Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, July 5, 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, much of the US is experiencing higher than average temperatures, all the way up to Alaska, while the eastern Pacific warm sport continues to prevent much rain from reaching California.
The North Pole is surrounded by areas 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.
(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.)
Patriots Win the NY Fracking War!
NY Court: Towns Can Ban Fracking, Drilling reports Katie Valentine
at Climate Progress. Big oil drilling companies sued two resisting towns, but the court ruled that anti-fracking town regulations trump state mining laws. Helen Slottje, of the Community Environmental Defense Council created a legal framework for constructing anti-fracking regulation for 170 communities, and her organization is now offering their expertise to communities throughout the US. Way to go, Helen!
The Economic Threat of Climate Change:
'Business-as-Usual Is Actually Radical Risk-Taking' says a new hard-hitting report, Risky Business, reports Jim Montgomery at Greentechmedia. The bipartisan report, advised by Michael Bloomberg, ex Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and others, emphasizes how climate change will wreck millions of businesses, increase crime, and create a far worse climate.
OO 5 Graphics That Show U.S. Climate Change Costs
OO Here's What Climate Change Will Do To The American Economy In 7 Charts
Seven charts from the new "Risky Business" study show how climate change will wreck everything from agriculture to labor productivity to human health.
OO Bipartisan Report Tallies High Toll On Economy From Global Warming - Over a million coastal homes and businesses could flood repeatedly before ultimately being destroyed.
OO With Heat And Humidity, Areas Will Be 'Unsuited For Outdoor Activity'
Crime will also rise with climate change. from Risky Business.
OO Chairman Of Largest Private US Company To The 1 Percent: Worry About Climate Change
OO To Tackle Climate Change, We Need To Know What We're Facing. Now We Do.
Time to Accelerate to a Low Carbon Future says Al Gore, the former vice president, in Rolling Stone. Rather than let despair paralyze us, we must accelerate the revolution in affordable clean energy that is unfolding around the world.
SOLAR SAILS ON...
US Whitehouse
@@ Birthing of the Solar Age is the latest offering by noted videographer Peter Sinclair
Sinclair: "For months I've been gathering interviews with people I know who are following the renewable energy explosion - and everywhere I go, I'm telling people that we are in a stage very much like the internet in about 1993 - taking shape and about to blow up.
In fact, the key enabling technologies for renewables are growing right out of the distributed information network that is shaping the new century.
There's no going back, and the companies, and countries, that do not grasp the scale of the change we are seeing, may not survive."
OO The Solar Panel Acreage Needed to Power the Entire Planet is 158 mi x 158 mi, according to a new study, reports the dailyKos.
OO UK and Germany Break Records for Solar Power
Check it out here, right now!
GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO Texas Breaks Wind Power Production Record
OO New Wind Turbine Pays Back Its Energy Costs in Just 6 Months
OO Eastern States Using New Microgrids To Weather Severe Storms
OO US Energy Efficiency Winners Save Millions, Cut Emissions and are being honored at the Alliance to Save Energy.
WHAT WORKS
OO World Bank: Tackling Climate Change Would Grow Global Economy Bank's president, Jim Yong Kim, says findings put to rest claims that the world could not afford to act on climate change.
OO World Bank: Fighting Climate Change Would Boost Global Economy Up To $2.6 Trillion A Year
OO Small Business Owners: Climate Action Will Protect Our Livelihoods
OO Investment In Clean Energy And Efficiency Could Spur A $12 Billion Market
OO Not Eating Meat Can Cut Your Food-Related Carbon Emissions Almost In Half, Study Finds
Senators Take Bipartisan Action To Reduce Pollutants Responsible For 40% Of Global Warming reports Eliza Dach and Rebecca Lefton at Climate Progress.
Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Susan Collins' (R-ME) introduced a bipartisan proposal to address climate change. Now these two are true patriots in the Senate!
OO Why A National Carbon Tax Would Be Amazing -- In Four Charts
A new analysis shows a national carbon tax could cut carbon emissions far more than any politician is contemplating -- while also making America's workers better off.
OO Hacking the Climate: the Search for Solutions to the World's Greatest Challenge - a new series highlighting the co-benefits of tackling climate change in stories from around the world. Here is the first in the series, on a successful carbon tax imposed in British Columbia.
OO Scientists Create New Battery That's Cheap, Clean, Rechargeable ... And Organic
WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Unrelenting Population Growth Driving Global Warming, Mass Extinction reports Jeremy Hance at Mongabay. It took humans around 200,000 years to reach a global population of one billion. But, in two hundred years we've exploded to 7 times that, adding an extra billion every dozen years over the past 40 years. At these unsustainable levels, we're quickly destroying many plants and animals that sustain us, and creating an unlivable planet.
Madagascar: As Population Soars, Unique Animals Go Extinct. This is one of them, the endangered Coquerel's sifaka. Credit Rhett Butler at mongabay.com
OO Teaching Family Planning: A Teen Soap Opera
OO Fracked Oil, Gas Well Defects Leading to Methane Leaks
OO Air Pollution Spikes In US Homes Near Fracking Wells
OO Oil From U.S. Fracking Is More Explosive Than Expected
OO Radioactive Risks From Fracking Waste
OO US Wind Power Headed For Dismal Year As Carbon Emissions Rise
Expiration of tax credits blamed as wind power installations slow, while coal makes inroads into gas
OO How The Media Fails To Cover Climate Science
Credit Daniel Hollister at flickr
OO Global Warming Conspiracy Theorist Zombies Devour Telegraph And Fox News Brains
OO Why Engineering the Atmosphere with Aerosols Won't Solve Climate Change
RISING RISKS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
Carbon dioxide concentrations for the first half of 2014, measured at the Mauno Loa Observatory.
OO New CO2 Milestone: 3 Months Above 400 PPM
OO Hotter And Larger Tropics More Vulnerable To Climate Change
OO Super Warm Oceans Make May The Hottest On Record
Credit Ahmed Jallanzo/EPA
OO Liberia Caterpillar Plague Causes Mass Evacuation And Crop Destruction. A plague of caterpillars has forced thousands of people to flee their homes in northern Liberia, as well destroying crops, contaminating water and forcing schools to close.
OO Mediterranean Region Struggles With Warming, Acidification And Jellyfish Blooms. Loss of tourism and other problems have followed.
OO Besieged By Rising Tides Of Climate Change, Kiribati Buys Land In Fiji
Nation finalises purchase of land on Vanua Levu, 2,000km away, but it may be just the first of many seeking refuge
Climate change will make droughts worse in Africa. Wikimedia commons
OO Global Warming Makes Drought Come On Earlier, Faster, And Harder
OO One Quarter Of India Is Turning Into Desert
OO Drought In North Korea Brings Back Fears Of Widespread Famine as army mobilizes to protect crops.
An Emperor penguin family. Wikipedia.
OO Emperor Penguins At Risk Of Extinction scientists warn, as their habitat melts away.
OO Toronto Is Underwater, Again
KEEPING CARBON STORED: FOREST UPDATE
OO Sustainable Forests And Healthy Livelihoods Go Hand In Hand
OO UN: Forest Policy Must Focus On Human Benefits
OO Illegal Logging Finances Militias And Terrorist Groups - report.
Forests are the jewelboxes of beautiful biodiversity, even as they store carbon.
Credit: Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
OO Despite Moratorium, Indonesia Now Has World's Highest Deforestation Rate
YOU CAN ACT
Climate Action in July from Senator Rob Hogg of Iowa Climate Advocates
US Voters to Congress: Act on Climate - 600+ citizens visited Congress in person recently as many more called their Congressional members demanding action on climate, reports Senator Rob Hogg of Iowa Climate Advocates. Keep up the pressure on Congressional members and candidates, folks! Public pressure also makes it easier for the president to act, as well.
Great March For Climate Action Will Cross Proposed Keystone Route July 19 - The Great March for Climate Action began March 1 in Los Angeles, has crossed California, Arizona, New Mexico, and crossed from Colorado into Nebraska June 30, nearing the half-way point of its march to Washington, D.C., where it is expected to arrive November You can join the march, even temporarily, here.
OO People's Climate March, September 20-21, New York City -join the many groups planning to march in New York City during a climate summit of international leaders to urge much stronger action on climate change.
Support The EPA Carbon Pollution Rules - Join the majority of US citizens supporting the proposed carbon pollution rules. You can attend the late July EPA hearings in Atlanta, Denver, Pittsburgh, or Washington, D.C. Or, submit a supporting comment to the EPA at any time before October 16, 2014. Go here for more details.
Via Climate Progress
Beyond that, many groups have organized on-line petitions in support of the carbon pollution rules. You can also write letters to the editor and guest columns supporting the carbon pollution rules - a big step in the fight against climate change.
On Twitter, you can use the hash tag #StopCarbonPollution.
*** Please also let your Congressional representatives and Senators know that you support the carbon pollution rules, and you want them to support the rules, too.
Join Citizens Climate Lobby or create your own local chapter. National Call, Saturday, July 12 - If you would like to join Citizens Climate Lobby, or start a CCL chapter in your congressional district, visit www.citizensclimatelobby.org
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 these red, white and blue wildflowers I photographed one summer. 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.