CLIMATE - WHY CLIMATE ASSESSMENT- NOT A DISTANT THREAT

WHY CLIMATE ASSESSMENT- NOT A DISTANT THREAT
"Climate change is not a distant threat. It is something that is happening now it is affecting the American people now in important ways. Summers on the whole are longer and hotter with periods of extreme heat. Wildfires in the West start earlier in the spring and continue later into the fall; Rain in many parts of the country is coming down in deluges in heavier downpours; people are experiencing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies; and climate disruptions to agricultural and water resources have been growing."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omoTQ1tQxNg

CLIMATE - The Impacts of Climate

"The Increase in Temperatures allows Insects to survive over the winter, massive outbreaks of bark beetles that are killing off many species of Trees, and intensifying of forests fires, reducing the Forests, impacting Climate, it could change Where and When the Rain is falling and how the Atmosphere is moving around. There will be impacts on people and ecosystems coming through many channels.

Not just "Oh, it's hotter outside now"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivn3yf96alQ

CLIMATE - El Niño Could Grow Into a Monster, New Data Show

A powerful El Niño could worsen droughts, intensify heat waves, and contribute to dangerous flooding.alika1712/ThinkstockThe odds are increasing that an El Niño is in the works for 2014—and recent forecasts show it might be a big one.As we learned from Chris Farley, El Niños can boost the odds of extreme weather (droughts, typhoons, heat waves) across much of the planet. But the most important thing about El Niño is that it is predictable, someti ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/04/el-nino-could-grow-into-a-monster-new-d

CLIMATE - Frame Climate Change as a Food Issue, Experts Say

As IPCC report warns of climate impact on food security, researchers are looking at whether talking about food could break political deadlock on global warming.Reframing climate change as a food issue as the world’s leading scientists did this week could provide an opportunity to mobilise people, experts say.Academics and campaigners were already looking at food as a way to better connect with public on climate change when the Intergovernmental P ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/04/frame-climate-change-as-a-food-issue-ex

CLIMATE - If This Terrifying Report Doesn’t Wake You Up to the Realities of What We’re Doing to This Planet, What Will?

The impacts of climate change are likely to be “severe, pervasive, and irreversible,” the chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said Sunday night in Yokohama, Japan, as the world’s leading climate experts released a new survey of how our planet is likely to change in the near future, and what we can do about it.Here’s what you need to know:We’re already feeling the impacts of climate change. Glaciers are already shrinking, changi ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/if-this-terrifying-report-doesnt-wake-y

CLIMATE - To Fight Climate Change, the Entire World Will Have to Eat Less Meat

Meat. Climate. Here’s the connection.LWY/FlickrSerious about battling climate change? Then you might want to consider going vegetarian. That’s because it’s looking like world temperatures will continue to climb unless people stop chowing on so much meat and dairy, according to new research from Sweden.The United Nations believes it’s imperative to keep future warming from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. To meet tha ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/to-fight-climate-change-the-entire-worl

CLIMATE - WATCH: Is This Man the Greenest Governor in America?

If Jay Inslee succeeds in his ambitious climate and energy goals, the impacts will extend far beyond Washington state.When Jay Inslee was elected governor of the state of Washington in November of 2012, climate campaigners rejoiced. As a congressman, Inslee had a top-tier environmental record, and not just that: He knew climate and clean energy issues inside-out. The co-author of the 2007 book entitled Apollo’s Fire: Igniting America’s Clean Ener ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/04/watch-is-this-man-the-greenest-governor

CLIMATE - Is a Carbon Tax a Good Idea? Just Ask British Columbia

Climate Desk Live partners with Climate Access and Bloomberg BNA to explore what may be the most innovative climate policy in North America: the BC carbon tax.English Bay, Vancouver. JamesZ_Flickr/Wikimedia Commons In the US context, the idea of putting a tax on carbon is going nowhere fast. While the policy has been championed by liberal legislators and by a few conservative apostates, like former South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis, mainstream Repub ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/is-a-carbon-tax-a-good-idea-just-ask-br

CLIMATE - Exxon Valdez oil spill – in pictures

Remembering Exxon Valdez, 25 years later.On 24 March, 1989 an oil tanker ran aground in the pristine waters of Prince William Sound in the Gulf of Alaska, dumping 11 million gallons of crude oil. The spillage affected 11,000 square miles of sea, killing thousands of marine mammals and sea birds, and had a devastating impact across the 1,300-mile of shoreline. Twenty-five years on it remains one of the worst environmental disasters of all timeSee ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/exxon-valdez-oil-spill-in-pictures

CLIMATE - Flood Zone Foolishness

Politicians from disaster-prone states lead the fight against real disaster reforms.Wang Chengyun/Xinhua/ZUMAThe billion-dollar storm is the new normal. Eight of the 10 costliest hurricanes in U.S. history have occurred in the past decade, adjusting for inflation, at a staggering toll of more than $200 billion in losses. Sea level rise along the eastern seaboard is happening at the fastest rate in the world. Disaster experts have plenty of good i ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/flood-zone-foolishness

CLIMATE - Charts: How Dangerous Are the Gas Pipes Under Your City?

America’s aging gas network is big and getting bigger. Why that could be bad for you and the climate.Last week, a massive explosion leveled two five-story buildings on an East Harlem street in New York City, killing eight and injuring dozens more.Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board have yet to officially identify the cause of the disaster, but they appear to be focusing on a natural gas leak. They’ve isolated a crack in an ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/charts-how-dangerous-are-the-gas-pipes-

CLIMATE - Now You Can Get Solar Panels at Best Buy

The latest sign of solar’s move into the mainstream is at retail stores in five states.Tim McDonnellThere was an era when putting solar panels on your roof was a time- and money-sucking hassle on par with remodeling your kitchen. But the cost of going solar has been dropping fast. The latest signal of the industry’s move into the mainstream came last week, when San Mateo, Calif.-based SolarCity* announced it would begin to sell solar systems out ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/now-you-can-get-solar-panels-at-best-bu

CLIMATE - One Reason It May Be Harder to Find Flight 370: We Messed Up the Currents

How climate change factors into the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.A photo released on March 20 by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority shows satellite imagery of objects that may be debris of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. Australian Maritime Safety AuthorityScientists say man-made climate change has fundamentally altered the currents of the vast, deep oceans where investigators are currently scouring for the mi ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/one-reason-it-may-be-harder-to-find-fli

CLIMATE - A Map of History’s Biggest Greenhouse Gas Polluters

See the countries responsible for the bulk of emissions since 1971.BiLK_Thorn/FlickrScientists predicted long ago that CO2 emissions would pervert the atmosphere. Now, in a decade with sea levels rising at twice the rate of the 20th century average – and 10 of the warmest years on record landing in the past 12 years – how has humankind responded to the threat?Not well, generally speaking. Emissions of CO2 have ticked up by 105 percent since the e ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/a-map-of-historys-biggest-greenhouse-ga

CLIMATE - What These Historical Kings and Marauders Can Teach Our Leaders About Climate Change

Never fight a land war in Asia—unless the climate is on your side.There are no two ways about it: Humankind is, for the first time in our recorded history, living through a massive global climate shift of our own making. Science paints today’s crisis as unprecedented in scope and consequence. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t historical cases of societies that have enjoyed the highs and endured the lows of natural climatic changes—from civilizat ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/what-these-historical-kings-and-maraude

CLIMATE - Can This Coal Plant Save the Climate?

Step inside the project that could be the key to Obama’s climate legacy… or a multibillion-dollar boondoggle.)This story was written by the Guardian‘s Suzanne Goldenberg and originally published in the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk initiative. The video was produced by Climate Desk’s Tim McDonnell.The massive block of steel towers and pipes rises out of the morning fog like a sci-fi fantasy. But this coal-fired power ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/can-this-coal-plant-save-the-climate

CLIMATE - Democrat Senators to Stage All-Night Session of Climate Change Speeches

More than two dozen Democratic senators will take to the floor to show their commitment to tackling climate change.More than two dozen Democratic senators will take to the Senate floor on Monday for an all-night session of speeches on climate change.The marathon session will get underway after the last vote on Monday night and could last until 9am on Tuesday, Senate staff said.The high visibility all-nighter was organised by a new initiative, the ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/democrat-senators-to-stage-all-night-se

CLIMATE - Public Transit Usage Is at Its Highest Level in More than Fifty Years

More than 10.65 billion passenger trips were taken last year.jpmartineau/FlickrA new report from the American Public Transportation Association released on Monday puts the level of public transportation users at its highest since 1956. More than 10.65 billion passenger trips were taken last year.One of the conclusions drawn from the report’s data refutes the idea that public transit use rises and falls in response to factors such as gas prices an ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/public-transit-usage-is-at-its-highest-

CLIMATE - What the Ukraine Crisis Means for the Energy Industry

Four ways that energy politics are shaping the standoff with Russia.Russian troops, in uniforms without insignia, continue to surround Ukrainian military facilities in the Crimea region. Valery Matytsin/ITAR-TASS/ZUMAHere’s how it’s been in Ukraine: Cheap natural gas; crooks and oligarchs in both Ukraine and Russia skimming money from the energy sector; and understandably squeamish foreign investors balking at having skin in the game.On top of al ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/what-the-ukraine-crisis-means-for-the-e

CLIMATE - America Could Soon Face More Days of “Extreme Rainfall”

Global warming means more heavy rainfall…and more drought.NOAASquelch, squelch, squelch – that could be the sound of future America, if predictions about how climate change will ramp up “extreme rainfall” prove accurate.Say the world’s nations do little to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases pouring into the atmosphere. By the years 2041 to 2070, the warmer climate could bring torrential downpours to vast parts of the United States, as shown in ...

http://climatedesk.org/2014/03/america-could-soon-face-more-days-of-ex