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Archive for Global Warming News

Enviro News Wrap: Climate Science Confirmation (again); Beleaguered Oceans; Tar Sands Skyline, and more…

The Latest Environmental News HeadlinesGlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

  • Global warming is real, and it was just confirmed again for about the millionth time. The only people that doubt human-caused climate change are people that benefit from climate change denial or people that believe misinformation campaigns by people who benefit from climate change denial. The argument of there being debate about climate change science is false and should die like the thousands of species that are dying off right now in one of the largest die offs in earth’s history.
  • The higher the price of fossil fuels the more incentive people have to switch to alternatives; like solar, electric vehicles, energy efficiency, biking instead of driving, etc. Higher prices hurt the average citizen but it increases the rate of adoption to renewable energy. What is really effective is consistent high prices, spikes scare people but does not change behavior. We have created an economy where we can get addicted to products that have artificially low prices, do terrible damage to society, and when we want to switch to an alternative the only option is for everyone to pay high prices for the old product while paying for the new product as well. The structure of our economy is making the transition to renewable energy difficult and slow. Read More→

EarthTalk: Climate Change and Hawaii’s Coral Reefs

Poisonous run-off, rising ocean levels, increasingly acidic waters and overfishing are taking their toll on Hawaii's reefs and the marine life they support. Biologists are working hard to stem the problem but must now deal with invasive algaes that are compromising the whole reef system.EarthTalk® is a weekly environmental column made available to our readers from the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What’s the prognosis for Hawaii’s coral reefs in the face of global warming, invasive algae and other environmental threats?  – Bill Weston, San Francisco, CA

Despite sweeping protections put in place near the end of George W. Bush’s presidency for large swaths of marine ecosystems around the Hawaiian Islands, things are not looking good for Hawaii’s coral reefs. Poisonous run-off, rising ocean levels, increasingly acidic waters and overfishing are taking their toll on the reefs and the marine life they support. Biologists are trying to remain optimistic that there is still time to turn things around, but new threats to Hawaii’s corals are only aggravating the situation.

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Statement by UNFCCC Executive Secretary on crossing of 400 ppm CO2 Threshold

Press release from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(Bonn, 13 May 2013):

Reacting to the fact that the global concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere last week passed the 400 parts per million mark, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Christiana Figueres on Monday called for a greatly stepped-up response to climate change by all parts of society:

“With 400 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere, we have crossed an historic threshold and entered a new danger zone. The world must wake up and take note of what this means for human security, human welfare and economic development. In the face of clear and present danger, we need a policy response which truly rises to the challenge. We still have a chance to stave off the worst effects of climate change, but this will require a greatly stepped-up response across all three central pillars of action: action by the international community, by government at all levels, and by business and finance.”

Governments will be meeting 3 – 14 June in Bonn for the next round of climate change talks under the umbrella of the UNFCCC. A central focus of the talks will be negotiations to build a new global climate agreement and to drive greater immediate climate action.

Enviro News Wrap Up: 400 PPM CO2 Threshold Reached; Winters and Global Warming; Innovative Solar Financing a Game Changer, and more…

The Latest Environmental News HeadlinesGlobalWarmingisReal contributor Anders Hellum-Alexander wraps-up and comments on the climate and environmental news headlines for the past week:

Resiliency Index Will Assess Climate Risks for Cities

New resiliency index announced with C40 Cities at the Clinton Global InitiativeWorking under the umbrella of C40 Cities, an international collaborative  of cities working to assess and reduce their climate risk impacts, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and former president Bill Clinton are launching a climate change adaptation and resiliency measurement program aimed at identifying the cities most at risk. Clinton and Bloomberg announced the initiative on Monday at the midyear meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative.

The new effort will work alongside a separate and ongoing c40 initiative that now accounts for the greenhouse gas emission for 75 percent of C40 member cities. The new program adds a “resiliency yardstick” to help governments and insurers assess and plan for future damage and what specific areas and cities are most vulnerable to the worst damage.

As we’ve written about in past articles, cities are at the nexus of change and effective action; planning and implementing strategies at the regional and municipal level can be the most effective means in many cases of protecting citizens from climate disruption and preparing for the future.

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