Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Mar 20 2014
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. Looking above at recent temperature anomalies and the jetstream, the polar aneurism over the US seems to have dissipated, while the North Pole and surroundings (that big orange spot) is experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. That unusuallly warm and persistent Pacific air mass west of California continues to maintain the drought by blocking significant precipitation. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats. (Add 0.3-0.4 C to have these anomaly values calibrate with those of NASA.) Daily updates of can be seen here for both the temperature anomalies map, and the jetstream map. For real time animated US surface wind patterns, click here, and here, for the planet. (Clicking on "earth" there reveals data and map options.)
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BTW, Your Home Is On Fire: The Danger of Sitting Still on Climate is real, reports Rebecca Solnit at The Nation. A 911 CEO survivor offers a powerful parable: he refused to listen to officials urging people to return to 'normal' (ie, their desks) in the towers that day, but acted boldly on his own, saving his life. Similarly, the world must act boldly even in the face of leaders who do nothing, if we are to save civilization from an unliveable climate.
NASA: Industrial Civilisation Headed For 'Irreversible Collapse' reports Nafeez Ahmed at the UK Guardian. HOAX ALERT!! NASA DID NOT SPONSOR OR AUTHOR THIS -- although many writers were "taken in" by this. Nonetheless, THIS IDEA IS PLAUSIBLE. Global industrial civilisation could collapse in coming decades due to unsustainable resource exploitation and increasingly unequal wealth distribution.
It's possible that the shadow author of this paper read Joseph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies (1988), available here, in which he builds a very solid argument, with historical examples, that complex societies are particularly susceptible to collapse. This makes the drive towards social and resource sustainability that much more urgent. Part of the solution is bringing our populations to sustainable levels -- by supplying every woman on Earth with the materials and rights to control their reproduction, which would cost about as much as one year of the Iraq war cost the US.
Perhaps the author wanted us all to focus on this very real threat.
Poll: 75% of US Homeowners Say Utilities Shouldn't Block Solar Power reports Herman Trabish at GreenTechMedia. Republicans especially agreed with this, reports Joanna Foster at Climate Progress. While concerned about cost, consumers want solar power as an option, and they're open to buying it from the utility or a third party. Over half of those polled were interested in solar for their homes. Want to check out your options? Keep reading...
Check it out here, right now!
EU-US Trade Pact Would Spur Fracking In Europe a report warns, writes John McGarrity at Responding To Climate Change. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) aims to eliminate barriers for US companies investing in Europe and vice versa, but could be used to ride roughshod over public opposition to exploitation of shale gas, green groups warn in a recent report. "The talks are likely to favour safeguards for corporate investments over safeguards for citizens and the environment, allowing companies to seek compensation when government decisions affect their profits," the report noted.
To find out how, check out Pear Energy and Ethical Electricity.
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NASA: Global Warming Likely To Be 20% Higher Than Previous Thought reports Joe Romm at Climate Progress. The temporary slowdown of atmospheric (not global, which includes oceans) warming is partly due to to cooling effect of particulate pollution over land in the Northern Hemisphere, note John Abraham and Dana Nuccitelli at the UK Guardian. That cooling effect has been underestimated, meaning that the warming effect it masked was also underestimated. This affects the lower end of predicted warming, estimated at 3 to 9o F; the new findings indicate that it will more likely warm between 6 to 9oF, especially as aerosols decline and greenhouse gases rise. Another reason to switch to clean energy ASAP.
Source: Climate Progress
A New Blueprint: US Can Run 100% on Clean Renewables by 2050 reports Herman Trabish at GreenTechMedia. Professor Mark Jacobson, a Stanford University energy expert, has been creating a series of scenarios for the US running entirely on renewables by 2050. His latest released set of calculations shows that, by 2050, onshore and offshore wind, utility-scale and rooftop PV, concentrated solar power, geothermal, wave, tidal and conventional hydropower can meet 100 percent of U.S. energy demand, using less than one percent of US land. No, it won't be an easy haul, but the prize - a liveable Earth for our civilization, and a far healthier US economy - is worth it.
Pick Yer Poison: every US state is experiencing the heightened extreme weather effects predicted under continuing climate change.
Lessons From the Senate's Climate Change All-nighter, reports Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca) at the Huffington Post, include: climate change is occurring here and now, and every US state is affected by it, from extreme droughts, storms and floods to sea level rise. The solutions are good for our country and economy, and we can't wait for other nations to lead.
Source: US State Dept
John Kerry Issues Seven Point Climate Change Plan reports Ed King at Responding To Climate Change. The points are:
1. Lead by active example both at home and abroad;
2. Conclude an international climate change treaty;
3. Implement the Global Climate Change Initiative to get the whole govt fully engaged in reducing emissions and promoting clean energy;
4. Help lead multinational efforts;
5. Enhance engagement bilaterally with other countries;
6. mobilize the necessary financing;
7. Integrate climate change with other priorities.
Despite making more accurate forecasts within their discipline than economists do on the economy, climate scientists are not taken as seriously by the lawmakers they serve, a recent study shows.
Source: Australia Bureau of Meteorology.
Climate Scientists Are Better Forecasters Than Economists in general, a new study concludes, reports Kieran Cooke at the Climate News Network. When it came to forecasting UK's population growth, UK's debt to Gross National Product ratio, and US oil prices, the scientists won out. Economists failed to predict the 2008 recession, while climate scientists have been predicting the ever worsening path of climate change for two decades, especially via the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The irony is, goverments are listening to economists far more seriously than climate scientists, especially in the US. Want to tweet your favorite Congressman/woman with this nugget of insight?
Beneath the oceans' sunlit waters loom far darker problems from a changing climate: too much heat, too little oxygen, and an acidifying environment that threatens all marine life. Credit: Kein at Wikimedia Commons.
Effects Of Climate Change On Oceans 'Is Beyond Argument' says the Global Ocean Commission (GOC), reports Alex Kirby at Climate News Network. The GOC says climate change is one of the key threats to the health of the world's marine life, which it says faces multiple pressures in a warming world. The climate change threat is 3-fold to ocean waters : it raises temperatures, depletes oxygen, and acidifies the water, making it difficult for marine life to build shells and skeletons.
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The Price Of Ignoring Climate Change Is Far Higher Than We Think reports Jessica Leber at Fast Company. Although critics of strong national climate change policies often talk about how much taking action costs the economy, they usually don't compare it to the cost of doing nothing - which will be far higher in the future from the pollution we're emitting now, as both the damaging effects of climate change, and the difficulty of slowing it, escalate. The latest symptom of ignoring climate change is the latest underestimate of the social cost of carbon.
Greenland, Antarctica Ice Is Irreversibly Adding to Sea Level Rise: Threatening Billion Coast Dwellers WorldWide reports Jeff Inglis at Global Post. This will boost previous sea rise estimates. The Jakobshavn (JI) Greenland glacier will continue its run into the sea for perhaps a century, while the West Antarctic Ice Sheet will do so for centuries, possibly millennia. Meanwhile, new research shows that northeast Greenland glacier s (NEGIS) have accelerated melting over the past decade, losing 10 billion tons of ice annually; this, too, won't stop anytime soon. The inevitable contributions of these ice sources to rising seas is big enough to threaten coastal dwellers worldwide, and will boost previous estimate of sea level rise. Scientists don't know how much more the sea level rise will speed up. We do know that it can't be stopped, though, and that coastal dwellers will have to move. Not good news, folks.
Should those who mislead the public on climate change be held criminally negligent? Many organizations who openly supported the public promotion of climate denialism now have resorted to clandestine support. These organizations should be held to account. Graphic, Mary Ellen Harte.
Is Misinformation About The Climate Criminally Negligent? asks Lawrence Torcello at The Conversation UK. GOOD QUESTION!! Clearly communicating science to the public should not be underestimated, since accurately understanding the message can be a matter of life or death. Those who actively mislead the public on climate change should be found criminally negligent, since many thousands have, and many millions could, die because of inaction on this issue. Misleading information discourages the action needed to prevent such deaths. Hope Earth Justice or someone else takes on this issue...
Quote of the Week:
"Science is not there for you to cherry pick...You can decide whether or not to believe in it but that doesn't change the reality of an emergent scientific truth."
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, host of the new series COSMOS, in OO Neil DeGrasse Tyson To Science Deniers: 'Science Is Not There For You To Cherry Pick' March 10, Climate Progress.
Bill Nye, a climate scientist and communicator. Source: Ed Schipul at Wikimedia Commons
Helping Scientists Help You: the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund Needs Your Help! CSLDF provides valuable legal resources to climate scientists in need. (Read: under attack by deniers funded by fat cats like the Koch Bros, who hope to harass climate scientists into silence.) The organization provides legal webinars, workshops, and counsel to those in need. They're launching a fundraiser starting March 24th, with a goal of $80,000. The first $40,000 in tax deductible donations (here) will be matched by a generous donor. Empty your piggybanks, folks, and please spread the word on this!
☼☼☼ On the Bright Side ☼☼☼
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(>(>(> PEOPLE SPEAK OUT
OO Europe Should Lead On Climate Change Say Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson
OO Climate Chief Warns Battle To Curb Warming Is Becoming Harder
OO Richard Branson: Business Must 'Stand Up To Climate Deniers'
OO Greenpeace Stages Protest In Rainforest Destroyed For Palm Oil
OO US Senator Harry Reid: Climate Change Is 'A Question Of Our Own Survival'
Source: fractivist at twitter
OO Thousands Turn Up For California's Largest-Ever Rally To Ban Fracking
OO 60 Local Businesses Called on New York Gov. Cuomo to Support Wind Power
OO Opposition Grows As Oil Pipelines Proliferate In Northern Minnesota
OO Influential U.S. Think Tank Urges Obama to Reject Keystone XL
OO House Dems Add To Keystone Pressure
OO Environmentalists, Congressman Call for Fracking Ban in Delaware River Basin
OO Senate Panel Blocks Vote on LNG Export Plan
OO Egypt: Activists Rally Against Coal Imports
OO Australia: Economists Back Carbon Pricing As Effective Tool Against Climate Change
OO UK's Leading Wildlife And Countryside Groups Warn Government Of Fracking Risks
An English butterfly. Butterflies and fracking do not mix. Credit James K. Lindsey, at Wikimedia Commons.
OO Call For 'Frack-Free Zones' To Protect UK's Wildlife And Water
☼☼☼ BRIGHT IDEAS ☼☼☼
OO How Curbing Climate Change Can Prevent Russia From Becoming A Superpower
OO How Talking About Climate Change Might Actually Help Democrats Win Elections
OO Weather Climate Change With Clean Energy
OO Why Is There No Manhattan Project To Tackle Climate Change? Why indeed?
OO 8 Ways to Make Solar Installations Faster, Safer and Cheaper
OO Raise Livestock More Efficiently, Say Scientists
OO In the Pastures of Colombia, Cows, Crops and Timber Coexist
OO Human Pee: a Potential Energy Source
OO Kansas: Dry Wichita Falls To Try Drinking 'Potty Water'
Source: 2bgr8 at Wikimedia Commons.
OO Activist Investors Try To Wring Money Out Of Oil Companies
OO The Ultimate Missed Social-Media Opportunity For Brands: Climate Change
OO Turning Food Waste Into Fuel Takes Trillions Of Bacteria
A University of California at Santa Cruz microgrid. Source: UCSC
OO Islands Of Light: Creating Cheap, Quick Rural Community Microgrids
OO Potential Of Non Fossil Fuel Foams For Insulation, Packing
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OO Oceans Stand to Deliver Abundant Carbon-free Energy
OO Navy Gets a $24 Million Pool, We Get Low Cost Wave Power
☼☼☼ BRIGHT SIDE, STATE SIDE ☼☼☼
Source: solarpanelspower.net
OO Obama, EU To Stand Together On Climate Change Draft
OO Utility-Scale PV to Account for 55% of US Installations in 2014
OO Cheapest Solar Power Price Yet: 5 cents/ Kw Hr
via forcechange.com
OO Now You Can Walk Into A Best Buy And Get A Solar System For Your Home
OO Smart Thermostat Sales Heat Up
OO Google Reaps Tax Breaks in $1.4 Billion Clean Energy Bet
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OO Public Transit Use In U.S. Is At a 57-Year High, Report Finds
OO The Top 10 States for Green Buildings
OO California Sets Back-To-Back Solar Generation Records
For more news on green technology, click here.
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OO CA Governor Brown, Treasurer Lockyer kick-start CA clean energy program
OO CA: San Diego Is Hotbed For Microgrid Research
OO Florida: Climate Change Showdown In Governor's Race
Via energyofsolarandwind.com
OO Iowa 5th-Largest Clean Energy Jobs Creator In Fourth Quarter
OO Iowa Senate Panel Approves Boost for Solar Energy Tax Credits
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OO MA: The Model for US Non-residential Solar Power
OO Minnesota Becomes First State To Set 'Value Of Solar' Tariff
OO How A Missouri Republican Became A 'Green Champion'
Credit Nat Hamilton/WHYYNewsat
OO New York: Albany Places Moratorium On Crude Oil Port Expansion
OO New York: Climate Change Program Hits Record Price
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OO Texas Moves To Top Spot In Creation Of Green Jobs
OO Vermont Senate Backs Bill To Expand Home-Grown Energy
☼☼☼ BRIGHT SIDE, WORLDWIDE ☼☼☼
OO Latin America Is Emerging as a Force in Solar Power
OO India: Likely New Prime Minister Signals Solar Revolution For Economy
OO Japan Steps In To Help Laos Cut Carbon Emissions
OO Conference In Philippines Helps Strengthen REDD+ Safeguards
The most comprehensive newsfeed on climate change online.
For more news on our changing climate from all over the news media, click here.
http://www.dailyclimate.org/
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The most comprehensive newsfeed on climate change online.
For more news on our changing climate around the world, click here.
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OO West Sumatra Joins Indonesia's REDD+ Program
OO Progressive Palm Oil Group Invites Others To Adopt Zero Deforestation Policies
OO New Web Tool To Help Local Groups Protect Forests with REDD+
An orangutan orphan: orangutans stand to benefit from palm oil plantations halting deforestation. credit: Rhett Butler at Mongabay.com
OO A New Leaf in the Rainforest: Longtime Villain Vows Reform
OO Tokyo To Reach CO2 Targets Without Its Carbon Trading Scheme
OO Three EU Countries Hit 2020 Renewable Benchmarks Early
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OO Norway's Oil Fund Set To Drive Surge In Clean Energy Investments
OO Iceland Plans To Start $2 Billion Ethiopian Power Project
OO EU To Seek 2030 Climate, Energy Deal By Year End, Draft Shows
Arctic flora. Credit: Mary Ellen Harte.
OO Europe Votes For An Arctic Sanctuary
OO EU Backs Big Curbs On Superstrength Greenhouse Gases
OO Green Bonds Crusade Against Climate Change
OO Canada: Green Energy Costs 'Minimal' for Consumers, Study Shows
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The flag flies, May 21, 2013.
At Moore, OK, the day after a huge tornado demolished it.
Credit Major Jon Quinlan/defenseimagery mil
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***** US Climate Change News *****
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OO Poll: Global Warming No Big Threat To USA Life - boy, do they need educating... keeep reading...
OO Federal Report: Climate Change Threatens Energy Infrastructure
OO Currents Heat Alaska, Chill Maine
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OO Brutal Winter, And Painful Rises In Heat Costs
OO A Terrible Winter Wreaks Havoc On Roads, Pipes And City Budgets
OO New Jersey: Coastal Homeowners Debate Whether To Rebuild Or Retreat - hint, hint: sea levels are still rising...
Dust Storm. Source: wikipedia.
OO West Texas Gets 1,000-Foot Wall Of Dust With Front
OO Drought Closes Oregon Resort Before The Season Ever Opened
OO In Central Texas, Drought Threatens Hydropower
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OO East Greets End of Winter; West Facing Wildfires
OO Clinton Dodges Keystone, Prompting Donors To Rethink Support
OO Understanding the Risks of Crowdsourced Clean Energy Investing
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. . . . CALIFORNIA DRYIN' . . . .
Folsom Lake before and after the drought took hold. credit: Left, googleEarth; right, CA Dept of Water Resources.
OO CA Drought May Force State To Truck 30 Million Salmon To Pacific Ocean
OO California Drought: Strife Over Groundwater Boils Over
OO Water Fight Pits Farmer Against Farmer
Source: wikipedia
OO Farm To Fork: California Drought To Drive Up Food Prices In The Long Term
OO New Study Predicts Fewer Rainy Days In California's Future
OO CA Drought Dries Up Hydro, But Other Renewable Sources Help Out
<><><><> FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES <><><><>
OO Fracking Industry Effectively Bars Anti-Fracking Activist From Her Hometown http://www.planetark.org/enviro-news/item/71204
OO America's Dirtiest Secret The oil and gas industry's contamination is so large, it's been deemed impossible to prevent or clean up by both industry and government. An unimaginable tonnage of environmental contamination occurs annually thanks to lax regulations.
OO Dirty Coal Rush Taints Illinois' Clean Energy Campaign
Fracking has not caused big enough earthquakes to cause damage like this - yet. Credit Katorisi at Wikimedia Commons.
OO Study Warns Of Oil Activity-Induced Earthquakes
OO Another Firm That Evaluated Keystone For State Dept Had Ties To Transcanada
OO Fracking: US Becoming A Bigger Oil Producer Than Saudi Arabia
OO Four Years After Deepwater Disaster, US To Let BP Oil Rigs Back Into The Gulf
<><><><> GOPPING IT UP <><><><>
Even elephants can't survive on oil. Credit: Mary Ellen Harte
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OO GOP House Panel Investigates EPA's Power Plant Rule Setting
http://www.planetark.org/enviro-news/item/71211
OO ALEC Launches New Effort To Influence Local Government Policy
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OO Indiana: GOP Legislators Kill Successful Energy-Efficiency Program
OO GOP Congressional House Killed Wind Power Tax Credit For This Year
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Via the University of East Anglia Climate Change webpage
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<<<< Climate Change Round the World >>>>
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El Nino builds up heat in the eastern Pacific, with ramifications far and wide. Via the UK Guardian Climate Consensus blog.
OO El Niño Warning Puts Farmers And Commodities Investors On Alert
OO UN Warns Food Security A Risk To Asia-Pacific
OO Asia-Pacific Failing To Save Forests, Grassland Loss
A smallpox survivor. Source: wikipedia.
OO Global Warming To Release Feared Smallpox Virus From Thawing Siberian Corpses warn scientists, potentially contaminating anyone who comes in contact with it and setting off another epidemic. .
OO Pollution Just Got More Expensive For Multinational Company
OO Italian Judge Orders Shutdown Of Coal Plant Following Deaths And Disease
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OO Climate Change "Bad Boys" Must Make Amends, Say Marshall Islands
OO Pacific Island States Pushed Aside In Race For UN Funds
OO Canada: Oil Industry Wants To Teach Your Children
Several species of mosquitos are carriers of human diseases. Credit: James Gathany
OO Africa: Warmer Years Linked To More Malaria
OO East African Countries Are Dealing With The Impacts Of Climate Change
OO Vanishing Ice Warning For 'Africa's Alps'
Source: Climate Council of Australia.
OO Australia Warned To Prepare For Hotter Summers
OO Australia: Drought Curbs Amibition to be Asia's Food Bowl
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OO Clean Energy Investors Abandon Australia, Head Overseas
OO Australian Drought Extracts $320 Milllion Price For Farm Bailouts
OO Burning Spikes In Indonesia On Logging, Palm Oil Industries Holdings possibly lit to deforest.
OO Indonesian Sugar Company Poised To Destroy Half Of Island Paradise's Forests
OO Indonesia: Proposed Law Too Weak To Protect Peatlands, Stop Haze says Greenpeace
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OO Deforestation Haze Could Be Affecting Coral Reefs
OO Cocaine: The New Face Of Deforestation In Central America
OO China's 'War On Smog' Won't Cut CO2 By Much: Study
Smog over the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. Credit Brian Jeffrey Beggerly via wikimedia commons.
OO Nine Chinese Cities Suffered More Days Of Severe Smog Than Beijing
OO Vietnam Coffee Production Hit By Extreme Weather
OO India: Get Ready For More Freaky Weather
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OO Misery Mounts In Drought-Hit Southeast Pakistan
OO Mining Clean Car Component Causes Bad Pollution in China
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Ten Global Warming Indicators. Credit NOAA
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(((((((( Seeking the Science ))))))))
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OO How Wind Helps Antarctic Sea Ice Grow, Even As The Arctic Melts
OO Arctic Melt 'Speeding Up' Say Scientists
OO 4 New Manmade Gases Found, Harming Ozone Layer And Climate
Fungi that create mushrooms help store carbon in soils. credit David Work Mushroom Photography
OO Some Types Of Fungi Are Big Players In Global Carbon Cycle
OO Tropical Virus May Explode With Rainy Season
OO NASA Satellites Show Graphic Slice of Global Precipitation
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OO What Winds From 20 Massive Winter Storms Look Like
OO How Climate Change Spurred A 10,000-Year Ice Age Journey
OO Wet Climate May Have Helped Ghenghis Khan's March Across Eurasia by providing unusually good forage for his horses and cattle.
14th Century Chinese portrait of Genghis Khan. Source: wikipedia.
OO Czechs Confirm Global Warming In Antarctica
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@@@ Climate Change in the Media @@@
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@@ LIVING ON EARTH @@ PRI's Environmental News Magazine, covers climate change and other fascinating topics as well. Check it out