China’s greenhouse gas emissions will exceed U.S. emissions by 50% in 2015
China’s greenhouse gas emissions are continuing to grow at an alarming rate. In 2010, emissions were 20% higher than the United States’ but by 2015, emissions could top 50% higher, according to Ye Qi, the director of the Climate Policy Initiative and professor of environmental policy at Tsinghua University. Despite China aggressively reducing energy intensity and building renewable energy capacity, total energy use has grown dramatically. ”There... Read More
Urbanized: A film about the design of cities
Half of the world’s population now lives in cities. By 2050, it is estimated that this ratio will grow to over 75%. Put another way, 3.5 billion people live in cities now. Global population is project to reach 9 billion by 2050. That means that cities will need to the housing and infrastructure to absorb upwards of 2.5 billion people within the next 30 years. It is a staggering thought, and one of the great challenges of our time. An excellent... Read More
Bill Clinton calls out climate deniers: “We look like a joke”
Former president Bill Clinton, speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting, called out climate deniers and their champions in the GOP. He said, “If you’re an American, the best thing you could do is to make it politically unacceptable to engage in denial. We look like a joke. You can’t win the nomination of one of the major parties in our country if you admit that the scientists are right … It’s really tragic.... Read More
Gore Blames Obama and Media for Lack of Climate Progress
Has President Obama done enough to combat climate change? Former Vice President Al Gore certainly doesn’t think so, and has ignited a firestorm in the media following his article in Rolling Stone in which he lays into Obama for his mediocre achievements in climate and energy policy. “Firestorm” may be a bit of a stretch, but his article is very critical of United States politics, mainstream media, and the mediocre climate policy... Read More
Sea Level Rise a Threat to U.S. Coastal Cities
This map shows where increases in sea level could affect New Orleans, Virginia Beach, Va., Miami, Tampa, Fla., New York and Washington, D.C. The colors indicate areas along the coast that are elevations of 1 meter or less (russet) or 6 meters or less (yellow) and have connectivity to the sea. (Map by Jeremy Weiss, University of Arizona) A team of researchers at the University of Arizona has projected how future sea level rise will impact 180 of the... Read More
Rising Global Food Prices and Political Instability
World food prices hit a record high in January – the highest since the FAO began monitoring in 1990. Some experts are saying that the popular protests across the middle east are in part due to these rising food prices. A drought in China that has damaged the winter wheat crop, and flooding in Australia has caused food prices to spike are partly to blame. Rising food prices were to blame for riots across the globe in 2008. With a rising global... Read More
Book Review: A World Without Ice
Three million years ago, during the mid-Pliocene epoch, sea levels were 100 feet higher than they are today. During this period, there was no ice in the Northern Hemisphere, no sea ice in the Arctic Ocean nor in Greenland. And global temperatures at that time? Only about four to six degrees warmer than today. Such figures gave me pause, as I was about 2/3 of the way through A World Without Ice by Henry Pollack a professor of geophysics at the University... Read More
Dalai Lama Says to Focus on Climate Change, not Politics in Tibet in Leaked U.S. Cable
In August 2009, the Dalai Lama told the US Ambassador to India that the political goals surrounding Tibet should be put on hold for 10 years and instead be refocused on addressing climate change. The leaked cable states: The Dalai Lama argued that the political agenda should be sidelined for five to ten years and the international community should shift its focus to climate change on the Tibetan plateau. Melting glaciers, deforestation, and increasingly... Read More
Prop 23: US Climate Change Fight Hinges on California Voters
(Photo: Flickr user fd) Whether or not you live in California, you might have heard about the battle going down over Proposition 23 on next Tuesday’s ballot. On one side of the climate show-down, two Texas-based oil companies (Valero and Tesoro), who wrote and funded Prop 23, joined by a host of other out-of-state corporate polluters including the energy conglomerate and Tea Party financiers the Koch brothers. On the No-side, an ever-growing list... Read More
NRDC Documentary About Ocean Acidification
Check out this short and effective documentary about ocean acidification, an issue that we are just really beginning to grasp the gravity of. The video is the work of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and highlights what has been called the “other carbon problem”. Read More
Making Sense of Public Attitudes Toward Global Warming and Climate Change
What do Americans REALLY think? Dr. Jon Krosnick, a Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, is a social psychologist who studies how the American public’s beliefs and attitudes regarding environmental policy issues form, change over time, and influence peoples’s behavior. His most recent work offers some important clarity to what has become a confusing public discourse, how Americans feel about... Read More
Eager Beavers Enlisted to Fight Climate Change
Photo by Flickr user stevehdc With climate change expected to lead to longer and drier summers here in Washington State, the timing of spring and summer runoff from mountains has become a concern for communities and farmers. During spring runoff, water demands are generally low, and most of the water goes unused. In the late summer, runoff from snow melt decreases and many streams run low, even though this is the time when water demands for agriculture... Read More
Deep Ocean Warming is Leading to Sea Level Rise
Photo credit: NOAAA NOAA news release draws attention to an upcoming report in the Journal of Climate regarding substantial warming in the deep ocean that has been recorded over the last 20 years, leading to sea-level rise. The findings are significant as much of the attention that has been given to ocean warming has been focused on shallow depths, and signs of warming at greater depth reveal more substantial changes underway. Roughly 80% of greenhouse... Read More
