3 September 2013 (World Bank) – Some of the easiest targets for lowering greenhouse gas emissions are right in front of us every day: black carbon from diesel-fueled vehicles and solid fuel cooking fires, methane from solid waste, hydrofluorocarbons from aerosols. These are short-lived climate pollutants, named for their relatively short lifespan in the atmosphere. […]
By WILLIAM D. RUCKELSHAUS, LEE M. THOMAS, WILLIAM K. REILLY and CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN1 August 2013 (The New York Times) – Each of us took turns over the past 43 years running the Environmental Protection Agency. We served Republican presidents, but we have a message that transcends political affiliation: the United States must move now […]
By Timothy B. Wheeler10 May 2013 (The Baltimore Sun) – Summer is almost here, and with it likely some blistering hot days. A recent study suggests the elderly should beware when the temperature spikes, because they face an increased risk of winding up in the emergency room short of breath on those days. And that’s […]
By MARTIN FACKLER24 April 2013 YAKUSHIMA, Japan (The New York Times) – A mysterious pestilence has befallen this island’s primeval forests, leaving behind the bleached, skeletal remains of dead trees that now dot the dark green mountainsides. Osamu Nagafuchi, an environmental engineer with a passion for the island and its rugged terrain, believes he […]
Contact: Ruth Dasso Marlaire, ruth.marlaire@nasa.gov, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California,650-604-470925 February 2013 NASA scientists report that warmer temperatures and changes in precipitation locally and regionally have altered the growth of large forest areas in the eastern United States over the past 10 years. Using NASA’s Terra satellite, scientists examined the relationship between natural plant […]
18 February 2013 (Reuters) – A new United Nations plan to involve all nations in marshalling science to fix environmental problems ranging from toxic chemicals to climate change will be put to the test from Monday at talks in Nairobi. The 40-year-old U.N. Environment Programme will open its annual governing council to all the world’s […]
By Philip Bump8 February 2013 (Grist) – “We live in a world in which the climate is changing.” This statement from the EPA, the first line in its draft “Climate Change Adaptation Plan” [PDF] released today, is basic. But that the EPA is saying it is important. For two reasons. The first is that the […]
And it may well be that that time is drawing near at last. For if Sauron of old destroyed the gardens, the Enemy today seems likely to wither all the woods. ~ Treebeard, Chapter 4, The Twin Towers January 2012, Maidstone, England By Gail Zawacki13 January 2013 I don’t think of myself as lacking imagination, […]
By BETTINA WASSENER5 December 2012 HONG KONG (The New York Times) – Air pollution has worsened markedly in Asian cities in recent years and presents a growing threat to human health, according to experts at a conference that began on Wednesday [Better Air Quality Hong Kong 2012]. Clean Air Asia, a regional network on air-quality […]
Livermore, California, 4 December 2012 (SPX) – By comparing simulations from 20 different computer models to satellite observations, Lawrence Livermore climate scientists and colleagues from 16 other organizations have found that tropospheric and stratospheric temperature changes are clearly related to human activities. The team looked at geographical patterns of atmospheric temperature change over the period […]
