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Archive for January 16th, 2015
Bad Day for Climate Change Deniers … And the Planet
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2015
Time: It`s not often that the climate change deniers get clobbered three times in just two days. But that`s what happened with the release of a trio of new studies that ought to serve as solid body blows to the fading but persistent fiction that human-mediated warming is somehow a hoax. Good news for the forces of reason, however, is bad news for the planet--especially the oceans.
"Today's news is a clear and undeniable warning for all of us that we need to cut climate pollution and prepare for what's...
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2014 warmest year on record for the world
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2015
Associated Press: For the third time in a decade, the globe sizzled to the hottest year on record, federal scientists announced Friday. Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA calculated that in 2014 the world had its hottest year in 135 years of record keeping.
NOAA said 2014 averaged 58.24 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 1.24 degrees above the 20th-century average.
NASA, which calculates temperatures slightly differently, put 2014's average temperature at 58.42 degrees Fahrenheit, which...
New York fracking ban has Pennsylvania implications
Posted by Times-Tribune: None Given on January 16th, 2015
Times-Tribune: SCRANTON, Pa. (AP) — As New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration finalizes a ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, New Yorkers will watch their southern neighbor continue its experiment with shale gas. New York has been under a fracking moratorium since 2008, and people on both sides of the shale gas debate see the state’s Dec. 17 announcement as a milestone in Pennsylvania’s experience with the gas drilling industry. It could have implications for the Delaware River Basin Commission, a multi-state...
Earth’s ‘Planetary Boundaries’ Disrupted by Human Activities
Posted by Environment News Service: None Given on January 16th, 2015
Environment News Service: Human activities have "dangerously compromised" four of the nine processes that are crucial to maintaining the stability of the planet, warns an international team of researchers .
In a study published online today, the 18 authors, from universities and research institutes around the world, provide new evidence of changes to the systems which regulate the resilience of the Earth, placing current and future societies at risk.
Climate change, the loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change,...
Life on Earth now officially at risk, scientists say
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2015
Guardian: Humans are “eating away at our own life support systems” at a rate unseen in the past 10,000 years by degrading land and freshwater systems, emitting greenhouse gases, and releasing vast amounts of agricultural chemicals into the environment, new research has found. Two major new studies by an international team of researchers have pinpointed the key factors that ensure a livable planet for humans, with stark results. Of nine worldwide processes that underpin life on Earth, four have exceeded “safe”...
2014 Confirmed as Hottest Year On Record, With Spike Ocean Temperatures
Posted by National Geographic: Craig Welch on January 16th, 2015
National Geographic: The year 2014 was the hottest since record-keeping began in 1880, according to independent reviews of temperature data released Friday by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Globally, land and ocean temperatures were 1.24°F (0.69°C) higher than the average for the 20th century-passing previous highs set in 2005 and 2010.
The announcement comes as international negotiators are still struggling to reach agreement to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions in the wake...
U.S. scientists call 2014 Earth’s hottest year on record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2015
Reuters: Last year was Earth's hottest on record in new evidence that people are disrupting the climate by burning fossil fuels that release greenhouse gases into the air, two U.S. government agencies said on Friday.
The White House said the studies, by the U.S. space agency NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), showed climate change was happening now and that action was needed to cut rising world greenhouse gas emissions.
The 10 warmest years since records began in the...
2014 was hottest year in modern history: US scientists
Posted by Agence France-Presse: Kerry Sheridan on January 16th, 2015
Agence France-Presse: Record-breaking temperatures scorched the planet last year, making 2014 the hottest in more than a century and raising new concerns about global warming, US government scientists said Friday.
The much-anticipated report by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was confirmed by an independent analysis from the US space agency NASA that reached the same conclusion.
"Record warmth was spread around the world," said the NOAA report.
"The globally averaged temperature...
2014 confirmed warmest on record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2015
BBC: 2014 was the warmest year on record, with global temperatures 0.68C (1.24F) above the long-term average, US government scientists have said.
The results mean that 14 of the 15 warmest years on record have occurred since the turn of the century.
The analysis was published on Friday by Nasa and Noaa researchers.
Last month, the World Meteorological Organization released provisional figures that predicted the past 12 months were set to be record breakers.
"This is the latest in a series...
U.S. agencies say 2014 was Earth’s hottest year on record
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on January 16th, 2015
Reuters: Last year was Earth's warmest on record, bolstering the argument that humans are altering the planet's climate by burning greenhouse gas-emitting fuels, according to a pair of analyses by two major U.S. agencies released on Friday.
Separate studies by NASA the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed that with the exception of 1998, 10 of the warmest years on record have occurred since 2000.
The reports come at the start of a year when representatives of about 200 governments...