Hotter, weirder: How climate has changed Earth – ‘We are rapidly remaking the planet and beginning to suffer the consequences’

WASHINGTON, 2 December 2014 (AP) – In the more than two decades since world leaders first got together to try to solve global warming, life on Earth has changed, not just the climate. It’s gotten hotter, more polluted with heat-trapping gases, more crowded and just downright wilder. The numbers are stark. Carbon dioxide emissions: up […]

Carbon dioxide surge drove greenhouse gas levels to new high in 2013 – ‘The laws of physics are non-negotiable. We are running out of time.’

By Tom Miles; editing by Stephanie Nebehay9 September 2014 GENEVA (Reuters) – Atmospheric volumes of greenhouse hit a record in 2013 as carbon dioxide concentrations grew at the fastest rate since reliable global records began, the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday. “We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather […]

Ocean algae can evolve fast to tackle climate change – ‘Evolutionary processes need to be considered when predicting the effects of a warming and acidifying ocean on phytoplankton’

  By Alister Doyle; Editing by Rosalind Russell14 September 2014 OSLO (Reuters) – Tiny marine algae can evolve fast enough to cope with climate change in a sign that some ocean life may be more resilient than thought to rising temperatures and acidification, a study showed. Evolution is usually omitted in scientific projections of how […]

Limiting global warming to 2°C – Why Victor and Kennel are wrong

[For background, see 2 bold proposals emerge to change climate negotiations.] By Stefan Rahmstorf1 October 2014 (RealClimate) – In a comment in Nature titled “Ditch the 2°C warming goal”, political scientist David Victor and retired astrophysicist Charles Kennel advocate just that. But their arguments don’t hold water. It is clear that the opinion article by […]

Great Barrier Reef plan ‘like saving a sinking ship with a thimble’

15 September 2014By Amy Remeikis  (Brisbane Times) – It’s the 35-year plan designed to stave off UNESCO’s “in danger” rating and save the reef, but conservationists are already doubting it will work. Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell announced the Reef 2050 plan on Monday while the government was in Yeppoon for community cabinet. The plan, […]

Scientists raise questions about the doomsday scenario that made one Pacific island leader spend millions on new land

By Christopher Pala21 August 2014 (The Atlantic) – Mikarite Temari, the mayor of Christmas Island, Kiribati’s largest atoll, rolled his eyes and shook his head as I read off my laptop in his office what his president, Anote Tong, had said during a visit to New York. “According to the science and the projections,” Tong, […]

Acid seas threaten creatures that supply half the world’s oxygen

By Martha Baskin and Mary Bruno16 June 2014 (Crosscut) – What happens when phytoplankton, the (mostly) single-celled organisms that constitute the very foundation of the marine food web, turn toxic? Their toxins often concentrate in the shellfish and many other marine species (from zooplankton to baleen whales) that feed on phytoplankton. Recent trailblazing research by […]

NASA prepares to launch Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 – ‘Watching the Earth breathe from space’

By Keith Cowing 12 June 2014 (SpaceRef) – NASA’s first spacecraft dedicated to measuring carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere is in final preparations for a July 1 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) mission will provide a more complete, global picture of the human and natural sources of […]

Seafood industry under threat from global warming and ocean acidification – Total loss of landings to fisheries by 2050 ranges from $17 to $41 billion

By  Benjamin Alexander-Bloch28 May 2014 (The Times-Picayune) – The global seafood industry is under threat from climate change and ocean acidification, and reducing CO2 emissions is required to safeguard the industy’s future, according to a report jointly published Wednesday by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Sustainability Leadership and Cambridge’s Judge […]

YesMan Mike Bonnano hoaxes the Reed College commencement address by claiming Reed has divested of fossil fuel investments (it hasn’t)

By Michael Jon Jensen23 May 2014 (Facebook) – An astonishing speech from YesMan Mike Bonnano as commencement speaker at his alma mater, Reed College — including a perfect YesMan event embedded within it. Worth the 25 mins of listening. So smart, so funny. “Graduating Reed College students and their parents gave a standing ovation Monday […]

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