Canadian Arctic Loses Nearly Entire Ice Shelf | Common Dreams

Canadian Arctic Loses Nearly Entire Ice Shelf | Common Dreams

NASA’s Hansen: “If We Stay on With Business as Usual, the Southern U.S. Will Become Almost Uninhabitable.”

NASA’s Hansen: “If We Stay on With Business as Usual, the Southern U.S. Will Become Almost Uninhabitable.”: pClimatologist Slams Media for “Silent Summer”:  Poor Coverage of Link Between Extreme Weather and Human-Caused Climate Change The nation’s top climatologist, NASA’s James Hansen, has a new paper out — and he has been speaking out.  At 350.org’s Moving Planet event in New York on Saturday, he said: “Climate change — human-made global warming — [...]/p

Wake Up Democrats: Independents Support Federal Investment in “Green Jobs” 2-to-1 Despite Solyndra Media Storm

Wake Up Democrats: Independents Support Federal Investment in “Green Jobs” 2-to-1 Despite Solyndra Media Storm: pIn dozens of focus groups we have conducted this month across the country on a wide variety of subjects, when voters are asked where they would like new jobs in their state to come from, the first words out of their mouths are almost always the same – clean energy and related technology.  Voters believe [...]/p

Too Hot for Chocolate? Climate Change Could Decimate the $9 Billion Cocoa Industry, Study Finds

Too Hot for Chocolate? Climate Change Could Decimate the $9 Billion Cocoa Industry, Study Finds: pGlobal warming threatens heat-sensitive cocoa trees, a Gates Foundation study finds Half of the world’s cocoa supply comes from the West African countries of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. But in the coming decades, climate change could severely limit production in the region — disrupting local farmers and squeezing global chocolate supply. A new report out [...]/p

An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces

An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces: pHumanity’s Choice (via M.I.T.):  Inaction (“No Policy”) eliminates most of the uncertainty about whether or not future warming will be catastrophic.  Aggressive emissions reductions dramatically improves humanity’s chances. In this post, I will summarize what the recent scientific literature says are the key impacts we face in the coming decades if we stay anywhere near [...]/p

Out Of Proportion? The Solyndra Media Storm By The Numbers

Out Of Proportion? The Solyndra Media Storm By The Numbers

We’re Poisoning the Oceans and It Threatens Our Food

We’re Poisoning the Oceans and It Threatens Our Food: pby Sheril Kirshenbaum, in a Science Progress cross-post Marine chemist Richard Feely, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, has been collecting water samples in the North Pacific for over 30 years. He’s observed a decrease in pH at the upper part of the water column, notably the region where carbon dioxide [...]/p

Hottest Decade on Record Would Have Been Even Hotter But for Deep Oceans — Accelerated Warming May Be On Its Way

Hottest Decade on Record Would Have Been Even Hotter But for Deep Oceans — Accelerated Warming May Be On Its Way: pA composite of all the major global temperature records via Skeptical Science. The last decade was easily the hottest on record.  We’ve known that sulfate aerosols (from volcanoes and/or Chinese coal) and the “the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century” masked the rate of warming somewhat. Even so, NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies [...]/pjavascript:void(0)

What Happened To The Republican Consensus On Climate Change?

What Happened To The Republican Consensus On Climate Change?

The Deniers’ Fantasy World: EIA Projects 40% Rise in CO2 Emissions by 2035

The Deniers’ Fantasy World: EIA Projects 40% Rise in CO2 Emissions by 2035: pThe U.S. Energy Information Administration issued its International Energy Outlook this week.  For anyone concerned about the uncontrolled rise in carbon emissions — the primary heat-trapping gas fueling dangerous global warming — it paints a very grim future. Under a business-as-usual climate science deniers’ fantasy scenario, the EIA projects that global carbon dioxide emissions will [...]/p

Contrary To GOP Claims, Research Shows Environmental Regulation Actually Spurs Economic Growth

Contrary To GOP Claims, Research Shows Environmental Regulation Actually Spurs Economic Growth: pBesides President Obama, Republicans vying for the presidential nomination have made government regulations their favorite punching bag on the campaign trail. Without exception, the candidates have scapegoated “burdensome regulation” for stifling job creation and economic growth — ignoring that a lack of regulation enabled the financial crisis that led to the Great Recession. Environmental regulations [...]/p

Global Warming May Cause Far Higher Extinction of Biodiversity Than Previously Thought

Global Warming May Cause Far Higher Extinction of Biodiversity Than Previously Thought: pIf global warming continues as expected, it is estimated that almost a third of all flora and fauna species worldwide could become extinct. Scientists … discovered that the proportion of actual biodiversity loss should quite clearly be revised upwards: by 2080, more than 80% of genetic diversity within species may disappear in certain groups of [...]/p

Super Weeds Pose Growing Threat to U.S. Crops | Common Dreams

Super Weeds Pose Growing Threat to U.S. Crops | Common Dreams

National Solar Jobs Census: Over 100,000 Americans Work in Fast-Growing Solar Industry

National Solar Jobs Census: Over 100,000 Americans Work in Fast-Growing Solar Industry: pThis Thursday, Republicans in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are holding a hearing called “How Obama’s Green Energy Agenda is Killing Jobs.” Could they make their ideological opposition to clean energy any more clear? The Solyndra bankruptcy and subsequent layoff of 1,100 workers has given opponents a platform to rail on green jobs [...]/p

Mark Ruffalo: We Can Go Gracefully Into a Green Future, Or We Can Go Kicking and Screaming, But There Is No Choice | Water | AlterNet

Mark Ruffalo: We Can Go Gracefully Into a Green Future, Or We Can Go Kicking and Screaming, But There Is No Choice | Water | AlterNet

DuPont's Herbicide Goes Rogue | Common Dreams

DuPont's Herbicide Goes Rogue | Common Dreams

Record Arctic Ice Melt Threatens Global Security | Common Dreams

Record Arctic Ice Melt Threatens Global Security | Common Dreams

Wyoming Now Has Worse Air Quality Than L.A. -- Guess Who's the Culprit | AlterNet

Wyoming Now Has Worse Air Quality Than L.A. -- Guess Who's the Culprit | AlterNet

How America's Decline Is Linked to Oil | | AlterNet

How America's Decline Is Linked to Oil | | AlterNet

Official Investigation: BP’s Risky Efforts To Cut Costs Caused The Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Official Investigation: BP’s Risky Efforts To Cut Costs Caused The Deepwater Horizon Disaster: pThe federal investigation into the BP Gulf of Mexico oil disaster finds that cost-cutting measures by the oil giant led to the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon rig. The final report of the joint Coast Guard-Bureau of Ocean Energy investigation finds that BP and its contracting companies — Halliburton and Transocean — were responsible for [...]/p

Dire Warning Over Arctic Sea Ice Melt | Common Dreams

Dire Warning Over Arctic Sea Ice Melt | Common Dreams

Can We Stop the Next Fukushima Times 10,000? | Common Dreams

Can We Stop the Next Fukushima Times 10,000? | Common Dreams

Effect of Contaminated Soil on Food Chain Sparks Fears | Common Dreams

Effect of Contaminated Soil on Food Chain Sparks Fears | Common Dreams

Arctic Death Spiral Continues: Sea Ice Volume Hits Record Low for Second Straight Year

Arctic Death Spiral Continues: Sea Ice Volume Hits Record Low for Second Straight Year: pThe Polar Science Center at the University of Washington has updated its calculations of Arctic sea ice volume.  As usual, Neven has the best graphs of the PSC’s data at his Arctic Sea Ice Blog, a must-read for cryosphere-junkies. The PSC recently improved their PIOMAS model, which combines the best observational data with their own analysis. [...]/p

Second giant ice island set to break off Greenland glacier

Second giant ice island set to break off Greenland glacier

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Supports Oil Drilling In The Everglades

Florida Gov. Rick Scott Supports Oil Drilling In The Everglades: pPresidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has company in her call for oil drilling in the Florida Everdglades: the state’s governor supports it as well. Gov. Rick Scott (R) was speaking to members of the Economic Club of Florida when an audience member asked him if he agreed with Bachmann’s call for drilling in the [...]/p

Scientist: “The Murdoch Media Empire Has Cost Humanity Perhaps One or Two Decades in Battle Against Climate Change.”

Scientist: “The Murdoch Media Empire Has Cost Humanity Perhaps One or Two Decades in Battle Against Climate Change.”: pThe Australian is the country’s biggest-selling national newspaper.  It is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which “also owns the sole dailies in Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin and the most popular metropolitan dailies in Sydney and Melbourne.” Michael Ashley investigates the national paper’s “seriously warped” op-ed policy in this extended excerpt. [R]eality becomes so [...]/p