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
Energy, Water, Land Intertwined & Threatened, Says Report
Water resources, energy and land use are so mutually dependent that climate-related disruptions to any one of them could lead to economically devastating ripple effects — especially as a growing population puts increasing strains on all three. That’s one conclusion of a recent report issued by a federal advisory committee charged with assessing how… Read More
Black Carbon Second Only to CO2 in Heating the Planet
No discussion of climate change can get very far without focusing on greenhouse gases — pollutants including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides and more, which are trapping heat and driving the planet’s temperature upward. But according to a report published Tuesday in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, the second most … Read More
Southwest Faces Looming Threats From Climate Change
The American Southwest, which is already the hottest and driest region of the nation, is likely to become even hotter and drier in the next few decades thanks in part to the ongoing effects of human-generated greenhouse gases. That’s the verdict of the draft National Climate Assessment report, the product of a federal advisory committee charged … Read More
Great Lakes Legacy Contaminants Fall, Newer Ones Rise
Legacy contaminants are decreasing more quickly than previously reported in three of the Great Lakes, but have stayed virtually the same in two other lakes, according to new research. “These are very positive results. The lakes are improving and slowly cleaning themselves up,” said Thomas Holsen, co-director of Clarkson University’s Center for the … Read More
Keystone XL Will Not Use Advanced Leak Detection
Even after causing more than a dozen spills in 2011 from its newest tar sands pipeline — including a six story “geyser” of crude — Canadian energy developer TransCanada claimed its planned Keystone XL pipeline would “exceed” safety standards.… Read More
Car Emissions Killing Millions in China and India
An explosion of car use has made fast-growing Asian cities the epicentre of global air pollution and become, along with obesity, the world's fastest growing cause of death according to a major study of global diseases. In 2010, more than 2.1m people in Asia died prematurely from air pollution, mostly from the minute particles of diesel soot and … Read More
Extreme Heat Contributes to Rare Childhood Blindness
Women pregnant during heat waves face a higher risk of giving birth to babies with a rare defect causing blindness, according to new research. The study, surveying 15 years of birth defect records in New York state, offers troubling implications for a warmer climate. … Read More
