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A second giant blob of Antarctic ice is getting ready drown us
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 17th, 2015
Grist: Remember when we found out last year that the West Antarctic ice sheet had started to collapse, that the collapse more or less can’t be stopped, and that it will eventually result in 10 to 15 feet of sea-level rise? Now we have some more bad news of that caliber.
An enormous glacier, one on the other side of the continent from the ailing ice sheet, is doing pretty much the same thing, researchers have discovered. Chris Mooney reports for The Washington Post:
The findings about East Antarctica...
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Obama gets real about climate deniers with Vice
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 17th, 2015
Grist: President Barack Obama told Vice in an interview released on Monday that it was "disturbing" that the chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works denied the existence of climate change.
Obama was referring to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who threw a snowball on the Senate floor earlier this month to make his case that climate change isn`t real. Even though Inhofe cited record-low temperatures across the country as evidence that climate change was overplayed, the country has actually...
Watch how much water goes into your food
Posted by Grist: None Given on March 6th, 2015
Grist: Are you one of those people who suffers through 10-second showers in the name of water and energy conservation? Grist and the planet thank you for the nice gesture — every drop counts. But it turns out really saving water has more to do with what’s on your plate than what’s coming out of your faucet. With prolonged and extreme droughts cropping up left and right, thanks to YOU KNOW WHO (pssssst anthropogenic climate change), small changes at your table can actually have major impacts on water savings...
Miami already sinking under rising sea level
Posted by Grist: None Given on February 18th, 2015
Grist: You don’t have to look 85 years into the future to see what a sinking world looks like - you only need to look as far as Miami.
Climate scientists have been warning the world about sea-level rise for years, pleading with governments to cut back on carbon lest all our coastal cities go the way of Venice. In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its fifth Assessment Report, predicting that oceans would rise more than three feet by 2100. Those projections make for some alarming...
257,000 people could die from China’s toxic air over the next decade
Posted by Grist: None Given on February 7th, 2015
Grist: If nothing is done to slash the levels of toxic smog in China’s air, some 257,000 Chinese people could die over the next decade from pollution-related diseases, according to a new study released this week by Peking University and Greenpeace. That really is a lot of people; it’s roughly equal to the population of Orlando, Fla., or Buffalo, N.Y.
The researchers analyzed the 2013 levels of what’s known as PM2.5 pollutants - tiny airborne particles billowing from China’s coal production and industry....
Obama to protect Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 26th, 2015
Grist: President Obama is picking a big fight with oil-lovin` Republicans, and the green community is delighted. Seems he`s still feeling pugnacious after his State of the Union address last week.
For more than 30 years, conservationists have pushed for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to be permanently protected from oil and gas development. Obama now says he wants to do just that.
From The Washington Post:
The Obama administration will propose setting aside more than 12 million acres in Alaska’s...
Pope wants you stop popping out babies — don’t think about birth control
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 21st, 2015
Grist: Yesterday, in a huge change of position for Ye Olde Catholic Churche, Pope “Swaggy F.” Francis spoke out against people reproducing “like rabbits.”
From BBC:
He replied with an unexpected turn of phrase: "Some people think that - excuse my expression here - that in order to be good Catholics we have to be like rabbits."
"No. Parenthood is about being responsible. This is clear."
Thanks, Papa! Abandoning the “be fruitful and multiply” and “every sperm is sacred” view of reproduction is...
Climate hawks are not impressed by Obama’s methane plan
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 16th, 2015
Grist: You would expect environmentalists to offer effusive praise as President Obama releases the final major component of his Climate Action Plan: a proposal to clamp down on methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. And at first glance, they did.
“This announcement once again demonstrates the President’s strong commitment to tackling the climate crisis,” said League of Conservation Voters President Gene Karpinski. A number of other environmental groups echoed that sentiment. If you didn’t read...
Turns out the U.S. oil boom was just a fairy tale
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 14th, 2015
Grist: With one quick drop in the price of oil, the shale oil boom is officially bust. In less than a week, 61 oil rigs across the United States closed up shop, according to the most recent rig count from Baker Hughes. The U.S. has 1,750 oil rigs still hunting for new oil wells, but that number is expected to fall by another 400 rigs by the time spring rolls around.
The whole episode is a wake-up call about just how much of a fairy tale North America`s oil boom really was. It was a fairy tale with real...
We can fix Gulf dead zone — for $2.7 billion a year
Posted by Grist: None Given on January 9th, 2015
Grist: Every year, millions of tons of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers wash down the Mississippi River and out into the Gulf of Mexico. There, instead of fertilizing corn, they fertilize the growth of algae, which blooms extravagantly and, in turn, creates a massive boom in microorganisms. There are so many aquatic microorganisms reproducing, eating algae and respiring at once, that they literally use up all the oxygen in the water. Anything else that needs to breathe oxygen - all the other marine life...