Peak Coal in China? Not so fast

By Robert Wilson27 February 2015 (Carbon Counter) – China’s coal consumption officially fell by 2.9% last year for the first time in 14 years. Is this evidence of “peak coal” in China as some are already claiming or a temporary blip? Let’s begin with an obvious problem. China’s coal demand officially declined 14 years ago. […]

In a high-carbon dioxide world, canopy damage from insects limits forest growth – ‘This is the first time, at this scale, that insects have been shown to compromise the ability of forests to take up carbon dioxide’

By Kelly April Tyrrell2 March 2015 (UW-Madison News) – In a high carbon dioxide world, the trees would come out ahead. Except for the munching bugs. A new study published today [Monday, March 2, 2015] in Nature Plants shows that hungry, plant-eating insects may limit the ability of forests to take up elevated levels of […]

Warmer, drier climate altering California forests statewide

By Robert Sanders20 January 2015 BERKELEY – Historical California vegetation data that more than once dodged the dumpster have now proved their true value, documenting that a changing forest structure seen in the Sierra Nevada has actually happened statewide over the past 90 years. A team of scientists from the University of California, Berkeley, UC […]

Most Americans see combating global warming as a moral duty – ‘When climate change is viewed through a moral lens it has broader appeal’

By Bruce Wallace; Editing by Stuart Grudgings27 February 2015 WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A significant majority of Americans say combating climate change is a moral issue that obligates them – and world leaders – to reduce carbon emissions, a Reuters/IPSOS poll has found. The poll of 2,827 Americans was conducted in February to measure the impact […]

Greenhouse effect observed directly over 10-year span – ‘We’re actually measuring the fact that rising carbon dioxide concentrations are leading to the greenhouse effect’

By Becky Oskin   25 February 2015 (LiveScience) – The climate-changing greenhouse effect exists and has been directly measured in the United States, a new study reports. The results confirm what scientists had already proved through models and laboratory experiments: Pumping carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere is warming the Earth’s surface. “We’re actually measuring the […]

CO2 emissions threaten seafood as ocean acidification spreads along U.S. coastlines – ‘We’re the canary in the coal mine for what’s happening with our shellfish industry. Conditions are going to get progressively worse.’

By Maria Gallucci23 February 2015 (IBT) – Taylor Shellfish Company was grappling with a crisis in the summer of 2009. Millions of oyster larvae were dying in its Washington hatcheries, and production had dropped by 80 percent. Down the coast, Oregon’s hatcheries faced the same problem. Highly acidic ocean water, it turned out, was dissolving […]

Climate scientist: Climate hacking is ‘barking mad’

By Raymond T. Pierrehumbert10 February 2015 (Slate) – Some years ago, in the question-and-answer session after a lecture at the American Geophysical Union, I described certain geoengineering proposals as “barking mad.” The remark went rather viral in the geoengineering community. The climate-hacking proposals I was referring to were schemes that attempt to cancel out some […]

2013 record heatwave in Australia ‘virtually impossible’ without global warming – ‘What you consider an extreme heat event now would be a normal summer by the middle of the century. You don’t want to live in that world.’

By Stephanie Anderson  7 February 2015 (ABC) – A new report by the Climate Council of Australia says it would have been “virtually impossible” for 2013 to be the hottest year in the country’s record without man-made emissions in the atmosphere. The independently-funded group used new modelling to look at the odds of extreme heat […]

Panda habitat threatened by recent forest tenure reforms in China

By Apoorva Joshi27 January 2015 (mongabay.com) – Since the 1950s, plantations and second-growth forests in China have been locally managed by village communities as collective forests, which today account for 58 percent of China’s forestland. Many of these collective forests lie within mountainous rural areas, some of which are also home to the 1,600 or […]

Climate change brings world closer to ‘doomsday’, say scientists – ‘It is now three minutes to midnight’

By Patrik Stollarz22 January 2015 (AFP) – Climate change and the danger of nuclear war pose an ever-growing threat to civilization and are bringing the world closer to doomsday, a group of prominent scientists and Nobel laureates said Thursday. “It is now three minutes to midnight,” said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Bulletin of […]

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