Trump has energized the vaccine skeptics, and that’s dangerous – Even a five-percent reduction in vaccine coverage could spark a large measles outbreak

By Julia Belluz 28 July 2017(Vox) – If there was ever a moment to fear the anti-vaxxers could win, this is it.Consider the following: The president courts known anti-vaccine crackpots like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and makes the same kinds of pseudoscience claims about lifesaving immunizations that they do. RFK Jr. has seized on the […]

Young people’s burden: requirement of negative CO2 emissions – “A current narrative, that humanity has turned the corner and is moving toward solving the global warming problem, is wrong”

By James Hansen 18 July 2017 (Earth Institute) – The paper is published today in Earth System Dynamics.  There is also a video with Sophie and Jim.Conclusions include: Global warming in the past 50 years has raised global temperature well above the prior range in the Holocene (the current interglacial period, approximately the past 11,700 […]

“Urgent wake-up call” for male health as sperm counts plummet globally

By Clive Cookson 25 July 2017 (Financial Times) – The sperm count of men in the western world has fallen by more than half over a period of 40 years, according to an international study described by its authors as “an urgent wake-up call” about declining male health. “Decreasing sperm count has been of great […]

Climate impacts of super-giant oilfields go up with age

17 July 2017 By Ker Than (Stanford News) – Even oilfields aren’t immune to the ravages of time: A new study finds that as some of the world’s largest oilfields age, the energy required to keep them operating can rise dramatically even as the amount of petroleum they produce drops.Failing to take the changing energy […]

Oil spills perturb entire ocean food webs – Gulf of Mexico ecosystem may never recover

Heidelberg, New York, 10 July 2017 (Springer Nature) – Oil spills not only have a direct impact on species and habitats, but may also set off a cascade of perturbations that affect the entire food web. These are the findings of new research published in an article in the special issue on Ocean Spills and […]

New danger from global warming: Shifting storms bring extreme waves, damage to once placid areas

By Wilson Da Silva 20 July 2017   (UNSW) – The world’s most extensive study of a major storm front striking the coast has revealed a previously unrecognised danger from climate change: as storm patterns fluctuate, waterfront areas once thought safe are likely to be hammered and damaged as never before.The study, led by engineers at […]

Global sea level rise accelerates since 1990 – Greenland ice largely responsible for the accelerating pace of sea-level rise

By Alister Doyle 26 June 2017 OSLO (Reuters) – The rise in global sea levels has accelerated since the 1990s amid rising temperatures, with a thaw of Greenland’s ice sheet pouring ever more water into the oceans, scientists said on Monday.The annual rate of sea level rise increased to 3.3 millimeters (0.13 inch) in 2014 […]

2017 on track to be second hottest year on record – Scientists not as surprised as ThinkProgress article suggests

21 July 2017 (Climate Feedback) – ThinkProgress published a brief but influential article commenting on record warm global temperature over the first half of 2017 [2017 is so unexpectedly warm it is freaking out climate scientists]. The scientists who have reviewed the article confirm it accurately reports that 2017 is on track to being one […]

Increased reliance on natural gas in the power sector risks an emissions lock-in – “Natural gas is not as clean as often thought”

22 June 2017 (Climate Action Tracker) – The future of natural gas is limited, even as a bridging fuel. Continued investments into the sector create the risk of breaching the Paris Agreement’s long-term temperature goal and will result in stranded assets, the Climate Action Tracker (CAT) said today.As part of its decarbonisation series, the CAT […]

These “missing charts” may change the way you think about fossil fuel addiction

By Barry Saxifrage 13 July 2017 (National Observer) – To address the twin threats of climate change and ocean acidification, nearly every nation has promised to reduce fossil fuel burning. But so far, humanity keeps burning ever more. Last year we did it again, burning an all-time record amount.That’s according to data compiled from the […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial