Australia repealed its carbon tax, and emissions are now soaring

By Brad Plumer6 November 2014 (Vox) – Back in 2011, Australia’s Labor Party enacted a national carbon tax as a way of tackling global warming. The tax took effect in 2012, and emissions promptly fell over the next two years. But the policy was also highly unpopular with voters. So, in July 2014, a newly […]

Carbon dioxide surge drove greenhouse gas levels to new high in 2013 – ‘The laws of physics are non-negotiable. We are running out of time.’

By Tom Miles; editing by Stephanie Nebehay9 September 2014 GENEVA (Reuters) – Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse hit a record in 2013 as carbon dioxide concentrations grew at the fastest rate since reliable global records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday. “We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather […]

Australia is ‘holding back’ fight against global warming – ‘You could make the case that we were once doing our fair share, now we are not’

3 November 2014 (BBC News) – Australia is a drag on international efforts to tackle climate change, says leading economist and former government adviser Professor Ross Garnaut. Prof Garnaut said the country had failed to make its “fair share” of greenhouse gas cuts. Earlier, Prime Minister Tony Abbott reiterated his position that coal was the […]

Global warming: The Weather Channel position statement – ‘The bottom line is that with the rate of greenhouse gas emissions increasing, a significant warming trend is expected to continue’

29 October 2014 (weather.com) – The scientific issue of global warming can be broken down into three main questions: Is global warming a reality? Are human activities causing it? What are the prospects for the future? Warming: Fact or Fiction? The climate of the earth is indeed warming, with an increase of approximately 1 – […]

Despite California climate law, carbon emissions may be a shell game – ‘California does not have the power to regulate what happens outside of the state’

By Evan Halper and Ralph Vartabedian 25 October 2014 (Los Angeles Times) – California’s pioneering climate-change law has a long reach, but that doesn’t mean all its mandates will help stave off global warming. To meet the requirement that it cut carbon emissions, for example, Southern California Edison recently sold its stake in one of […]

Ocean algae can evolve fast to tackle climate change – ‘Evolutionary processes need to be considered when predicting the effects of a warming and acidifying ocean on phytoplankton’

  By Alister Doyle; Editing by Rosalind Russell14 September 2014 OSLO (Reuters) – Tiny marine algae can evolve fast enough to cope with climate change in a sign that some ocean life may be more resilient than thought to rising temperatures and acidification, a study showed. Evolution is usually omitted in scientific projections of how […]

Limiting global warming to 2°C – Why Victor and Kennel are wrong

[For background, see 2 bold proposals emerge to change climate negotiations.] By Stefan Rahmstorf1 October 2014 (RealClimate) – In a comment in Nature titled “Ditch the 2°C warming goal”, political scientist David Victor and retired astrophysicist Charles Kennel advocate just that. But their arguments don’t hold water. It is clear that the opinion article by […]

NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 launches with mission to map carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere

By Steven Siceloff2 July 2014 Kennedy Space Center, Florida (NASA) – A Delta II rocket blazed off the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early Wednesday morning to begin a landmark mission to survey carbon dioxide gas in Earth’s atmosphere. NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2, or OCO-2, is expected to provide insight into […]

Acid seas threaten creatures that supply half the world’s oxygen

By Martha Baskin and Mary Bruno16 June 2014 (Crosscut) – What happens when phytoplankton, the (mostly) single-celled organisms that constitute the very foundation of the marine food web, turn toxic? Their toxins often concentrate in the shellfish and many other marine species (from zooplankton to baleen whales) that feed on phytoplankton. Recent trailblazing research by […]

NASA prepares to launch Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 – ‘Watching the Earth breathe from space’

By Keith Cowing 12 June 2014 (SpaceRef) – NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere is in final preparations for a July 1 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission will provide a more complete, global picture of the human and natural sources of […]

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