American Geophysical Union affirms financial relationship with ExxonMobil despite protests of scientists

23 September 2016 (Desdemona Despair) – In spite of widespread condemnation from scientists, the Board of Directors of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) has decided to continue accepting corporate sponsorship from ExxonMobil. Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote earlier this month: To many AGU member scientists, and […]

Global warming is killing the last native bird species in the mountain forests of Kauai

By Diane Toomey22 September 2016 (Yale Environment 360) – The few remaining species of native forest birds left on the Hawaiian island of Kauai have suffered population declines so severe – 98 percent in one case – that some are near extinction. The cause of the collapse, according to a recent study in the journal […]

Larger marine animals at higher risk of extinction, and humans are to blame

By Ker Than14 September 2016 (Stanford University) – An unprecedented pattern of extinction in the oceans today that selectively targets large-bodied animals over smaller creatures is likely driven by human fishing, according to a new Stanford-led study. “We’ve found that extinction threat in the modern oceans is very strongly associated with larger body size,” said […]

Paris climate deal passes milestone as 20 more nations sign on without ‘the faintest idea how they’re going to achieve the goals’

By Coral Davenport21 September 2016 UNITED NATIONS (The New York Times) – More than 20 world leaders tendered legal documents on Wednesday, formally binding their governments to the Paris climate accord at a General Assembly ceremony here and all but ensuring that the agreement will go into force by the end of the year. The […]

World Weather Attribution: Louisiana downpours, 12–14 August 2016

August 2016 (Climate Central) – Torrential rains drenched south Louisiana in mid August, with parts of the state receiving nearly 30 inches of rain from August 10 to the 17. The state capital, Baton Rouge, suffered through nearly a foot of rain on a single day, August 12, and nearly as much the day after. […]

Bark beetles: How tiny tree killers have worsened California wildfires – ‘It’s gone from critical to catastrophic’

By Max Blau and Paul Vercammen24 August 2016 (CNN) – A decade ago, Ben Ray had hoped to ease into retirement at his two-story wooden house nestled in the heart of the Sequoia National Forest. But the 79-year-old central California general contractor, who built homes for his future neighbors in Sierra Nevada Mountain communities such […]

Plagues devastating forests across the U.S. West – ‘We’re talking millions of trees killed, whole mountain sides dying’

By Oliver Milman and Alan Yuhas19 September 2016 (Guardian) – JB Friday hacked at a rain-sodden tree with a small axe, splitting open a part of the trunk. The wood was riven with dark stripes, signs of a mysterious disease that has ravaged the US’s only rainforests – and just one of the plagues that […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of Siberia wildfires in September 2016

15 September 2016 (NASA) – Wildfires continue to burn, even as summer turns to fall in Siberia. 2016 has been active for fires in the region. This natural-color image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on September 15, 2016. Red outlines show warm land surface temperatures—a sign of […]

More than one million salt water fish found dead in fresh water creeks in New Jersey

24 August 2016 (The Big Wobble) – The borough has been cleaning up dead fish for three days in a fish kill that is now estimated to be in the millions of fish. What is strange, very strange is, the peanut bunker fish are salt water fish and Waackaack Creek is fresh water? Mayor George […]

Bioethicist: The climate crisis calls for fewer children

By Travis N. Rieder11 September 2016 (The Conversation) – Earlier this summer, I found myself in the middle of a lively debate because of my work on climate change and the ethics of having children. NPR correspondent Jennifer Ludden profiled some of my work in procreative ethics with an article entitled, “Should we be having […]

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