Diary Of The Last Age

Drought in Northern China Is Worst on Record, Officials Say Officials governing a large area of northern China say their region is suffering from the worst drought on record , leading to crops wilting and farmers and herders growing desperate to get water to farmlands, grasslands, animals and their households. The drought is affecting the northeastern and eastern areas of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, which is near Beijing. In recent years, Chinese scientists have attributed extreme weather patterns in China, and especially in northern China, to climate change . The region of Inner Mongolia and its residents have been hit especially hard by wide fluctuations in the weather.  President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders say climate change is an urgent problem that nations must address together, and they have insisted that countries abide by the Paris climate accord, despite President Trump’s announcement this month that the United States would withdraw fr...

A tragic irony, the areas of the U.S. where there are more Republicans who deny climate change, the worse it's going to be for them. As Climate Changes, Southern States Will Suffer More Than Others As the United States confronts global warming in the decades ahead, not all states will suffer equally. Maine may benefit from milder winters. Florida, by contrast, could face major losses, as deadly heat waves flare up in the summer and rising sea levels eat away at valuable coastal properties. In a new study in the journal Science, researchers analyzed the economic harm that climate change could inflict on the United States in the coming century. They found that the impacts could prove highly unequal: states in the Northeast and West would fare relatively well, while parts of the Midwest and Southeast would be especially hard hit. In all, the researchers estimate that the nation could face damages worth 0.7 percent of gross domestic product per year by the 2080s for ...

I've talked about GMO's before .  I'm getting some support from important people: Scott Hamilton Kennedy, the director of the new documentary “Food Evolution,” which takes the — gasp! — position that genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the agriculture industry might well be the best thing to happen to the planet since solar panels. And he’s not alone — he enlisted two of the nation’s most beloved scientists, Neil deGrasse Tyson, who narrates, and Bill Nye “the Science Guy,” who appears in the film. Incredibly, both affable, smart guys have come to the same conclusion as Kennedy that the science demonstrates that genetically engineered food isn’t as damaging as popularly believed, and, in fact, can lead to downright sustainable farming practices. In figuring out the core communications of the film we came to a few must-have tenets: 1) GMO, or more correctly, GE (genetic engineering) is a process, not a product. It is a breeding method, similar to the ways farmers ha...

We're having record heat in the Pacific Northwest.  June usually is cool and rainy, but not today.  Ok, bad as it is here, it's a lot worse elsewhere . Deadly heat waves like the one now broiling the American West are bigger killers than previously thought and they are going to grow more frequent, according to a new comprehensive study of fatal heat conditions. Still, those stretches may be less lethal in the future, as people become accustomed to them. A team of researchers examined 1,949 deadly heat waves from around the world since 1980 to look for trends, define when heat is so severe it kills and forecast the future. They found that nearly one in three people now experience 20 days a year when the heat reaches deadly levels. But the study predicts that up to three in four people worldwide will endure that kind of heat by the end of the century ...

As I've stated in the past ( many times ), and in agreement with conservative and  business   organizations, is that the only solution to global warming is a carbon tax.  And now even oil companies are in agreement . Oil giants  ExxonMobil , Shell, BP and Total are among a group of large corporations supporting a plan to tax carbon dioxide emissions in order to address climate change. The companies have revealed their support for the  Climate Leadership Council , a group of senior Republican figures  that in February proposed a $40 fee on each ton of CO2 emitted  as part of a “free-market, limited government” response to climate change. Pipeline to the classroom: how big oil promotes fossil fuels to America's children   Read more The fossil fuel companies announced their backing for the plan alongside other major firms including Unilever, PepsiCo, General Motors and Johnson & Johnson. In a full-page newspaper ad on T...

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we're basking in cool temperatures, but we're lucky.  The rest of the world is suffering from the second hottest May on record. May Continues a Ridiculous Warm Streak for the Planet With May in the record books, NASA data also shows that this was the second-warmest spring on record, again trailing only 2016. NASA climate researcher Gavin Schmidt said the first five months of the year make it likely that this will be the second-hottest year on record trailing only, you guessed it, 2016. Last year’s record heat got a boost from El Niño. The absence of El Niño this year in some ways makes the planetary heat even more shocking, though it certainly fits a pattern. A third of the world now faces deadly heatwaves as result of climate change A  Study shows risks have climbed steadily since 1980, and the number of people in danger will grow to 48% by 2100 even if emissions are drastically reduced “For heatwaves, our options are now b...

It is apocryphal but a great story nonetheless, frogs in a pot of water slowing coming to a boil who don't have the sense to jump out of the pot before they cooked.  I've used this story before , but now we have a real version of it happening right now in Chesapeake Bay. After President Donald Trump watched a  story aired on CNN  — a network he  says he never watches  — which detailed the devastating impact climate change has had on a small island in the Chesapeake Bay, he called the mayor of the island to inform him that everything would be just fine. Virginia’s Tangier Island is shrinking at a rate of 15 feet each year, the Washington Post  noted , and the Army Corps of Engineers has said the cause is from “coastal erosion and rising sea levels.” But that wasn’t enough to convince the president, or even the island’s Mayor James Eskridge. “Donald Trump, if you see this, whatever you can do, we welcome any help you can give u...

Rare US floods to become the norm if emissions aren't cut, study warns The  study , undertaken by researchers from Princeton and Rutgers universities, found that along all of the US coastline, the average risk of a 100-year flood will increase 40-fold by 2050. The research found that if emissions are not curbed, San Francisco and Seattle would both get a 100-year flood every year by 2050, while San Diego would expect 10 such events annually and Key West in Florida would be hit 11 times a year. Some of the worst affected areas would be in Hawaii, with Mokuoloe island, situated off Oahu, forecast to be deluged by 130 floods a year that are currently considered to be 100-year events. Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton climate scientist and co-author of the paper, added that New York City is set to get a 100-year flood every 20 years by 2050 but this frequency would leap to a large flood every other month by 2100. “Most coastal areas will experience relatively large increases ...

Of his many cruel acts and blunders as President, this one can be marked as his worst. Trump’s Act Of Gratuitous Destruction As Donald Trump does his best to destroy the world’s hopes of reining in climate change, let’s be clear about one thing: This has nothing to do with serving America’s national interest. The U.S. economy, in particular, would do just fine under the Paris accord. This isn’t about nationalism; mainly, it’s about sheer spite. Disappointed or Delighted, Companies React to Decision While Mr. Trump said the decision to exit the deal was made to protect American jobs — a contention that environmental groups have disputed — some large companies had urged the president to stay in the accord.  Twenty-five companies, including Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft, bought full-page ads in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post last month to argue their case. Some of those companies, and others with similar views in the technology,...