Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Forests are homes to some of nature's brightest jewels, such as this tufted coquette hummingbird in Brazil. Credit Michel Giraud-Audine at flickr
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
OO Agriculture And Forest Restoration Could Coexist - With Proper Planning
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What Are We Doing to Our Planet? Making It Hotter and threatening beautiful places with sea level rise. Source thewowstyle.com
OO Science Confirms 2014 Was Hottest Yet Recorded, On Land And Sea - the lower atmosphere that's warming, not the upper atmosphere -- just as the total of greenhouse gases in the lower atmosphere continues to increase: not a coincidence.
Related Headline:
Seas Arising: one of 6 charts chronicling the continuing effects of global warming. NOAA data on Bloomberg graphic
OO The Freakish Year in Broken Climate Records - record heat, record sea levels, more hot days and fewer cool nights, surging cyclones, unprecedented pollution, and rapidly diminishing glaciers: a review of the latest internationally compiled US NOAA report in six charts, of some of the climate highlights from 2014.
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OO Carbon Caps Help Northeast Economy says a report on a 9-state agreement, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, to cap emissions: Massachussetts netted nearly $250 million, while other members netted a total of $1+ billion.
Related Headline:
OO Northeast Cap and Trade Shows Its Economic Muscle: $1+ billion in 3 Years
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With drought comes famine. Source Oxfam at Wikimedia Commons
- we have 15 years to avert a full-blown water crisis
- by 2030, demand for water will outstrip supply by 40%.
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CA Governor Jerry Brown is urging passage of carbon slashing legislation.
OO Passage Of California Climate Change Bill Could Set Global Example - IF the legislature passes this emissions-slashing proposal, mandating an increase in clean renewable energy and a decrease in fossil fuel use.
Related Headline:
OO California Governor Calls For Zero-Emissions Plan For Freight Industry to transition to zero-emission technologies.
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A Picture Of Diminishing Returns - the worsening California is just one way in which the US now fails to replenish the natural resources it is consuming annually.
OO The US Now Has An 'Ecological Deficit,' Report Finds - the US now exhausts more natural resources annually than can be replenished.
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@@ Christians Who Believe in Manmade Climate Change
Muslims and Christians Agree:
Climate Change Poses Dire Threat - an Islamic declaration joins Pope Francis' encyclical in pressuring world leaders on an ever increasing global threat.
Related Headlines:
Credit Michael Stuparyk, GettyImages
OO Clean Power A Moral Imperative
"Because climate action is about defending human life."
OO 'We Prayed To God':
California Wildfire Sweeps Freeway - a vacation of a lifetime within minutes turned into a run for their lives, as a family and hundreds more ran from a raging brushfire that burned vehicles trapped on a traffic-jammed highway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
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OO Climate Change Increasing Length Of Wildfire Seasons Worldwide says study.
Related Headline:
@@ Climate Change Fuels Wildfires - as wildfires rage in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, the causes of current unprecedented fire seasons are tied to a climate change feedback loop that helps feed and reinforce these wildfires.
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OO Japanese farmers grow food and solar power.
OO Japan: Turning Golf Courses Into Solar Power Farms
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This was an Arctic 2007 portrait; it's worse now. Source althouse.blogspot.com
OO Polar Bears Can't Adapt To Melting Arctic
-- Will Waste Away says a new study, because their metabolism is not slow enough to survive the increasing scarcity of their food resources.
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OO It may not look green, but its footprint is.
OO The Home That Pays Its Own Utility Bill
-- And Then Some - a movement to develop homes that produce more energy than they use is beginning to gain ground..
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More Real Than You Think: Greenland is melting faster than thought as it gets exposed to warm tropical air masses; it is a major contributor to sea level rise. Source www.truthdig.com
OO Warm Tropic Air Is Behind Faster Arctic Meltdown scientists have discovered in Greenland. Climate change feedback helps: as Arctic ice melts, the polar jetstream gets slower and loopier, which means it dips further towards the tropics, delivering cold air south AND warmer air north.
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Besides Drowning, Freezing, and Overheating from extreme weather, deaths can occur from being exposed to too much variability in temperature.
OO How Climate Change Might Kill People - it's not just hotter summers, but short term variability, that kills people, a study finds - people can't adapt quickly enough. More extreme weather is predicted under continuing climate change.
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OO Delaware: Anti Carbon Pollution Program Created Nearly 1,000 Jobs
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Fading Beauty? Coral reefs are predicted to disappear as oceans continue to warm and acidify under continued change. Credit Dan Norton
OO Climate Change Is Increasing Stress On Oceans
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Nuclear Cooling Towers. Source www.dnaindia.com
OO Renewables Outpace Nuclear In Most Populous Economies - 45% of World Population says a new report; solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy now supply more electricity than nuclear in Japan, China, India and five other major economies.
Related Headline:
OO Around the World, Nuclear Can't Compete With Growing Renewables
"What is spectacular is the extent to which the nuclear industry is appearing to ignore reality."
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OO China June Coal Output Falls Nearly 5 percent from last year: but it still produced 327 million tons of coal, to add to global warming -- way too much.
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Tom Steyer, billionaire climate activist.
OO Billionaire To Spend $100 million on 2016 Climate Action Democratic Candidates
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OO Millions More People To Suffer A Nutrient Deficiency By 2050
Due To Climate Change as increasing CO2 levels decrease an essential nutrient, zinc, in major food crops worldwide, a new study says.
OO Pope Francis Convenes World's Mayors To Discuss Global Warming
Related Headline:
OO UK: Community Renewable Energy Pushes For More Power - buoyed by Pope Francis' new encyclical, community groups have been trying to tackle climate change on their own.
If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Talk with friends and family about the issue.
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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SOLAR KEEPS FLYING
OO Solar Owners Becoming More Satisfied With Their Utility
OO Hawaiian Utility to Launch a Community Solar Pilot Program
OO Solar Power: Inexpensive Energy, Clean Environment - argues a Republican publication; now if only their national leaders would listen.
Covering canals with solar panels generates clean energy and cuts water loss to evaporation in India ... why aren't we doing that in the US? Courtesy SunEdison
OO India's Ingenious Solar Canals
OO Thailand Ignites Solar Power Investment in Southeast Asia
Check it out here, right now!
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO Massive Utility Wants More Renewable Energy
Because Corporations Are Demanding It
OO Electric Planes Make History By Flying Over English Channel - a historic milestone in the future of aviation.
Mercury levels in bluefish caught off the U.S. Atlantic coast dropped 40+% over the past four decades thanks to federal restrictions on coal emissions.
OO Cleaner Bluefish Show Effectiveness Of US Coal Regulations, study says.
OO US Coal Is Losing - due to rising renewables, decreased demand, natural gas, perceived health risks and a host of other factors - but ...
... coal usage worldwide is still too high to avoid catastrophic climate change:
OO Coal Renaissance Undermines Progress on Climate Change - as rich countries shift away from coal to less-polluting fuels, the result isa glut of cheap coal, leading to a coal renaissance that could consign us to a catastrophically hotter world more than 8 °F warmer.
Related:
OO The Painful Fading of a Bad Industry
OO Feds Propose Rules to Protect Our Water Supplies from Toxic Coal Messes
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WHAT WORKS
Speaking Out:
OO Britain: Climate Change Threat Must Be Taken As Seriously As Nuclear War - says a new report, noting risks that include food insecurity, terrorism and lethal heat levels.
Good Ideas:
Cute, Useful, and Oh So Green especially their gut microbes. Source www.freegreatpicture.com
OO World's Largest Steel Company To Use Rabbit Microbe
To Cut Emissions by turning waste gas into fuel.
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Insights
OO A Warmer Sun Would Barely Dent Manmade Global Warming
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WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Fossil Fuel Follies
Pipeline Leaks Add to Fossil Fuel Moonscape already created in Alberta to mine tar sands.
Credit courtesy Howl Arts Collective,flickr
OO Alberta Pipelines: 6 Major Oil Spills In Recent History - the latest within the past month.
OO Great Barrier Reef Oil Spill Confirmed
OO Cheap Oil Is Bad for the Economy at least so far, says a new analysis.
Wikipedia
OO Deepwater Horizon Time Bombs Threaten Gulf:
Aging Temporary Seals on Sea Wells - despite federal pledges, even more well shafts are lingering for longer periods with only temporary sealing, says a new investigation..
OO One Fossil Fuel Replaces Another:
Gas Passes Coal to Fuel US Electricity - alas, leaks from the wells of this potent greenhouse gas means that overall, it adds just as much global warming pollution to the planet as burning coal does, many studies indicate.
Bad Ideas
Exxon, purveyor of pollution and climate denial.
OO Exxon Secretly Broke Pledge to Shareholders
to Not Fund Climate Denial - just what planet do Exxon execs think their grandchildren will be living on?
OO Scottish Councils May Lose Wind Farm Cash - close to $5 million annually, if subsidies are cut.
OO Texas' Climate Inaction Takes Increasing Toll and further risks on residents, say experts.
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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 US and the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures, while I'm in the middle of that big blue spot in a deliciously but unusually cool cabin in the Rockies.
Meanwhile, the eastern Pacific warm spot continues to prevent much rain from reaching my home state 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:
OO Not Just California and the Pacific Northwest:
Canadian Alberta's Drought is harming its agriculture.
OO California Fire Season Heats Up As Lakes Empty - as drought, population increases, and questionable forest management practices that suppressed fires create a tinderbox.
OO Shrinking Colorado River Is A Growing Concern For Millions Of Water Users - as this series shows in detail.
Social Repercussions:
OO Global Warming May Fuel Terrorism via inducing food and water shortages that cause mass migration, competition for resources and state failure, providing fertile ground for conflict and terrorism, analysts warned.
OO Lyme Disease Is Spreading in US, government research finds, both south and west from the northeast.
OO Sea Warming Leads To Ban On Fishing In The Arctic - five nations have agreed to an interim ban on commercial fishing in the international waters of the Arctic pending further research on how rising sea temperatures are affecting fish stocks.
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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 thiswildflower I photographed one spring in Africa. 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.
