Clouds ‘Cool Earth Less Than Once Thought’
Extra cloud cover caused by emissions of industrial pollutants is known to reduce the effects of global warming, but its impact in reducing temperatures has been over-estimated in the climate models, new research has found. This is particularly significant for China and India, because it has been believed that these two giant countries would be pa… Read More
Amazon May Lose 65 Percent of Land Biomass by 2060
There will be no winners if agriculture made possible by widespread felling in the Amazon continues to expand, say researchers from Brazil and the U.S. They calculate that the large-scale expansion of agriculture at the expense of the forest could entail the loss of almost two-thirds of the Amazon’s terrestrial biomass by later this century … Read More
Greenland’s Ice Loss May Slow, But Coasts Still At Risk
The flow of Greenland’s glaciers toward the sea may have increased significantly in the past decade, but a new report in Nature finds that rate of increase is unlikely to continue. “The loss of ice has doubled in the past 10 years, but it’s not going to double again,” said lead author Faezeh Nick, a glaciologist at the University Centre in Svalbard… Read More
Carbon Bubble May Plunge the World into Financial Crisis
The world could be heading for a major economic crisis as stock markets inflate an investment bubble in fossil fuels to the tune of trillions of dollars, according to leading economists. "The financial crisis has shown what happens when risks accumulate unnoticed," said Lord (Nicholas) Stern, a professor at the London School of Economics. He said … Read More
Overseas Demand Breathes New Life into U.S. Coal
The good news is that U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are continuing to decline. “Over the last four years, our emissions of the dangerous carbon pollution that threatens our planet have actually fallen,” said President Obama in his State of the Union address last month. The bad news is the U.S. is exporting its polluting gases, particularly i… Read More
Countries in Asia Cutting Carbon Faster than Europe
When it comes to prowess in moving towards a low-carbon economy, some countries in Asia are increasingly outpacing Europe and the United States, a new report shows. Three of the top G20 countries best placed to compete in the global low-carbon economy are now from East Asia, having overtaken their European and American competitors, according to an… Read More
Ancient Extinction Has Ominous Lessons for Today: Study
Scientists have nailed down the cause of a planet-wide catastrophe that wiped out nearly all living species 200 million years ago and paved the way for the rise of the dinosaurs. The culprit was carbon dioxide; the same greenhouse gas that’s causing global warming today says a new report. The new study, which was published Thursday in the journal S… Read More
EU’s Attempt to Curb Carbon Emissions Limps On
The European Union’s failing carbon market has been thrown a lifeline by the European Parliament’s Environment Committee. It has backed the Commission’s plan to prop up the price of a ton of carbon by withdrawing an oversupply of credits from the market. Carbon trading is one of the major EU policies designed to combat climate change. But a combi… Read More
