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As Climate Change Imperils Winter, the Ski Industry Frets
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on December 24th, 2015
InsideClimate: The typical scene at New England ski resorts over Christmas vacation--madhouses filled with students as young as 2 or 3 packing onto bunny hills while parents head to higher elevations for their first runs of the season--has been replaced by a sobering reminder that climate change is already taking a bite out of winter.
Most mountains in the northeast this December are covered in brown, not white. Killington Ski Resort in central Vermont has 24 of its 155 trails open. Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine...
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Comments Off on As Climate Change Imperils Winter, the Ski Industry FretsAs CO2 passes 400ppm, what goes up might not come down
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on November 12th, 2015
InsideClimate: Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere once again exceeded 400 parts per million Monday, but this time they may never fall back down, according to scientists.
While not a tipping point that signals climate catastrophe, the 400 ppm mark is an important symbolic threshold in the fight against climate change. It represents a 43 percent jump in greenhouse gases since pre-industrial times and underscores governments' inaction and worsening global warming impacts.
Scientists at the Mauna...
Climate Change’s Worst-Case Scenario: 200 Feet of Sea Level Rise
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on September 11th, 2015
InsideClimate: Sheldon Glacier with Mount Barre in the background, Antarctica. A new study estimates that if nations were to burn all their fossil fuel reserves, the Antarctic ice sheet would almost entirely disappear, raising sea levels as much as 200 feet worldwide. Credit: British Antarctic Survey
If you ever wondered what the worst-case scenario for climate change would look like, a set of researchers shared your curiosity. Their answer, which they published Friday, is scary: sea levels nearly 200 feet higher...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Climate Change’s Worst-Case Scenario: 200 Feet of Sea Level RiseTexas’ climate stubbornness takes an increasingly big toll
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on July 15th, 2015
InsideClimate: The Texas flooding in May that pulled houses off foundations and swamped city streets provided a glimpse of what scientists have long warned could be its new norm because of global warming. But it did nothing to sway the state's politicians, who have done next to nothing to adjust to a climate that is already bringing more damaging extreme weather. Scientist have warned for years that Texas will suffer from longer and hotter periods of drought punctuated by heavier, more damaging rainfall as the...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Texas’ climate stubbornness takes an increasingly big tollWhy bigger snowstorms come with global warming
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on January 27th, 2015
InsideClimate: Winter storm Juno is expected to dump as much as 3 feet of snow across parts of New England early this week. Media outlets have already dubbed the storm "a massive blizzard of epic proportions." Schools closed their doors, grocery stores had their shelves stripped and governors announced travel bans along most of the storm's path.
But on social media, Juno is being pointed to as the latest evidence that global warming is not happening, or that it's even a hoax or scam--an assertion that scientists...
Frack-free leaders in Illinois, hedging their bets, shelve calls for ban
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on September 5th, 2014
InsideClimate: Grassroots groups fighting hydraulic fracturing in Illinois have put aside their push for a moratorium or a ban in recent months in favor of seeking stronger industry regulations.
"Basically, we're hedging our bets," said Annette McMichael, spokeswoman for Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment (SAFE). "We are firmly against fracking, and yet we are willing to work within the legislative confines."
SAFE and other local organizations joined with national environmental groups...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Frack-free leaders in Illinois, hedging their bets, shelve calls for banWhy Did ICF Int’l Withdraw From Tar Sands Pipeline Contract with the State Department?
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on March 26th, 2014
InsideClimate: A State Department contractor for the Keystone XL that has been under attack for alleged conflicts of interest has withdrawn from contract negotiations to review a lesser-known but still controversial tar sands pipeline: Enbridge's Alberta Clipper. The unusual move has led some legal and industry experts to question whether public and political pressure against the company might have played a role in the decision. "There's no doubt it is in the back of our minds," said David McColl, an energy analyst...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Why Did ICF Int’l Withdraw From Tar Sands Pipeline Contract with the State Department?Christie Administration Ignores Climate Change in New Jersey’s Post-Sandy Rebuild
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on December 19th, 2013
InsideClimate: In the wake of Superstorm Sandy, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a series of aggressive rebuilding initiatives to protect New Yorkers from future climate-related threats. But less than a mile away in New Jersey, just across the Hudson River, political leaders reacted in a much different way. To them, the October 2012 superstorm was just a rare event, not a preview of what scientists expect global warming to bring to the East Coast in the coming decades. When asked in May...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Christie Administration Ignores Climate Change in New Jersey’s Post-Sandy RebuildWorst-case scenario for oil sands industry revealed in leaked document
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on December 5th, 2013
InsideClimate: As environmentalists began ratcheting up pressure against Canada's tar sands three years ago, one of the world's biggest strategic consulting firms was tapped to help the North American oil industry figure out how to handle the mounting activism. The resulting document, published online by WikiLeaks, offers another window into how oil and gas companies have been scrambling to deal with unrelenting opposition to their growth plans. The document identifies nearly two-dozen environmental organizations...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Worst-case scenario for oil sands industry revealed in leaked documentAfter wildfire tragedy, talk of warming’s role is dicey.
Posted by InsideClimate: Katherine Bagley on July 18th, 2013
InsideClimate: Scientists agree that climate change was very likely one of the underlying triggers for the Yarnell Hill wildfire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters on June 30. But while some of the nation's media have acknowledged global warming's link to the tragedy, others have ignored it entirely. The discrepancy highlights an ethical question that is expected to increasingly confront publications and TV networks as climate-related calamities are set to rise: Amid loss of life in weather disasters, when...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on After wildfire tragedy, talk of warming’s role is dicey.