global warming – Page 103 – Desdemona Despair

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 […]

Aerial view of melting permafrost near a research site in Arctic Canada. The unprecedented melt rate creates thermokarst, an irregular landscape dotted by lakes, holes, and mounds. Photo: Louise Farquharson

June 16, 2019

Arctic permafrost melting 70 years sooner than expected, study finds – “This change is unprecedented on this kind of time scale”

By Jan Wesner Childs 14 June 2019 (The Weather Channel) – Scientists studying climate change expected layers of permafrost in the Canadian Arctic to melt by the year 2090. Instead, it’s happening now. A new study published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters revealed that unusually warm summers in the Canadian High Arctic between 2003 […]

New York State Attorney General Letitia James holds a press conference at the Office of the Attorney General in New York, 28 March 2019. The New York attorney general's office did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct in investigating Exxon for climate fraud, a judge ruled on Wednesday 12 June 2019. Photo: Timothy A. Clary / Getty Images

June 15, 2019

Judge rejects Exxon challenges to New York’s climate fraud suit – No prosecutorial misconduct in Exxon climate fraud investigation

By Karen Savage 12 June 2019 (Climate Liability News) – A judge dismissed several claims by Exxon to stop New York State’s lawsuit against the oil giant for alleged climate fraud, including charges of prosecutorial misconduct and conflict of interest. New York Supreme Court Judge Barry Ostrager on Wednesday rejected claims by Exxon that the New York attorney general’s […]

List environmental regulations rolled back by the Trump administration, updated on 7 June 2019. Graphic: The New York Times

June 14, 2019

83 environmental rules being rolled back under Trump

By Nadja Popovich, Livia Albeck-ripka, and Kendra Pierre-Louis 7 June 2019 (The New York Times) – President Trump has made eliminating federal regulations a priority. His administration, with help from Republicans in Congress, has often targeted environmental rules it sees as burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other big businesses. [cf. Trump regulation rollbacks will […]

Indexed trend of feelings of worry, sadness, and stress, 2008-2018. Globally, feelings of sadness, stress, and worry have increased by a combined average of eight percentage points. Data: Gallup World Poll, IEP. Graphic: IEP

June 13, 2019

Global peacefulness improves for first time in five years, but world still less peaceful than a decade ago

12 June 2019 (IEP) – The 13th edition of the annual Global Peace Index (GPI) report, the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness, reveals that the average level of global peacefulness improved for the first time in five years. However, despite improvement, the world remains considerably less peaceful now than a decade ago, with the […]

Spatial patterns of projected biomass changes. Shown are global ensemble projections at a 1 × 1 degree resolution for (A, C, and E) RCP2.6 and (B, D, and F) RCP8.5. (A and B) Multimodel mean change (percent, n = 10) in total marine animal biomass in 2090–2099 relative to 1990–1999 without fishing. (C and D) Variability among different ecosystem model and ESM combinations expressed as 1 SD. (E and F) Model agreement (percent) on the direction of change. Graphic: Lotze, et al., 2019 / PNAS

June 13, 2019

Study projects substantial declines in large fish and marine species with warming oceans – “There are substantial consequences for marine ecosystems on a global scale”

By Alison Auld 11 June 2019 (Dal News) – Populations of large fish and other marine species will decline steadily if little is done to stem the effects of climate change, according to a study led by Dalhousie University researchers that shows how greenhouse gas emissions could cause widespread global stock losses and habitat shifts. […]

William Happer, who serves on the National Security Council, is pushing to create a climate review panel that would question the overwhelming scientific consensus on anthropogenic global warming. Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones

June 12, 2019

White House tried to stop climate science testimony, documents show – “I have never heard of basic facts being deleted from or blocked from testimony”

By Lisa Friedman 8 June 2019 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – The White House tried to stop a State Department senior intelligence analyst from discussing climate science in congressional testimony this week, internal emails and documents show. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research declined to make changes to the proposed testimony and […]

Aerial view of Staten Island with proposed sea wall indicated. Graphic: Vox.png

June 12, 2019

Video: New York is building a wall to hold back the ocean

10 June 2019 (Vox) – Climate change is leading to increasingly violent storms. Can seawalls hold back floods? Staten Island recently received funding for a nearly 5-mile-long seawall to protect its coast. But the plan raises a lot of questions. We’re living in a dangerously dynamic world: Hurricanes are getting worse, wildfires are rampant in […]

Carbon emissions from the power sector 2018. Graphic: BP

June 11, 2019

BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2019: “A growing mismatch between hopes and reality”

By Spencer Dale 11 June 2019 (BP) – The Statistical Review of World Energy has been providing timely and objective energy data for the past 68 years. In addition to the raw data, the Statistical Review also provides a record of key energy developments and events through time. My guess is that when our successors […]

Tug boats idle along the shores of the Mississippi River as they wait to push barges north, on 7 June 2019. Photo: Daniel Acker / Bloomberg

June 10, 2019

Hundreds of barges stalled as record floods hinder Midwest supplies – “Very long duration flooding on the Mississippi River can really start to wear on people”

By Brian K Sullivan , Shruti Singh, and Mario Parker 8 June 2019 (Bloomberg) – Hundreds of barges are stalled on the Mississippi River, clogging the main circulatory system for a farm-belt economy battered by a relentless, record-setting string of snow, rainstorms and flooding. Railways and highways have been closed as well, keeping needed supplies […]