Meteorologists are seeing the effects of global warming – ‘Whatever happened to normal weather?’

By Paul Douglas27 May 2016 (Guardian) – Whatever happened to normal weather? Earth has always experienced epic storms, debilitating drought, and biblical floods. But lately it seems the treadmill of disruptive weather has been set to fast-forward. God’s grand Symphony of the Seasons, the natural ebb and flow of the atmosphere, is playing out of […]

UN-backed report: Climate change a factor in displacing millions

12 May 2016 (UN) – Disasters associated with slow processes of environmental change – drought, sea level rise, and desertification – demonstrate again the growing importance of climate change as a driver of disaster risk, as senior United Nations official said today on the heels of the release of a global report which revealed that […]

Record-warm oceans have spawned scary slate of monster tropical cyclones

By Jason Samenow20 April 2016 (Washington Post) – In the past six months, the Earth has witnessed several of the freakiest, most intense storms in recorded history. Spurred by the highest ocean temperatures observed to date, record-breaking tropical cyclones — the class of storms that includes hurricanes and typhoons — have explosively developed in three […]

Fantala strongest cyclone on record for Indian Ocean – Two other ocean basins have seen their strongest cyclones on record in the past six months

By Bob Henson18 April 2016  (wunderground.com) – Fierce Tropical Cyclone Fantala stormed to Category 5 strength north of Madagascar over the weekend with an impressive burst of strengthening, making the cyclone the most powerful on record anywhere in the Indian Ocean. Fantala’s estimated peak sustained winds of 150 knots (173 mph), averaged over 1 minute […]

In Louisiana, a football field of land sinks into the Gulf each hour – ‘If a hurricane comes, we’re wide open’

Editor’s Note: John D. Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion who focuses on climate change and social justice. Follow him on Snapchat, Facebook and email. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. By John D. Sutter8 April 2016 Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana (CNN) – Wenceslaus Billiot, an 89-year-old with suede-soft eyes and […]

Fiji: UN warns of gusts, flooding as cyclone-battered country braces for another storm

6 April 2016 (UN) – Less than two months after Tropical Cyclone Winston cut a path of destruction across Fiji, the country is bracing for the impact of another storm, the United Nations relief aid office said today. Category 2 Tropical Cyclone Zena is predicted to bring 200 millimeters of rainfall in the next 24 […]

EPA: The impacts of climate change on human health in the U.S.

4 April 2016 (EPA) – Climate change poses risks to human health through many pathways, some more obvious than others. Rising greenhouse-gas concentrations, driven by human activities, result in increases in temperature, changes in precipitation, increases in the frequency and intensity of some extreme weather events, and rising sea levels. These climate-change impacts endanger our […]

‘The future is happening now,’ warns UN, calling for urgent measures to cut carbon emissions – ‘We haven’t changed our behaviors’

21 March 2016 (UN) – The Earth is already one degree Celsius hotter than at the start of the 20th century, halfway to the critical two-degree threshold, and national climate change plans adopted so far may not be enough to avoid a three-degree temperature rise, the UN weather agency warned today upon the release of […]

Fiji cyclone update: ‘An ordeal of the most grievous kind’ – Fiji extends state of disaster for another month

By Matt Siegel; Editing by Robert Birsel21 March 2016 SYDNEY (Reuters) – Fiji’s government said on Monday it would extend for another month a state of natural disaster in areas of the country still reeling from the impact of a super cyclone, which hit the country last month. Cyclone Winston, which was the worst storm […]

The mercury doesn’t lie: We’ve hit a troubling climate change milestone

By Bill McKibben  5 March 2016 (Boston Globe) – Thursday, while the nation debated the relative size of Republican genitalia, something truly awful happened. Across the northern hemisphere, the temperature, if only for a few hours, apparently crossed a line: it was more than two degrees Celsius above “normal” for the first time in recorded […]

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