As the U.S. Warms, Power Plants Face New Water Limits
Thermoelectric plants need large amounts of water for cooling purposes, taking in relatively cool water from rivers, lakes, or the ocean, pumping that water through heated components in the plant to bring temperatures down, and discharging warmer water in return. Such plants use once-through cooling systems. Other power plants take in less water an… Read More
Key Weather Satellite Goes Offline, May Affect Forecasts
The outage began late on Sept. 23, after a period when the satellite, known as GOES-13, had been experience increasing interference, or “noise, that was degrading its performance.… Read More
With Extreme Weather, Will Insurers Come to the Rescue?
Following a damaging episode of extreme weather, communities turn to insurance companies to help them rebuild, but with costly extreme weather and climate events on the rise as the climate continues to warm, insurers may stop coming to the rescue, a new report warns. The report from Ceres, a nonprofit group that advocates for sustainable busines… Read More
Global Carbon Trading System Has ‘Essentially Collapsed’
The world's only global system of carbon trading, designed to give poor countries access to new green technologies, has "essentially collapsed", jeopardising future flows of finance to the developing world. Billions of dollars have been raised in the past seven years through theUnited Nations' system to set up greenhouse gas-cutting projects, such… Read More
Geoengineering Faces Dilemma: Experiment or Not?
In May, a team of British scientists abruptly canceled an experiment they had been planning for nearly two years. The Stratospheric Particle Experiment for Climate Engineering, or SPICE, was intended to test ways of injecting tiny particles of sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere, with the eventual goal of filtering out sunlight to cool the… Read More
Green Climate Fund to Discuss Billions Already Pledged
The fate of billions of dollars of promised funding from rich countries to help the developing world adapt to climate change will be discussed on Thursday in Geneva, at the first meeting of the UN's Green Climate Fund. The fund is meant to be the biggest single funding route for the $100bn (£63bn) that developed countries have pledged should flow … Read More
Forest Service Fights All Fires Now, But at What Cost?
On July 12, lightning sparked a forest fire in western Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex — a place where wildfires are common this time of year. Usually, if they’re small and don’t threaten to get out of control, the U.S. Forest Service will let them burn. Small fires are good for the forest ecosystem, burning off dead timber and creating … Read More
Times Review: ‘Global Weirdness’ is a Winner
“That is, it’s a book, written in the kind of plain English of which Strunk and White would approve, that lays out what we know about climate change while hewing to the facts and taking great care to avoid bias and hysteria,… Read More
