Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.
Fire of Another Kind: The aurora borealis bathes a boreal forest. Source pinterest from imgfave.com
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon
OO A New Global Tinderbox: The World's Northern Forests - rapidly rising temperatures, changes in precipitation, and increased lightning strikes are leading to ever-larger wildfires in the northern forests of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia, with potentially severe ecological consequences.
Forest Threats Elsewhere:
OO Liberia: Palm Oil Industry Threatens Forests and People
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This can be viewed on YouTube here.
@@ As California Sinks,
Flood Risk Rises -- And It Threatens Future Agriculture - although this excellent report from CIR journalists focuses on the flood risk, there's an even more important consequence of subsidence:
the permanent destruction of the aquifer that in large part during drought fuels the California agriculture that produces fully half of all US fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
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Subsidence has caused this crack to develop in a California canal. Source www.capradio.org
Takeaways:
- Drought stricken farmers are pumping the Calfornia aquifer dry; -
- The empty aquifer is collapsing, causing...
- Land subsidence, which...
- Ups flooding risks, and... -
- Warps infrastructures (eg, bridges, canals)...
- Costing $ millions yearly currently, billions ultimately. ---
- CA laws allow the destruction of the aquifer;
- The state does not monitor subsidence destruction.
California farmlands, bridges and more are now subsiding up to a foot or more a year, astonishing the scientists who are measuring it. Source USGS
Once the aquifer is destroyed, California agriculture will:
- Not be able to ensure future agriculture;
- shrink dramatically in future droughts, threatening US food security.
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OO World's Energy Systems At Risk From Global Warming, Say Leading Firms from storms, flooding and heatwaves caused by climate change.
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Source www.huffingtonpost.ca
OO 10 Million Poor Face Hunger Due To Climate Change, 'Super El Niño' says Oxfam, this year and next because of droughts and erratic rains linked to record global temperatures and an expected "super" El Niño weather pattern.
Related Headline:
Shogun in the Rice: as the price of rice in Asia rises, so will tensions. Source thoughtpantry.wordpress.com
OO Rice Prices Likely To Rise As El Niño Heats Up and resulting dry conditions cause decreased rice inventories, boosting the cost of Asia's staple food.
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Source www.passionforsavings.com
OO Food Industry Leaders Call On Congress For Climate Change Action - a new survey shows most Republicans believe mankind plays some role in climate change. Food industry executives say it's past time their congressmen listened.
Related Headline:
OO Food Giants Align For Climate Action - a Republican, a Democrat and a bunch of major food corporations put their support behind meaningful action on climate change.
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Jeb Bush released an energy plan Tuesday that dodges his climate change sympathies.
OO Jeb Bush Goes Heavy On Fossil Fuels - really, is this news?
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Another way to curb asthma.
OO U.S. To Curb Smog But Stops Short Of Toughest Limits - issuing a regulation that trimmed the amount of ozone allowed in the air and to fight smog that will prevent hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks.
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Credit Marquist at EmpireWire.com
OO N Carolina: Fossil Fuels Win, US Voters Lose Freedoms:
GOP lawmakers Bar Local Fracking Regulations - sneaking through the law just before ending a GOP-dominated legislative session.
Related Headline:
OO Fossil Fuels Industry Fuels GOP Leaders with lots of money.
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Reducing methane, black carbon and other pollutants could slow sea level rise up to 50% previous research shows. Source worldmaritimenews.com
OO CA Air Board Targets Cuts To Climate Pollutants Like Methane, Black Carbon which are significant contributors.
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OO Big US Banks Call for 'Strong' Climate Deal - with Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo arguing that government action, besides private business investment, is needed to address climate change, and urged putting a price on carbon.
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Natural Gas is Unnaturally Dangerous, despite its seemingly cheap cost. Source www.ucsusa.org
OO Why Cheap Natural Gas Thwarts the Battery and Energy Storage Revolution
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A boost for the African solar revolution already unfolding.
OO France: Ex-Minister to Launch $3 Billion Renewables Fund for Africa
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Led by Prime Minister Modi, India, the world's third largest climate polluter, pledged to slow the rise of greenhouse gases and to rapidly build up clean-energy sources.
OO India Pledges Clean-Energy Push In UN Climate Submission
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My Aching Back: imagine the amount of dirty carbon emissions this represents. Source inhabitat.com
OO Cheap Goods From China Have High Carbon Cost compared to elsewhere, because China relies on coal for much of its power.
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OO A River Runs Again: India's Natural World in Crisis by Meera Subramanian lyrically tells five tales of inspiring revival for India. The last is one of bringing populations to sustainable levels humanely.
"Every human being born is an amazing miracle,
but is also
one more bit of pressure
on natural resources on the Earth."
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Through open dialogue, the Pathfinder program PRACHAR reaches adolescents and their families with vital information about sexual and reproductive health.
"We underestimate how valuable
information is for children everywhere...
Giving them this straightforward information
[on reproduction]
ends up giving them power
over other things as well."
- Meera Subramanian, author of A River Runs Again, noting how sex education is promoting healthy changes in Bihar, a populous state with high birth rates in India, the world's 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
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OO A New Source of Energy: Engineering Feces Into Fuel is the goal of MacArthur "Genius" grantee Kartik Chandran, who has made inroads into doing just that.
Another Scoop on Poop:
OO You Can Earn $13,000 A Year Selling Your Poop
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HOT WATER
Bye-bye Nemo and Friends? Bleaching photo credit XL Catlin Survey
OO Shock and Awe:
Record Coral Die-Off Occurring Worldwide
from Climate Change, El Nino
Takeaways:
- NOAA declares a global coral bleaching event, 3rd massive one in recent history
- record ocean warmth driving it from climate change + El Nino
- scientists shocked and awed by devastation
Source NOAA
- bleaching expected to worsen over the next year
- threatens to damage over one third of the world's reefs
- threatens to kill 12,000+ square km of reefs
Warm waters also stress corals, making them more susceptible to lethal viruses.
Related Headline:
Source www.apextribune.com
OO California: Record Number Of Dead, Dying Threatened Seals Washing Up -another apparent casualty of warming ocean temperatures. Guadalupe fur seals are on the threatened species list.
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A New View for New Jersey? Source www.siemens.com
OO Feds Green Light Wind Lease Off New Jersey Coast
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EXTREME WEATHER: THE BIG WET
Hurrican Joaquin hoses down South Carolina.
OO Carolinas And Charleston Flooded With Rain From Hurricane Joaquin - later news articles confirmed several deaths, and record flooding, with many forced to evacuate.
"Some places in South Carolina got an astonishing two feet of rain in two days..." said Peter Dykstra on LOE. "If that had been snow," Steve Curwood commented, "two feet of rain would have translated into 24 feet or more of snow."
Related Headline:
Source www.usnews.com
OO Heavy Rains Cause Massive Mudslide; Hundreds Dead or Missing
Source www.belvoireagle.com
OO Violent French Riviera Storms: Flooding, Deaths - 19 feared dead.
OO Florida: King Tide Floods As Climate Forums Start - with international forums aimed at drawing attention to the perils of climate change.
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OO Story Of Hope: UK Guardian Starts Clean Energy Part Of Its Climate Change Campaign
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One of China's latest electric cars. Source www.plugincars.com
OO China To Hasten Roll-Out Of Electric Car Charging Network
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SHELL ARCTIC GAME OVER
Royal Dutch Shell said it will end Arctic drilling indefinitely, after finding insufficient oil and gas in its exploratory wells.
OO Shell Has Frozen Its Arctic Oil Drilling--But It's Still Hungry For Fossil Fuels as it pursues oil and gas elsewhere in the short-term.
Related Headline:
OO Shell to Cease Alaska Offshore Arctic Drilling after disappointing results from an exploratory well, $7+ billion in investment, and years of work.
OO Sorry, Environmentalists -- Shell's Arctic Decision Is All About the Money... Or Is It? One contributing factor, the recent federal requirements that made drilling more expensive, came about from constant pressure on politicians by environmental activists, one commentor noted.
Environmentalists do play a part.
OO Shell's Failed Arctic Adventure - a combination of meager oil and gas reserves, regulatory uncertainty and high costs that blighted Shell's Arctic ambitions.
BUT...
OO Italian Oil Giant Eni Poised To Begin Arctic Oil Quest as shell quits Alaska.
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Wikipedia
Indigenous people and local communities lack legal rights to almost three quarters of their traditional lands, sparking social conflict and undermining international plans to curb poverty, hunger and climate change, researchers said. Wikipedia
OO Lack Of Local Land Rights Harms Fight Against Poverty, Climate Change - says a new study.
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If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Help your community prevent unintended pregnancies.
And there are many more actions you can do, right here.
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SOLAR KEEPS SURFING
OO Utility-Scale Solar Power As Cheap As Natural Gas Throughout America
OO Utilities Showing More Support for Community Solar Projects
"They want to appeal to the more engaged customer and show they are on the cutting edge."
OO Northeast US Represents a $67+ Billion Market for Mid-Scale Commercial Solar - a huge market opportunity.
OO VC Investors Put $90 Million Towards Residential Solar Under PACE - the federal program's financing for homes is expanding rapidly, with residential loans eclipsing commercial projects in California.
OO Spain: Solar Plant Supplies Power Even After Dark to 500,000 via energy storage in molten salts.
Check it out here, right now!
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS
OO Storage of Clean Energy To End Need for Peaker Fossil Fueled Plants, Big Utility Says
'Post 2020, There May Never Be Another Peaker Built in the US.'
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WHAT DOESN'T WORK
Guess Which One Canada PM Harper Favored? Credit John Trever at the Albuquerque Journal
OO Canada Cut Down On Science Libraries While Lavishing Funds On Religion And Oil under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper.
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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.
Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Oct 12, 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.
The warm spot is also helping power an already strong El Nino weather event, which is contributing to a massive coral reef die off worldwide.
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.
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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 this dwarf rhododendron I photographed one summer on the Siberian tundra. 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.
