By Robert Scribbler18 December 2013 (robertscribbler.wordpress.com) – During the terrible mass extinction event at the Permian-Triassic boundary about 250 million years ago nearly all life on Earth was snuffed out. The event, which geologists have dubbed “The Great Dying,” occurred during a period of rapid warming on the tail end of a long period of […]
Contact: Deborah Smith, 0478 492 060, deborah.smith@unsw.edu.au; Alvin Stone, 0418 617 366, alvin.stone@unsw.edu.au 1 January 2014 (UNSW) – Global average temperatures will rise at least 4°C by 2100 and potentially more than 8°C by 2200 if carbon dioxide emissions are not reduced, according to new research published in Nature that shows our climate is more […]
Desdemona updated the IDMC graph from here with the number of Filipinos displaced by Typhoon Haiyan in November 2013: 4 million people. Des also added a parabolic curve (red) with a pretty good fit (R2 = 0.89). cf. Philippines: 4 million people remain displaced after Typhoon Haiyan and Graph of the Day: Philippines internal displacement […]
[cf. Graph of the Day: Total foundation funding distribution to U.S. climate change countermovement organizations, 2003-2010] By George Zornick 27 December 2013 (Washington Post) – In his speech at Georgetown University this year, President Obama made it clear that tackling climate change will be one of the key priorities for the remainder of his term. […]
20 December 2013 (PhysOrg) – A new study conducted by Drexel University’s environmental sociologist Robert J. Brulle, PhD, exposes the organizational underpinnings and funding behind the powerful climate change countermovement. This study marks the first peer-reviewed, comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the sources of funding that maintain the denial effort. Through an analysis of the […]
By Victoria Cavaliere and Edith Honan in New York, Tim Ghianni in Nashville, and Kevin Murphy in Kansas City, Missouri; editing by G Crosse23 December 2013 (Reuters) – A band of severe weather from tornadoes to icy blasts left at least seven people dead as winter storms and severe weather pushed up the East Coast […]
16 December 2013 (NASA) – While the continental U.S. shivered through an abnormally cold spell in December 2013, Alaska experienced record-breaking heat. Both extremes were caused by an unusual kink in the northern hemisphere’s polar jet stream, which caused frigid Arctic air to move south and warm air to head north. The jet stream is […]
By Anna Fahey 16 December 2013 (sightline.org) – Reports released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) can be daunting, even for science and policy insiders. The full Physical Science Assessment, the first installment of the Fifth Assessment Report [PDF], released in manuscript form earlier this year, is over 2,000 pages long. And even […]
17 December 2013 (NCDC) – According to NOAA scientists, the globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for November 2013 was the highest for November since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 37th consecutive November and 345th consecutive month (more than 28 years) with a global temperature above the 20th century […]
By Bridie Smith 12 December 2013 (Sydney Morning Herald) – Mining poses a greater threat to the health of the Great Barrier Reef than agriculture, according to one marine scientist who has cast doubt on the federal government’s prediction that water quality will improve along the reef coast. On Tuesday federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt […]
