Climate Change This Week: Racing Out Of The Climate Comfort Zone, Wind Power, and More!
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
And the chances of Donald Trump’s family and fortune surviving climate change are small, dwindling daily and irreversibly.
Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this newly discovered Madagascar fish scaled gecko, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests.
This fascinating creature has a bizarre way of eluding predators – it sheds its scales, and even some of its flesh to slip out of the predator’s jaws! Credit Frank Glaw
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
Already Rare Forests Destroyed Further for gems not half as beautiful as the lovely life that dwells within that forest. Credit Rosy Perkins
OO Sapphire Boom Promotes Destruction In Madagascar Rainforest As thousands start to explore and mine an area in the east for the precious gem.
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
Protected Forest – Not! A recent large study of protected tropical forests shows that destruction is occurring in most of them from illegal human exploitation. Credit Murray Collins
OO Protected Forests Are ‘Significant’ Sources Of Carbon Emissions a new study shows, as illegal exploitation involves burning them – with protection like that, who needs enemies?
But less than 9% of all protected forests emit 80+% of the carbon emissions, targeting the areas that need to be conserved the most.
BEYOND THE CLIMATE “COMFORT ZONE” GLOBAL HUMAN DISASTER LOOMS
Needed: Just the Right Amount of Heat and Rain – to sustain our food crops. Increasingly, this isn’t happening. Source bigyield.us
OO Straying From The Climate “Comfort Zone” Is Disastrous, Shows Prehistory – as documented in a new book, Climate Change and the Health of Nations.
- Our climatic comfort zone
- sustains food and water supplies, stability of ecosystems,
- and other basic needs.
- It is confined within a narrow range of temperatures and a specific pattern of seasonal rainfall.
Nearly 9,000 Children Die Daily From Hunger as it is, and as climate change increasingly stresses our resources, that number will go up. Source abc.net.au
- Climate shifts in the last million years show us that,
- if the climate warms or cools a few degrees beyond our comfort zone,
- stresses mount, life is compromised, and human health is impaired.
Like today, heating back then led to:
easier transmission of deadly diseases, like cholera;
crop failures, leading to malnutrition and social disruption;
more carriers of fatal diseases like black plague: more fleas.
Obsessed Over “Now”, Not Looming Disaster is a human trait often illustrated by cell phone users. Source Shutterstock
- Although humans are hardwired to “survive the present”
- And focus on ourselves,
- If we don’t help ourselves AND our vital ecosystems
- to survive into the future, civilization won’t survive.
Under current trends, we are headed for a very dangerous world within decades.
OO Drought To Dramatically Worsens Deadly US West Nile Virus Epidemics with more severe droughts under continuing climate change n the next 30 years projected to double the size of future epidemics.
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HUMANS SPEEDING CLIMATE CHANGE 170 TIMES FASTER THAN NATURAL
People Are Racing Climate Change – 170x Faster Than Natural – consider a walking couple; now consider a racing car going top speed at 170 mph – then triple that speed. That’s 170x faster than the couple – get the idea?
OO Humans Causing Climate To Change 170 Times Faster Than Natural Forces say researchers, who have developed a mathematical equation to describe the impact of human activity on the earth, finding people are causing the climate to change 170 times faster than natural forces, by burning fossil fuels.
CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS USA SECURITY
Storms, Drought, Heat: Bad Now And Worse Later – stressing national resources and threatening our national security.
OO Climate Change Is A Clear And Present Danger To US Security – As president, Trump accepted the responsibility to defend the country against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Climate change is high on that list.
OO Food Security, Forests At Risk Under Trump’s USDA - U.S. food security, forest health, and the ability of farmers to respond to climate change are all at risk if Trump appoints climate change skepticis to the agency, agricultural researchers and environmental law experts say.
OO Ever Truthful Nature Trumps Trump’s Delusions – but many families will get hit in the climate crossfire, as Trump delays action.
We may live in a post-truth era, but nature does not. Regardless of alternative facts, fake news or scientific censorship, nature tells the truth.
OO Leading Climate Economist Says Social Cost Of CO2
Much Higher Than Thought;
Trump’s Team Says It Is Zero – economist William Nordhaus had said to “go slow” on climate action – but now says carbon pollution is much more damaging to the economy than he previously estimated.
He now says:
- our climate inaction has been costly,
- nearly doubling the social cost of carbon emissions,
- further inaction will lead to rapid climate change
- and incur increasingly greater costs.
OO Management Accountants See Negative Impact From Global Warming
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TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE
Donald Trump’s Own Children Likely Face Climate Apocalypse in their lifetimes; the likely crash of civilization that follows will crash their fortune and survival chances for their kids – and all of ours. Unless, of course, Trump acts to cut emissions, hugely. Source heavy.com
OO Russia, US Could Be Partners In Climate Inaction - The only big emitter to not ratify the Paris climate agreement, Russia may find it easier to slough off climate action with the U.S. matching its oil-focused view.
OO Trump Undertakes Most Ambitious Regulatory Rollback Since Reagan
Related headlines:
OO When Rules No Longer Apply: Trump Is Set To Sign GOP Measures To Foster Water Pollution And Legitimize Bribery Those are only the start of a push to end regulations.
OO Trump Order To Scrap 2 Regs For Every New One Will Be Hard To Overturn, legal experts say.
Trump Attacks American Protections
Credit Steve Breen at creators.com
OO Alaska: EPA Officials Banned From Environmental Conference By Trump Gang which slashed the staff that could attend.
OO Trump Administration Considers Shutting EPA's Enforcement Office: Report
OO EPA Transition Leader, Longtime Foe Of Regulation, To Stay On At Agency
Just One of Many US Streams, Now Unprotected from pollution, thanks to Donald Trump.
Credit Erik Stensland at imagesofrmnp.com
OO Good Luck Killing The EPA - Dismembering the agency requires changing 45 years worth of laws, warns one Republican who ran it.
OO Environment May Not Be Top Priority For Attorney General Sessions who voted regularly against environmental-protection legislation as a longtime senator.
Trump Rips Off Americans
Callous Trump Flies, The Poor Cries – his budget proposal cuts programs for poor people, even as Trump has spent $10+ million to travel to his mansions in the first month alone, nearly the yearly cost for Obama. Then think about Trump’s carbon footprint – he certainly doesn’t. Source www.boeing.com
OO How Trump's Agenda Clashes With What Americans Want - From fighting climate change to funding Planned Parenthood, the public has never been so out of step with a president.
OO Crooked Donald Wants To Sell Off California Drought Insurance – by helping a supporter get the permits to pump and sell water from the Mohave Aquifer. Until Trump was elected, this was not likely. California aquifers take decades to refill – from a drought perspective, they are a finite resource.
OO Trump Team Has Ties To Atlantic Coast Pipeline Now Being Pushed By White House
Resisting Trump
OO How Science Can Resist Trump The planned March for Science, in April, will be just the start of a 4 year campaign.
OO Trump’s Embarrassing Assault On Science Is Doomed To Fail - Muzzling scientists does not work. They are too smart, and they find alternate paths to publish and archive their research. As Shakespeare said, truth will out.
OO Groups Sue To Block Trump's Order On Government Regulations - Organizations opposing President Donald Trump's executive order to curb government regulations filed a federal lawsuit to block it.
OO The 11-Year-Old Suing Trump Over Climate Change - One of 21 children defendants. If climate change threatens their future, they reason, the government has violated their constitutional right to due process. They recently replaced Obama with Trump in the landmark lawsuit.
OO Climate Disobedience In The Time Of Trump - Ken Ward and Emily Johnston are willing to spend decades in prison for shutting down tar-sands oil pipelines. They want you to understand why.
OO Turn Up, And Ask Questions: Utah 10 Yr Old Girl Confronts Utah Representative at an already boisterous town hall meeting. “What are you going to do to make our air and water clean? Do you believe in science? Because I do.” She asks.
He thanks her for speaking up and replies: “I do think that coal is very important” to the boos of the crowd. We need more like her and those people showing and speaking up.
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FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE
@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels – and distributing the revenues back to all of us.
The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. What’s not to like? Check it out!
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CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
OO Republicans Propose To Address Climate Change With A Carbon Tax – Takeaways:
- Elder Republican statesmen are calling for a carbon tax, $40 per ton of emitted carbon dioxide,
- That would increase with time, and
- Be returned as yearly dividends to US families.
- In return, regulations of carbon emissions – Obama’s Clean Power Plan – would be repealed.
- The EPA would be stripped of most powers to issue new laws to control emissions.
Pros:
- it gets the GOP moving on doing something to discourage carbon emissions,
- And the GOP are repealing regulations on carbon emissions anyway.
Cons:
- the $40 tax is not enough to really make a difference,
- And it will likely be much less if the GOP ever turn it into law.
- The chances of creating such a law are a longshot.
Too little, too late to prevent a future of catastrophic climate change.
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CLUELESS LEADERSHIP
Credit Tim Eagan
OO U.S. House Passes Bill To Limit NSF Research To What Promotes “National Interest” which has different meanings, depending on whether you do or don’t deny climate change; it narrows acceptable topics, and does not fund the “higher risk” research which sometimes has some of the biggest paybacks.
OO How Fishermen, Hunters, Bikers, And Hikers Are About To Lose Their Say On Public Land Use The GOP Congress is racing to nullify an Obama-era order that gave hikers, bikers, hunters, fishers, and other outdoor recreation fans an equal voice with industries in how the government manages over 250 million acres of federal lands.
OO Republicans Want To Make The EPA Great Again By Gutting Health Regulations
On Tuesday, the House Committee on Science Science, Space, and Technology is expected to hold a hearing on a bill to undermine health regulations that is based on a strategy cooked up by tobacco industry strategists more than two decades ago. The Intercept. Feb 06
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HOT NEWS
OO FYI: Increased Extreme Heat And Heat Waves One of the strongest findings of climate science is that global warming amplifies the intensity, duration and frequency of extreme heat events.
Where There’s Heat, Fire Follows…
OO Risk Of 'Megafires' To Increase As Climate Warms worldwide, new study says. By 2050, it indicates there will be a 35% increase in the days with high danger of fire across the world.
Some regions will see even larger increases, such as western states of the US, southeastern Australia, the Mediterranean, and southern Africa.
OO Suburbs Are Increasingly Threatened By Wildfires Due to Climate Change shows new research.
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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
@@ Climate Change 101: Why Care? What You Need to Know - Bill Nye tells it all in five minutes amid graphic, dynamic, engaging, compelling imagery. Check it Out!
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MELTDOWN
OO NASA Launched An Unprecedented Study Of Greenland’s Melting - Here’s some emerging information:
Seawater tend to circle Greenland clockwise;
A warm deep layer of Atlantic water is
eating away at the bases of many glaciers
many of these extend far deeper into the ocean than once thought;
the west coast is far more vulnerable to melting that then the east.
OO It’s About 50 Degrees Warmer Than Normal Near The North Pole, Yet Again
Peer at a map of the Arctic and it glows fluorescent red. The warmth, compared to normal, is again nearly off the charts.
OO Temperatures In The Arctic Are Skyrocketing -- For The Third Time This Winter
Takeaways:
- a number of different factors are feeding into these warming events,
- including the steady march of climate change;
- interactions between the air and Arctic sea ice, which melts a little more each year.
A Wet Arctic Winter Hails Climate Change – as ice is replaced by sea, enabling further warming.
Source wildfoottravel.com
- The recent low-pressure system, can help jump-start these kinds of sudden warming events
- by carrying a large amount of warm air up to the North Pole all at once.
- The storm itself isn’t unusual; that it made it so far north, is.
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- As ice is replaced by far warmer seawater, the air above also warms,
- And may enable storms to bring the heat closer to the pole.
- Sea ice extent for January was at a record low.
All this is “just more evidence the Arctic, especially, is warming quite dramatically.”
A Splash of Bright Blood Signals Extreme Polar Heat near the north pole, about 50 F above normal.
Source ClimateReanalyzer.org
OO The Winter Of Blazing Discontent Continues In The Arctic - Weird. Strange. Extreme. Unprecedented. These describe what’s been happening in the Arctic over the past year as surge after surge of warm air have stalled, and at times reversed, sea ice pack growth.
OO Something Is Very, Very Wrong With The Arctic Climate This Arctic winter has startled even the most even-keeled scientists, with records set for low sea ice extent, high temperatures and other indicators of a climate gone awry.
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO The ‘New Normal’ In America: Renewables Boom, Emissions Plunge And Consumers Save More Than Ever says the 2017 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook
OO Almost 90% Of New Power In Europe From Renewable Sources In 2016 in a sign of the continent’s rapid shift away from fossil fuels.
OO Wind Outpaces Coal In Europe, Beats Hydro In North America
OO Europe: Wind Overtakes Coal Power As Turbines Head Offshore industry figures show.
OO Offshore Wind Moves Into Energy's Mainstream luring big-name investors who are attracted to strong returns and declining costs.
OO Wind Power Could Blow Past Hydro Energy Capacity By 2020 as technology innovation boosts wind energy reliability.
OO 1 Out Of 50 New US Jobs Came From The Solar Industry In 2016 - There was a record boom in solar jobs last year.
OO 2 Remarkable Facts That Illustrate Solar Power's Declining Cost are:
Solar power is competitive with wind power in developing countries;
Utility-scale solar now has a lower total cost of power than natural gas.
The latter more reflects a useful baseline, and an indicator of industry opinion
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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
Pollution Gets a Global Lift From Aerosols allowing them to travel long distances and pollute other air, raising cancer risks globally. Credit Oregon State University
OO Globe-Trotting Pollutants Raise Some Cancer Risks Four Times Higher Than Predicted Takeaways:
Pollutants coalesce around tiny cores of soot,
Allowing cancer-causing particles to be blown great distances,
Polluting other countries, and raising cancer risks.
Global lung cancer risks have quadrupled, well beyond acceptable World Health Organization acceptable limits.
Miami Already Floods At King High Tides Source floridatrend.com
OO Coastal US Cities Could Flood Three Times A Week By 2045 - The lawns of homes purchased this year in vast swaths of coastal America could regularly be underwater before the mortgage has even been paid off.
New research shows high tide flooding could become nearly incessant in places within 30 years.
OO Floods And Erosion Are Ruining Britain’s Most Significant Sites – from famous gardens to the cliffs of Dover, says a new report.
news story photo
A Bush Fire Sweeps Across Australian Outback Credit AFP, Getty Images
OO Australia Battles 50 Fires In Heat Wave, Sparking Warning, Blackout Fears in New South Wales as the heat wave swept the east coast.
OO Chile's Forest Fires Have Been Raging For Weeks - Some if not most were started by humans, but record high temperatures, droughts, and winds have helped prolong them.
Beijing Beneath a Blanket of Smog Source AFP at www.scmp.com
OO Warmer World Is Making China’s Smog Woes Even Worse - Global warming will lead to more smog in northern China, say Chinese meteorologists.
OO Somalia: Famine Looms, And Families Leave Their Land - A two-year drought has killed three quarters of the country’s livestock, leaving pastoralists destitute.
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GOOD IDEAS
Invest in US Jobs – Invest In US Solar Power says President Jimmy Carter.
OO Renewable Energy Can Help Trump Create Jobs, Says Jimmy Carter noting that millions of US jobs could be created if Donald Trump embraced renewable energy sources such as geothermal, solar and wind power.
OO Measuring How Well Countries Are Following Through On Paris Climate Change Goals – using a new tool recently developed to do just that.
OO Midwestern Wetlands Are Especially Important For Combating Climate Change -
because of their ability to take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Kenyan Composting Camels Credit Kagondu Njagi
OO Kenya's Traders Battle Food Waste With A New Ally: Camels - A herd of camels have become a low-carbon food waste recycling system in a Nairobi market - and they produce milk.
OO Mayan Farmers Address Climate With New Techniques To counter more unpredictable weather, farmers are:
- Creating rainwater catchment systems for irrigation;
- Using organic nutrients – compost, chicken manure, etc. – to enrich the soil
- Planting more compactly.
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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
Too Hot To Stay, Gotta Swim Away – pelagic red crabs are starting to move north as their ocean waters keep heating up. Source www.theeventchronicle.com
OO As Oceans Warm, Marine Life And People Who Depend On It, Struggle To Adapt - Takeaways:
- Ocean water temperature does not vary as much as air, so
- Marine organisms are adapted to much narrower temperature ranges.
- Right now, the ocean temperature is going up a lot,
- Much faster than most of it sorganisms can adapt,
- So marine organisms are shifting fast.
Mackeral Moved North, Causing a Trade War as Europe denied Iceland permission to fish them nearby; Iceland dropped its bid to join the European Union. Source Wikipedia
- This means commercial fish are shifting fast, too.
- Leaving many fisherman unable to fish,
- And fishing trade wars.
- More flexible fishing management policies are needed.
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- The marine world off our coasts is fundamentally reshuffling.
- Climate change is creating surprisingly fast and big marine changes.
- Bottom line: we need to reduce carbon emissions – fast.
OO Global Warming Threatens The World's Mountains – Rising temperatures are:
- Melting glaciers
- Causing high altitude species to disappear, or move higher;
- Altering the nutrients in mountain plants and soils.
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- Entire ecosystems are changing.
- Making montane water supplies for farming unreliable,
- Shrinking the winter sport season, as in skiing.
Bye-Bye Bluebells? England’s iconic spring wildflower creates these fairytale forest scapes, which may disappear under continuing climate change. Source www.mirror.co.uk
OO Bluebell Woods In Danger Of Being Wiped Out By Climate Change indicates a new study. The iconic wildflower of the United Kingdom may not be flexible enough to survive in its beautiful abundance.
OO Hungry Penguins Trapped In Overfished Waters By Climate Change leaving endangered young penguins in Africa confused about where to find food, and they are dying in high numbers as a result.
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SPEAKING OUT
Gray But Oh So Green: Jimmy Carter’s Field of Solar Panels Credit Kevin D. Liles for the New York Times
OO Jimmy Carter Makes A Stand For Solar with solar panels -- 3,852 of them -- shimmering above 10 acres of Jimmy Carter's soil where peanuts and soybeans used to grow. The panels moved almost imperceptibly with the sun. And they could power more than half of this small town, from which Mr. Carter rose from obscurity to the presidency.
OO Former EPA Staff Call For Senate To Reject Pruitt: 'We Don't Think He's Qualified.’ 400+ former employees say Scott Pruitt's record as Oklahoma AG, ties to the fossil fuel industry and his climate denial raise serious questions.
OO Australian Health Fund Divests From Fossil Fuels, Saying Industry Harms Members
OO In An Age Of Alternative Facts, Bill Nye’s New Show Brings Real Ones - As he prepares to launch a fact-filled show into a fact-challenged world, Bill Nye, a.k.a. the Science Guy, is looking on the bright side.
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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
Methane Gas Makes the Climate Sick, Too as a short-lived but very potent climate changing gas. Source www.laprogressive.com
OO Study Finds Rise In Methane In Pennsylvania Gas Country - Readings showed a rise in the potent greenhouse gas from 2012 to 2015, and the region’s boom in natural gas production is likely to blame.
OO Oil's Methane Emissions Higher Than Feared from global operations between 1980 and 2012, a new study shows.
OO Washington State: Developers Give Up On A Proposed Coal Terminal after years of community debate, and a declining coal industry.
Why Waste More Money On New Ones? This one closed early, due to a power glut. Credit David Butow for the Los Angeles Times
OO Californians Are Paying Billions For Power They Don’t Need - We're using less electricity. Some power plants have even shut down. So why do state officials keep approving new ones? Good question.
OO Big Oil’s Grip On California - In America’s greenest state, the industry has spent $122 million in the past six years to shape regulation and legislation. It wins more than you think.
OO China Steel Capacity Rises In 2016, Despite Closures – and with it, more carbon emissions, in this carbon intensive industry.
Coal Does Not Belong Here – especially after the recent hammering the Great Barrier Reef took from high temperatures that killed vast numbers of its corals. Source traveling-earth.com
OO Australia Probes Coal Spill Near Great Barrier Reef
OO Australian Government Warns Against Risky Investment In 'Clean Coal' Technology
OO Australia: Fires, Floods, Flying Foxes And Political Farce
On a weekend rural communities suffered dangerous climate events, the government doubled down on coal.
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If we do not live sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
@@ The Cost of Unintended Pregnancy: Too Young
Teen childbearing cost US taxpayers $9+ Billion in 2010
And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:
publicize where women can access affordable contraception.
They can go here to find locations:
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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SOLAR KEEPS RISING
Ggg solar panel sky, solar keeps rising3, Source sandiegofreepress.org, ccr 311
OO US Rooftop Solar Industry's Go-To Funding Source Is A South African Bank - Investec has filled a financing gap by focusing on the rooftop industry’s unique needs.
OO Solar Power Taking Hold In Nigeria, One Mobile Phone At A Time - Using a customer friendly, pay-as-you-go model, a solar startup is powering Nigerian homes not connected to the grid with one portable kit.
OO Australia: Typical Solar Power Users Are Low to Medium Income Families says a new study.
Check it out here, right now!
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Feb 21, 2017
Source cci-reanalyzer.org
How unusual has the weather been? No one event is “caused” by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.
Unusually heavy rains have released California from a SURFACE water drought, but significantly depleted California aquifers keep 60+% of the state in a GROUNDWATER drought, which will likely take decades to disappear. It also means this major US agricultural region has a small safety net, when the next dry year strikes. Dance in the rain while you can!
Much of the lower US 48 states and the waters surrounding them are experiencing unusually warm temperatures.
Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures – not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.
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There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I’ve compiled, “Climate Change News Resources,” at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.
To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!
Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild flower I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there.
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