Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
- 2005-2010: rubber farms destroyed 260,000+ acres of key biodiversity and protected forests;
- by 2020, another 1.3+ million acres of protected forests will be eaten up by rubber farms, scientists say.
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OO First Half Of 2015 Was Hottest Ever Recorded - feel the heat yet?
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OO Hillary Clinton's Climate Change Plan Includes Massive Growth In Solar It's easy to lead in renewable energy policy when most of the opposition doesn't fully accept climate change.
OO Can the US Reach Hillary Clinton's New Solar Goal? It's ambitious and possible.
Related Headline:
OO Hillary Clinton Unveils Climate Change Policy
Meanwhile...
OO GOP Candidates: Accept Climate Change, Question Its Origin, Balk At Taking Action for the most part.
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Many Americans in 2014 faced disasters ranging from drought destroyed crops to flooding. Source Denver Post
OO Natural Disasters Forced 20 Million From Their Homes In 2014 says a new report, due to floods storms and earthquakes, a problem likely to worsen due to climate change.
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OO US Tax Incentives And Laws To Recycle Mountains Of Food
Three New England states may have found an avenue to address both waste and hunger at once. Their solution--regulate the amount of food that businesses can throw away.
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From Plankton...to Sushi: without plankton, the tiny critters that fuel the rest of the marine food chain, there would be no fish or shellfish - and no seafood sushi. Credits: left, Carl Bruun at AP; right, Source www.oishiisushi.ie.
OO Plankton, Base of the Marine Food Chain, Are Threatened by Ocean Acidification - and the balance of various species will undergo radical changes, affecting the food chain.
[But plankton do NOT contribute 50% of the Earth's oxygen, as the flawed article suggests. Plankton generate oxygen, which gets mostly used up during post-mortem decay... the buildup of Earth's atmospheric oxygen is the work of millions of years.]
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OO Sea Turtles Threatened As Rising Sea Levels Affect Egg Hatchings swamping nests, scientists show.
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OO Mayors At Vatican Seek 'Bold Climate Agreement' demanding that their national leaders take bold steps at the Paris climate talks this year.
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OO Illinois Farms: Damage From Coal Mines Can Span Decades Even if the topsoil is untouched, as in mining below farmland.
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OO First US Offshore Wind Farm Raises Hopes Of Clean Energy Backers - Supporters hope that the five-turbine project, the first US commercial scale offshore wind farm, will propel larger efforts at clean energy.
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OO Ex NASA James Hansen: Seas Will Flood Coasts Before 2100
Barring Big Emissions Cuts say he and glaciologists; he argues that a "safe" warming limit is 3o F, not 4.
Hansen has made successful predictions before, but this time he short-circuited the peer review process, alienating scientists.
Related Headline:
OO Sea Levels Could Rise Much Faster Than Expected:
What Should New York Do?
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Abrupt warming periods may have doomed the Woolly Mammoths and other giant animals 11,000 years ago. Source io9.com
OO Abrupt Climate Change May Have Doomed Mammoths, Other Megafauna says a new study.
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Cuckoo Cuckhold of Climate? Among threatened English birds is the handsome Great Spotted Cuckoo. Source www.birdersmarket.com
OO Climate Change Poses Threat To England's Birds a new report says.
OO A Population Explosion Could Destabilize Many Countries In The Next 30 Years - 40 nations-many of the world's poorest-may double or even triple their numbers over the coming decades. The best answer? Contraception education.
OO Family Planning Helps Refugees Put Their Families, Futures First
OO India Will Be Most Populous Country Sooner Than Thought, U.N. Says
If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Talk up the idea of a worldwide campaign to prevent unintended births.
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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SOLAR KEEPS RISING
OO Massachusetts: A Community Solar Business Launches With 100MW in the Pipeline
OO Maryland: Utility Plans a Fleet of Microgrids
OO Wisconsin: Gov. Scott Walker Opposes Clean Energy Plan;
Rest of State Moves on Solar with plans to establish a solar loan program; state-based co-ops continue to drive the community solar market.
OO Kenya Announces 1-Gigawatt Solar Energy Deal - the biggest solar project planned yet; 66% of Kenya's electricity comes from hydropower and geothermal wells.
OO India: the Solar Land Rush Is On! as the government has begun to auction off 15 gigawatts of solar power projects across the country.
OO India: Solar Could Soon Be Cheaper Than Fossil Fueled Power
Check it out here, right now!
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO Monthly State-By-State Clean Energy Update: Some of the takeaways:
***the federal wind tax incentive has been renewed through 2016 - wooohooo!!
- New York is targeting 80% emission cuts by 2050
- Hawaii has mandated to get all of its electricity from renewables.
- Georg now allows third party financing of rooftop solar, greatly encouraging its spread
- North Carolina solar deployments are increasing as Duke Energy, a utility, builds them.
- Texas sales of wind power are increasing.
OO Outrage Over EPA Emissions Regulations Fades as States Find Fixes
OO Buffalo, NY: Wind, Solar Projects Create a Regional Job Mecca
Getting Real Again: it's so much better than the giant postcard. Blue skies in Beijing. Sources: left, sploid.gizmodo.com, right, via shutterstock
OO China's Air Improves After Cleanup Campaign - now imagine what would happen if we did that with a global cleanup...
OO China's Anti-Pollution Drive Starts To Bite On Sales Of Coal
OO Canada: Falling Crude Prices Upend Oil Sands Projects
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WHAT WORKS
Speaking Out:
OO French Lawmakers Vote to Halve Energy Use, Slash Nuclear Dependence - Vive la France! Hey, maybe that could happen here.... Okay, okay, you can stop laughing now....
OO New Mexico: Dems Call For Tough New Methane Rule - from the feds; a giant methane mass has been located in the skies above New Mexico, likely the result of methane leaks from wells.
Good Ideas:
OO Beyond Air Conditioning: Savvy Ways To Keep Your Home Cool - drawing shades, creating cool airflows are just some of the many tips.
The Answer Is Blowing in the Wind: Charlotte Slingsby holds her invention: Moya, a wind energy harvesting sheet. Credit Graham Turner at the Guardian
OO A Filamentous Wind Sheet: How Tiny Amounts Of Wind Energy Could Light Up Africa - filaments attached to a plastic sheet collect the energy generated by their movement (piezoelectricity) as the wind blows through them, and funnels the energy to a capacitor, which stores it in a battery. Put it on your roof and light up your life!
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WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Fossil Fuel Follies
OO US Interior Dept Allows Shell To Drill In Arctic, With Limits - Given the oil industry's history of spills, this is lunacy, even with limits.
OO Gas Leaks: 80 Billion Cubic Feet, a Waste of $240 Million says a study that surveyed 4% of US facilities that accounted for 20+ % of leaked natural gas, aka methane.
Rising Costs of Inaction:
OO New York: Hurricane Sandy Caused Record Sea Levels,
$23 Billion In Damage - says a new fed report.
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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Aug 1, 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:
As glaciers atop volcanos melt, the disappearing coolness and weight helps the volcano become active.
OO 12 Unexpected Effects Of Global Warming -- Here are some surprising takeaways:
- Murkier waters from melting glaciers help jellyfish blooms but hurt fish
- Desert soil bacteria will change, affecting the spread of deserts worldwide
- People's tempers rise with temperature
- Volcanism likely to increase, as the glaciers that weigh and cool them down melt
- Disappearing beaches - WHAAAAAHHHH!!
Social Repercussions:
OO Investors Could Lose $4.2 Trillion Due To Climate Change by 2100 warns a new report.
OO Climate Change Threatens China's Booming Coastal Cities says an expert in a new study.
OO Climate Change Hitting Where It Hurts: Your Wine - as wineland climate changes, so do the wines, and sends vintners looking for new vineyards, which may or may not produce as good wines.
Droughts:
OO California: Drought, Salt Is Slowly Crippling Almond Industry - as farmers are forced to use salty groundwater, trees are dying from too much salt. Lack of water concentrates the salt in the soil.
OO California: No More Green Salads?
As Freshwater Goes, Salt Water Seeps In, Harming Crops
There Goes the Salad Dressing - olive oil prices have increased 10% due to drought and disease in the Mediterranean.
OO Spain, Italy: Olive Oil Prices Surge Due To Drought, Disease.
Wildfires:
OO Washington State: Fire Chiefs Say Wildfires Could Scorch Any City - as drought spreads the likelihood of wildfires and towns increasingly build near forests.
OO Alaska's Terrifying Wildfire Season -- And Climate Change - Hundreds of wildfires are continually whipping across Alaska this summer, creating millions of acres of charred trees and blackened earth - just the latest indication of how climate change is dramatically changing Alaska.
Related Headline:
OO Beneath Alaskan Wildfires, A Hidden Threat:
Thawing Long-frozen Carbon - Beyond wildfires' immediate threats, some scientists are concerned that they could help melt permafrost -- and hasten the pace of global climate change.
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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 gentianss 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.