A resource for people looking to find out about the science and the impacts of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). This is accomplished by curating scientific, political and business videos, news reports, surveys and polls as well as creating original content. (CHECK OUT OUR HSAWR ORIGINAL VIDEOS) The Pentagon," calls CLIMATE CHANGE an “urgent and growing threat to America's national security” and blames it for “increased natural disasters” that will require more American troops designated to combat bad weather.
Right now, as the whole world wakes up to the realities of climate change and takes urgent action to stop it, one of the biggest companies in the world is holding us back: Samsung. Despite all its PR talk of “championing the impossible” and “doing bigger things”,
Samsung still relies on dirty, old-fashioned fossil fuels like coal to make gadgets. While Samsung uses only 1% renewable energy, companies like Apple have committed to 100% in their production!
Ask Samsung to stop fueling climate change.
Texas City Leads The Way On Renewable Energy
Texas produces more wind energy than the next three states combined. The new energy secretary, Rick Perry, was governor of Texas for 14 years.
Gore's new movie highlights alternative energy in deep-red Texas.
'An Inconvenient Sequel' takes viewers to Georgetown, Texas, which will soon draw all of its electricity from wind and solar. Could stories like this one point toward a possible shift in conservatives' energy policy?
Net-Zero Heroes:
Stories of Austinites doing simple things that collectively make a big difference.
Meet George Cofer, Executive Director of the Hill Country Conservancy. George contributes to Austin's Net-Zero goal in several ways, including being a bike commuter. George no longer owns a car and uses his bike as his primary source of transportation. We spoke with George on how he did it, what his toughest challenges have been, and what advice he has for others looking to live Net-Zero.
The event featured scientists and experts who spoke about the science, impacts, possible adaptations and solutions for climate change.
Part I -
Dr. Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research
Part II -
Dr. Ryan Haaland, professor and chair of the FLC Physics & Engineering Department
Dr. Gary Gianniny, professor and chair of the FLC Geosciences Department
Dr. Emile Elias, director of the US Department of Agriculture’s Southwest Climate Hub
Part III -
Dr. Heidi Steltzer, associate professor in the FLC Biology Department
Panel Discussion
The Climate Change Symposium is sponsored by the FLC Office of the President and the Professional Associates of Fort Lewis College.
Steady State - Economic Policies to Fix Climate Change
Herman Daly is an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Affairs. From 1988 to 1994 he was a senior economist with the World Bank. He holds a B.A. from Rice University and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.
He has served on the boards of directors of numerous environmental organizations, and is a cofounder and associate editor of the journal Ecological Economics. His interest in economic development, population, resources and environment has resulted in over a hundred articles in professional journals and anthologies, as well as numerous books, including Toward a Steady-State Economy (1973); Steady-State Economics (1977; 1991); Valuing the Earth (1993); Beyond Growth (1996); and Ecological Economics and the Ecology of Economics (1999).
He is coauthor with theologian John B. Cobb, Jr. of For the Common Good (1989; 1994) which received the 1991 Grawemeyer Award for Ideas for Improving World Order. In 1996 he received Sweden’s Honorary Right Livelihood Award and the Heineken Prize for Environmental Science, awarded by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
CGTN's Susan Roberts spoke with Ranping Song, developing country climate action manager for Global Climate Program at the World Resources Institute about the Trump's administration's response to the issue of climate change and how the rest of the United States is dealing with the issue.
WRI is a global research organization that spans more than 50 countries
Stabilizing the global climate is the greatest challenge of the 21st century.
Temperatures have exceeded global annual averages for 38 consecutive years. The impacts are being felt all around the world. Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe.
Heat waves and drought plague many countries, destroying agriculture, increasing the risk of wildfires and endangering lives. Rising sea level threatens coastal communities and infrastructure by amplifying flooding and storm surge. But there are approaches and technologies available now to overcome this global challenge.
WRI engages businesses, policymakers and civil society at the local, national and international levels to advance transformative solutions that mitigate climate change and help communities adapt to its impacts.
The Global Carbon Project and the University of East Anglia brought unwanted news this week: 2017 saw the highest levels of carbon pollution on record. Global carbon dioxide emissions from human activities and fossil fuels specifically will reach record highs by the end of this year.
Over the past three years, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and industry remarkably saw little-to-no growth; however, analysts cautioned it was too early to tell if the trends would stick. Indeed, they didn’t, at least for 2017. And while renewable energy production has increased quickly (14 percent per year over the last five years), progress is being compromised by a surge in fossil fuel consumption in some parts of the world.
Changing Patterns for the World’s Top Emitters
The new Global Carbon Project’s numbers find that overall global emissions from fossil fuels and industry are expected to grow by 2 percent. This is a function of both countries not curbing their reduction in fossil fuel consumption quickly enough, as well as some countries resuming growth in fossil fuel consumption.
While U.S. and European carbon dioxide emissions are expected to decline very slightly (0.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively), European emissions are declining less than they had in the past decade, and the United States is expected to see an increase in coal use this year, reversing decreases since 2013. Analysts have noted that the EU is not on track to meet its 2030 climate change commitment given its current policies, and its commitments fall short of the necessary decarbonization pathway for it to meet its 2050 targets. Germany, seen as a longtime leader on climate change, is still getting 40 percent of its energy from coal. And while cities, states and businesses have committed to taking climate action in the United States, federal leadership is non-existent, with the Trump administration rolling back climate policies and announcing its intent to pull the country out of the international Paris Agreement on climate change. The United States is in fact headed in the completely wrong direction on fossil fuels – pledging to revive the coal industry and pursuing multiple strategies to expand use of fossil fuels at home and abroad.
Young activists gathered to dedicate objects that embody their hopes for the future of this planet and why they’re taking action to prevent climate change. The items were buried in a time capsule so that 50 years from now, we can review our climate legacy.
Sunrise is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
Building an army of young people to make climate change an urgent priority across America, end the corrupting influence of fossil fuel executives on our politics, and elect leaders who stand up for the health and wellbeing of all people.
Ordinary young people who are scared about what the climate crisis means for the people and places we love. We are gathering in classrooms, living rooms, and worship halls across the country. Everyone has a role to play.
Public opinion is already with us - if we unite by the millions we can turn this into political power and reclaim our democracy.
We are not looking to the right or left. We look forward. Together, we will change this country and this world, sure as the sun rises each morning.
This House Believes Individual Apathy is the Greatest Threat to our Climate.
If you have approx 1 hour and change to spare these are worth a watch.
Climate Change Debate | Rob Paver | Proposition
Climate Change Debate | President Mohamed Nasheed
Climate Change Debate | Sir David King
Climate Change Debate | Secretary Ernest Moniz
Climate Change Debate | Angela Smith MP
Climate Change Debate | Chris Garner
Climate Change Debate | Barry Gardiner MP
Climate Change Debate | Natalie Bennett
The Oxford Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. Since 1823, the Union has been promoting debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe.
The European Geosciences Union, is Europe’s premier geosciences union, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the Earth, planetary, and space sciences for the benefit of humanity, worldwide.
It was established in September 2002 as a merger of the European Geophysical Society (EGS) and the European Union of Geosciences (EUG), and has headquarters in Munich, Germany.
The Division on Climate: Past, Present & Future is one of the larger divisions of the European Geosciences Union. It pools from many disciplines and consequently has many co-organized and co-listed sessions with other divisions at the general assembly.
The division is very interdisciplinary and covers climate variations on all time scales. CL includes the study of any kind of climate archive from rocks to ocean cores, speleothems, ice cores, chronicles, to instrumental records to name a few. Besides observations, climate modeling on all time scales from the deep past to the future are areas covered by the division.
Any aspect of the climate system falls into the realm of the division e.g. atmosphere, ocean, biosphere, cryosphere, and geology. Themes focus on the climate on Earth but may also expand other planets or the sun.
Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) was founded in 2008.
ACE has engaged more than 2.2 million youth through its award-winning climate education and engagement programs. Until 2017, the ACE Assembly had been our primary educational platform. This dynamic program has won numerous awards including the White House Champion of Change Award for Climate Literacy and the George Mason University Climate Change Communicator of the Year.
Beyond our education efforts, ACE has also engaged young people to take action. Research tells us that knowledge alone is insufficient for behavior change. Ensuring that education is coupled with opportunities to take action. To this end, ACE also conducts campaigns to inspire and engage our national network of nearly 300,000 young people.
Yale Climate Connections is a nonpartisan, multimedia service providing daily broadcast radio programming and original web-based reporting, commentary, and analysis on the issue of climate change, one of the greatest challenges and stories confronting modern society.
Yale Climate Connections aims to help citizens and institutions understand how the changing climate is already affecting our lives. It seeks to help individuals, corporations, media, non-governmental organizations, government agencies, academics, artists, and more learn from each other about constructive “solutions” so many are undertaking to reduce climate-related risks and wasteful energy practices.
Transforming from a high- to a zero-carbon energy infrastructure will take several decades. In the interim, if carbon budgets are to be respected, reductions in, and redistribution of, energy consumption (and hence emissions) are essential. This is particularly important if domestic fuel poverty is to be alleviated and the development and improved material well-being of poorer nations is to be facilitated through greater access to energy.
Acknowledging that emissions are highly skewed towards a relatively small proportion of the population is a prerequisite of meaningful policy. As Chancel and Piketty note, just 10% of the global population is responsible for around 50% of global emissions. If the carbon budgets associated with the Paris commitments are to be respected, I see no mathematical alternative but for those of us responsible for the lions share of emissions to rapidly and deeply reduce our energy consumption.
That said, I am not of the view that this will be achieved through widespread and altruistic individual action. Rather, and as discussed above, it will require disparate catalysts (initially some individuals) to bring attention to the issues and demonstrate alternatives that others, and eventually policy makers, can subsequently scale up. But – however the pill may be sweetened – for the many millions of us who have normalised a lifestyle with colossal carbon footprints, the necessary scale of reductions will be perceived as a sacrifice. The quid pro quo of such sacrifice is that carbon ‘space’ will be freed up for others. Such space enables early and additional access to energy to improve the quality of life of poorer communities; i.e. a balance of winners and losers with no net sacrifice.
“Up here, they are already feeling the big influences of warming, especially further north. Their villages are crumbling into the ocean,”
Scientists know, through sediment and ice core samples, that the Northern Hemisphere underwent a dramatic cooling period between about 2,500 and 4,700 years ago. And when archaeologists found a surprising cluster of bones in an ancient garbage heap here, they suspected that this global climate change may have had a dramatic effect on the island and its inhabitants. Using two sets of artifacts, seal bones and clamshells, as well as some other clues, West and her colleagues want to find out how far the temperature dropped in Unalaska during that cold snap and—if the change were drastic—how did the people and the animals adapt?
The answers to these questions matter. The discoveries that West’s team hopes to make will teach us a lot about present-day commercial fisheries, marine mammal behavior, and global weather patterns, as well as the impact of climate shifts on all these things. Dramatic effects of climate change are already assailing the Arctic—like the rapidly thawing permafrost throughout Alaska—and scientists are beginning to understand better how fluctuating conditions in the far north influence weather around the globe.
Prof Anderson (personal favourite) truth to power.
Nick Breeze's Youtube Channel comprises many interviews with academics and thinkers who have a very deep knowledge of specific climate change drivers, impacts and social responses.
History is in the making with Fiji presiding over the Twenty-Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC COP23).
It’s the first time a Pacific island nation has led the global climate conference that will bring together up to 25,000 people, “Uniting for Climate Action, Further, Faster – Together.”
Pacific Leaders are united behind Fiji’s COP23 presidency, recognising the unique opportunity that this meeting provides to the region, to build on the outcome of the United Nations Conference earlier this year, and ensure larger nations consider some of the critical issues facing small island developing states.
“The Pacific islands have demonstrated world leadership when it comes to climate change with high renewable energy targets that are on track to being met, being among the first to sign and ratify the Paris Agreement, empowering country parties to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, and now Fiji’s status as COP President which we congratulate and fully support, said Director General Mr. Kosi Latu of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).
Supporting Fiji’s Presidency of COP23 must be a priority for the region,” said Pacific Island Forum Secretary General, Dame Meg Taylor.
Together, our Pacific nations must continue to tell the global community that urgent and ambitious action is needed to address climate change, including the provision of finance to implement Nationally Determined Contributions, finalisation of the Paris Agreement guidelines by 2018, and an inclusive process to elaborate the Facilitative “Talanoa” Dialogue.”
“Fiji’s Prime Minister and COP23 President, Hon. Voreqe Bainimarama rightly said that when it comes to climate change, “we are all in the same canoe.
We need to come together and act or else things are only going to get worse. Jointly, parties have the power to ensure smooth sailing ahead. This is the time to demonstrate leadership, “ said The University of the South Pacific (USP) Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Rajesh Chandra.
Calling for urgent action to build the resilience of the people most vulnerable to climate and weather extremes around the world - to avoid drastic humanitarian consequences.
In 2017 alone, the strongest Atlantic hurricane in more than a decade battered an estimated 1.2 million people and posed a serious threat to millions – and was just one hurricane in a series that pummelled the region.
South Asia experienced the worst floods in a century.
Across the region, more than 41 million people have been affected with vast destruction of agriculture and housing.
Within climate negotiations, focus is often directed towards the vulnerability of a country to climate change.
The IFRC, it is important to focus not only at the country level, but consider the people who are mostly likely to suffer the humanitarian consequences of climate change.
Some communities will be dis-proportionally affected by climate change for a number of reasons.
National Adaptation Plans and National Determined Contributions should consider, as a priority, ways to identify and protect those most vulnerable, especially poor women and girls, and to assist the inclusion of their views in UNFCCC processes and implementation of the Paris Agreement in order not to leave them behind
William Ripple of Oregon State University's College of Forestry said that he came across the 1992 warning last February, and noticed that this year happened to mark the 25th anniversary.
Together with his graduate student, Christopher Wolf, he decided to revisit the concerns raised then, and collect global data for different variables to show trends over the past 25 years.
Ripple found:
A decline in freshwater availability.
Unsustainable marine fisheries.
Ocean dead zones.
Forest losses.
Dwindling biodiversity.
Climate change.
Population growth.
"The scientists around the world are very concerned about the state of the world, the environmental situation and climate change."
"Since 1992, carbon emissions have increased 62 per cent," Ripple said. "And the global average temperature change has paralleled that. Also since 1992, we have two billion more people on Earth, which is a 35 per cent increase."
The Bonn conference comes at a pivotal moment in recent weeks, a series
of reports have set climate alarm bells ringing the latest data
released by the World Meteorological
Organization shows dangerous growth of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over
the past seven decades reaching new
highs in 2016.
Concentrations of CO2 in
the atmosphere are now the highest in a hundred thousand years. The
emissions gap report by the UN
environmental programme shows that
greenhouse gas levels in 2020 are likely
to be so elevated that it would be extremely difficult to meet reduction targets for 2030.
Kathleen Hartnett White struggles to answer basic questions posed by the Senate committee on environment and public works on Thursday. Hartnett White, Trump’s nominee for the environmental quality council chair, had difficulty answering questions from Senators Ben Cardin and Sheldon Whitehouse on green house emissions and climate science
Kathleen Hartnett White has said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ignores natural causes of climate change. She has also argued that Carbon Dioxide has been wrongfully regulated as a pollutant.
October 19, 2016
Speaking with Ars Technica, in her role as a Trump campaign advisor, Kathleen Hartnett White suggested the IPCC has ignored natural causes of climate change:
“[The IPCC] never really takes on an explanation of how the other variables in climate affect climate. […] It never takes on the Sun. There are a number of very, very senior atmospheric physicists—one I think of in particular, Fritz Varenholt, who wrote a book called The Neglected Sun. As a scientist, he's just appalled that better knowledge about the role of the Sun would not be a part of the science.”
Hartnett White discussed Donald Trump's plans to revive the coal industry. [20]
“[Trump]'s very much for clean air and clean water” Hartnett White said.
“But the better home for considering this discussion about carbon dioxide and climate is in the Department of Energy.” According to Hartnett White, climate change concerns “are really a discussion about energy, not really a discussion about environmental protection.” She described CO2 regulations as “the killer for coal.”
Speaking of the Clean Air Act's regulation of CO2, Hartnett White said that the Clean Air Act
“was never designed to control a pollutant that ubiquitous that has no adverse environmental impacts on people.” She said that “Carbon dioxide has no adverse impact in the air we breath at all. It's a harmless trace gas that is actually an essential nutrient for plants.”
At the UN Climate Change Conference this year (COP23, from 6 to 17 November) nations of the world will meet to advance the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement and achieve progress on its implementation guidelines.
The conference, officially referred as COP 23/ CMP 13/ CMA 1-2, will take place in Bonn, Germany, hosted by the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and presided over by Fiji.
The UNFCCC secretariat and the Government of Fiji are closely working with the Government of Germany, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Bonn to ensure a dynamic and successful Conference.
Are there good COPs and bad COPs? What does COP stand for anyway? Participants ask about five things they always wanted to know, and UN Climate Change Spokesperson Nick Nuttall gives the answers.
Climate Change and the Virus Vector Mosquito Aedes aegypti
Aspen Global Change Institute: dedicated to advancing the understanding of Earth system science and global environmental change through interdisciplinary workshops, research and consulting, and education and outreach.
Cool It! is an interactive environmental workshop and contest for students in grades 4 to 7. In each 90-minute workshop, our Environmental Educators use videos, games, quizzes and discussion to build on students’ knowledge of climate change.
The BC Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA) is a member-based, non-profit organization that supports the sustainable production, distribution, and consumption of energy in British Columbia and beyond. The association collaborates with governments, industry, universities and other institutions, other non-governmental organizations, and citizens to put in place the conditions needed to accelerate the province’s transition to a lower-carbon economy.
Getting a licence for a petrol-run car in Beijing is difficult. But China's government is making it easier for electric cars owners to obtain one – in a bid to reduce emissions.
The world's largest auto market is setting wheels in motion to phase out fossil-fueled vehicles.
According to the International Energy Agency, China accounted for more than 40 percent of global electric car sales in 2016, followed by the European Union and the United States.
It also overtook the United States as the market with the greatest number of electric vehicles.
China is aiming for one out of every five cars sold in 2025 to be eco-friendly.
The country's leaders are putting pressure on car manufacturers to produce more cars that run on electricity, or other environmentally friendly alternatives.
The Duchess of Cambridge carries out Royal duties in support of The Queen through engagements at home and overseas, alongside a portfolio of charitable work and patronages. Which perhaps now includes educating the plebs about Climate Change???
Prof. John Fitzgerald, Chair of the Climate Change Advisory Council - Citizens' Assembly
The Assembly is a body comprising the Chairperson and 99 citizens, randomly selected to be broadly representative of the Irish electorate, established to consider some of the most important issues facing Ireland’s future.
The Assembly members will deliberate the topics as outlined in the Resolution approving its establishment, and any other matters that may be referred to it.
Their conclusions on each topic will form the basis of individual reports and recommendations that will be submitted to the Houses of the Oireachtas for further debate by our elected representatives.
From October 2016, the Assembly will meet on a regular basis under the chairmanship of Ms Justice Mary Laffoy. The Assembly will complete its work within a year from the date of its first meeting.
How the State Can Make Ireland a Leader in Tackling Climate Change
The Assembly is meeting on the weekend of 4-5 November for the second of two weekends on the topic "How the State Can Make Ireland a Leader in Tackling Climate Change".
An agenda is available to read here and associated papers will be available in due course over the weekend.
"...we are still debating and still questioning whether life was a divine intervention or whether it was coming out of a natural process let alone, oh my goodness, a random process.
"And so many people — I'm sure you know many of them — still believe, want to believe, that maybe taking a sugar pill will cure cancer, if you will it!
"And every single one of the people here's personalities can be determined by looking at planets coming in front of invented constellations."
Quirks & Quarks
Join host Bob McDonald each week to find out the latest in science, technology, medicine and the environment. We cover every aspect of science, from the quirks of the expanding universe to the quarks within a single atom...and everything in between.
Quirks & Quarks is the award-winning radio science program of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The program is heard by a national audience in Canada of nearly 800,000 people, and by thousands more around the world on our weekly podcast.
“Can you believe that…we’re still questioning whether humans have a role in the Earth warming?”
Julie Payette is known for being an astronaut, engineer, scientific broadcaster and corporate director.
From 1992 to 2013, Ms. Payette worked as an astronaut and flew two missions in space.
She also served many years as CAPCOM (Capsule Communicator) at NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, and was Chief Astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency.
The Lancet Countdown's 2017 report tracks 40 indicators across five areas, arriving at three key conclusions:
The human symptoms of climate change are unequivocal and potentially irreversible`
The delayed response to climate change over the past 25 years has jeopardised human life and livelihoods.
The past 5 years have seen an accelerated response, and in 2017 momentum is building across a number of sectors; the direction of travel is set, with clear and unprecedented opportunities for public health.
WHO REPORT
Climate change and health
Over the last 50 years, human activities – particularly the burning of fossil fuels – have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to trap additional heat in the lower atmosphere and affect the global climate.
In the last 130 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.85oC. Each of the last 3 decades has been successively warmer than any preceding decade since 1850(1).
Sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting and precipitation patterns are changing. Extreme weather events are becoming more intense and frequent.
Key facts
Climate change affects the social and environmental determinants of health – clean air, safe drinking water, sufficient food and secure shelter.
Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250 000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress.
The direct damage costs to health (i.e. excluding costs in health-determining sectors such as agriculture and water and sanitation), is estimated to be between US$ 2-4 billion/year by 2030.
Areas with weak health infrastructure – mostly in developing countries – will be the least able to cope without assistance to prepare and respond.
Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases through better transport, food and energy-use choices can result in improved health, particularly through reduced air pollution.
Today’s young people can and should hold their parents’ generation to account for their present actions. They can elicit an emotional response that can motivate action. If thinking about the lives of unborn future generations seems too abstract to motivate you to act, try instead looking a young child or grandchild in the eye and asking yourself what sort of future you are leaving for them. There is something that, on reflection, many adults would surely find repugnant in the idea that they will leave their children a damaged planet that will radically affect their life possibilities. Lord Nicholas Stern
Kiribati President Anote Tong
"…I remember I had been trying to convince him to visit Kiribati and he did in 2011. He came to Kiribati and I remember he went to visit one of these communities that was flooded every time there is very high tides and there was this young boy who stepped up to the Secretary General and said Mr. Secretary General, you are a very important man you know, is there something that you can do to ensure I will have a future, that I will have a home. And the Secretary General came back and he said Mr. President I have been listening to you at the General Assembly but I never truly understood what it was you trying to communicate but now I do and I feel and I understand I would do everything that I can”
