Trump to drop global warming from U.S. government environmental reviews

By Jennifer A Dlouhy14 March 2017 (Bloomberg) – President Donald Trump is set to sign a sweeping directive to dramatically shrink the role climate change plays in decisions across the government, ranging from appliance standards to pipeline approvals, according to a person familiar with the administration’s plan. The order, which could be signed this week, […]

Canada PM Justin Trudeau says, “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and just leave them”, gets a standing ovation at Texas energy conference

By Jeremy Berke 10 March 2017 (Business Insider) – Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau received an unusually warm reception of his keynote address at an energy industry conference in Texas on Thursday evening. “No country would find 173 billion barrels of oil in the ground and just leave them there,” Trudeau said in his address […]

New estimate of ocean heat finds more warming – “The planet is warming quite a lot more than we thought”

10 March 2017 (NCAR) – The oceans may be storing 13 percent more heat than previously estimated, according to a new study co-authored by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). The finding, published in the journal Science Advances, is based on a new analysis of how ocean temperatures have changed since 1960. […]

Shrinking Sagar Island struggles to stay afloat as sea level rises – “We have made nature very angry”

By Soumya Sarkar8 March 2017 (The Third Pole) – “The water rushed in at night,” recalls Madan Mohan Pal of Hendalketki in Sagar Island. “By the morning, the entire village was under water. When the flood receded, the land was so saline that we could grow nothing for the next two years.” Although Pal has […]

Water scarcity needs “urgent and massive response” in North Africa and Near East – Accessible fresh water in has fallen by two-thirds in the past 40 years

CAIRO, 9 March 2017 (FAO) – Access to water is a fundamental need for food security, human health and agriculture, and its looming scarcity in the North Africa and Middle East region is a huge challenge requiring an “urgent and massive response,” FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva said in Cairo. Accessible fresh water in […]

EPA chief Scott Pruitt says carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to global warming

By Tom DiChristopher9 March 2017 (CNBC) – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. “I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so […]

E.P.A. head stacks agency with global warming denialists – “For the first time, I see someone who has no commitment to the mission of the agency”

By Coral Davenport7 March 2017 WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – Days after the Senate confirmed him as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference and was asked about addressing a group that probably wanted to eliminate his agency. “I think it’s justified,” he responded, to cheers. […]

“Parched” China city plans to pump water from Russian lake via 1,000 km pipeline

By Tom Phillips; additional reporting by Wang Zhen7 March 2017 Beijing (The Guardian) – China is reportedly considering plans to build a 1,000km (620 mile) pipeline to pump water all the way from Siberia to its drought-stricken northwest. According to reports in the Chinese media, urban planners in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province, have […]

The scientific community is facing an existential crisis

By Emily Atkin27 February 2017 (New Republic) – Earlier this month, thousands of scientists from around the world came together for their favorite nerd fest: The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest scientific organization and publisher of the renowned Science journals. There were panels on everything […]

U.S. Secretary of State and former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson snubs UN request for global warming meeting

By Ian Johnston2 March 2017 (The Independent) – The US Secretary of State, former oil industry mogul Rex Tillerson, has not responded to a request from the United Nations’ most senior climate change official for a face-to-face meeting amid concern about the Trump administration’s stance on global warming. Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the UN […]

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