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Major Study Projects No Long-Term Climate Benefit From Shale Gas Revolution

Mon, 2013-10-21 22:38 — Gina Angiola

Climate Progress, By Joe Romm on October 18, 2013 at 11:13 am

Most claims that shale gas will significantly reduce US carbon emissions in the future are based on little more than hand-waving and wishful thinking. That’s because those claims assume natural gas is replacing coal only, rather than replacing some combination of coal, renewables, nuclear power, and energy efficiency — which is obviously what will happen in the real world.

To figure out what the impact of shale gas is actually going to be, you need an energy-economy model. And since the output of one model depends crucially on the specific assumptions it makes, the best approach would be to look at results of several models. And that is precisely what Stanford’s Energy Modeling Forum does in its new study, “Changing the Game? Emissions and Market Implications of New Natural Gas Supplies Report.”

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Climate Change Creates Complicated Consequences for North America's Forests

Sun, 2013-10-20 20:29 — Maeryn Obley

Dartmouth Professor Matt Ayres studies the southern pine bark beetle, a forest pest that may be the largest source of disturbance in coniferous forests throughout North America. (Credit: Eli Burakian)

Image: Dartmouth Professor Matt Ayres studies the southern pine bark beetle, a forest pest that may be the largest source of disturbance in coniferous forests throughout North America. (Credit: Eli Burakian)

sciencedaily.com - October 15th, 2013

Climate change affects forests across North America -- in some cases permitting insect outbreaks, plant diseases, wildfires and other problems -- but Dartmouth researchers say warmer temperatures are also making many forests grow faster and some less susceptible to pests, which could boost forest health and acreage, timber harvests, carbon storage, water recycling and other forest benefits in some areas.

The Dartmouth-led study, which appears in the journal Ecological Monographs, reviewed nearly 500 scientific papers dating to the 1950s, making it the most comprehensive review to date of climate change's diverse consequences for forests across the United States, Canada and the rest of North America.

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Cutting Short-Lived ClimatePollutants Slows Rising Seas

Mon, 2013-10-14 00:58 — Gina Angiola

Climate Central,  April 14, 2013

Cutting CO2 emissions is critical in the long term, but readily achievable reductionsof non-CO2 pollutants would do far more to slow sea level rise this centurythan actions to reduce CO2 emissions alone, protecting millions of people and billions of dollars of real estate from rising seas.

The article, "Mitigation of short-lived climate pollutants slows sea level rise", by Hu et al., is a collaboration between scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Climate Central, and examines how much the rate and amount of global sea level rise can be reduced by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and four short-lived climate pollutants (SLCP) — methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons, and black carbon — by mid-century (2050) and in the long term (2100). These results are compared to a "Business As Usual" scenario and to mitigating CO2 only.

FULL ARTICLE AND INTERACTIVE MAP HERE

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Climate Change Will Bring Conditions Outside Historical Variability In Coming Decades

Sun, 2013-10-13 22:10 — Maeryn Obley

Video: A video report on the predicted climate shifts.

huffingtonpost.com - October 9th, 2013 - Andrew Freedman

The mean annual climate of the average location on Earth will slip past the most extreme conditions experienced during the past 150 years and into new territory by between 2047 and 2069, depending on the amount of climate-warming greenhouse gases that are emitted during the next few decades, a new study found. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, used a new index to show for the first time when the climate — which has been warming during the past century in response to manmade pollution and natural variability — will be radically different from average conditions during the 1860-2005 period.

The study shows that tropical areas, which contain the richest diversity of species on the planet as well as some of the poorest countries, will be among the first to see the climate exceed historical limits — in as little as a decade from now — which spells trouble for rainforest ecosystems and nations that have a limited capacity to adapt to rapid climate change.

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Why the Media Has Gone Silent on Climate Change

Thu, 2013-10-10 08:41 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

"While climate sceptics are attacking the IPCC report for being alarmist... environmentalists are complaining that the panel was too intimidated by the deniers, and understated the dangers," writes Elver [EPA]

Climate change deniers have been waging a PR war on scientists who promote a path towards a post carbon economy.

aljazeera.com - by Hilal Elver - October 10, 2013

After six years of work, a week-long final review session in Stockholm, invloving more than 200 scientists from 39 countries, the UN's influential scientific body IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), which is investigating climate change, released a 36-page summary of their latest work.

Gradually, the IPCC will make public four volumes of additional reports and suggestions to policy makers. Somewhat surprisingly, the report was not treated as "breaking news" by the mainstream media. There are several reasons for this.

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CLICK HERE - IPCC - Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis

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Let It Burn: Changing Firefighting Techniques for a Warming World

Mon, 2013-10-07 23:43 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

The devastating Rim Fire threatened Yosemite in August.  Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

This year has been a bloody one for firefighters on the front lines against wildfires. With climate change intensifying fires, it may be time to change the way we fight them.

time.com - by Bryan Walsh - October 4, 2013

We usually measure wildfires in acres burnt or the number of homes destroyed. But there’s a human toll to fires as well. So far this year 32 people have lost their lives fighting fires, the highest number in nearly 20 years—and the fire season isn’t done yet. More than half of those deaths occurred in a single incident, when all but one of a 20-man firefighting crew were killed during the Yarnell Hill fire in Arizona in June.

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Reinsurance Association of America's Senate Testimony on Climate Change

Sat, 2013-10-05 17:08 — admin

On July 18, 2013, Frank Nutter, President of the Reinsurance Association of America, testified before the Senate Committee on Environment Protection and Public Works as to the RAAs perspective on weather and climate-related impacts in the United States.

 

Following are excerpts from his report:

"In the 1980’s, the average number of natural catastrophes globally was 400 events per year. In recent years, the average is 1000. Munich Re’s analysis suggests the increase is driven almost entirely by weather-related events. North America has seen a fivefold increase in the number of such events since 1980. In comparison, Europe has seen a twofold increase.

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The Oceans are Heating, Acidifying and Choking

Sat, 2013-10-05 10:28 — Kathy Gilbeaux

newscientist.com - by Fred Pearce - October 4, 2013

CLICK HERE - State of the Ocean Report 2013

We know the oceans are warming. We know they are acidifying. And now, to cap it all, it turns out they are suffocating, too. A new health check on the state of the oceans warns that they will have lost as much as 7 per cent of their oxygen by the end of the century.

The cascade of chemical and biological changes now under way could see coral reefs irreversibly destroyed in 50 to 100 years, with marine ecosystems increasingly taken over by jellyfish and toxic algal blooms.

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(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)

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IPCC - Climate Change 2013 - The Physical Science Basis

Mon, 2013-09-30 17:10 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ipcc.ch - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

"Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis" is the contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This comprehensive assessment of the physical aspects of climate change puts a focus on those elements that are relevant to understand past, document current, and project future climate change.

(CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND FOR LINKS TO THE FULL REPORT)

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Action on Climate Change is a Moral Imperative - New U.N. Report Underscores the Urgency

Mon, 2013-09-30 16:39 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Margery Schab

eesi.org - Environmental and Energy Study Institute

Educating Congress on energy efficiency and renewable energy; advancing innovative policy solutions

For more information contact: Amaury Laporte at (202) 662-1884 or ***@***.***

"The emergence of the global warming problem creates an imperative for action that cannot be ignored." – The Environmental and Energy Study Institute's Board of Directors' unanimous statement, 1988.

In the past quarter century, the case for action has become ever more pressing, and the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body under the auspices of the United Nations, adds yet more urgency. The IPCC, first set up in 1990, has become the world's leading scientific authority on climate change.

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