Oregon governor sends police after Republican senators who fled Capitol over climate legislation

Student leaders with the lobbying group Renew Oregon, which helped craft landmark climate change legislation currently under debate in Oregon, pose to show their T-shirts after a news conference in Salem, Oregon, on 20 June 2019. Minority Republican senators walked out Thursday to block a vote on the proposal, which would be the second of its kind in the nation. That prompted Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, to activate the state police to bring absentee senators back against their will. Photo: Gillian Flaccus / AP Photo

June 21, 2019

Oregon governor sends police after Republican senators who fled Capitol over climate legislation

By Sarah Zimmerman and Gillian Flaccus 20 June 2019 SALEM, Oregon (Associated Press) – Republican senators in Oregon engaged in a high-stakes game of brinksmanship Friday with Democratic lawmakers and prepared to remain absent from the Capitol for a second day to block a vote on a landmark climate plan that would be the second […]

One-in-30-year heat-related mortality that is avoidable by stabilizing future warming at the 1.5° and 2°C Paris Agreement thresholds rather than 3°C. The point estimates show the mean 1-in-30-year mortality level across 101 plausible exposure-response relationships, whereas the error bars show the 95% eCI accounting for uncertainties from internal climate variability and the exposure-response relationship. All estimates assume constant population. Confidence intervals that do not include 0 (dotted line on each panel) indicate a statistically significant number of avoidable deaths. The size of each bubble on the central map is proportional to the square root of the city’s population in July 2016. The color of each bubble indicates the city’s projected population change between 2015 and 2040. Graphic: Lo, et al., 2019 / Science Advances

June 16, 2019

Adjusting carbon emissions to the Paris climate commitments would prevent thousands of heat-related deaths per city – “Compelling evidence for the heat-related health benefits of limiting global warming to 1.5°C”

5 June 2019 (University of Bristol) – Thousands of annual heat-related deaths could be potentially avoided in major US cities if global temperatures are limited to the Paris Climate Goals compared with current climate commitments, a new study led by the University of Bristol has found. The research, published today in the journal Science Advances, is […]

June 10, 2019

Ninth Circuit judges appear skeptical of role in kids’ climate suit vs. U.S. government – “It may even rise to the level of criminal neglect. But the tough question for me is do we get to act because of that.”

By Karen Savage 4 June 2019 (Climate Liability News) – A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday appeared skeptical of the court’s role in dealing with climate change in the landmark constitutional climate case brought by 21 young people against the U.S. government. But the kids’ attorneys argued in a […]

May 28, 2019

Luxury condo buildings sucking twice as much power as older ones – “There seems to be a disconnect between what their perceived energy footprint is and what their actual energy footprint is by living in one of these high-rises”

By Sean Boynton 12 April 2019 (Global News) – If you live in a newly-built luxury condo building, you may be enjoying some of the perks being offered: swimming pools, fitness centres, even movie theatres and bowling alleys. But a new report from BC Hydro says those amenities come at a cost — and it […]

May 27, 2019

Canada teen calls on nation to declare climate emergency – “Young people have to live in the world that is affected by climate change”

21 May 2019 (CBC News) – A Kitchener teenager is urging the federal government to declare a national climate emergency. Elizabeth Rose wrote a letter to her member of parliament, Raj Saini, asking elected officials to support a motion to declare a climate emergency on behalf of children in Canada. In the letter, the 15-year-old […]

August 18, 2018

Air conditioning use emerges as one of the key drivers of global electricity-demand growth

15 May 2018 (IEA) – The growing use of air conditioners in homes and offices around the world will be one of the top drivers of global electricity demand over the next three decades, according to new analysis by the International Energy Agency that stresses the urgent need for policy action to improve cooling efficiency. […]

July 15, 2018

Standing perfectly still: no progress in replacing fossil fuels for the past twenty years

15 July 2018 (Desdemona Despair) – It’s well known that human population is increasing relentlessly, with no peak in sight for at least the next century. Various projections estimate that the population will be somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to twelve billion by the year 2100 (cf. New projection shows human population could reach […]