We're At 400 PPM - Last Time THAT Happened, the Arctic was 14oF Warmer, says a new study, reports Joe Romm at Climate Progress, indicating the planet is far more sensitive to carbon dioxide levels than once thought - and that it might be far warmer for our descendents than we thought. Sounds like we will be leaving them a hell on earth...
Quote Of The Week:
"Allowing decisions to be based on the needs and desires of one industry are likely to be disastrous for the country at large."
Mariann Spontak, NRDC Switchboard comment, May 17, 2013
We don't have to go far for examples of this in the US...
☼☼☼ On the Bright Side ☼☼☼
OO SheerWind Promises Wind Energy as Cheap as Gas, says the company about its radical new wind turbine that will deliver energy far more efficiently and cheaply... stay tuned...
A radical new wind turbine, Credit Sheerwind.com
OO 2014 To Be A 7,000 Megawatt Year For US Wind Power while Warren Buffett vastly expands his Iowa wind turbines this year...
OO Streamlining Local Solar Permitting Means Far Cheaper US Solar Power
OO Over 100 'Clean Air Ambassadors' Tell Congress: Clean Up Your Act - doctors, clergy et al say finalize carbon limits, & create stronger regulations... will Congress listen?
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OO Study Finds 97% Consensus on Human-Caused Global Warming in the Peer-Reviewed Literature But you can always find hold out deniers on TV and in the newspapers, if you miss them...
Consensus Gap: Scientists Agree Far More on Climate Change Than Much of the Public Thinks
OO Zombie Climate Sceptic Theories Survive Only In Newspapers And On TV impervious to the education accessible in 97% of the scientific literature
OO Solar Power Costs Closing In On Wind As One Subs For The Other
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OO Airlines Fined Millions For Carbon Emissions Says Euro Commission - If you fly dirty, you pay for it
OO A Rare Bipartisan Clean Energy Bill Is Ready for Passage - tweaking the tax code to extend the same fossil fuel investment tax breaks to clean energy --- yesssssss!!!!
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Bye-bye Butterfly: Global Warming To Halve Habitat For Over 10,000 Common Species, says a new study, reports Jeremy Hance at Mongabay. Actually, it'll probably be worse, say study authors, since they didn't take into account other factors - like increasing extreme weather, diseases and pests... although humans are probably the biggest pests to life (including human life) on Earth right now... 
Scarlet Macaw, Credit Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com
Climate Change, Population and Bad Policy = Social Chaos, notes Thomas Friedman at the New York Times, in Syria and elsewhere. The current Syrian revolution was partly fueled by governmental failure to aid a rapidly increasing population, suffering from the current extreme drought - the sort of thing we can expect more of, under climate change, throughout the world... as it is, Iraq might be next...
Amazonian Water Cycle Has Become More Extreme over the past two decades says a new study, reports Rhett Butler at Mongabay, with increasingly severe storms, occasionally punctuated by drought, across the basin, as its south gets drier.... Hmmm, storms and droughts... Sound familiar?
Rainforest Dams Need Rainforests to Supply Water says a new study, reports Rhett Butler at Mongabay. As both climate change and human exploitation deforest the Amazon, the results could decrease the project power output of the new oncoming dam by 75%. That's a lot of lost energy, water, and trees....
Newly deforested land for farming, surrounded by Brazilian rainforest, Credit Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com
(((((((( Seeking the Science ))))))))
OO Fish Are Fleeing Climate-Warmed Waters For Polar Waters -- Yes, you're right, there's definitely something fishy here...
OO Eat Insects To Mitigate Deforestation And Climate Change, Says UN - uh, gulp, alright... hey, that's MY cockroach!
OO Climate Change A Major Threat to Biodiversity, others being habitat destruction, overharvesting and poaching, pollution, and introduction of invasive species.
Credit Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com
OO Arctic Is Melting Faster, But Melting Glaciers Contribute Significantly to Sea-level Rise - up to a third of annual rise, says a new study.
***** US Climate Change News ****
OOMajor Media Often Fail to Note the Fossil Fuel Funding Behind Thinktanks when quoting them...
OO Taxpayers Get Nearly $100 Billion Bill For 2012 Extreme Weather - YeeeeeeOUCH!!
Credit NRDC
OO EPA Is Required To Regulate Carbon Pollution From Existing Power Plants for those who don't know this yet, which is why...
OO Industry Groups Urge Supreme Court To Ban EPA From Regulating CO2
OO USGS Survey: Warmer Springs Causing Loss Of Snow Cover Throughout The Rocky Mountains
OO Worsening A Warming-Fueled Wildfire Season, Sequestration Threatens Firefighting Efforts - droughts and wildfires dramatically affect wildlife, wildflowers, butterflies...oh, and people, too...
Credit NOAA, via Climate Progress
OO Dramatic Erosion, Floods Now Threaten Nearly All Native Alaskan Villages
OO Giant ,Growing Tar Mound Owned By Koch Engulfing Detroit - and the big D doesn't know what to do with this ever growing mountain of black waste...
OO Drought Dividing US into Midwestern 'haves' and Western 'have-nots' My crystal ball sees lots of water lawyers becoming very busy and happy...
Credit Mary Ellen Harte
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<<<< Climate Change Round the World >>>>
OO 30 Million+ People Displaced By Climate, Weather-Related Events Last Year
OO Insurance Industry Depends On Scientific Thought, Sees Rising Climate Costs
OO Study Finds Warming In Central China Far Greater Than Most Thought
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OO Flooding Now Threatens One In Four London Properties
OO World Set To Blow Carbon Budget Needed To Avoid Catastrophic Climate
OO Rainforest Tribe Urges Norwegian King To Recall Energy Executive
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OO Mount Everest Glaciers Have Shrunk 13% In 50 Years
Global ice update : it's melting everywhere, but far faster at the poles, and slower at glaciers 
From Climate Crocks via Arctic Sea Ice Blog
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@@@ Climate Change in the Media @@@
Via Climate Nexus
OO @@ WEEKLY CLIMATE CHANGE VIDEO SERIES!! @@ Entitled "In Case You Missed It" via the good folks at Climate Nexus on Vimeo - select headlines delivered in less than 90 seconds with good graphics. Cool watching -- spread the word!!
OO BOOK: CASSE, the Center for the Advancement of a Steady State Economy, is proud to feature a new book, Supply Shock: Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution. Finally some economic common sense!
OO FILM: Damocracy: explores the shortcomings of dams - check it out! Methane emissions from dams are only of concern in areas where there is enough drowned biomass for microbes to create methane. On the other hand, the sheer weight of dammed water can encourage earthquakes - not good news for the dams of earthquake-prone Turkey.
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☼☼☼Acting Like You Care: The XL Keystone pipeline will make possible far more climate change, but President Obama might okay it anyway. Credo, 350.org and others are asking people to stand up and be counted as nonviolent resisters or help in other ways. I did. If you ever wanted to do something big for your future, now's your chance - 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 these wonderful mushrooms David Work so generously shared with me. 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. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.
