Home/Posts Tagged ‘Climate change’
Posts Tagged ‘Climate change’
Climate Change, Videos & Documentaries, Aug 29th, 2012,
Remember climate change? Yeah, it didn’t go away. In fact it’s worse than ever. However, the media (and therefore the public) have largely lost interest. No more Amazon? More extreme floods and droughts? Bo-ring! The Right in the US and Europe have succeeded in sewing enough doubt as to the reality of climate change that many people are just “confused” or “skeptical” so no large countries are really doing anything significant. The more sane elements in the governments of these nations still try to make money out of any “solution” to climate change. The free market will solve everything, apparently….
Tags: amazon, arctic, Climate change, global warming
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Jul 4th, 2012,
The recent heat waves and extreme storms in the eastern United States, the numerous wildfires in Colorado and other Western states, flooding elsewhere in the country… Since 1988 climate scientists have associated these kinds of extreme weather events, though not specific weather events, to climate change or global warming. What we’ve been seeing in different parts of the US this summer is what scientists say will occur more frequently as the planet heats up. According to Princeton University geosciences and international affairs professor Michael Oppenheimer, droughts, floods, wildfires, extreme storms and other environmental disasters are “what global warming really…
Tags: Climate change, extreme weather, floods, global warming, scientists, storms, wildfires
Climate Change, Politics, Science & Technology, May 10th, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick It’s just two weeks since a paper in Nature flagged an ominous thinning of ice shelves along parts of the Antarctic coast lying due south of the Pacific Ocean. The ice appears to be melting from below, as changing ocean currents are bringing relatively warm water to bathe the shelves’ undersides — and as the ice shelves lose mass, they also lose their ability to slow land-based ice in its slide toward the sea. Now there’s something new to worry about. A pair of brand-new studies published today, one in Nature and one in its sister…
Tags: Antarctica, Climate change, climate science, climatecentral.org, global warming, ice melting
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Apr 19th, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick For years, we who communicate about climate change have been wringing our hands over how to make people understand the problem at a gut level. Endangered polar bears? Too far removed. Island nations like the Maldives sinking beneath the waves? Too far away. Hot temperatures by 2100? Too far in the future. But like the first, outlying squalls from an oncoming hurricane, the first effects of climate change are already here, in the form of heat waves, droughts, intense rainstorms and more, and people are evidently noticing. Not just the extremes themselves: you couldn’t have missed…
Tags: Climate change, climatecentral.org, extreme weather, global warming, natural disasters
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Science & Technology, Apr 12th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman Severe thunderstorm season is upon us, with the array of threats it brings, from tornadoes to flash flooding. On Tuesday, tornadoes grabbed most of the headlines, as several strong tornadoes struck the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area, tossing tracker trailer trucks into the air, and damaging dozens of homes. But the large hail the same supercell thunderstorms dropped caused major impacts as well, largely because they fell on top of one of the world’s busiest airports. A passenger aboard a flight preparing to depart DFW International Airport when the storm hit described the sounds of the hail hitting…
Tags: big hail, changes due to climate change, Climate change, climatecentral.org, global warming, hail, hailstone climate change, supercell thunderstorms, tornadoes
Climate Change, Apr 9th, 2012,
Will the youth of China and Brazil lead the way in the new environmental ‘Great Leap Forward’ while British and American young people languish in egomaniacal tweets and preposterous dreams of stardom, not giving two cares about the future of the planet? A recent survey by the Carbon Trust attempts to measure concern about CO2 and climate change in young populations around the world – and the results may surprise you. The scope of the survey focuses on the awareness and consumer values of young adults in 6 different countries on 5 continents – The US, UK, China, South Korea,…
Tags: Brazil, Carbon Trust, China, Climate change, Korea, survey, UK, USA, young, youth
Climate Change, Conservation, Nature, Science & Technology, Apr 5th, 2012,
One of the most striking changes that has taken place in the Arctic since the start of satellite monitoring in 1979 is the rapid decline of the perennial sea ice cover. This ice is the sea ice that survives the summer melt season, and is typically the thickest part of the sea ice cover, sometimes spanning several years. Sea ice extent has declined as the globe has warmed, but the ice cover has thinned as well. Thinner sea ice melts more easily, and as multiyear sea ice is lost, Arctic sea ice has declined more rapidly. This NASA visualization shows…
Tags: arctic ice, Climate change, climatecentral.org, melting arctic ice, melting ice caps, NASA
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Mar 22nd, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman COMMENTARY One of the biggest hurdles to overcome when communicating climate science is the resistance many have to accepting the notion that human activities are capable of altering the earth’s climate system. After all, the planet is a pretty big place, and the climate was doing its thing long before humans arrived. To some, the abundant scientific evidence showing that manmade emissions of global warming gases, such as carbon dioxide, are likely the key driver behind recent global warming seems, well, kind of arrogant. To these folks, I say check out a recent study that had nothing…
Tags: Climate change, climatecentral.org, man infuences climate, manmade climate change
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Mar 16th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman SimCity, the iconic strategy game that gave rise to a generation of “Sims” games, is getting a 21st century makeover. With the real cities of the world increasingly on the front lines of climate change, SimCity will include a climate change component. The new version of the game, developed by Maxis in conjunction with the organization Games for Change, will force players to reckon with the consequences of their energy choices. If you put coal-fired power plants in your city, for example, you may see a rise in pollution and a decline in public health. You also…
Tags: Climate change, climate change SimCity, climatecentral.org, SimCity, video games
Climate Change, Politics, Mar 6th, 2012,
Canada is famous for ice hockey. That, maple syrup and being a nicer, cleaner version of the United States. But real, traditional ice hockey, played outdoors on frozen lakes and ponds, may become a thing of the past due to climate change. Of course, nowadays expensive, energy-consuming technology makes weather obsolete. I mean, even the state of Florida has two ice hockey teams. Winter sports have really taken off in the Sunshine State. But way up north some traditional winter sports are on thin ice, with winter temperatures in some parts of Canada not allowing sufficient ice formation. And climate…
Tags: Alberta, Canada, Climate change, greenhouse gas, hockey, ice hockey, tar sands
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Weird Stuff, Feb 23rd, 2012,
By Michael D. Lemonick Legend has it that in the final days of the Third Reich, loyalists smuggled Adolf Hitler’s remains out of Berlin along with those of his paramour, Eva Braun. The deceased were later ferried by U-Boat all the way down to a secret Nazi base in Antarctica, where they were, depending on which version you believe, interred or used for cloning experiments. Maybe a thousand identical copies of the mass murderer walk among us! Or maybe the legends about Nazis in Antarctica are as every bit as ridiculous as they sound (though not as ridiculous as this…
Tags: Antarctica, Climate change, climatecentral.org, ice
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Feb 16th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman The cold snap in Europe that has killed more than 600 people and buried communities under record snow cover has had an entirely different impact in the Arctic, which is where you’d normally expect to find frigid weather at this time of year. In parts of the Far North, it has been unusually mild recently, and broad expanses of open water have emerged. This open water has raised questions about whether Arctic sea ice is declining even faster than before. The open water, located in the Barents and Kara Seas, led one blogger to claim that the…
Tags: Arctic ice shift, Climate change, climatecentral.org, Europe cold weather, unusual weather patters
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Feb 9th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman The weather pattern responsible for bringing frigid air to Europe, like this heavy snow fall on the Colosseum in Rome, is driven in part by a naturally-occurring pattern known as the Arctic Oscillation. While the U.S. cruises through winter with a snow drought and above-average temperatures, much of Europe and Eurasia are locked in the grips of a deadly cold air outbreak, with more than 300 people reported dead so far. According to news reports, entire communities in Italy, Bosnia, and Romania have become inaccessible due to heavy snowfall and power outages. According to Sky News, a…
Tags: arctic sea ice volume, climate central, Climate change, climatecentral.org, deadly cold europe, europe weather, winter
Climate Change, Politics, Feb 6th, 2012,
Europe’s commissioner for climate action, Connie Hedegaard, has stated that the current model for economic growth is not sustainable and could result in a global economic crisis if continued. Hedegaard equated the current Eurozone crisis with a future one of global scale. She said that economic models based solely on production and consumption are a recipe for failure and only serves to encourage overconsumption. Furthermore, the environment must be taken into account and these issues must be comprehensively addressed at the upcoming summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The summit in Rio this June takes place on the 20-year anniversary…
Tags: Climate change, crisis, economic, environmental, GDP, global, growth, Hedegaard, rio
Climate Change, Green living, Health, Natural disasters, Science & Technology, Jan 19th, 2012,
By Andrew Freedman It often seems like weather forecasters blame everything unusual on El Niño or La Niña, be it a drought, a heat wave, or a snowless winter. But this natural climate cycle in the equatorial Pacific Ocean may actually have much greater — and far deadlier — impacts. A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explores the possibility that La Niña helps make conditions more favorable for deadly global flu pandemics. The study finds that the past four flu pandemics, including the Spanish Flu of 1918, the Asian Flu of 1957, the Hong Kong…
Tags: Climate change, climatecentral.org, Flu pandemics, La Nina
Climate Change, Conservation, Videos & Documentaries, Wildlife & Flora, Dec 23rd, 2011,
According to a UN report an increase in global temperatures puts up to 1/3 of all Earth’s animals at risk of extinction. The gorillas of Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains in central Africa are already at risk from rising temperatures. Changes in rainfall and hotter weather mean the vegetation the gorillas depend on changes growth patterns, moving up the mountain into higher altitudes. The gorillas provide Rwanda with tourist revenue and the rainfall in the Virunga Mountains feeds rivers and provides hydro electricity for the already poor and vulnerable African nation. From Reuters: Many ecosystems have already been stressed by increasing population,…
Tags: Africa, Climate change, gorillas, Rwanda, Virunga
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Dec 22nd, 2011,
Sometimes, covering climate science feels like playing a neverending game of whack-a-mole, since the same dubious arguments — often put forward by the same people — pop up again and again, only to be repeatedly debunked. Today is no different. Over at the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang blog, I have a column responding to a press release issued late last week marking the 33rd year of temperature data from the lower atmosphere, as detected by satellites. The release, from John Christy and Roy Spencer at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, made several claims that were misleading at best, including the…
Tags: Climate change, climatecentral.org, global warming, man-made climate change, temperature rise
Climate Change, Natural disasters, Nature, Dec 8th, 2011,
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced today that the official list of billion dollar weather and climate disasters in 2011 (for the US) is now up to 12, smashing the old record of nine, set in 2008. The total damage from these 12 events alone, says NOAA, stands at $52 billion and still rising — a hefty price tag in any case, but especially tough in a sluggish economy. The NOAA list got bigger after the agency separated out the Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona wildfires from the larger Southern Plains drought and heat event (it’s not cheating:…
Tags: climate central, Climate change, natural disasters
Climate Change, Politics, Pollution, Dec 7th, 2011,
In 2009 you heard the trite references to Shakespeare about something being ‘rotten in the state of Denmark’ during the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference. Well it wasn’t just the pickled herring. Nothing stinks worse than corruption, greed and short sightedness in the face of very real human and environmental threats, but toxic waste comes pretty close. Industrial solvents, benzene, dioxins, bleach and sulphides are just a fragrant after scent wafting through the air and just close enough that they might tickle the nose hairs of those ‘negotiating a binding climate deal’ in Durban, South Africa at this years…
Tags: Climate change, COP17, Durban, South Africa
Climate Change, Wildlife & Flora, Nov 21st, 2011,
Millions of bullfrogs imported into California carry an infectious fungus that, although not fatal to bullfrogs, can wipe out populations of native frogs. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis breeds in the conditions in which bullfrogs, many of which are imported from Taiwan, are shipped in. The main purpose for shipping the live bullfrogs is for use in traditional Asian cuisine. Bullfrogs carry the fungus but do not die from it. Most of the millions of bullfrogs imported to California each year for use in the food, pet and dissection trades are infected with the fungus, according to several recent studies. –LA Times…
Tags: American, Asian, bullfrog, California, Climate change, food, fungus, species
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