Climate Change Is Cutting Humans’ Work Capacity
It’s not just the heat, it’s the humidity that gets you. That’s the conclusion of a new study that finds climate change has reduced humanity’s ability to work by making the planet hotter and muggier. That one-two punch has already cut the world’s working capacity by 10 percent since humans began burning large amounts of oil, gas, coal and other … Read More
Climate-Friendly Rice: End of the Paddy Field?
hanging the way rice is grown, from planting it in flooded paddy fields to drier soil cultivation, is dramatically increasing yields and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The results of trials in eleven countries show that yields increased by an average of 60%, although they varied sharply between states, from an 11% increase to 220%. A paper … Read More
Halve Meat Consumption, Scientists Urge Rich World
People in the rich world should become "demitarians" – eating half as much meat as usual, while stopping short of giving it up – in order to avoid severe environmental damage, scientists have urged, in the clearest picture yet of how farming practices are destroying the natural world. They said the horsemeat scandal had uncovered the dark side of … Read More
Making Malaria Easier to Track Using Temp Data
Their work has potentially far-reaching implications because it will improve scientists‘ ability to map where malaria is likely to occur. Knowing this could help to improve malaria control and mitigation strategies in tropical and sub-tropical regions. This could save many lives as climate change develops. The study, published in Nature Scientific… Read More
Climate Change a Bigger Extinction Threat than Asteroids
As teaching moments go, it doesn’t get much better than this. NASA scientists have known for nearly a year that a small asteroid called 2012 DA14, about 150 ft. across, would whiz past Earth at the nail-biting distance of 17,000 miles or so — significantly closer than the 22,500-mile altitude occupied by geosynchronous satellites. It happened right… Read More
Canadian Doctors Urged to Fight Climate Change
Scientists began talking seriously about some dangers of climate change more than 30 years ago — rising seas, changing weather patterns, more rain in rainy places and more drought in dry places, and more. But the risks that lie outside their areas of expertise have taken longer to draw attention — especially in the area of human health. That has… Read More
U.S. Carbon Emissions Fall to Lowest Levels Since 1994
Carbon dioxide emissions fell by 13 percent in the past five years, because of new energy-saving technologies and a doubling in the take-up of renewable energy, the report compiled by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) said.… Read More
Climate Change Moves to Forefront in Obama’s Address
"We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations," Obama said. He made a carefully calibrated appeal to Republicans, situating a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy in a religious and conservative framework of God and constitution.… Read More
