Sky-high carbon tax needed to avoid climate catastrophe, say experts

By Phillip Inman 29 May 2017 (The Guardian) – A group of leading economists warned on Monday that the world risks catastrophic global warming in just 13 years unless countries ramp up taxes on carbon emissions to as much as $100 (£77) per metric tonne.Experts including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and former World Bank chief […]

Miles of Antarctic ice collapsing into the sea – “I don’t think the biblical deluge is just a fairy tale”

By Justin Gillis 18 May 2017 (The New York Times) – We went to Antarctica to understand how changes to its vast ice sheet might affect the world. Flowing lines on these maps show how the ice is moving. Ice sheets flow downhill, seemingly in slow motion. Mountains funnel the ice into glaciers. And ice […]

Forests in eastern U.S. are moving westward in response to precipitation changes – “Empirical data reveal the impact of climate change is happening on the ground now”

WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana, 17 May 2017 (Purdue University) – After analyzing extensive data collected on 86 tree species in the eastern United States, a research team led by Purdue University professor Songlin Fei found that over the past 30 years, most trees have been shifting westward or northward in response to climate change. “Trees are […]

Water is streaming across Antarctica – New survey finds liquid flow more widespread than thought

19 April 2017 (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory) – In the first such continent-wide survey, scientists have found extensive drainages of meltwater flowing over parts of Antarctica’s ice during the brief summer. Researchers already knew such features existed, but assumed they were confined mainly to Antarctica’s fastest-warming, most northerly reaches. Many of the newly mapped drainages are […]

Record monsoon in Sri Lanka causes massive flooding and landslides, with 151 dead, 112 missing, more than 440,000 affected

28 May 2017 (Daily Mirror) – The number of deaths reported in floods and landslides was increased to 151 while 112 people had gone missing, the Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said on Sunday.In its latest situation report, the DMC said the adverse weather condition had left 52 people injured. In total, 442,299 people of 114,124 […]

Former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich claims, erroneously, that poor nations “get crushed” by deals like Paris climate accord

By Max Greenwood 28 May 2017 (The Hill) – Former Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) argued on Sunday that international agreements such as the Paris climate deal ultimately harm developing countries that cannot afford to implement environmental regulations. “The working poor and the very poor on the planet get crushed by these kind of agreements,” […]

Vietnam makes a big push for coal, while pledging to curb emissions – “If the entire region implements the coal-based plans right now, I think we are finished”

By David Brown 26 May 2017(Mongabay) – Shaken by news that Vietnam had confirmed plans to build another 40 gigawatts worth of coal-fired power plants by 2030, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim ad libbed a few lines into a May 2016 speech to an audience of government and business leaders. “If Vietnam goes forward […]

Receding glacier causes immense Canadian river to vanish in four days – “Day by day we could see the water level dropping”

By Hannah Devlin 17 April 2017 (The Guardian) – An immense river that flowed from one of Canada’s largest glaciers vanished over the course of four days last year, scientists have reported, in an unsettling illustration of how global warming dramatically changes the world’s geography. The abrupt and unexpected disappearance of the Slims river, which […]

How a professional global warming denier discovered the lies and decided to fight for science

By Sharon Lerner 28 April 2017 (The Intercept) – The hardest part of reversing the warming of the planet may be convincing climate change skeptics of the need to do so. Although scientists who study the issue overwhelming agree that the earth is undergoing rapid and profound climate changes due to the burning of fossil […]

Photo gallery: Life for displaced typhoon victims forced into the sex trade

By Hannah Reyes Morales 28 April 2017 (The Washington Post) – “We won’t survive if we don’t have each other,” Gemma said. When Gemma first started working in the red light district of Angeles City, Philippines, at 19, she was given a knife and pepper spray by her sisters. The eldest, Jojo, told her to […]

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