By Damian Carrington20 November 2015 (The Guardian) – More than half the myriad tree species in the Amazon could be heading for extinction, according to a study that makes the first comprehensive estimate of threatened species in the world’s largest rainforest. Among the species expected to suffer significant falls in numbers are the Brazil nut, […]
20 November 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – During the opening session of the 2015 Global Security Forum, sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), CIA director John Brennan made some interesting comments: When CIA analysts look for deeper causes of this rising instability, they find nationalistic, sectarian, and technological factors that are eroding […]
By Rong-Gong Lin II and Rosanna Xia17 November 2015 (Los Angeles Times) – Temperatures in a key location of the Pacific Ocean are now hotter than they ever were in the record 1997 El Niño. Some scientists say the readings show that this year’s El Niño could be among the most powerful on record — […]
12 November 2015 (NASA) – It’s big. It’s cold. And it’s melting into the world’s ocean. It’s Zachariae Isstrom, the latest in a string of Greenland glaciers to undergo rapid change in our warming world. A new NASA-funded study published today in the journal Science finds that Zachariae Isstrom broke loose from a glaciologically stable […]
By Roger Harrabin16 November 2015 (BBC News) – Human societies will soon start to experience adverse effects from manmade climate change, a prominent economist has warned. Prof Richard Tol predicts the downsides of warming will outweigh the advantages with a global warming of 1.1C – which has nearly been reached already. Prof Tol is regarded […]
26 October 2015 (weather.com) – Brazil’s Amazonian rainforest has become a shadow of its former self as the worst drought the country has seen in 100 years continues. Low levels of water in the Rio Negro have left boats stranded and isolated homes sitting in the middle of the large deserted landscape, reports Daily Mail. […]
11 November 2015 (Met Office) – Global annual average surface temperature in 2015 is looking set to reach 1°C above the pre-industrial average (as represented by the 1850-1900 reference period) for the first time, according to the HadCRUT4 dataset produced by the Met Office and the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. […]
GENEVA, 9 November 2015 (WMO) – The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached yet another new record high in 2014, continuing a relentless rise which is fuelling climate change and will make the planet more dangerous and inhospitable for future generations. The World Meteorological Organization’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin says that between 1990 and […]
By Christie Smythe 10 November 2015 (Bloomberg) – For years, energy companies have couched the possible effects of climate change-related regulations in public reports to investors as “uncertain,” “difficult,” or “not possible” to reasonably predict. Now a probe by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is raising questions as to whether the companies knew more […]
By Julia Belluz9 November 2015 (Vox) – Over the past nine years, Canada has been a pretty dreary place for scientists. Under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, the country made headlines for restricting communications by federal scientists, shutting down important research stations, phasing out the role of federal science adviser, and generally ignoring evidence […]
