By Devin Henry 9 September 2017 (The Hill) – President Trump has stacked his administration with officials who doubt the scientific consensus behind man-made climate change, underscoring a growing divide within the Republican party. Even as leading scientists, environmentalists and most Democrats accept research that shows climate change accelerating — and as some see it […]
By Robinson Meyer 7 September 2017 (The Atlantic) – This wasn’t supposed to be a bad year for Western wildfires.Last winter, a weak La Niña bloomed across the Pacific. It sent flume after flume of rain to North America and irrigated half the continent. Water penetrated deep into the soil of Western forests, and mammoth […]
By Jeffry Bartash 9 September 2017 (MarketWatch) – Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have upended the lives of millions of Americans, but the aftereffects will also linger in much smaller way for those entrusted with keeping the U.S. economy safe and sound. The storms caused tremendous damage, forced thousands of businesses to close and compelled millions […]
By Rebecca Leber 8 September 2017 (Mother Jones) – Three weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that reversed an Obama-era requirement that future construction in areas likely to flood need to be built at a higher elevation [cf. Trump signs order to end Obama-era flood risk building standards]. But after the devastation […]
By Lindsay Curren 7 September 2017 (A Mind On Our Times) – And Irma, we don’t really give a crap about you, either.Twenty-seven TRILLION gallons of water dumped on Southeast Texas in six days? That’s what the various reports say.And we say, “Big whoop!”Wild-Westy, pavement-obsessedy Houston essentially destroyed, molded, and steeped in a toxic stew […]
By Georgina Gustin 5 September 2017 (Inside Climate News) – Wildfires burned across hundreds of thousands of acres in the American and Canadian West this week, fueled by scorching temperatures that are breaking heat and fire records across the region.In California, while temperatures have eased, at least 15 cities have seen record-breaking heat, and the […]
By Beth Brown 5 September 2017 NUNAVUT (Nunatsiaq News) – The world’s average global temperature is only one degree Celsius away from a potential climate catastrophe to which few regions would be more vulnerable than the Arctic. That’s according to well-known author, historian and journalist Gwynne Dyer, who is a frequent commentator on international affairs, […]
By Katherine Ellen Foley 5 September 2017 (Quartz) – It’s often said that of all the published scientific research on climate change, 97% of the papers conclude that global warming is real, problematic for the planet, and has been exacerbated by human activity.But what about those 3% of papers that reach contrary conclusions? Some skeptics […]
By Rachel Lewis 8 September 2017 (TIME) – President Donald Trump’s seaside resort Mar-a-Lago and the surrounding barrier islands have been ordered to evacuate as the ferocious Hurricane Irma approaches Florida.Palm Beach County officials ordered that residents of the islands and low-lying areas should start to leave by 10 a.m. on Friday, the Miami Herald […]
Dr. Jeff Masters 8 September 2017 (Weather Underground) – Hurricane Irma weakened from Category 5 to Category 4 strength on Friday morning, but still represents an extreme danger to much of Southern Florida, as well as portions of northern Cuba and the southernmost Bahama Islands.If you live by the coast in an area that that […]