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Archive for March, 2014
IPCC: Global Warming Impacts May Be ‘Irreversible’
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on March 31st, 2014
Environment News Service: The effects of climate change are "already occurring on all continents and across the oceans," yet the world is "ill-prepared for risks from a changing climate," concludes the latest assessment, issued today, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Increasing magnitudes of warming increase the likelihood of severe and pervasive impacts that may be surprising or irreversible," warns the report from the UN panel
The assessment, titled "Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and...
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New IPCC report on climate change focuses on managing risks
Posted by Ars Technica: Scott K. Johnson on March 31st, 2014
Ars Technica: A few months ago, we covered the release of the first section of the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which dealt with the physical science of climate and climate change. After one last meeting in Yokohama, Japan, the authors of the section on climate “Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability” have released the final draft of their work. (One additional section will be released in just a couple of weeks, with a synthesis report and the full, official release due at the end...
‘We expect catastrophe’ Manila, megacity on the climate frontline
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2014
Guardian: Joshua Alvarez and his family fear for their lives when the monsoon rains come. Last August their two-bedroom flat in Manila was flooded when severe tropical storm Trami dumped 15 inches of rain (380mm) in a few hours and the local reservoir overflowed. They fled to a flyover with thousands of others as five large areas of the capital were inundated with muddy waters up to three metres deep and a state of calamity was declared in three Philippine provinces. In 2012, typhoon Haikui battered the megacity...
Leaked UN report warns of climate change risks
Posted by Age: Tom Arup on March 31st, 2014
Age: Rich and poor countries are still unprepared for many threats posed by climate change and extreme weather, a United Nations assessment of global warming will warn. Scientific authors and government representatives from around the world have spent the weekend negotiating the final text of the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at a meeting in Yokohama, Japan. Several leaked drafts of the report indicate the panel will warn that observed impacts of climate change are substantial....
‘Climate change is happening & no one in the world is immune’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2014
Independent: The negative effects of climate change are already beginning to be felt in every part of the world and yet countries are ill-prepared for the potentially immense impacts on food security, water supplies and human health, a major report has concluded. In the most comprehensive study yet into the effects of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that global warming could undermine economic growth and increase poverty. The...
Climate change heightens risk of conflict, hunger – UN panel
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2014
Agence France-Presse: Soaring carbon emissions will amplify the risk of conflict, hunger, flood and migration this century, the UN's expert panel said Monday in a landmark report on the impact of climate change.
Left unchecked, greenhouse gas emissions may cost trillions of dollars in damage to property and ecosystems and in bills for shoring up climate defenses, it said.
The report said the impact of climate change was already being felt and would increase with every additional degree that temperatures rose.
"Increasing...
IPCC report: impact of global warming by region
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2014
Telegraph: This is how climate change may affect the world's regions this century, as forecast in a major report published by UN scientists on Monday.
The report is part of the fifth overview on global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since 1988.
The document identifies each region's key challenges; options for addressing them; and level of risk from warming of either 2 C (3.6 F) or 4 C (7.2 F) by 2100 compared to pre-industrial levels.
This risk is calculated on the...
“There Is No Question That We Live in a World Already Altered by Climate Change”
Posted by Slate: Phil Plait on March 31st, 2014
Slate: Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released Part 2 of their Assessment Report. Part 1 came out in September of 2013, and showed unequivocally that climate change is real, and human influence is the root cause. Part 2 deals with the impacts of climate change, and what might be done to minimize the effects. The technical summary is an interesting if depressing read. It concatenates the results from scientific journals in the field, giving what is essentially the position of the...
Food and Water Shortages May Prove Major Risks of Climate Change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 31st, 2014
Scientific American: The rich play with fire and the poor get burned. That sums up a report issued March 31 by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about the worsening risks of climate change. Yet even rich nations will face serious challenges. "Nobody on this planet is going to be untouched by climate change," said IPCC chair Rajendra Pachauri at a press conference releasing the report in Yokohama, Japan.
According to Pachauri and the hundreds of scientists who prepared the report, climate change...
Pipeline Backlog Expected to Ease as Texas Backs Off Pollution Fight
Posted by Dallas Morning News: James Osborne on March 31st, 2014
Dallas Morning News: For close to 18 months, Mike Heim watched the construction site outside Decatur where his company planned to build a natural gas processing plant sit idle. He was waiting for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to OK air pollution permits.
“You just got in the queue and sat at your desk,” said Heim, chief operating officer of the Houston pipeline company Targa Resources. “We were able to move some of the gas to other midstream stations that had space in their plants. We were fortunate to...