Earth-cooling schemes need global sign-off, researchers say – ‘How do you get a consensus with seven billion-plus stakeholders?’

By Ian Sample, science correspondent 31 March 2013 (The Guardian) – Controversial geoengineering projects that may be used to cool the planet must be approved by world governments to reduce the danger of catastrophic accidents, British scientists said. Met Office researchers have called for global oversight of the radical schemes after studies showed they could […]

U.S. dominated global disaster losses in 2012: Swiss Re

By Andrew Freedman 1 April 2013 (Climate Central) – The insurance industry had its third-most expensive year on record in 2012, with global economic losses from natural catastrophes and manmade disasters totaling $186 billion, according to a report released March 27 by the reinsurance giant Swiss Re. The total insured losses for the year was […]

Drought has stranglehold on U.S. West

By Andrew Freedman and Daniel Yawitz29 March 2013 (Climate News Network) – The extended drought continues to choke the Western half of the country, with water supply concerns rising in New Mexico and Texas as anxiety about another bone-dry summer is raised. This week, the dryness grew worse in Texas while expanding into California, Montana, […]

Image of the Day: Satellite view of extensive ice fractures in the Beaufort Sea

[So much for the “recovery” of Arctic sea ice that the antiscience blogs keep predicting. –Des] By Adam Voiland29 March 2013 (NASA) – The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured this view of extensive sea-ice fracturing off the northern coast of Alaska. The event began in late-January and spread […]

Canada defends pulling out of UN convention on droughts – ‘A departure from global citizenship’

OTTAWA, Ontario, 29 March 2013 (AP) – Canada defended its decision to pull out of a United Nations convention that fights the spread of droughts just a month before a major gathering would have forced the country to confront scientific analysis on the effects of climate change. Canada is the only country in the world […]

Marcott, et al., respond to criticisms of their groundbreaking paper that shows 11,000 years of climate change

31 March 2013 (RealClimate) – Readers will be aware of the paper by Shaun Marcott and colleagues, that they published a couple weeks ago in the journal Science. That paper sought to extend the global temperature record back over the entire Holocene period, i.e. just over 11 kyr back time, something that had not really […]

Delmarva Peninsula residents must come to terms with sea level rise

29 March 2013 (DelmarvaNow) – Last October’s Hurricane Sandy was a costly affair for Somerset County, hitting Crisfield residents especially hard, with flood waters up to 5 feet deep that destroyed property and in the aftermath, shook the town’s economic and physical foundations. There was little time to escape rapidly rising waters as the storm […]

Climate change is here, ready or not. So what now?

By Eugene Linden  30 March 2013 (US NEWS) – Welcome to a warmer, wilder world! We need to stop debating and start accepting that climate change is happening. Eugene Linden on how adaptation and market forces (hint: insurance companies) might temper the coming catastrophe. To paraphrase Hemingway, climate change first comes gradually and then all […]

Most in U.S. concerned about sea level rise, poll finds – ‘The question is, how does public support for preparation translate to action?’

By Neela Banerjee, neela.banerjee@latimes.com28 March 2013 WASHINGTON (Los Angeles Times) – An overwhelming majority of Americans is convinced that sea level rise resulting from climate change poses a significant threat to the United States and coastal communities should invest in preparing for the risks, according to a survey released Thursday by Stanford University. The study […]

Canada quietly pulls out of UN convention to combat drought, desertification – ‘We’re increasing our isolation by doing this’

By Steve Mertl28 March 2013 (Daily Brew) – Whether you like it or not, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is reshaping Canada’s relationship with the rest of the world. From last year’s withdrawal from the admittedly ineffectual Kyoto Protocol on climate change — which as CBC News noted will save the government $14 billion […]

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