Coral crisis: Great Barrier Reef bleaching is ‘the worst we’ve ever seen’

By Daniel Cressey13 April 2016 (Nature) – Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is undergoing the most severe bleaching event in its history, as corals along the reef expel the symbiotic algae that provide them both with their rich colours and food. Terry Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James […]

Most severe drought in 100 years kills thousands of farm animals in Vietnam – China discharges dam water to downstream reaches of the Mekong River

ĐẮK LẮK, 16 April 2016 (VNS) – More than 130 cows and thousands of chickens and ducks died from drought in Ea Súp District in the Central Highlands province of Đắk Lắk, according to the latest statistics from the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The cows and birds died due to a shortage […]

Politics and the fracturing of shared reality – U.S. Republicans didn’t always deny global warming

By Adam Frank 12 April 2016 (NPR) – You don’t need me to tell you how unusual this primary season has been. Every day, more news sites offer more commentary seeking to explain how American politics reached its current, seemly surreal state. But here at 13.7, our goal is to offer commentary on places where […]

New documents reveal oil industry knew of climate risks decades earlier than suspected and launched coordinated efforts to foster skepticism

WASHINGTON, DC, 13 April 2016 (CIEL) – Hundreds of documents uncovered by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) push back the record of oil industry knowledge on climate change by decades. The research demonstrates that the oil industry was explicitly warned of climate risks in the 1960s. Significantly, much of this research was carried […]

Islands nations face dry future – 73 percent of islands will become more arid as evaporation increases in warmer world

11 April 2016 (CU-Boulder) – Island nations could be forgiven for feeling slighted. They already face the brunt of the effects of climate change: Rising sea levels, dwindling resources, threats to infrastructure and economic foundations. But to add insult to injury, thousands of these islands are too small to be accounted for in the global […]

Those ambitious global warming goals? The world may not know how to reach them

By Chris Mooney 11 April 2016 (Washington Post) – In 11 days, on Earth Day, world leaders will assemble at the United Nations in New York to sign the Paris climate agreement. That document pledges to hold the planet’s warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and even to aspire to a […]

Judge denies motions by fossil fuel industry and federal government in landmark climate change case – ‘The most important lawsuit on the planet right now’

9 April 2016 (Our Children’s Trust) – U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the Federal District Court in Eugene, Oregon, decided in favor of 21 young plaintiffs in their landmark constitutional climate change case against the federal government. Judge Coffin ruled Friday against the motion to dismiss brought by the fossil fuel industry and federal […]

Drought takes a terrible toll on poor Filipino farmers

By Keith Bacongco8 April 2016 ARAKAN, Philippines (UCA News) – Swathes of corn stand withered on the parched rolling hills near the farming town of Arakan in the southern Philippines, while shallow cracks scar what were once fertile rice paddies. El Nino is wreaking havoc in agriculture-rich Cotabato province. Allan Salon, a member of the […]

Climate-related death of coral around world alarms scientists – ‘This is a huge, looming planetary crisis, and we are sticking our heads in the sand about it’

By Michelle Innis 9 April 2016 SYDNEY, Australia (The New York Times) – Kim Cobb, a marine scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, expected the coral to be damaged when she plunged into the deep blue waters off Kiritimati Island, a remote atoll near the center of the Pacific Ocean. Still, she was stunned […]

Bloodshed in the Philippines: Climate change, conflict, and the politics of famine

By Francisco Lara Jr.10 April 2016 (Philippine Daily Inquirer) – People prayed for rain these past few months in North Cotabato. Drought plagues the province like no other in Mindanao, laying waste to tens of thousands of hectares of rice farms planted in time for the March harvest season. The harvest would have brought food […]

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