Trump White House quietly cancels NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System – “We really shoot ourselves in the foot if we let other people develop the technology”

By Paul Voosen 9 May 2018 (Science) – You can’t manage what you don’t measure. The adage is especially relevant for climate-warming greenhouse gases, which are crucial to manage—and challenging to measure. In recent years, though, satellite and aircraft instruments have begun monitoring carbon dioxide and methane remotely, and NASA’s Carbon Monitoring System (CMS), a […]

UN forest accounting loophole allows CO2 underreporting by EU, UK, US – “There may not be a pathway to 1.5 degrees anymore — at all. Carbon capture and storage is a fantasy.”

By Justin Catanoso 2 May 2018 (Mongabay) – For the past ten years, Mary Booth, an ecologist with the Partnership for Policy Integrity in Pelham, Massachusetts, has immersed herself in the complex, nuanced, politically charged world of international carbon emissions accounting models as if the planet’s fate depends on it. In many ways, it does. […]

Grassland plants show surprising appetite for carbon dioxide

By Jeff Tollefson 19 April 2018 (Nature) – Grasslands in warm and dry climates could grow faster as carbon dioxide levels rise, according to data from a long-term ecological field experiment in Minnesota. The finding, which runs counter to long-established ideas about how plants will respond to the greenhouse gas, suggests that grasslands could provide […]

Radar images show large swath of West Texas oil patch is heaving and sinking at alarming rates – “This region of Texas has been punctured like a pin cushion with oil wells and injection wells since the 1940s”

By Margaret Allen 20 March 2018(SMU) – Analysis indicates decades of oil production activity have destabilized localities in an area of about 4,000 square miles populated by small towns, roadways and a vast network of oil and gas pipelines and storage tanksTwo giant sinkholes near Wink, Texas, may just be the tip of the iceberg, […]

Why current negative-emissions strategies remain “magical thinking”

21 February 2018 (Nature) – Decarbonization of the world’s economy would bring colossal disruption of the status quo. It’s a desire to avoid that change — political, financial and otherwise — that drives many of the climate sceptics. Still, as this journal has noted numerous times, it’s clear that many policymakers who argue that emissions […]

Bosses at world’s most ambitious clean coal plant kept problems secret for years – SEC mothballed investigation into allegations executives concealed schedule delays

By Sharon Kelly 2 March 2018 (The Guardian) – Executives at the world’s most ambitious “clean coal” plant knew for years about serious design flaws and budget problems but sought to withhold key information from regulators before their plans collapsed, according to documents obtained by the Guardian.The Kemper plant in Mississippi – held up as […]

New study finds cutting oil subsidies won’t stop global warming – Effect of removing fossil fuel subsidies falls far short of reductions promised in Paris Agreement

By Chelsea Harvey 8 February 2018 (ClimateWire) – Ending financial assistance for fossil fuel companies has long been discussed as a tactic to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage investment in renewables. Oil, natural gas and coal companies worldwide receive hundreds of billions of dollars each year in tax breaks or other subsidies—and some experts […]

Trump’s EPA head isn’t the first to argue global warming may not be “a bad thing”

By Dino Grandoni 8 February 2018 (The Washington Post) – Scott Pruitt has repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus that rising levels of carbon dioxide from human-fueled activity are warming the planet during his year in the job as Environmental Protection Agency chief. The examples began piling up almost from the start. Just a month into […]

January 2018 continued record-breaking growth of CO2 in the atmosphere

2 February 2018 (RealClimate) – Based on NOAA’s ESRL “Trends in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide” data, in particular “Mauna Loa CO2 monthly mean data”.January 2018 continues the record-breaking growth of CO2 in the atmosphere.Current estimates for the January monthly mean are ~408 ppm – another Record-Making High for January has been set (once the final figures […]

Graph of the Day: Projected U.S. carbon emissions in 2018 and 2019

9 January 2018 (EIA) – Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions: EIA estimates that energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide decreased by 1.0% in 2017 and forecasts these levels to increase by 1.7% in 2018 and by 0.2% in 2019. These forecasts are sensitive to assumptions about weather, economic growth, and fuel prices. EIA: Short-term Energy Outlook 2018

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