IMF Rejects Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Calls for Reform
Fossil fuel subsidies provided by both rich and poor countries to keep their citizens happy are holding back the world economy, accelerating climate change and damaging the health of current and future generations, according to the International Monetary Fund. The worst offender of all is the United States, which allows annual subsidies of $502 … Read More
Links to Solar May Forge New Ties Across Mediterranean
The world’s largest concentrated solar power plant opened in March in the middle of Abu Dhabi’s western region, amid the country’s giant oil fields. The $600 million plant’s hundreds of mirrors direct sunlight towards towers full of water. These are heated to drive steam turbines that provide enough electricity for thousands of homes. In a … Read More
Cutting Short-lived Pollutants Can Slow Sea Level Rise
As ocean waters warm and land-based ice sheets melt in response to manmade global warming, global sea levels have been rising by about 1.2 inches per decade, and recent studies project up to 1 meter, or about 3.3 feet, of sea level rise by the end of this century. This would imperil some of the world’s largest coastal population centers, such as Ne… Read More
Interactive: Short-Lived Pollutants and Sea Level Rise
The article, "Mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants slows sea level rise", by Hu et al., is a collaboration between scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Climate Central, and examines how … Read More
Margaret Thatcher’s Strong Stance on Climate Change
Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady" of British politics who died Monday at the age of 87, is being lionized as the woman who tilted British domestic and economic policy to the right. Less noted is how seriously she viewed the threat of climate change and the robustness, more than 20 years ago, of climate science and United Nations body tasked with … Read More
In Wake of Sandy, NOAA Alters Hurricane Warning Policy
Ahead of the 2013 Atlantic Hurricane Season and in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the National Weather Service announced today that it is changing its policy on the issuance of tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings. Beginning on June 1, the agency will be permitted to leave these watches and warnings in effect even if a hurricane transiti… Read More
The World’s Poorest Nations Say Yes to Emissions Cuts
In what could be a far-reaching move, the world's poorest countries say they are now prepared to commit themselves to binding cuts in their emissions of greenhouse gases. The move has the potential to quicken the pace of the glacially-slow U.N. negotiations, which have for years been trying to agree an effective way to cut emissions in order to … Read More
New Process May Make Renewable Energy Reliable at Last
Solar energy is virtually limitless, generates no planet-warming greenhouse gases — and is useless between sunset and sunrise. Wind energy is also plentiful and emits no carbon, and it can be harvested day or night, but not when the air is calm. A discovery announced in Thursday’s issue of Science may offer a way around these daunting problems, … Read More
