Climate Change This Week: Sex Suffers, A Slowing Sea Rises, and More

Climate Change This Week: Sex Suffers, A Slowing Sea Rises, and More
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Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.

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Forests: Home of the Bizarre and Beautiful, like this African saturniid caterpillar. Source CandieCee at imgur.com

By threatening the world's forests, humans ultimately harm themselves.

OO Key Forest Countries' Climate Pledges Allow Too Much Deforestation Emissions - not good news.

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Too Hot for Sex?? says a study... Source www.hbo.com

OO Too Hot For Sex: Climate Change Kills The Mood - say economists, and results in fewer babies: actually, not a bad thing (the economists disagree), given that too many babies are starving even as you read this - and it will get worse as we whittle away our overstressed resources.

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@@ Drought, Water, War, and Climate Change - drawing the connection between climate change and the mess that is Syria - compelling stuff.

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Source www.vqronline.org

OO Climate Change Could Push 100+ Million Into Extreme Poverty
By 2030: World Bank
says, by disrupting agriculture and fueling the spread of malaria and other diseases.

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Hazardous to Your Health: Voting for a Climate Denier Credit Mike Luckovich

OO GOP: They're Not Scientists
- And Not About To Act On Climate Change


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OO Renewable Energy Supply To Double In Major Economies By 2030

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Chappatte at the International Herald Tribune, updated

OO Scientists Worry About Warming World, But US Public Doesn't: Polls

OO Public More Knowledgable, But Lacks Urgency: Polls

But...

OO Nations Must Act on Climate Change say 75% of the global population, according to a recent Pew poll of climate attitudes.

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OO Analysis Links Climate Change to Many Natural Disasters say scientists hailing from several prominent institutions.

Climate change was more strongly linked to events related to temperature than to precipitation, such as:

  • CA wildfires via drought thru cc
  • Mild Midwest winters
  • Droughts in Syria, and other parts of the Mid East
  • Droughts in the unstable Horn of Africa

Related Headline:

OO Global Warming's Fingerprints Are All Over Recent Extreme Weather says a large assessment of global warming's role in intensifying the severity and altering the likelihood of extreme weather events during 2014.

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Suing for a Decent Climate Future - say, is that one in from the right Harry Potter? Source bigstory.ap.org

OO US Youths Sue Over Climate Inaction - dozens of young people across the U.S. have been suing states and the federal government in recent years to push action on climate change.

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@@ A Brief History of Global Warming - excellent recap of how it started, how it's going, and what the future holds, if we lack the courage and foresight to act... the ghost of global warming future speaks...

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Hurricane Sandy. NASA

OO Greenhouse Gas Levels Hit New Milestone - 400 PPM,
Fueling Worries About Climate Change

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Clean Tech: Creating the Most Jobs in the US energy sector.

OO A Paris Climate Agreement Could Stimulate The US Green Tech Economy with trillions of dollars to be gained at home from other countries' climate mitigation efforts.

WATERY DISFUNCTION

What Might A 4 oC Warmer World Look Like?

New York:

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For this and other working interactives on what cities will look like under 2 and 4 degrees C of warming, go here.

OO Images Show Impact Of Sea Level Rise On Global Icons - long-term sea level rise set in motion by near-term carbon emissions threatens major coastal cities across the world.

OO New York Prepares For Up To 6 Feet Of Sea Level Rise with no guarantee of success.

OO West Antarctic Ice Melt Could Raise Seas By 9 Feet - from a key area already unstable enough to start doing so, scientists warned recently.

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OO Arctic Ice, A Big Climate Moderator, Will Change The Planet Once Gone

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Slowing Down? The oceanic conveyor belt moves vast amounts of heat and affects climate globally; it may be slowing down, with huge ramifications ensuing. Source www.amfirstbooks.com

OO Satellites Detect Huge Declines in Oceanic Currents that appear to be linked to a sudden and recent 4 inch rise in sea level on the US east coast, and may indicate a general slowing of deep giant oceanic currents, with huge implications for global climate.

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Acidifying Oceans Threaten Entire Food Chains from plankton to whales, ultimately.

OO Abrupt Changes In Food Chains Predicted As Southern Ocean Acidifies Fast

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Bye-bye California Crab for 2015? I LOVE crab cakes. And crabs, alive or dead.
Source shoparchive.legalseafoods.com

OO CA: Warm Waters Kill Crab Fishing Season - unusually warm waters helped create a huge and lasting toxic algal bloom, making Dungeness and other crabs too toxic to eat.

Related Headline:

OO Toxin Taints Crabs And Kills Sea Mammals, scientists warn.

More:

OO Yemen: First Ever Recorded Hurricane Dumps Year's Worth Of Rain,
Causing Extensive Damage

OO Zimbabwe: A Planned Mega Dam, and No Water

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Caribbean Food: plantains, beans, and greens are part of their traditional diet, but drought is harming crops. Source www.jansroti.co.uk

OO Climate Change Threatens Caribbean Food Security with differing rainfall patterns, water scarcity, heat stress and increased climatic variability.

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Bye-Bye Belgium Beer? Source umbertos.org

OO Climate Change Threatens Belgium Beer Business

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OO Energy Efficiency, From Cars To Fridges, Can Aid Climate, GDP - Tougher energy efficiency standards could cut annual world greenhouse gas emissions by about 10% by 2030 and spur economic growth, an international report said recently.

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An Alternative: How about having smaller, sustainable populations eating normal food instead?

OO Insects Should Be Part Of A Sustainable Diet In Future says report. Got news for you: in some parts of the world, they already are.

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Coming Soon to a Pump Near You we hope...

OO Vancouver: Climate Change Warning Labels May Be Coming To Gas Pumps

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A Chinese Solar Farm. Source Xinhua

OO In Clean Energy Race, US 'Playing Catch-up to China'

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OO Under Attack: The Freedom to Buy Clean Energy - a big utility takes aim at a North Carolina church.

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Google headquarters is solar powered, one way the company helps protect climate.

OO Apple, Google, Microsoft Among Best Companies Protecting Climate says a global ranking that grades corporations according to their environmental credentials.

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It's actually worse than we thought... with China emitting far more than anyone knew. Source www.theneeds.com

OO China Emitted Billions Of Tons More Global Warming Carbon Dioxide Than We Knew

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LEADERSHIP COUNTS

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Credit Julie Jacobson at AP

OO President Obama Rejects Keystone Pipeline, and More - after a year of quiet diplomacy leading to December's 190-country climate change conference, Obama took the most public, contested step yet in his second-term transformation into the greenest of U.S. presidents: rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline. You Rock, Man!

OO Obama Rejects Keystone XL Project, Citing U.S. Climate Leadership

Related Headline:

OO Not a Good Week for Oil Companies

OO Same Grade School, Different Pipe Dreams:
Keystone Rivals Stephen Harper & Bill McKibben

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OO Canada: Muzzled Govt. Scientists Now Free To Inform The Public

OO Canada Plans 'Fresh Start' On Energy After Pipeline Rejection, acknowledging the need to demonstrate that it can effectively combat climate change even as it produces oil. Good luck, guys.

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OO Bernie Sanders Leads Proposal To Ban Drilling On Public Land

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OO Orthodox Church Leader Urges Million+ Followers To Back Action On Carbon Emissions

OO Australia: Clean Energy Investment Fell 31% Under Ex Dirty Energy Leader
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CLIMATEGATE

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Credit Pat Bagley at the Salt Lake Tribune

OO Congressmen Call On SEC To Investigate Exxon's Climate Disclosures

OO New York: Attorney General Probes Exxon
Mobil for Possible Climate Change Lies

OO More Oil Companies Could Be Focus Of Climate Investigations

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OO Goldman Sachs Triples Its Clean Energy Investment
Target to $150 Billion by 2025
- Goldman sees clean energy, clean water, and energy access as a massive near-term opportunity. The expanded goal comes as the bank closes in on its original target of $40 billion after just four years.

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What US Forests Look Like In Europe: wood pellets for burning. Wikipedia

OO The European Accounting Error That's Warming the Planet - not counting the global warming emissions from burning wood, because these can be absorbed by a new tree. Eventually.

A tree can burn in a few minutes. Growing a new tree to store the emissions can take up to a century or more -- during which time, the emissions are changing climate.

A loophole that one could drive a herd of global warming elephants through...

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OO Wind Power Breaks Records Across the U.S. in October - in generation outputs. Yay!

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If we do not grow sustainably,
Our children will die inhumanely.

@@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers:

Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearly
- the Guttmacher Institute

Teen Childbearing Alone Cost US Taxpayers $9+ Billion In 2010 and the costs of raising a child often ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community.

And there are many more actions you can do, right here.

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SOLAR KEEPS SAILING

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OO US Solar Success Stories: Creating Green Jobs, Saving Schools Money, and More!

OO Solar Is the Cheapest Source of Energy in Chile, Says Deutsche Bank a reputable finance giant.

OO USA's SunEdison to Supply Cheapest Solar Power in India

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Check it out here, right now!

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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS

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Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Nov 17, 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.

A large swathe of abnormal heat cuts dramatically down through Canada into the US. Pretty impressive, given that it's November and the days are much shorter up there.

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 heather I photographed one 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.

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