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Showing posts from July, 2017

2017 Is Unexpectedly Warm

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2017 is so unexpectedly warm it is freaking out climate scientists Still a bit cool here in the Pacific Northwest, but almost everywhere else is experiencing a hot summer, and unexpectedly hot because we don't have an El Nino which usually brings us this kind of heat. Normally, the hottest years on record occur when the underlying human-caused global warming trend gets a temporary boost from an El Niño’s enhanced warming in the tropical Pacific.  So it’s been a surprise to climate scientists that 2017 has been so remarkably warm  — because the last El Niño ended a year ago. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported Tuesday that the first half of 2017 was the second-warmest January-June on record for Earth, topped only by 2016, which was boosted by one of the biggest El Niños on record.  “As if it wasn’t shocking enough to see three consecutive record-breaking years, in 2014, 2015, and 2016, for the first time on record,” leading climatol...

We Are Choosing To Be Doomed By Climate Change

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We aren’t doomed by climate change. Right now we are choosing to be doomed. “It may seem impossible to imagine that a technologically advanced society could choose, in essence, to destroy itself,” as Elizabeth Kolbert wrote  way back in 2005  in a New Yorker series every bit as alarming as the NY Magazine piece, “but that is what we are now in the process of doing.” We have been choosing to destroy ourselves for quite some time now.   Climate silence   and climate ignorance are literally destroying us. Compounding the tragedy is that now a host of core climate solutions are affordable, practical, and scalable. If there is one critique of the NY Magazine piece that sticks, it is that Wallace-Wells fails to explain clearly that we are not doomed. We are simply choosing to be doomed. So, to be clear, we are not doomed. If the nation and the world were to adopt a WWII-scale effort, we could certainly keep total global warming “well below 2°C” (...

Earth's Sixth Extinction Event Already Under Way

Earth's sixth mass extinction event already under way, scientists warn  A “biological annihilation” of wildlife in recent decades means a sixth mass extinction in Earth’s history is already well underway and is more severe than previously feared, according to new research.   Scientists analysed both common and rare species and found billions of regional or local populations have been lost. They blame human overpopulation and overconsumption for the crisis and warn that it threatens the survival of human civilisation, although there remains a short window of time in which to act. The new study,  published in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , eschews the normally sober tone of scientific papers and calls the massive loss of wildlife a “biological annihilation” that represents a “frightening assault on the foundations of human civilisation”. Prof Gerardo Ceballos, at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, who led the...

Here Are The Kids In The Climate Change Lawsuit

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One of these kids is being ostracized by families of friends because of his involvement in the lawsuit. RAYNE, Louisiana—As far back as Jayden Foytlin can remember, her cousin Madison came over to celebrate her birthday. The girls had been best friends since they were toddlers and spent nearly every weekend together, playing video games and basketball in their driveways.  This year, things were different. In the weeks before Jayden's 14th birthday, Madison's mother stopped arranging get-togethers. She didn't answer texts inviting Madison to Jayden's birthday party. "We thought that maybe she was out of town with her family," Jayden said. "Or I thought that maybe Madison had a sleepover the same day as my birthday."  The text that cleared matters up came on the afternoon of Jayden's birthday, as she and her family piled into their hybrid SUV to go roller skating. Madison's mother wrote that her daughter wasn't allowed to see Jayd...

Trial Date Set for Children's Climate Change Lawsuit

I've posted before about a climate change lawsuit brought by some children.  Well things have moved on. Trial Date Set for Children’s Climate Lawsuit Against U.S. Government A federal judge has set a trial date for the landmark lawsuit brought by 21 children and young adults over the U.S. government's alleged failure to rein in fossil fuel development and address climate change . The trial will start on Feb. 5, 2018, in federal district court in Eugene, Oregon, with Judge Ann Aiken,  court documents show.   Filed in 2015, the lawsuit, Juliana et al v. United States , seeks sweeping changes in federal climate change efforts and in government programs that subsidize or foster the development of fossil fuels. A decision on the lawsuit by Judge Aiken could come once the trial ends some time in the spring of 2018, though the case is expected to be appealed by both sides possibly to the Supreme Court, likely delaying the final outcome for years. Its advancement...