinks, and trying to light the couch on fire. Then, that darn West Antarctic ice sheet decided it had enough and is in irreversible collapse. “It is so terrifying,” Stephen Colbert says, “that it left a carbon footprint … in my pants.” So, what can the carbon-soiled among us do?
Colbert’s solution: “Fuck it!” Americans, we can all rest easy and go back to continue being our apathetic, indifferent selves. Let the grandkids fix climate change (as well as Medicare and Social Security). I’m going to use the “fuck it” principle for other painful realities I’ve been trying to ignore. Military experts are worried about climate change, and you should be too. America is coming under attack, say 16 retired generals and admirals, and the attacker is climate change. In 2007, the Center for Naval Analyses Military Advisory Board sounded an unprecedented alarm over national security threats posed by global warming. Now the group has been asked again to advise the U.S. government on climate-change risks, and again it says there’s lots to be concerned about.
In a new report released on Tuesday, the retired military leaders say, “we validate the findings of our first report” and, in many cases, “the risks we identified are advancing noticeably faster than we anticipated.” Here are some highlights from the report: We believe it is no longer adequate to think of the projected climate impacts to any one region of the world in isolation. And here are the six high-level recommendations for the U.S. government and military from the report: But we’re betting it still won’t influence Republicans. Watch a video that was released along with the report:
Rubio: 'I Don't Agree' With 'Notion' Of Climate Change. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Sunday said he doesn't believe that human activity is behind climate change. "I don't agree with the notion that some are putting out there, including scientists, that somehow there are actions we can take today that would actually have an impact on what's happening in our climate," he said on ABC's "This Week. " "Our climate is always changing. And what they have chosen to do is take a handful of decades of research and say that this is now evidence of a longer-term trend that's directly and almost solely attributable to manmade activity, I do not agree with that.
" ABC's Jonathan Karl pressed Rubio on his belief that humans don't have anything to do with global warming. "But let me get this straight, you do not think that human activity, its production of CO2, has caused warming to our planet? " "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it. Everything is Connected | Chapter 1: Survivors. Eli Ens, the co-director of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation Tribal Parks, embraces his people’s Ha’huulthii — traditional territory — from the top of the Wah-nah-jus (Lone Cone Mountain) at the western edge of the Meares Island Tribal Park. The Tribal Parks are land and sea designations within Tla-o-qui-aht territory, managed by and for the Tla-o-qui-aht people to better harmonize environmental and human wellbeing.Photograph by Gleb Raygorodetsky.
Like other indigenous First Nation communities throughout Canada, the Tla-o-qui-aht people are survivors. Over a century of cultural genocide, Christianisation, forced assimilation, land alienation and re-settlement reduced their numbers tenfold and pushed them to the brink of extinction. Thin undulating bands of waves lap at the beach behind my back. The totem pole is all about interdependence, inclusion, and integrity where each animal crest is dependent on others while respected for its own function and significance. Panel’s Warning on Climate Risk: Worst Is Yet to Come. Amazon inhales more carbon than it emits. Geosciences (GEO) News - Computer model predicts vastly different ecosystem in Antarctica's Ross Sea in the coming century. : Climate Change a Growing "Threat Multiplier," Says Pentagon.
Rooftop considerations amidst climate change. Tree growth never slows. YEARS of LIVING DANGEROUSLY Trailer. Climate change drives Florida mangroves northward. Dear Donald Trump: Winter does not disprove global warming. Scientists Discover New Greenhouse Gas 7,000 Times More Potent than CO2. Reflecting Sunlight Into Space Is The Cheapest Way To Prevent Climate Change.
Is it Too Late for Sustainable Development? Why climate activists should get over their preoccupation with pipelines. University - Without plants, Earth would cook under billions of tons of additional carbon. Study concludes climate change will wreak havoc on oceans by 2100. Climate Change Mitigation Avoids Biodiversity Loss - News. A unique collection of thousands of videos, images and fact-files illustrating the world's species. Trapped Antarctic Methane Could Escape, Worsen Warming. Scientists Uncover Evidence Of Impending Tipping Point For Earth. AMS confirms Climate Change and Man's Role. Climate Change Mitigation Avoids Biodiversity Loss - News. Seabirds Face Risks from Climate Change. Littlest continent had biggest role in sea level drop. ‘Nobody understands’ spills at Alberta oil sands operation. CO2 levels hit new peak at key observatory. Bill McKibben's Thought Bubble.
When it comes to the environment, many conservatives don’t like conserving. Giant Sequoias Face Looming Threat from Shifting Climate by Bruce Dorminey. 'No-one is listening to the entire scientific community': global carbon emissions set to hit new high. Paradigm shift needed to avert global environmental collapse, according to author of new book The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse. Warnings of global ecological tipping points may be overstated. Why you should care about permafrost. Global warming - 56 million years ago. The interconnectedness of the Environment and the Economy. More Than 3,500 U.S. Weather Records Smashed in 2012. State of the Climate. Delayed action raises costs of climate change, study says. Over 70 percent of Americans: climate change worsening extreme weather. Climate change on the Tibetan Plateau. Next global warming worry: Thawing tundra. U.S. Fires 2012. NRDC's Plan to Reduce Power Plant Emissions. Nepal, Bhutan to closely monitor air pollutants.
The moral logic of climate communication. Climate change mitigation 'far cheaper than inaction' How climate change may be worsening Hurricane Sandy. David Attenborough: U.S. politicians duck climate change because of cost. September tied for world's warmest on record. Will we need to pull carbon out of the atmosphere to save ourselves?
Himalayan glaciers debate: melting or growing? News - Earth sunblock only needed if planet warms easily. Getting Wise to Owls to Help Gauge Climate Change. Obama and Romney Guardedly Address Climate Change. Climate Change Linked to Waterborne Diseases in Inuit Communities. The London Olympics Prepares For the Summer By Planning for the Long Term.