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Archive for December 2nd, 2014
Developing nations urge deeper climate cuts to zero emissions
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2014
Reuters: Developing nations called on the rich on Tuesday to do more to lead the fight against climate change in line with scientific findings that global greenhouse gas emissions should fall to net zero by 2100 to avert the worst impacts.
About 190 nations are meeting in Lima from Dec. 1-12 to decide elements of a deal, due to be agreed in Paris in a year's time, to reverse a steady rise in greenhouse gases to limit risks of more floods, droughts, heat waves and rising sea levels.
Tuesday underscored...
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Andes glaciers, ailing giants hit by climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2014
Agence France-Presse: Like ailing giants, the tropical glaciers of the Andes Mountains are melting at worrying speed, raising scientists' fears that many will disappear before anything can be done to save them.
These icy castles, scattered across Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, are under a microscope at the United Nations climate talks this month in the Peruvian capital Lima, where 195 countries are trying to hammer out the framework of a global deal to cut the carbon emissions warming the planet.
The melting...
Hillary Clinton Open to Fracking, Ignores Keystone XL
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 2nd, 2014
EcoWatch: Hillary Clinton, widely assumed to be planning another presidential run in 2016, spoke at a League on Conservation Voters (LCV) fundraiser in New York yesterday evening, displaying her usual cautious positioning and avoidance of anything that might be perceived as a leftwing pet project—such as the Keystone XL pipeline, which she failed to mention. Despite ongoing pressure from environmental groups, Clinton has consistently refused to address Keystone XL, saying she can’t comment while the pipeline...
Diplomats confront stark divide as climate talks begin
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2014
Washington Post: The Obama administration is hoping for fresh momentum toward a climate treaty during international talks this week in the Peruvian capital, but the immediate challenge may be to simply keep the negotiations from breaking down.
Officials from 190 countries gathered in Lima on Monday for 12 days of meetings intended to lay the foundations for a carbon-cutting pact that would be signed a year from now in Paris. But achieving even modest progress will require overcoming stark differences over what...
Hotter, weirder: How climate has changed Earth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2014
Associated Press: In the more than two decades since world leaders first got together to try to solve global warming, life on Earth has changed, not just the climate. It's gotten hotter, more polluted with heat-trapping gases, more crowded and just downright wilder.
The numbers are stark. Carbon dioxide emissions: up 60 percent. Global temperature: up six-tenths of a degree. Population: up 1.7 billion people. Sea level: up 3 inches. U.S. extreme weather: up 30 percent. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica: down...
Warm water in Pacific could cook Idaho’s salmon and steelhead
Posted by Idaho Statesman: Rocky Barker on December 2nd, 2014
Idaho Statesman: History says the situation could be disastrous for Idaho's salmon and steelhead.
A mass of warm water thousands of square miles in size that reached 74 degrees Fahrenheit on the surface last summer is being called "the blob." But scientists say it's too early to tell if it's short-term phenomena or a sign of a longer trend. Surface temperatures are 3 degrees higher than normal.
"Since it's outside of anybody's experience, we don't know what to expect," said Bill Peterson, an oceanographer with...
Canada green energy jobs surpass oil sands employment
Posted by Globe and Mail: Richard Blackwell on December 2nd, 2014
Globe and Mail: Canada's green energy sector has grown so quickly and has become such an important part of the economy that it now employs more people than the oil sands.
About $25-billion has been invested in Canada's clean-energy sector in the past five years, and employment is up 37 per cent, according to a new report from climate think tank Clean Energy Canada to be released Tuesday. That means the 23,700 people who work in green energy organizations outnumber the 22,340 whose work relates to the oil sands,...
Australia had hottest spring & second hottest November on record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2014
Guardian: Australia has had its hottest spring and second hottest November on record.
Bureau of Meteorology climate monitoring manager Karl Braganza says 2014 has had the latest in a long line of hot springs in the past decade. According to the BOM, 2013 was the country’s hottest year.
“Really, it was only 2010 that had a cool spring in the past 10 years or so. Nine out of the warmest springs on record have occurred since 2002,” Braganza said.
Australia’s average seasonal temperature is derived by...
Hotter and more unpredictable: Climate change already affecting Earth
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2014
Associated Press: In the more than two decades since world leaders first got together to try to solve global warming, life on Earth has changed, not just the climate. It's gotten hotter, more polluted with heat-trapping gases, more crowded and just downright wilder.
U.S. and China reach historic climate change agreement Obama urges world to follow U.S. lead on climate change
The numbers are stark. Carbon dioxide emissions: up 60 percent. Global temperature: up six-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit. Population: up...
Hillary Clinton says fracking carries risks in conservation speech
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 2nd, 2014
Guardian: Hillary Clinton has offered mild criticism of the fracking boom that has spread across the US under Barack Obama’s presidency, drawing another small distinction with his administration.
Clinton, who has yet to declare she is seeking the presidency, kept the bulk of her speech to a League of Conservation Voters dinner in New York resolutely vanilla. But she did express concerns about the environmental costs associated with natural gas and went so far as to suggest there may be places where it was...