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Archive for December 18th, 2015
What does the Paris Agreement mean for Pakistan?
Posted by Dawn: Rina Saeed Khan on December 18th, 2015
Dawn: Twenty-three years after the Earth Summit of 1992, it took just a few minutes for the Paris climate agreement to be adopted on December 12th at COP21. I watched it happen live on a video screen put up in the hallways of the Le Bourget conference center, as with my media badge, I could not get into the plenary that final day.
Ministers hugged each other and there were plenty of wide smiles and applause. The media stationed outside the plenary went into a frenzy, with bleary-eyed TV journalists...
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Scientists peg Anthropocene to first farmers
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2015
ScienceDaily: A new analysis of the fossil record shows that a deep pattern in nature remained the same for 300 million years. Then, 6,000 years ago, the pattern was disrupted -- at about the same time that agriculture spread across North America. "When early humans started farming and became dominant in the terrestrial landscape, we see this dramatic restructuring of plant and animal communities," said University of Vermont biologist Nicholas Gotelli, an expert on statistics and the senior author on the new...
Climate change rapidly warming world’s fresh water supply, study warns
Posted by Daily News: Rebeca Ibarra on December 18th, 2015
Daily News: The ripple effect of climate change seems to be reaching for the world’s drinking water.
Lakes are warming at a faster average rate than oceans and the atmosphere, a new study funded by NASA and the National Science Foundation found.
In the largest study of its kind, scientists compiled over 25 years of satellite and ground temperature data on 235 lakes in six continents – half of the earth's fresh water supply.
"Water from rivers and lakes are really supporting our societies worldwide,"...
International Energy Agency sees ‘peak coal’ as demand for fossil fuel crumbles in China
Posted by Telegraph: Ambrose Evans-Pritchard on December 18th, 2015
Telegraph: China’s coal consumption has been falling for two years and may never recover as the moment of "peak coal" draws closer, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.
The energy watchdog has slashed its 2020 forecast for global coal demand by 500m tonnes, warning that the industry risks unstoppable decline as renewable technologies and tougher climate laws shatter previous assumptions.
In poignant symbolism, the peak coal report came as miners worked their final shift at Britain’s last surviving...
UN Seeks Hefty 20 Billion Dollars for Humanitarian Needs in 2016
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2015
Inter Press Service: The world’s refugee crisis – triggered mostly by conflicts and persecutions – will continue to be one of the biggest problems facing the United Nations next year. With almost a million people having crossed the Mediterranean as refugees and migrants so far, 2015 is likely to exceed all previous records for global forced displacement, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned in a new report released Friday. But 2016 could be even worse — if the Syrian conflict continues...
This Is the Missing Ingredient in the Climate Change Fight
Posted by Time: Sam Kass on December 18th, 2015
Time: I recently returned home from Paris, where I participated in a number of events around the climate-change conference that used food to tell the story of climate change and highlight potential solutions. The city had the crazed but celebratory feeling of a wedding, with plenty of planning boiling down to a final, frantic push to cross the finish line. But just as marriage is only the beginning of a new kind of life, it turns out the finish line is actually the starting line—and the real work begins...
New Yorkers Celebrate One-Year Anniversary of Fracking Ban
Posted by EcoWatch: None Given on December 18th, 2015
EcoWatch: Thursday marked the one-year anniversary of the announcement by Gov. Cuomo, the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Conservation that New York would ban high-volume fracking given its serious public health and environmental risks.
New Yorkers and the many organizations that worked to ban fracking are reflecting on the ban that occurred one year ago and the anti-fracking movement overall, noting its importance nationally and internationally.
“I will always remember this...
Earth is Losing Farmland at an Alarming Rate
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2015
Environmental News Network: 2015 has marked the International Year of Soils, an event that many members of the public missed — but they shouldn’t have, because soil is vitally important for human survival. Ominously, a study from the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures indicates that in the last 40 years, humans have chewed through 33 percent of the Earth’s topsoil, thanks to development and harmful farming practices. The grim findings are a bad sign for the future, as we rely on soil not just for sustenance, but also as...
Is evolution more intelligent than we thought?
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2015
ScienceDaily: Evolution may be more intelligent than we thought, according to a University of Southampton professor. Professor Richard Watson says new research shows that evolution is able to learn from previous experience, which could provide a better explanation of how evolution by natural selection produces such apparently intelligent designs. By unifying the theory of evolution (which shows how random variation and selection is sufficient to provide incremental adaptation) with learning theories (which show...
Marshes Likely More Resilient To Sea Level Rise Than Thought, Study Says
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on December 18th, 2015
Yale Environment 360: Marshes may be more resilient to climate change and associated rises in sea level than previously thought, according to recent research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study shows that as levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase, more CO2 gets taken in by marsh plants. This spurs higher rates of photosynthesis and plant growth, causing marsh plants to trap more sediment above ground and generate more organic soil below ground, the researchers explain. The...