Despite the oft-repeated claim that the recent decline in U.S. carbon emissions was due to the so-called ‘fracking boom,’ new research published Tuesday shows that it was the dramatic fall in consumption during the Great Recession that deserves credit for this drop. As nations grapple with the best strategy for decreasing carbon emissions ahead of the upcoming United Nations Framework …
Record torrential rainfall linked to warming climate By Alex Kirby
Scientists show that devastating increases in extreme rainfall over the last 30 years fit in with global temperature rise caused by greenhouse gases. LONDON, 13 July, 2015 – If you think you’re getting an unusually hard soaking more often when you go out in the rain, you’re probably right. A team of scientists in Germany says record-breaking heavy rainfall has been …
If World Refuses to Act on Carbon, Oceans Doomed to ‘Irreversible’ Damage – Nadia Prupis
Without “immediate and substantial” reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s oceans and marine life face massive, irreversible damage with far-reaching consequences by 2100, a new study published Friday in the magazine Science warns. The international team of scientists, led by Dr. Jean-Pierre Gattuso of the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche in France, ran two analyses to compare the impact of climate change …
G7 Leaders Fiddle While Earth Burns by PETE DOLACK
The G7 governments saying they will phase out fossil fuels by 2100 isn’t closing the barn door after the horse has left. It is declaring an intention to consider closing the barn door after waiting for the horse to disappear over the horizon. It is okay to be feel underwhelmed by this. The Group of 7 summit held earlier this …
Non-GM soy more sustainable than GM – study
Lower pesticide use, higher price premiums, and lower greenhouse gas emissions mean non-GM soy is better for farmers and the environment An important new study shows that the Brazilian non-GMO soybean meal supply chain is more sustainable than the GMO soybean chain. Will the WWF-supported Round Table for Responsible Soy now stop endorsing GM soy as “responsible”? We’re not holding …
Renewable energy redoubles its global reach By Alex Kirby
As the world economy and energy use both grew in 2014, renewables continued their rapid rise− but carbon emissions did not. LONDON, 27 June, 2015 − A significant threshold has been crossed by renewable energy as analysts report that the sectorʼs size last year reached double the level it was at just 10 years earlier. This expansion happened in a year when the global economy and energy …
Liquefied natural gas is a disaster for both public health and the climate. By Deb Nardone
Here’s the good news: President Barack Obama has committed to reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 17 percent by 2020. The bad news? A rise in fracking for natural gas could make the United States fail to keep this pledge. Unfortunately, a big corporate push to start exporting liquefied natural gas, or LNG, could ramp up fracking …
Not ‘If’ But ‘How’: New Study Shows Why All Extreme Weather Is Climate Related – Nadia Prupis
The debate over climate change has long focused on determining attribution—whether rising greenhouse gases and global warming caused a particular storm, drought, flood, or blizzard. Now, a new study inNature Climate Change published Monday seeks to shift the underlying question from “if” to “how.” “The climate is changing,” wrote National Center for Atmospheric Research scientists Kevin Trenberth and John Fasullo and …
“Care For Our Common Home” Mother Earth By Pope Francis
An extract from Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. In many parts of the planet, the elderly lament that once beautiful landscapes are now covered with rubbish. Industrial waste and chemical products utilised in cities and agricultural areas can lead to bioaccumulation …
GREEN ACTIVISM REALLY DOES PAY OFF
In states with strong environmental movements, greenhouse gas emissions are inching lower. Social scientist Thomas Dietz and Kenneth Frank, professor of sociometrics at Michigan State University, have teamed up to find a way to tell if a state jumping on the environmental bandwagon can mitigate other human factors—such as population growth and economic affluence—that are known to hurt the environment. …