Climate Change This Week: U.S. Droughts, Clean Energy Jobs and More

As if tornadoes aren't enough, USA Today reports that droughts are intensifying all over the U.S. -- you know, the sort of extreme weather likely to occur under continued global warming, according to the International Panel on Climate Change...

Agence France Presse details a new published study showing that the Pacific Ocean has risen eight inches in two centuries, with the rate of sea level rise surging higher and faster beginning in the 1880s, and an unusual spike in the 1990s that seems likely due to melting Arctic ice from human-driven climate change.

Inside Climate News details a new Pew study showing that while the U.S. leads in clean energy investment, China leads in clean energy job creation... ouch. Apparently, China's clean energy goals (the U.S. lacks these) are making a difference.

The UK Guardian reports that Lloyd's of London, the biggest global insurer, is urging Arctic energy investors to slow down and first do the preliminary research on environmental impacts and needed safety measures, before countries find themselve footing costly cleanup bills created by corporate-driven environmental disasters there.

New Scientist details a 2010 published study showing that phytoplankton, the staff of sealife upon which much of humanity depends, has plummeted about 40% globally since the 1940s... declining phytoplankton is predicted to occur under climate change, because warmer surface waters prevent the upwelling of cold nutrient-rich water needed to feed the little fellers.