By Eliot Barford25 August 2013 (Nature) – The slow and inexorable increase in the oceans’ acidity as they soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could itself have an effect on climate and amplify global warming, according to a new study. Acidification would lead certain marine organisms to emit less of the sulphur compounds that […]
By Carter Roberts 20 August 2013 (Foreign Affairs) – Many readers will be familiar with the worrisome, white-knuckle wait that comes when you drain your checking account long before payday, the anxiety that builds until the coffers are replenished. That is what all of humanity has signed on for, effective today. Earth Overshoot Day marks […]
By Peter Rüegg 19 August 2013 (PhysOrg) – Using indicator molecules, a team of researchers headed by ETH Zurich demonstrates that carbon stored in the Arctic permafrost is being mobilised in Eurasian river basins. Arctic permafrost soils store vast amounts of carbon in the form of dead but not decomposed plant debris. Around half of […]
By Geoffrey Mohan8 August 2013 (Los Angeles Times) – Forests in Earth’s northern latitudes have been thickened by migrating plant species and younger growth, driving a stronger gyration in the amount of carbon that cycles between land and the atmosphere each year, a new study suggests. The net rise in seasonal exchange of carbon between […]
June 2013 (PERI) – PERI’s Greenhouse 100 index identifies the top companies responsible for greenhouse gas emissions. The Greenhouse 100 relies on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, which reports information from facilities in electric power and other industries that directly emit large quantities of greenhouse gases. In addition to the total […]
By Kerry Sheridan6 August 2013 WASHINGTON (AFP) – The world lost record amounts of Arctic sea ice in 2012 and spewed out all-time high levels of greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels, international climate scientists said Tuesday. Last year was among the top 10 on record for global land and surface temperature since modern data […]
By WILLIAM D. RUCKELSHAUS, LEE M. THOMAS, WILLIAM K. REILLY and CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN1 August 2013 (The New York Times) – Each of us took turns over the past 43 years running the Environmental Protection Agency. We served Republican presidents, but we have a message that transcends political affiliation: the United States must move now […]
By Lindsay Abrams30 July 2013 (Salon) – When a nuclear power plant closes, a coal plant opens. At least, that’s the way things are shaping up in Germany, where the move away from nuclear energy appears to have backfired. For the second consecutive year, according to Bloomberg, the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions are set to […]
By Roberto A. Ferdman26 July 2013 (Quartz) – Global temperatures are rising at an alarming rate; already, nine of warmest years in recorded history have been logged since the turn of the century, and 2010 was the warmest to date. Now, a new NASA-led study carried out over a 50-year period raises more alarm bells: […]
President Obama has unveiled a proposal to combat global warming that would, for the first time, regulate carbon dioxide emissions from all U.S. coal-fired power plants. Yale Environment 360 asked a group of experts to assess the president’s climate strategy. 22 July 2013 (Yale Environment 360) – Stymied by Congress, and no longer weighed down […]