Today, the Earth got a little hotter and a little more crowded.
OO Tech Companies Are Moving to 100 Percent Clean Energy -- Apple, Google and Facebook all are executing plans to power their massive server farms with renewables. What about Amazon?
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@@ Global Population Speak Out shows the world at an urgent crossroads, straining increasingly under human population size and growth -- but also points to sensible paths forward towards global sustainability that are known, effective and inexpensive.
Remember:
25,000+ young children die daily worldwide, due to lack of resources. Millions of births are unplanned.
We can change that.
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Religion Gets It
OO Pope Francis: Environmental Sinners Will Face
God's Judgment For World Hunger -- he warns "the powerful of the Earth," saying they will answer to God if they fail to protect the environment to ensure the world can feed its population. How about ensuring humanely sustainable populations?
Credit Katharine Hayhoe from the video below.
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@@ What if Climate Change is Real?
Climate Change Explained by an Evangelical Scientist, Katharine HayHoe
Related Headline:
OO Evangelicals Finally Join The Climate-Change Battle
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OO Global Warming Will Reduce US Wheat Yields -- suggests a troubling new study.
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Unhealthy News
Children already suffer from fossil fueled air pollution; the resulting climate change threatens them far more.
OO Climate Change Set To Take Major Toll On Economy And Children's Health, experts warn. Researchers have only scratched the surface of the complex effects climate change will have on children's health and the economy.
OO Global Warming Threatens Native Medicinal Plants and may greatly decrease native peoples' ability to provide for their own healthcare.
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Really Green News
The Amazon forest is an important carbon storing ecosystem, and hosts an incredible array of wildlife. Source of various photos: ajorbahman.blogspot.com et al
OO Brazil: Beef Industry Pledges To Cut Amazon Deforestation Rate In Half
Food retailers such as McDonald's and Krispy Kreme, agribusinesses like Cargill, and other big companies, recently made zero-deforestation pledges, which can radically clean up supply chains, says a new study.
Source TakePart.com
Efficient Dairy Method Could Help Conserve Amazon Forest -- an important carbon storage system, reports Brendan Borrell at Takepart. Cows are rotated over 184 acre circular pastures, eating and fertilizing the grass as they go.
If all Brazilian milk were produced via this efficient rotational method, the industry could reduce land use by an area the size of Italy. Source www.takepart.com
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Mangroves protect coastlines, store carbon, and are important nurseries for seafood animals. Source www.naturefoundationxm.org
OO Sri Lanka To Be First Nation To Protect All Its Mangroves -- an important mangrove haven; over half the world's mangroves have been lost over the last century, but all those in Sri Lanka are to be protected by women, who, in turn, will receive micro loans to start businesses.
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A Drying West
OO Not Just California: Whole Southwest Faces Growing Water Crunch as rising demand and a prolonged dry spell seriously strain the systems of dams supplying water.
OO Washington: State Governor Declares Drought Emergency -- saying some of the worst drought conditions on record are due to a lack of snowpack in this normally wet region.
OO California: 1000s of Wells Dry, San Joaquin Valley Partly Sinking
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Cock of the Rock, an elusive but brilliantly colored Andean bird. Source: the Daily Climate
OO Warming Andes An Omen For Mountainous Tropical Birds -- new research indicates that rather than migrate uphill, birds will remain put, facing new threats, as predator snakes climb into their territory to escape the heat...
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Bi-Polar Problems
@@ Larsen B Ice Shelf: The Final Act
OO Instant Sea Level Rise: Largest Antarctica Ice Shelf Close To Collapse
Within a few years, says NASA about the Scotland-sized Larsen B Ice Shelf, as climate change warms air and ocean, melting ice. A tiny rise, but every little bit counts -- and threatens coasts worldwide.
"This is some of the science from NASA's Earth Science efforts that's under assault from the GOP in Congress," notes The Daily Climate editor Peter Dykstra
Related Headlines:
OO Thinning Antarctic Ice Shelf Could Contribute To Sea Level Rise
OO This Unstable Ice Shelf Is Nearly The Size Of Scotland
OO Thawing Arctic Carbon To Speed Global Warming Faster Than Thought -- when permafrost melts, over half of the soil carbon is converted to global warming CO2 within a few weeks via bacterial action, far faster than thought, says a new study, speeding further global warming.
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The Good Guys:
OO DEM Seantors Udall, Heinrich (NM) Propose Creating National Renewable Energy Standards -- bill would require utilities to generate 30 percent of their electricity from renewable energy by 2030.
The Bad Guys:
OO Fossil Fuel Funded GOP Politicians Make U.S. Taxpayers Pay For Rich Fossil Fuel Companies -- creating government subsidies in exchange for significant campaign contributions, a new investigation reveals.
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If we do not grow sustainably, our children will die inhumanely.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Start a conversation with your friends and family, online and off. A conversation starter:
OO Creating Sustainable Populations Humanely -- FD: I wrote this; add your comments below!
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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SOLAR KEEPS DRIVING
Source www.solarkinguk.com
OO Latest Solar Breakthrough: Glass Coating to Make Solar Panels More Efficient
OO California: Local Govts Buy Lots of Cheap Solar Power Via Collaborative Procurement
Hawaiian solar houses. NREL
OO Hawaii Passes Legislation to Go 100% Renewable
OO Florida: Orlando Utility To Build Big Solar Plants on the burial grounds of coal-burning generators.
The solar thermal plant Ivanpah. Credit Aioannides at wikimedia commons
OO California: Closed Dump Will Be Transformed Into Solar Farm
OO Georgia Governor Signs Bill Broadening Solar Installer Options
OO India Eyes Additional $1.1 Billion Solar Loan for rooftop solar projects n its quest to quintuple its renewable energy capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022.
Check it out here, right now!
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WHAT WORKS
Speaking Out:
OO UN Climate Chief Slams Fossil Fuel Investments
Source the Daily Climate
OO 'Paddle In Seattle' Protesters Gather Against Shell Oil Rig
@@ Young People > Fossil Fuels. - watch the surge - then join it.
OO China And India Call On Rich Countries
To Step Up Climate Change Efforts
Games are one of many ways to engage people on climate change. Source www.lukewhittaker.co.uk
OO What Works--And Doesn't--For Engaging People On Climate Change
"Making information relatable and accessible to your target audience and getting community buy-in are essential first steps. Making the social activities fun and practical also helps."
Takeaways from the report:
- use multiple social engagement methods;
- use the power of digital, visual and social media;
- collective action at neighbourhood scale helps;
- coordinated top-down/bottom-up action between citizens and government is needed.
OO Most Car-Related Air Pollution Comes From Only 25% Of Cars - the culprits were transport trucks and what they suspect were older, out of tune cars, says the study.
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WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Fossil Fuel Follies
OO US: Decade-Old Gulf Well Could Leak Oil For 100 Years
OO Shell Wins Key Federal Approval For Its Arctic Oil Drilling Plans -- angering opponents who point to Shell's dismal record.
Deepwater Horizon: what happened last time Big Oil drilled in this area. Wikipedia
OO Plan OK'd to drill near the site of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
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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 wildflowers I photographed one Chilean 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.
