Climate change dates back to dawn of first farmers – ‘Early farmers used a lot more land, and they cleared a lot more forest per farmer’

By Dan Vergano3 March 2013 (USA TODAY) – Deforestation by early farmers likely kicked off an era of man-made climate change long before our present era, suggests a climate scientist taking a hard look at agriculture’s early effects. Chopping down trees with flint axes, planting peas and shearing sheep — those all sound like the […]

Q and A: The Angry Economist – ‘Natural gas gives America an excuse not to do anything now’

By Lisa Palmer1 March 2013 (The New York Times) – Dieter Helm has long been frustrated that, despite more than two decades of international negotiations, the world has failed to tackle climate change. So he got angry, he said, and decided to write a book about it: The Carbon Crunch: How We’re Getting Climate Change […]

Ocean acidification affects northeastern U.S. coasts more: study

By Tanya Lewis, LiveScience1 March 2013 (NBC News) – Coastal regions around the United States respond differently to ocean acidification, a large-scale study finds. In the new study, scientists from 11 U.S. institutions measured levels of carbon dioxide and other forms of carbon in waters off the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. If […]

NOAA to map Alaska’s increasingly ice-free Arctic waters – ‘We don’t have decades to get it done. Ice diminishment is here now.’

Arctic Nautical Charting Plan from climate central By Michael D. Lemonick27 February 2013 (Climate Central) – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched a program to update some of its nautical charts, thanks largely to climate change. The revisions affect Alaska’s coast, which has America’s only Arctic seafront. As a result of global […]

Shark kills number 100 million annually, research says – ‘They are not reproducing fast enough to keep up with the rate we are pulling them out of the ocean’

By Matt McGrath, Environment correspondent, BBC News1 March 2013 (BBC) – The most accurate assessment to date of the impact of commercial fishing on sharks suggests around 100 million are being killed each year. The researchers say that this rate of exploitation is far too high, especially for a species which reproduces later in life. […]

Global poll reveals public concern for environmental issues ‘at record lows’ – ‘The public can see that the response of our politicians is completely inadequate to the threat scientists have revealed’

By Adam Vaughan 28 February 2013 (guardian.co.uk) – Public concern in environmental issues including global warming, the loss of species and air pollution has dropped to its lowest level in two decades, according to an international poll released this week. The GlobeScan poll, undertaken last summer before superstorm Sandy hit the Caribbean and New York, […]

Blocking Keystone XL pipeline won’t save the climate, State Department analysis says

[UPDATE: Keystone XL pipeline: US government report drew on analysis by oil consultants] By Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson1 March 2013 (Washington Post) – The State Department released a draft environmental impact assessment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline Friday afternoon, suggesting that blocking the project would not have a significant impact on either the […]

Antiscience blogs capture the Science category in annual Weblog Awards – 13 out of 17 finalists are climate denialists – ‘Science blogs would rather complain about the results than try to submit nominations themselves’

In an escalation of the annual farce that plays out at the Weblog Awards (cf. Antiscience site wins another ‘Best Science or Technology Weblog’ award), this year we have 4 of 5 nominees in the Science category held by antiscience blogs. In 2010, Des tried to persuade the Weblog Awards staff to reconsider allowing antiscience […]

Four reasons the next U.S. budget crisis will be even worse

By Walter Hickey    27 February 2013 (Business Insider) – Sequestration will likely go through as scheduled, meaning that Congress has not acted on the first of three “mini-cliffs” that resulted from January’s fiscal cliff negotiation. The next mini-cliff, scheduled to hit on March 27, will absolutely require action. If events in Congress remain at a […]

Japan whale poaching fleet leaves the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary – ‘Lowest take by the Japanese whaling fleet in the entire history of their Antarctic whale hunts’

By Paul Watson, observer1 March 2013 The Japanese whaling fleet has left the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary and is heading north. The ships crossing north of sixty degrees are the Nisshin Maru, Yushin Maru, Yushin Maru No. 2,  Shonan Maru No. 2, the Steve Irwin and the Bob Barker. The entire Japanese whaling fleet is […]

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