RSS Feed
Archive for March 13th, 2015
The conscious decoupling of greenhouse gases and economic growth
Posted by Mashable: None Given on March 13th, 2015
Mashable: Global emissions of carbon dioxide, the main long-lived global warming pollutant, flatlined in 2014, despite global economic growth, a report released Friday found.
This is the first time in 40 years in which there was a halt or reduction in greenhouse gas emissions without an economic downturn, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Vienna, Austria. The new data may indicate some progress is being made in addressing global warming, which is caused largely by increasing amounts...
Posted in 
Scientists warn of global warming threat to temperate rainforests
Posted by Mongabay: Morgan Erickson-Davis on March 13th, 2015
Mongabay: If you Google "rainforest," you're almost assured to get a page of search results mostly about the tropics. Yet, another kind of rainforest also exists: temperate rainforests. Far less expansive than the tropical kind, temperate rainforests occur in isolated patches and strips around the world – from the coasts of western North America and eastern Siberia, to throughout much of New Zealand and Tasmania. In a new study published recently in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences, researchers warn...
Scientists warn G20 $60 trillion infrastructure plan is “doubling down on a dangerous vision”
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2015
Mongabay: If there's one thing most governments and even political parties appear to agree on it's a desire for more infrastructure, i.e. more roads, dams, bridges, power plants, airports and seaports, sewers, pipelines, and telecommunication systems. At the most recent G20 meeting in Brisbane, the world's biggest economies agreed on the need for more infrastructure around the globe, including a plan to boost infrastructure spending by trillions of dollars by 2030 and setting up a so-called Global Infrastructure...
Global CO2 emissions ‘stalled’
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2015
BBC: The growth in global carbon emissions stalled last year, according to data from the International Energy Agency.
It marks the first time in 40 years that annual CO2 emissions growth has remained stable, in the absence of a major economic crisis, the agency said.
Annual global emissions remained at 32 gigatonnes in 2014, unchanged from the previous year.
But the IEA warned that while the results were "encouraging", this was "no time for complacency".
"This is both a very welcome surprise...
Novel monitoring tools tackle chemical surface waters pollution
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2015
ScienceDaily: To tackle the challenge of current and future chemical pollution, new monitoring and diagnostic tools are needed that can integrate and support the chemical monitoring programmes of surface waters. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the main legislation for the protection of water resources and sets the goal of achieving a "good status" for all Europe's surface waters and groundwaters by 2015 with the aim to protect environment and human health. The control of the chemical pollution is based...
Modi budget slashes environmental funding for India
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2015
Reuters: Environmentalists in India have expressed alarm over the new budget of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which they say heralds substantial cuts in environmental programmes and fails to address the country’s worsening pollution and vulnerability to climate change.
The budget for the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change for the fiscal year beginning April 1 has been reduced by 25 percent, from 22.6 billion Indian rupees ($360 million) to 16.8 billion rupees ($268 million)....
NASA chief has perfect comeback to Ted Cruz’s attack on Earth science
Posted by Mashable: None Given on March 13th, 2015
Mashable: Texas Republican Senator and likely presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has had it with NASA researching our home planet, preferring that NASA devote its attention to sending humans to Mars and inspiring children with space exploration missions.
His vision collided with NASA's actual mission, which has been in place since its founding in 1958, and was represented at a Senate hearing on Thursday by NASA administrator Charles Bolden.
Senator Cruz's critique of what he sees as an agency that has drifted...
‘God commanded’ family planning, says Muslim leader flood-ravaged Malawi
Posted by WGBH: None Given on March 13th, 2015
WGBH: A village chief in Malawi, Sheikh Mosa, is trying to persuade other chiefs in his area to support family planning.
For two villages in southern Malawi, climate change and contraception have become intertwined. So much so, that long-held cultural assumptions are starting to change.
Sheikh Mosa is chief of one of the villages, Mposa. He says there’s been a massive shift in mindset toward family planning as people in the villages begin to feel the effects of population growth and climate change...
Arctic melt brings more persistent heat waves to US, Europe
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on March 13th, 2015
Bloomberg: The U.S., Europe and Russia face longer heat waves because summer winds that used to bring in cool ocean air have been weakened by climate change, German researchers said.
Rapid Arctic warming disturbs air streams in ways that have “significantly” reduced summer storms, raising the likelihood of heat waves, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said in a report Thursday in the journal Science. Hot weather in Russia in 2010 devastated crop harvests and caused wildfires.
“Unabated...
Southern Calif fog falls victim to concrete
Posted by Climate Central: John Upton on March 13th, 2015
Climate Central: Summertime fog that helps keep coastal southern California cool and damp appears to be melting away, and scientists who have documented nearly 70 years of its decline think they can explain why: concrete.
The urban heat island effect, the phenomenon of cities warming faster than surrounding countryside, is a main culprit for a two-thirds reduction in the number of foggy mornings in Los Angeles since 1948 -- a trend that's expected to intensify as greenhouse gas pollution pushes temperatures upward....