BILL MCKIBBEN – Time to Declare a War (Literally) on Climate Change

In the North this summer, a devastating offensive is underway. Enemy forces have seized huge swaths of territory; with each passing week, another 22,000 square miles of Arctic ice disappears. Experts dispatched to the battlefield in July saw little cause for hope, especially since this siege is one of the oldest fronts in the war. “In 30 years, the area has …

Lauren McCauley – The Earth Just Experienced the Hottest Month on the Books. Period.

On Monday it was confirmed that the Earth has broken an ominous climate milestone amid a wave of troubling records: July 2016 was the hottest recorded month—ever. According to new NASA data, the global mean surface temperatures last month were 0.84° Celsius (1.51° Fahrenheit) above average and was the warmest July in their data set, which dates back to 1880. …

Chris D’Angelo – The Results Of Earth’s ‘Annual Physical’ Are A Scary Dose Of Deja Vu

  A devastating dose of long-term climate change combined with a strong El Niño in 2015 seemingly left every major climate record on the books shattered, according to an annual international climate report released Tuesday. The State of the Climate report, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and described as Earth’s “annual physical,” finds that the health of the planet has, once …

Nadia Prupis – Climate Change is Here and Now, Dire NOAA Report Warns

Environmental records of all kinds are being shattered as climate change takes effect in real time, scientists warned on Tuesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) released its annual State of the Climate report with the dire warning that 2015 was the hottest year on record since at least the mid-to-late 19th century, confirming the “toppling of several symbolic milestones” in …

Warmest June on record for the contiguous U.S.

The June temperature for the contiguous U.S. was 71.8°F, or 3.3°F above the 20th century average, surpassing the previous record of 71.6°F set in 1933. The year-to-date (January-June) temperaturewas 50.8°F, 3.2°F above the 20th century average, making it the third warmest on record. The June precipitation total for the contiguous U.S. was 2.46 inches, 0.47 inch below the 20th century average, the 14th driest on record. Record flooding devastated …

Asoka Bandarage – Climate, Consciousness and Social Change

Climate change is a complex phenomenon involving unknown changes in planetary biophysical systems.  However, there is now scientific consensus, that climate change is caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Fossil fuel combustion is considered the primary cause of carbon emissions and climate change worldwide. Scientists warn that unless we are able to bring down carbon emissions rapidly to below 350 …

Ten Degrees Above Average, Alaska is Having Its Hottest Year Since Records Began

Like the rest of the world, Alaska has been unusually hot this year—and it’s about to get hotter. That’s according to the most recent data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), as Climate Central reported. Between March and May of this year, the meteorological spring, the entire state has been about 10 degrees hotter than normal, with an average temperature …

87,000 NASA Images Show a Greening Arctic

Flowers carpet the tundra in Nunavut, the northernmost territory of Canada. Photo credit: DB Marsh/Library and Archives Canada via Flickr The researchers report in the Journal of Remote Sensing that examination of 87,000 images captured by the NASA Landsat satellite reveals that Alaska, Quebec and other regions became greener between 1984 and 2012. Landsat, a project also backed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), provides the …

The past, present and future of African dust

So much dust is scattered across the planet by the winds of the Sahara that it alters the climate. However, the emission and transport of this dust, which can reach the poles, fluctuate considerably. Although many hypotheses have been put forward to explain this phenomenon, no unambiguous relationship between this dust and the climate had been established until now. According …

After ‘Unprecedented’ Year of Warming, UN Warns We Must Curb Emissions Now

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the climate arm of the United Nations, said on Monday that climate change is occurring at an “alarming rate” and that world leaders must act to curb greenhouse gases now, “before we pass the point of no return.” After 2015 broke all previous global average surface temperature records, WMO is releasing its State of the Climate report with …