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 Palawan Hornbill, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests. Credit Ramon Quisumbing
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
Their Only Home is Palawan for the endemic Palawan Bearcat, which faces hunting threats. Source Wikipedia
OO The Philippines Declares 100,000+ Acres As Critical Habitat On the island of Palawan, one of the last remaining expanses of intact forests, and most biodiverse area left in the country, home to many endemic species.
When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.
Help Protect Its Home in French Guiana. Credit Bushmaster Pascual
OO YOU CAN ACT: The French government is quietly promoting the industrialization of the gold sector in French Guiana, which would have serious human and environmental impacts. You can sign an letter to the president of France urging a curb on industrial growth in that area here.
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GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS EXTINCTIONS FAR MORE THAN REPORTED
Babar’s Family Is Being Killed Off by poachers, humans and even climate change destroying their habitat. Elephants are now threatened with extinction.
OO Act Now Before Entire Species Are Lost To Global Warming say scientists, and are calling on policymakers to act urgently to slow its effects before entire species are lost for good.
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A VERY POTENT CLIMATE CHANGING GAS IS RISING
Cooling, And Oh So Climate Changing are air conditioners and refrigerators, which leak highly potent climate changing gases ultimately to the atmosphere, where they speed climate change. Laws keep changing the gases used, but never mandate vetting their replacements. Modified from www.lg.com
OO The One Greenhouse Gas That's On The Rise -Takeaways:
- Emissions of the HFC pollutant
- found in air conditioners and refrigerators
- have risen rapidly, by 45% between 2005 and 2015,
- as their use has increased.
HFCs (hydrofluorocarbons) are thousands of times more climate changing than CO2.
New chemicals are being phased in, but the process takes time.
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CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENS FOOD SUPPLY
A Disappearing Vision Under Climate Change which is decreasing the quality and quantity of food that can be grown, as human numbers and demands soar. Source rawrveganrawr.tumblr.com
OO Climate Change Is Transforming The World's Food Supply In 3 key ways, experts say. Climate change will:
- Reduce the amount of food grown around the world,
- due to too much heat and more pests,
- especially in the tropics,
- where food production is normally high.
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- Change and decrease where food is grown,
- shifting from the tropics towards the poles,
- as will fish, which will continue to decrease.
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- Decrease food nutrition,
- under increased CO2 levels,
- as studies show,
- increasing human nutrient deficiency worldwide.
Bye-Bye Fish N Chips? Warming, Acidifying oceans, pollution, and overfishing are decreasing fish stocks, and acidiying waters will prevent shellfish in the future from existing in oceans, studies indicate. Source www.oceantrawlers.com
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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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SCIENCE PREDICTED ARCTIC MELTING OVER 30 YEARS AGO
Ask Not for Whom The Glacier Cries – the melting of the Arctic will affect the entire planet. Source slightlywarped.com
OO Researcher's 1979 Arctic Model Predicted Current Sea Ice Demise and holds lessons for future. The study predicted:
the fast, steep decline in sea ice;
the Arctic would be ice free in summers roughly around 2050,
When CO2 levels would be double that of pre-industrial levels.
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Although no one paid attention to the 1979 landmark study,
those predictions are playing out today,
and the paper noted that:
"Man's continued insertion of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere could cause dramatic climatic consequences worldwide.” And so it is.
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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 Trudeau, Trump Meeting Sidesteps The Countries' Climate Change Agreements
OO Trump's Vow To Scrap Paris Climate Accord Faces Flack From GOP Moderates and leaders of corporations. Dumping the accord would get him into a complicated legal battle.
OO Trump's Repeal Of Stream Rule Helps Coal At The Expense Of Americans, Climate And Life
China Is Winning the Global Clean Energy Race as Trump fails to recognize the economic and environmental promise of clean, renewable energy. Source www.smh.au
OO Trump Will Force China To Take Global Lead On Climate - Ma Jun, perhaps China's best-known environmentalist, notes:
- China put economic growth ahead of environmental protection,
- And the country is suffering immensely for it now:
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- 60% of groundwater is polluted,
- 4,000 people die daily from toxic air,
- As choking smog envelops the northeast.
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- Now, China invests heavily in clean energy.
- Trump could learn from China, bigtime.
Credit David Horsey at the Los Angeles Times
Confirmed To Lead The EPA
OO Financial Backers Of EPA Pick Scott Pruitt Have Faced Hundreds Of Pollution Actions Conflict of interest? Of course!
OO Trump's Likely Science Adviser Calls Climate Scientists 'Glassy-Eyed Cult
OO A Government Website For Kids Scrubbed Its Climate Warnings In recent weeks, “Energy Kids” has reworked and cut information about fossil fuels’ environmental impacts.
OO Auto Ceos Want Trump To Order Review Of 2025 Fuel Rules - Fuel standards are perhaps one of the most significant ways to reduce emissions in the transportation sector.
Resisting Trump
Hand Over That Smartphone, Nice and Easy Now… if you don’t trust science, Donald Trump! The other sign requires high school math: the square root of a negative number is imaginary. Credit Anja Hoffman at twitter.com
OO The Best Signs From The Science Rally In Boston - where many stood up for science, with great signs.
OO Hundreds Gather In Boston To ‘Stand Up For Science’ The Rally to Stand up for Science in Boston was a call to fight against President Trump’s efforts to discredit science and climate research.
OO Under Trump, Scientists Could Face Broader Challenges Than They Did Under G. W. Bush
Climate Change In NASA Pictures says it all, including the landslides caused from increasingly extreme weather.
OO NASA Is Defiantly Communicating Climate Change Science Despite Trump’s Doubts – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration continues to inform the public about the greatest threat facing our civilization.
OO I’m A Scientist. This Is What I’ll Fight For - More than a skirmish over funding, censorship, and “alternative facts”, it’s a battle for the future, basic decency, and the people we love.
OO Modern Day Heroes: Diehard Coders Just Rescued NASA’s Earth Science Data
200 adults just part of a larger nationwide army, came together at the University of California to rescue important scientific data before it disappeared on federal websites, the victim of Trump’s attack on the freedom of information.
Keep Your Frackin’ Hands Off Our Public Lands - sportsmen understand just how important the wilderness is for all Americans, not just the destructive greedy paws of the powerful few. Source Boise Weekly
OO Sportsmen Fight Trump Energy Plans Alongside Environmental Left - Outdoor sporting groups – often Republican in their support for guns rights and small government – now collaborate with the environmental left to fight Donald Trump’s push to open more public lands to energy development.
OO Investors With $2.8 Trillion In Assets Unite Against Donald Trump’s Climate Change Denial - The world’s biggest investors are joining forces to unite against Donald Trump in the fight against climate change.
OO Scientists' Group Launches Website To Help Federal Whistleblowers - Fearing a Trump assault on science, the Union of Concerned Scientists is creating a way for federal scientists to report abuses.
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CLIMATE MYTH BUSTERS!
OO The Reality of Climate Change - below are some of the biggest climate myths currently trending, compared to the reality. A good place for more details is here … where even more myths are busted!
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CLIMATE LEADERSHIP
OO A Rare Republican Call To Climate Action - A carbon tax proposal from party elders offers an opportunity to change the conversation on global warming.
OO Colorado Attorney General Sues Boulder County Over Oil, Gas Moratorium
Keeping Austria Beautiful means keeping its snowy mountains snowy, and safe from climate change. Source blogspot.com
OO Court Blocks Vienna Airport Expansion Due to Climate Change Concerns - Citing its accompanying rise in greenhouse gas emissions, an Austrian court says a new runway will work counter to the country's pledge to Paris climate agreement.
OO European Union: Meps Approve Overhaul Of EU Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme - to make it more effective.
OO Australia: Govt Coalition Gives $54 Million To Large-Scale Solar development which it says has the potential for pumped hydro storage.
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CLUELESS LEADERSHIP
OO US Congress: How A Minor Committee Became A 'Weapon' Of The Climate Wars - A House panel overseeing science has transformed over the past two years from a sleepy backwater committee into a subpoena-wielding, headline-generating political actor feared by actual scientists.
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HOT NEWS
OO Heat Waves Scorch The Arctic, Australia, Parts Of US - Record-high temperatures spike concerns about climate change's new normal in the melting Arctic and an already-hot Australia.
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MELTDOWN
As A Giant Iceberg Calves, Another Starts along the red dotted line, illustrating just how fast the Pine Island Glacier is breaking into the ocean under the onslaught of Arntarctic warming of both sea and air. Source NASA Earth Observatory
OO Antarctica Just Shed A Manhattan-Sized Chunk Of Ice
OO NASA Satellite Spots Mile-Long Iceberg Breaking Off Of Antarctic Glacier
OO Sea Ice Around Antarctica Hits Record Low preliminary US data show, after years of resisting a trend of man-made global warming.
@@ VIDEO: Canada’s Arctic Glaciers Now A Major Contributor To Sea-Level Rise - The Queen Elizabeth Islands, which include Ellesmere Island and dozens more, saw surface melt on its ice caps and glaciers accelerate by 900% over the course of a decade.
OO As Arctic Warms, Canada's Glaciers Playing Major Role In Sea Level Rise Since 2005, study finds that surface melt off glaciers in the North has risen by 900 percent.
OO Sea Ice Hits Record Lows At Both Poles - Antarctic sea ice set an all-time record low on Monday in a dramatic reversal from the record highs of recent years.
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO US Scores High In Global Clean Energy Race says a new World Bank report. Takeaways:
- 80% of 100+ countries have sustainable energy policies.
- 90+ % of nations have renewable energy targets, and most have supporting legislation.
- The world is racing fast to transition to clean energy.
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- Poverty is a barrier for several African nations, where access can be expensive.
- Technical efficiency in installing and integrating renewables with grids varies widely.
- More countries need to bolster energy efficiency with policies,e.g., appliance labeling, and mandated vehicle standards.
OO California Demand For Wind Power Energizes Transmission Firms where one will soon build the largest wind farm in the US to serve utilities in California, where officials have set ambitious green power goals.
OO America’s Climate Pollution Is Falling EPA report says, after 2 years of increases, reducing America’s overall climate pollution to below 1994 levels.
OO Wind Power Briefly Sets Record As Source For Electricity In US
OO 'The Wild West Of Wind':
Republicans Push Texas As Unlikely Green Energy Leader - The most oil-rich and fracking-friendly of states is also a national leader in a wind energy boom. Energy without the pollution or climate change!
OO The West’s Largest Coal-Fired Power Plant Is Closing.
Not Even Trump Can Save It
The Saudi Solar Touch Source The Guardian
OO OPEC’s Top Producer Is Turning To Wind And Solar Power – Saudi Arabia is turning to wind and solar to generate power at home and help extend the life of its crucial crude franchise.
OO Indonesia: Coal’s Climate Threat Helps Its Decline - Environmental advocacy has significantly decreased the coal industry in many countries; pressure is now focused on places like Indonesia where coal remains relatively strong.
- Indonesia is one of the world’s biggest exporters of thermal coal,
- But as its main customers, China and India, scale back on coal use,
- Indonesia is trying to boost its domestic coal industry.
- But that might be hard, partly as foreign financiers are pressured by green groups to pull out.
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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS
A Warmer Climate Helps Spread Zika virus, linked to the birth of tragically short-lived microcephalic babies, by increasing the habitable range of its carriers, mosquitoes. Now imagine the wide array of other pathogens that will be similarly helped in a heating world. Source bn.thetodaypost.com
OO Critical Condition: Health Experts Sound The Climate Alarm at a recent meeting, painting a dire wide-ranging portrait of climate change’s public health impacts, but noting that it could be reversed by dramatically switching to clean renewable energy.
MEH: and bringing our populations to sustainable levels – also quite doable now with the advent of effective longterm contraceptives.
Related:
OO Atlanta Conference Highlights Global Warming Threats
OO There's Another Reason To Worry About Climate Change: Your Health as past history has shown, says an editor of the new book Climate Change and the Health of Nations.
The Growing Face of Climate Change in California is this photo of the massive damage to the Oroville Dam from the recent extreme storms that caused raging overspill. Source CA Department of Water Resources
OO Oroville Is A Warning For California Dams, As Climate Change Adds Stress as the state’s water infrastructure suffers from age and stress, older dams may not be designed to deal with severe weather patterns brought by global warming.
MEH: now imagine what the conditions are of dams of all sizes throughout the US…
OO How Did The Oroville Dam Crisis Get So Dire? Drought, climate change, and aging infrastructure combined to create a looming catastrophe that forced 188,000 Californians to evacuate.
OO California’s Biggest Security Threat? Climate Change, Says Former Adviser threatening our nation’s shores.
California Beaches at Record Levels of Erosion – as this pebble lined beach shows. Coastal erosion in general is increasing, as highlighted by houses that are falling off crumbling cliffs. Source wegophotography.com
OO Worst Erosion In 150 Years Hits California Beaches new U.S. Geological Survey report finds, with the 2015-2016 El Nino season sending erosion levels up to 70+% above normal.
OO Climate Change Whiplash:
California, Parched For 5 Years, Is Now Battered By Water as predicted further extreme weather, in the form of severe storms, refilled CA’s surface water supplies; its aquifers, still partly depleted, are still in a state of drought.
A Drying Kyrgyzstan Reservoir Feeds Central Asia’s Bread Basket, the Usbek Fergana Valley, considered the agricultural heartland of central Asia. This is just one of many signs pointing to the rising violence over shrinking resources. Credit John Wendle
OO Central Asia: When Climate Change Starts Wars – Takeaways:
- Global warming is twice the global average in Central Asia
- And larger in the last decade than any previous decade,
- threatening its agricultural heartland.
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- Political instability and violence are increasing there,
- As the shrinking of already scarce resources forces
- Villages to fight each other daily over water and land for survival.
Two-Thirds of the Melting Glaciers Will Be Gone by 2100 say scientists, down from their 1955 levels. They feed the rivers that feed the farms. Credit John Wendle
- The heartland is heavily populated,
- And ever shrinking resources
- Ensure ever rising conflicts.
OO Drought Once Again A Concern In Oklahoma
OO Brazil Races Against Time To Save Drought-Hit City, Dying Crops – as its arid northeast weathers its worst drought on record. Campina Grande, which has 400,000 residents that depend on the reservoir, is running out of water.
OO Fiji’s Human Cost Of Climate Change: Rising Sea Levels - 33 Fijian villages are earmarked for relocation, a direct result of climate change.
Farmers and fishermen will suffer: no relocation guarantees their former livelihoods.
Hey, What Happened To All The Snow? Climate change, that’s what. Already decreasing ski seasons worldwide, it will get worse as the world continues heating. This is the famed ski resort of Davos, Switzerland in December 2015. Photo Source SLF
OO Alpine Ski Resorts Could Lose Up To 70% Of Snow Cover By 2100 say Swiss experts.
OO Mexico City, Parched And Sinking, Faces A Water Crisis – as climate change threatens to push a crowded capital toward a breaking point.
OO Climate Increasing Future Risk Of Big Wildfires – even in New Zealand, says rural fire expert.
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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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GOOD IDEAS
OO Why Floodplains Could Be California’s Buffer Against Climate Extremes - Groundwater recharge, flood protection and wildlife habitat all depend on floodplains. Now California is trying to revive them to ease its dramatic swings between drought and flood.
OO In The Sierras, New Approaches To Protecting Forests Under Stress - In California’s Sierras and around the world, extreme drought and rising temperatures are killing trees and threatening the viability of forests. Some ecologists are saying that land managers now need to adopt radically new strategies.
OO Wind Turbines Inspired By Insect Wings Are 35% More Efficient Flexible blades shown to work better in a wider range of wind conditions.
OO Beyond Being Green: Many US Businesses Need To Urge Climate Action – the leaders of some are, but far more have to stand up and refuse to support Trump and the GOP’s climate inaction.
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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS
OO Coastal Everglades Is Dying Of Thirst as Florida keeps depriving this national park of fresh water, pushing this unique marshy ecosystem to an unhealthy ‘tipping point.’ Everglades takeaways:
- Decades of freshwater diversion, combined with
- Rising sea levels via climate change,
- Are now destroying peat soil
- Which stores vast amounts of carbon.
Endangered Wildlife in the Endangered Everglades include the Florida panther, the Florida black bear, and the American Ghost Orchid.
- Occurring much faster than expected,
- The loss of peat soil threatens to
- Turn land into vast expanses of open, dark water,
- which further speeds soil loss,
- And decline of the Everglades.
OO Disappearing Seagrass Protects Against Pathogens, Even Climate Change scientists find.
An ecological cornerstone is vanishing rapidly from the oceans, and scientists fear the consequences for climate change, fisheries and disease.
Those Fishes Will Disappear, Too as the now dead coral fails to provide needed cover and food for them. The tragic loss of coral on the iconic Great Barrier Reef continues. Source Australian Marine Conservation Society
OO Images Of New Bleaching On Great Barrier Reef Heighten Fears Of Coral Death further,
The embattled Great Barrier Reef could face yet more severe coral bleaching in the coming month, with areas badly hit by last year’s event at risk of death. The Guardian.
OO UK: Urban Butterflies Decline Almost 70%
Compared To 45% Drop In Countryside - Pesticides, paving and higher temperatures have put huge strain on butterflies in cities over past two decades, find study.
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SPEAKING OUT
OO World’s Top 20 Economies Urged To Ditch Fossil Fuel Subsidies By 2020, Go Green – and the voices behind that urging are economically powerful: Investors and insurers with more than $2.8 trillion in assets under management.
Source inhabitat.com
OO Massachusetts: Environmentalists Push For 100 Percent Renewable Energy Use by 2035 and are supporting newly submitted state bills requiring that.
OO Virginia: Fossil Fuels Foe Calls Proposed Pipelines 'Climate Disasters’ – when the true costs of fossil fuels are taken into account.
OO Responding To Protestors, Thailand Junta Puts Coal-Fired Power Plant Plan On Hold in an area known for its pristine tourist beaches.
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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES
OO The United States Of Oil And Gas - Since 2010, the United States has been in an oil-and-gas boom, bringing ever more climate change to its citizens, and the world, to enrich the greedy few.
OO Texas Oil Fields Rebound From Price Lull, But Jobs Are Left Behind as the industry replace men with machines. But as jobs go away, what of presidential promises to bring them back?
OO Virginia: Toxic Coal Waste Pollutes Water Supplies – highlighting the huge problem posed from burning coal – what to do with the toxic waste?
Past waste water disposal showed how coal waste can destroy what were clean water supplies. Now, green groups oppose a burial disposal plan that could further destroy clean water supplies.
Oh, India, Most Foul – where city air pollution has soared to levels such that even moderate physical activity outdoors could prove harmful. New Delhi on a “sunny” day. Source Money Sharma, AFP at Getty Images
OO India: The Foul Air We Breathe – of concern is that in the most polluted cities, even moderate physical activity could prove harmful, rather than be beneficial, as new research indicates.
India’s clean-up priorities need to shift gear urgently, covering both farm and city.
OO Balkans Rival Beijing In Worst Winter Air Pollution – in Pristina, Kosovo, as the coldest winter in a decade swept through, and ailing power plants belched ever more pollution.
OO What Oil Crisis? Arctic Drilling Off Norway Set For Record as explorers look set to drill a record number of wells in Norway’s Arctic waters this year, undeterred by oil prices apparently stuck below $60 a barrel.
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If we do not live sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
@@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception is an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy
Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers:
Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearlythe Guttmacher Institute
Teen Childbearing Alone 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 SURFING
OO US Solar Market Grows 95% In 2016, Smashes Record
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, Mar 2, 2074
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 the state in a GROUNDWATER drought, not shown on drought monitor maps, 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!
Most of the US shows below average temperatures, except for the east coast, which is experiencing unusual warmth.
The area around the North Pole is 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 butterfly 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.