James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks ‘a fraud’

By Oliver Milman 12 December 2015  (The Guardian) – Mere mention of the Paris climate talks is enough to make James Hansen grumpy. The former Nasa scientist, considered the father of global awareness of climate change, is a soft-spoken, almost diffident Iowan. But when he talks about the gathering of nearly 200 nations, his demeanor […]

Global climate talks extended by a day – ‘Major countries have entrenched behind their red lines instead of advancing on compromise’

[COP21 draft agreement, released Thursday, 10 December 2015] By David Stanway and Lesley Wroughton 11 December 2015  PARIS (Reuters) – Efforts to craft a global accord to combat climate change stumbled on Friday with China and many other nations refusing to yield ground, forcing host France to extend the U.N. summit by a day to […]

Wildlife decline threatens UK biodiversity and agriculture, study finds

By Emma Howard8 December 2015 (The Guardian) – A decline in wildlife is threatening core functions of the ecosystem that are vital for human wellbeing, researchers behind an unprecedented study of biodiversity in the UK have warned. Climate change and habitat loss are leading to a reduction in biodiversity, with species that act as pollinators […]

Video: Torres Strait Islanders on ‘the trauma of climate change in the land of our ancestors’

8 December 2015 (The Guardian) – In the second of a series of films for Guardian Australia, two health workers who live in the Torres Strait Islands explain the impact of climate change on the local people and the trauma and uncertainty of king tides and annual flooding. But relocation would bring its own challenges […]

Politicization of global warming hinders adaptation in U.S. cities – ‘Due to lack of political buy-in regarding climate change, Tampa remains one of the most vulnerable and least prepared cities in the country’

By Brittany Patterson18 November 2015 (ClimateWire) – Portland, Oregon, gets it — adapting to climate change, that is. Local decisionmakers in the liberal city, with a bustling population of just over 600,000 people, reported very high levels of concern about climate change and advanced adaptation plans, according to an analysis undertaken by researchers at George […]

Toxic smog hovers over Beijing on Day 2 of smog alert

BEIJING, 9 December 2015 (AP) – Unhealthy smog hovered over downtown Beijing as limits on cars, factories and construction sites kept pollution from spiking even higher Wednesday, on the second of three days of restrictions triggered by the city’s first red alert for smog. Cars with even-numbered license plates were kept off roads, and schools […]

Graph of the Day: Simulated catastrophic decline of plankton in warming oceans

By Yadigar Sekerci and Sergei Petrovskii12 November 2015 (Bulletin of Mathematical Biology) – We have studied the oxygen–plankton dynamics using a mathematical model that takes into account oxygen production in photosynthesis, plankton respiration, and the effect of zooplankton predation on phytoplankton. The model is described by a system of three coupled ODEs in the nonspatial […]

Beijing issues first pollution red alert as smog engulfs capital – ‘This is extremely important to stop children from being exposed to such a high level of pollution’

By Tom Phillips in Beijing7 December 2015 (The Guardian) – Beijing has issued its first pollution red alert as acrid smog enveloped the Chinese capital for the second time this month. The alert will begin at 7am on Tuesday and should see millions of vehicles forced off the roads, factories and construction sites shut down […]

Framing the end-game of the Paris climate conference

By Nick Mabey7 December 2015 (Huffington Post) – As the Paris climate negotiations move into their climactic second week the focus is shifting from technical to political. The negotiating text has been stripped of (much of) its most baroque complications and duplications. What is left reflects core differences between countries. The second week will demand […]

Earth has lost a third of arable land in past 40 years, scientists say – ‘We are reducing soils to their bare mineral components. We are creating soils that aren’t fit for anything except for holding a plant up.’

  By Oliver Milman2 December 2015 (The Guardian) – The world has lost a third of its arable land due to erosion or pollution in the past 40 years, with potentially disastrous consequences as global demand for food soars, scientists have warned. New research has calculated that nearly 33% of the world’s adequate or high-quality […]

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