Climate Change This Week: Cloudy Problems, Solar Charity and More!

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
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Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.

@@ What Climate Change Looks Like: Beware The Blob - of warm air off the Pacific coast, that is - the blob that keeps diverting storms away from California, creating the worst drought in over 1,000 years, according to a recent tree ring study. Droughts aren't new - it's the extreme persistence and intensity that is. That's exactly what is predicted to happen under Climate Change. Check this out!

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Wikipedia

OO Overlooked Evidence - Global Warming May Proceed Faster Than Expected due to its influence on clouds which could reinforce the warming, new studies indicate.

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OO Solar Panels For Trees?
Kenya Barters To Rebuild Its Forests
offering chickens, goats or solar panels in exchange for tree planting.

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OO California's Drought Could Upend America's Entire Food System
California's farmers literally feed the country.

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OO Drought-Parched Lake Mead Could Leave Seven States High And Dry

Related Headline:

OO Pacific Northwest's 'Wet Drought': Possible Sign of Future - although wetter than California, the region now gets mostly rain - so there is little water storage and more wildfires.

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@@ Why We Need to Keep It In the Ground - short, graphic, compelling. Check it out!

Future Will Be Dangerously Hot under current goals and pledges:

OO Current Carbon Pledges Won't Stop Dangerous Global Warming,
Says Lord Stern
- that is,keep global warming below the crucial 2C target, says the famed economist.

OO Limiting Global Warming To 2 Degrees 'Inadequate', Scientists Say

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Fewer hospitalizations means cheaper health costs for all of us.

OO Obama's EPA Carbon Cuts Rule To Save 3,500 US Lives Annually - 1,000 hospitalizations, and 100s of heart attacks, shows a new study.

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Brazil nut trees store a lot of carbon compared to other trees. CIFOR/Flickr

OO Keeping Earth Cool:
Amazon - 1% Of Tree Species Store 50% Of Carbon
there, estimates a new study. The area is frequently dubbed "the lungs of the planet".

Related Headline:

OO These Are The Amazon Trees That Keep The Planet Cool

2015-05-12-1431393136-8728166-deforestationforpalmoilinBorneomongabay.jpg
Where Have All the Forests Gone... Mongabay

OO Hundreds Of Millions Of Acres Of World's Forest Could Be Lost By 2030, Say WWF in less than a dozen global hotspots for deforestation, conservationists warn.

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Source Citizens Own Renewable Energy Network Australia

OO Organization Funds Solar Power Projects For Charities,
Crowd Funded By The Community

OO World Needs To Triple Investments In Clean Energy Innovation says a new study to prevent dangerous future climate change.

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Future Postcards from the Past? Flamingoes, Polar Bears, and Pikas are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of species threatened by climate change. Sources: WWF, Wikipedia

OO One In Six Species Could Be Wiped Out By Climate Change study says.

Related Headline:

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Extinct from Climate Change and other factors, the famed golden toad of Central America. Wikipedia.

OO What Animals Are Likely To Go Extinct First Due To Climate Change - Australia, New Zealand, and South America are among the hardest hit.

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OO What Severe Weather Season Looks Like in 8 Seconds -
Click here to link to the animation.

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If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.

OO In Their Own Words: "I want family planning for my own health." - from A Woman in Guédiawaye: Family Planning for Health and Development in Senegal

High growth and unemployment spurs family planning in Senegal, and is considered key to Senegal's development.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Engage social media and traditional media. Comment on social media, publish blogs, and write letters to the newspapers.

And there are many more actions you can do, right here.

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SOLAR KEEPS SURFING

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OO US Companies Now Sell Commercial Energy Storage Systems - batteries, software, and even inverters to make it easy for buildings to really save money w. stored solar energy.

OO SolarCity Coming To New Hampshire - the fastest growing US solar company installed 40 percent of all US solar panels in 2014.

OO California: New Utility-Driven Community Solar Program Evolving as three major investor-owned utilities plan to buy rooftop solar power and sell it to customers.

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Solar power at googleplex. Wikimedia

OO Corporate Customer Choice Is Growing, Easing Acquisition of Renewables

OO Nevada: Support Solar Power, Or Get Voted Out a new poll indicates, which also shows
strong support for solar energy efforts and net metering, where rooftop solar customers get a credit from the power company for excess energy they produce.

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Source Greentechmedia

OO Solar Power Part of Nepal's Disaster Relief - as nonprofits cobble together clean energy solutions in the quake's wake.

OO U.K. Solar Industry Leads Europe with 3 gw forecast to be added this year.

OO Coal-Shunning China Explores Solar Power, Alternative Energy Solutions to beat pollution. As solar costs fall, the market booms.

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Check it out here, right now!

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GOOD CLEAN NEWS

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OO Obama Signs Energy Efficiency Bill Into Law

OO Major US Utility Shifts Away From Coal, and Towards Renewables - says its 2014 sustainability report.

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OO U.S. Economic Growth Increasingly Independent of Emissions - as energy efficiency and clean energy increase.

OO California: Governor Issues Most Aggressive US Climate Goal Yet - ordering the state to cut tcarbon emissions to 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, on the way to cutting them 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, a goal set by the previous GOP governor.

Related Headline:

OO California's New Greenhouse Gas Emissions Target Puts Obama's To Shame

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For some states, the answer to new federal carbon rules is blowing in the wind.

OO Minnesota: Wind Is Cheapest Way To Meet Carbon Rule says a new report.

OO Iowa: Wind Power On Course To Meet Federal Energy Goals - says a new report

OO California Eases Way to Cover Old Mines With Renewables

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WHAT WORKS

Speaking Out:

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Pope Francis Wikipedia

OO Vatican Called For A Moral Awakening On Climate Change

OO UN Climate Chief: There Is No Space For New Coal

OO Church Of England Divests From Coal, Tar Sands, --
Cites 'Moral Responsibility'

"Climate change is already a reality," a church leader said.

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David Fights Goliath: Micklo Corpus camps at the roadside of his tribe's land, and keeps turning back oil company trucks planning to frack without proper permission.

OO Australia: Indigenous Hero Keeps Turning Back Oil Fracking Company

OO Australia: Academy Of Science Urges Govt To Cut Emissions To Zero By 2050

Informed Leadership and Insights:

OO US Plans To Create Climate-Resilient Energy Infrastructure -
invest in solar, while creating a strategy for curbing methane and black carbon.

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OO Soil Needs Proper Care To Retain Vast Carbon Deposits - but agriculture worldwide is losing topsoil instead, and rising CO2 levels can result in soil releasing carbon.

OO Pollen Seeds Clouds And May Change The Weather study shows.

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WHAT DOESN'T WORK

Fossil Fuel Follies

OO Nearly Half The US Population Still Breathes Polluted Air report says.

OO California Farmers Water Crops With Oil Wastewater,
-- And No One Knows What's In It
- although such water typically contains toxins and carcinogens.

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Imagine that smudged with coal.

OO Coal Companies Are Cheating Taxpayers Out Of Billions,
Many Western Towns Say

OO Fracking Wells Could Pollute The Air Hundreds Of Miles Away

OO Mountaintop Removal Encroaching On Communities

Clueless Leadership:

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Even elephants can't survive on oil.

OO Texas Legislature Acts To Stop Cities From Limiting Drilling - Texas, where freedom dies.

OO GOP Leader McConnell Unveils Surprise Attack on EPA Power Plant Rule

OO GOP Leaders Plot To Seize And Sell America's Public Lands
which would potentially open them up for fossil fuel development and pollution.

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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS extreme weather, California dryin',
Google Weather around the world month year to get latest update from Jon Plotkin; ck the summary.

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Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, OMay11, 2015

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 and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues to prevent much rain from reaching California, sending it into further drought.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are 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.

Natural Repercussions:

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OO Marine Animals Suffocate, Die As Climate Change
Spreads Dead Zones
from coastal areas into open ocean now, says a new report.

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OO Marine Dead Zones. Climate change warms waters, a likely factor in the continuing spread of dead zones.

California Dryin':

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Source US Forest Service at Wikipedia

OO California's Tinderbox Trees Face Disastrous Fire Season

OO California Drought Killed 12 Million Forest Trees
-- Just Since Last Year

OO California's Forests Have Become Climate Polluters

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Worse air quality means more asthma attacks among children.

OO Drought Making California's Air Quality Worse, American Lung Association says.

Social Repercussions:

OO Climate Change May Speed Asthma Spread

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OO Climate Change Will Greatly Impact Australians' Health

OO Heatwaves' Impact On Workplaces Costing Australia $8 Billion Annually

OO England Faces Major Rise In Record Hot Years
Due To Climate Change

OO China Says Climate Change Threatens Major Projects

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A Useless Bridge. Source Amir Hossein Khouzestan at ISNA

Iran: 20+ Year Megadrought Threatens To Make Its South Uninhabitable if it persists, predict experts, reports Thomas Erdbrink at the New York Times. Tehran, the capital, has depleted groundwater supplies, but many somehow believe the wells will refill even as average rainfall dropped and the city's population tripled over the past 30 years.

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OO Coffee Catastrophe Beckons From Climate Change, which is already hurting http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/30/3652671/study-tanzania-coffee-climate-change/ the most consumed coffee bean.

OO As Global Dairy Demand Grows, So Does Its Emissions

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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 these crocuses 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. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.

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