By Andrew Freedman5 October 2015 (Mashable) – The epic amount of rain that led to deadly, catastrophic flooding across large parts of South Carolina and North Carolina is an example of exactly the type of supercharged storm system climate scientists have been warning about for years as a likely consequence of global warming. This storm, […]
5 October 2015 (BBC News) – The number of people seeking asylum in Germany this year will be as high as 1.5 million – almost double the previous estimate, German media report. The German government has not confirmed the new estimate, which comes from an internal official report cited by popular daily Bild. The report […]
2 October 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – In early 21st-century America, death by random gun violence has become a background dread, a bit like fear of nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. U.S. schools have modern “duck-and-cover” training for kids in the form of active shooter drills. Most Americans probably think that school shootings are getting […]
By Brian Merchant28 September 2015 (Motherboard) – If every nation that has so far pledged to cut down on its carbon emissions made good on its promises, the global average temperature would still rise 3.5˚ Celsius by the end of the century. According to a new study from MIT Sloan and Climate Interactive, even with […]
By Oliver Milman30 September 2015 (The Guardian) – At least 10 million of the world’s poorest people are set to go hungry this year because of failing crops caused by one of the strongest El Niño climatic events on record, Oxfam has warned. The charity said several countries were already facing a “major emergency”, such […]
The sound of climate change from the Amazon to the Arctic from Ensia on Vimeo. By Heather Hansman 21 September 2015 (smithsonian.com) – Four nervous-looking college students pick up their bows and start into a song at the bottom of their range. As the string quartet plays, the music gets higher pitched. It dips and […]
By Chris Mooney25 September 2015 (Washington Post) – It is, for our home planet, an extremely warm year. Indeed, last week we learned from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the first eight months of 2015 were the hottest such stretch yet recorded for the globe’s surface land and oceans, based on temperature records […]
By Emily Chung21 September 2015 (CBC News) – The river that provides water to the oilsands industry is much more prone to multi-year droughts than modern records show, suggesting that the industry’s current level of water use may not be sustainable, a new study suggests. The oilsands industry needs 3.1 barrels of fresh water to […]
By Nicholas St. Fleur14 September 2015 (The New York Times) – The snow that blanketed the Sierra Nevada in California last winter, and that was supposed to serve as an essential source of fresh water for the drought-stricken state, was at its lowest levels in the last 500 years, according to a new study. The […]
By Seth Borenstein22 September 2015 WASHINGTON (Associated Press) – Americans are sending more than twice as much trash to landfills as the federal government has estimated, according to a new study. It turns out that on average America tosses five pounds of trash per person per day into its landfills, according to an analysis of […]
