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Category: Climate Change

Trump’s interior secretary: ‘I haven’t lost any sleep over’ record CO2 levels

Trump’s interior secretary: ‘I haven’t lost any sleep over’ record CO2 levels

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The Guardian reports: Donald Trump’s interior secretary hasn’t “lost sleep over”, the record-breaking levels of pollution heating the planet, he told US lawmakers in an oversight hearing. The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii observed carbon dioxide levels of 415 parts per million in the atmosphere on Friday – the highest ever documented. Asked to rank his concern on a scale of 1 to 10, by the Pennsylvania Democratic congressman Matt Cartwright, David Bernhardt pointed to US climate progress. “I believe…

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Jeff Bezos offers absurd and hypocritical reason for his massive space plan

Jeff Bezos offers absurd and hypocritical reason for his massive space plan

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Joe Romm writes: Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos recently announced a wildly ambitious plan to ultimately put up to 1 trillion humans in vast cylindrical space colonies near the Earth. But while the goal is over-the-top, the justification is both absurd and hypocritical. Bezos argued at length on Thursday in a major presentation at the Washington, D.C. Convention Center that we need such a future to save the Earth “if the world economy and population is to keep expanding.”…

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It was 84 degrees near the Arctic Ocean this weekend as CO2 hit its highest level in human history

It was 84 degrees near the Arctic Ocean this weekend as CO2 hit its highest level in human history

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Jason Samenow writes: Over the weekend, the climate system sounded simultaneous alarms. Near the entrance to the Arctic Ocean in northwest Russia, the temperature surged to 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 Celsius). Meanwhile, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eclipsed 415 parts per million for the first time in human history. By themselves, these are just data points. But taken together with so many indicators of an altered atmosphere and rising temperatures, they blend into the unmistakable portrait of…

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NASA study: Human influence on global droughts goes back 100 years

NASA study: Human influence on global droughts goes back 100 years

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NASA’s Global Climate Change reports: Human-generated greenhouse gases and atmospheric particles were affecting global drought risk as far back as the early 20th century, according to a study from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City. The study, published in the journal Nature, compared predicted and real-world soil moisture data to look for human influences on global drought patterns in the 20th century. Climate models predict that a human “fingerprint” – a global pattern of regional…

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California’s latest weapon against climate change is low-tech farm soil

California’s latest weapon against climate change is low-tech farm soil

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NPR reports: Before leaving office, Gov. Jerry Brown set a goal for California to be carbon neutral by 2045. That will likely mean not just reducing carbon emissions — from electricity production, cars and buildings — but also absorbing carbon that’s already in the air. California’s Healthy Soils initiative is now in its third year, and it’s designed to be part of the state’s climate strategy. A state report finds that farms and forests could absorb as much as 20…

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Climate change suddenly matters in the 2020 race. Are the candidates ready?

Climate change suddenly matters in the 2020 race. Are the candidates ready?

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Bill McKibben writes: For three decades in American politics, climate change has been the issue that wasn’t. Even as the temperature steadily rose, and evidence mounted that it was human behavior—and human policies—that were driving this change, candidates mostly deflected. And it wasn’t hard: During the 2016 general election, no journalist even asked the presidential candidates a debate question on the topic. But that’s not the case this time. Climate change matters for Democratic voters: A Monmouth University poll last…

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U.S. fossil fuel subsidies exceed Pentagon spending, says IMF

U.S. fossil fuel subsidies exceed Pentagon spending, says IMF

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Rolling Stone reports: The United States has spent more subsidizing fossil fuels in recent years than it has on defense spending, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund. The IMF found that direct and indirect subsidies for coal, oil and gas in the U.S. reached $649 billion in 2015. Pentagon spending that same year was $599 billion. The study defines “subsidy” very broadly, as many economists do. It accounts for the “differences between actual consumer fuel prices…

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Children change their parents’ minds about climate change

Children change their parents’ minds about climate change

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Lydia Denworth writes: Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg became famous this spring for launching a student movement to compel adults to take action on climate change. Instead of going to school, Greta has been spending her Fridays in front of the Swedish parliament with a sign reading: “School Strike for Climate.” Students in more than 70 countries have since followed her lead. But before she started trying to convince the world to take action, Thunberg worked on her parents. She showered…

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Trump team kills Arctic accord after cheering on sea ice melt

Trump team kills Arctic accord after cheering on sea ice melt

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Joe Romm writes: On Tuesday, the United States killed an accord with other Arctic nations on how to address regional challenges. Why? The Trump delegation, led by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, would not accept an agreement that stated climate change seriously threatened the polar region, Reuters reported. Yet, just last year, the White House released a 1,000-page report by top U.S. scientists explaining that Trump’s anti-climate policies would devastate the Arctic. So, for the first time since its creation…

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Once again, the U.S. embarrasses itself on climate change

Once again, the U.S. embarrasses itself on climate change

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Joel Clement writes: The Trump administration is so fearful of acknowledging the reality of climate change that White House negotiators are trying to erase all mention of it and the Paris Agreement from a multinational statement about the Arctic region, The Post reported last week. In doing so, the Trump administration has demonstrated its cowardly denial that the region is warming two to three times faster than the rest of the planet, putting its own people in harm’s way and…

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Humans are wiping out life on Earth

Humans are wiping out life on Earth

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The New York Times reports: Humans are transforming Earth’s natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival, a sweeping new United Nations assessment has concluded. The 1,500-page report, compiled by hundreds of international experts and based on thousands of scientific studies, is the most exhaustive look yet at the decline in…

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A new brain study shows a better way to engage voters on the climate crisis

A new brain study shows a better way to engage voters on the climate crisis

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Joe Romm writes: The phrase “climate crisis” engages voters emotionally better than either “climate change” or “global warming.” That’s the new finding from the brain science startup SPARK Neuro, which used an electroencephalogram (EEG) and other bio-measurements to examine how 120 Democrats, Republicans, and independents responded to different terms for the growing threat we face from rising levels of carbon pollution. According to the study, “climate crisis” got a 60% higher emotional response from Democrats than “climate change.” It triggered…

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Biodiversity crisis is about to put humanity at risk, UN scientists to warn

Biodiversity crisis is about to put humanity at risk, UN scientists to warn

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The Guardian reports: The world’s leading scientists will warn the planet’s life-support systems are approaching a danger zone for humanity when they release the results of the most comprehensive study of life on Earth ever undertaken. Up to 1m species are at risk of annihilation, many within decades, according to a leaked draft of the global assessment report, which has been compiled over three years by the UN’s leading research body on nature. The 1,800-page study will show people living…

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Inslee rolls out sweeping climate plan, setting new standard for 2020 Democrats

Inslee rolls out sweeping climate plan, setting new standard for 2020 Democrats

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Think Progress reports: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democratic presidential candidate who has dedicated his entire campaign to addressing the climate crisis, unveiled his first major policy proposal Friday morning. The ambitious plan charts a course other presidential contenders may follow as climate change becomes a top issue for the crowded primary field. Calling climate change “the defining challenge of our time” in a statement, Inslee described his proposal as “a bold and aggressive national policy” to slash greenhouse gas…

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House passes bill to force U.S. to stay in Paris climate agreement

House passes bill to force U.S. to stay in Paris climate agreement

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The Washington Post reports: The House of Representatives passed a bill on Thursday designed to force the United States to stay in the Paris accord, in a rebuke to President Trump, who has promised to withdraw from the landmark climate agreement inked under his predecessor, Barack Obama. The Democratic bill, which passed 231 to 190 in a vote largely along party lines, stands little chance of approval in the GOP-controlled Senate. But House Democrats seized on the measure to portray…

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