Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Broken computers and wildflowers are making this week's column late, short, but sweet.
Cutting carbon locally and preserving forests can help cut warming globally. Credit Rhett Butler at mongabay.com
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon.
OO "Carbon Emission Cuts Locally, Could Avoid Dangerous Global Warming - making up for inadequate national pledges to cut carbon emissions, says a new report.
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"Anyone who believes in infinite growth on a finite planet is either mad or an economist" - David Attenborough, noted Nature broadcaster.
The infinite growth myth must be shattered, if we are to slow global warming. Source www.footprintnetwork.org
OO Technical Solutions Alone Can't Fix Climate Change
scientists said recently: we must reshape the economic and political incentives that are driving global warming.
Related Headline:
OO World Is On A Collision Course With Fossil Fuels,
Gov. Jerry Brown Says - warning that sweeping changes will be necessary to slow the rise of global temperatures.
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OO Red, White & Green: The True Colors of America's Clean Tech Jobs - something we can all invest in!
OO White House Solar Plan Aims At Low- And Middle-Income People
Related Headline:
OO Many Americans Still Lack Access To Solar Energy -- Here's How Obama Plans To Change That - with an array of new measures to extend access to the most rapidly growing source of U.S. energy -- solar -- to a much broader group of Americans.
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The Puddle's Shrinking: Lake Powell, that is, which sits behind the Glen Canyon Dam; it evaporates vast amounts of precious water annually. Credit Michael Friberg at Propublica
@@ Picturing the Drought Out West - a graphic record of man's complicity in the western water crisis.
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Jay Faison, a Republican climate activist and founder of ClearPath Foundation, is donating major amounts of campaign money to GOP candidates who recognize the need to address climate change. Source politico.com
OO GOP Climate Activist Gives $500K To Senator's Campaign Now why isn't HE joining the Republican circus running for president?
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OO Torrential Rains Increasing In Warming World since 1980, says a new study, with Southeast Asia getting the biggest increase in downpours.
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OO Mothers Took Fight Against Climate Change To Washington
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Bye-bye Hellfire? Burning gas is linked to droughts and wildfires through the climate change it helps create via global warming. Addressing climate change means turning off the gas.
OO Gas To Be Burned By Climate Action:
Billions in Assets Will Be Stranded says a thinktank: one more reason not to invest further in it.
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A 2005 cartoon says it all: Exxon, a consistent misleader on climate change. Source seppo.net
OO Exxon Knew Of Climate Change In 1981 -
But Kept Funding Deniers says email evidence.
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Bye-bye BumbleBee? Bees are not expanding but simply disappearing from areas that are now too hot for them. We depend on bees to pollinate our crops, keep our forests healthy, and keep flowers blooming. Source www.publicdomainpictures.net
OO A 'Climate Vice' Is Squeezing Bumble Bees' Range - as they fail to expand into new warm areas, and are disappearing from home areas that are now too hot, says a new massive study.
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Jellyfish are on the rise, and are clogging the coolant pipes of power plants worldwide.
OO Jellyfish: Nature's Ultimate Guerrillas Against Power Plants
Okay, here's the pathway of this circular chain reaction:
power plants → carbon emissions → climate change → warmer oceans; add overfishing → more jellyfish → clogging coastal power plants coolant pipes ... only the article doesn't go into this detail.
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"I hear the fish is VERY fresh here!" Ocean Drive, Miami, now and 25 feet under water. Credit Nickolay Lamm at Climate Central.com
OO Sea Levels Could Rise At Least 20 Feet - which is what happened last time atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were this high, says a new study - only it will be our grandchildren, generations into the future, who will suffer greatly for our selfishness now.
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Stephan Lewandowsky links climate change denial to irrational conspiratorial thinking in a new study. Source University of Bristol
OO "It's a Conspiracy!!" -
A Common Mindset of Climate Change Denial Thinking - indicates new cognitive research.
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EEEUUWWWWW - Drink THAT, California! How DO frackers get away with poisoning the public water supply in California? Jerry, why aren't you on top of this?
OO California: Most Fracking Waste Dumped In Unlined Pits a study finds, and could contaminate groundwater. .. what little there is left, that is...
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OO EPA Clamps Down On Hydrofluorocarbons - Low level but extremely potent global warming gases.
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Oct 12, 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 southern US and the waters surrounding the US are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot continues to prevent much rain from reaching California (except sporadically, causing flooding), sending it into further drought.
Will the predicted El Nino the winter interrupt the California drought with torrential downpours and flooding? Stay tuned, folks!
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.
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 this endemic Gunnison Mariposa Lily 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.