By Glynn Wilson – The death of conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 79, may be the best thing to happen for the future of the planet than anything since the national Sierra Club and 350.org convinced President Obama to take on climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels…
By Glynn Wilson – A significant group of climate scientists issued a dramatic editorial statement in the journal Nature Climate Change this week on the effects of human induced global warming from the burning of fossil fuels. They make the argument that we are making a mistake to only think about the effects of global…
By Walter Simon – We seem to be a society living in denial when it comes to a lot of things. It’s as if we are sitting there eating and drinking at a downtown restaurant, lost in the enjoyment of the immediate surroundings, but since our world is obviously become like the Twilight Zone we…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the Paris climate conference just built an eight-lane freeway to Hades. Leaders and nerds from 195 countries sifted through separate plans for saving the species from itself and tried to meld them into an agreed text about shrinking…
US Department of Agriculture warns of danger of ‘business as usual’ approach – Rising temperatures to hit poor and those in tropics hardest – WASHINGTON, D.C., THE GUARDIAN – Unchecked climate change risks plunging a further 175 million people into hunger and undernourishment worldwide, undermining progress in reducing food insecurity, a U.S. government report warns.…
A cheat sheet on how epic floods have shaped civilization – By Andrew Lawler – When it comes to confronting global climate change, we don’t have much experience to draw on. As world leaders prepare to meet in Paris starting on November 30 to hash out a binding international agreement to limit greenhouse gases, it…
By Robert Reich – The next president of the United States will confront a virulent jihadist threat, mounting effects of climate change, and an economy becoming ever more unequal. We’re going to need an especially wise and able leader. Yet our process for choosing that person is a circus, and several leading candidates are clowns.…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Seas around the world have risen an average of nearly 3 inches since 1992, with some locations rising more than 9 inches due to natural variation, according to the latest satellite measurements from NASA. An intensive research effort now underway, aided by NASA observations and analysis, points to…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – After a couple years trudging through the weeds and thickets of laws, regulations, technical standards, hazard assessments, health effects, economic impacts and other consequences of petroleum storage tanks, Mobile has arrived at nearly the same place it began this trek. On June 11 a three-member subcommittee presented its…
The latest data from NASA shows changes in global temperature and precipitation through the year 2,100 depending on how much greenhouse gas emissions continue to plague the Earth’s atmosphere. The dataset, available to the public, shows projected changes worldwide on a regional level in response to different scenarios of increasing carbon dioxide simulated by 21…
By David Underhill – MOBILE, Ala. – Thoroughbreds charging around the final turn and down the homestretch. Blinders strapped on the sides of their faces to keep their attention on the finish line straight ahead. Preakness Stakes at Pimlico racetrack in Baltimore. Second leg of the Triple Crown later this week. Delegations of civic leaders…
By Glynn Wilson – I woke up Sunday morning thinking about something besides aphrodisiacs and Valentines Day, same sex marriage and Mardi Gras. While everyone else seems to be focused on these things, including the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, I am still wondering when the devastating news about the rapid pace of climate change…
By Glynn Wilson – Droughts in the Southwestern United States and the Central Plains during the last half of the 21st century could be drier and longer than conditions in the past 1,000 years, according to a new study just released by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The study, based on projections from climate…
Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – Earlier this month, almost every Republican in the U.S. Senate went on record that “climate change is real and not a hoax.” All but a handful, however, balked at agreeing that humans are contributing to that change. The “not a scientist” club has a new line in the…
Could a Massive Climate Shift Really Happen? – The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – LURAY, Va. — It’s been so cold the past couple of days that I’ve felt like a character in the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” I woke up just before dawn this morning and the iPhone weather said it…
Watch the Video – By Glynn Wilson – SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK, Va. — The Shenandoah salamander is no endangered polar bear, cuddly panda cub or playful dolphin the American public may warm up to in the cause of fighting global warming from the burning of fossil fuels. Yet it is the latest poster child from…
The Big Picture – By Glynn Wilson – THURMONT, Md. – The weather forecast is calling for a dusting of snow here in the woods north of Washington, D.C. Thursday night, which we might as well call the first act of winter after one of the most lovely falls in memory for the people of…
Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – What a difference a week makes. This morning we awoke to the news that President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry have negotiated a historic joint announcement on climate change and clean energy cooperation. Coming from the world’s two largest economies and two biggest carbon emitters, the new…
Coming Clean – By Michael Brune – The fossil-fuel divestment movement has been on a roll lately to the tune of $50 billion, but one of its biggest successes happened last month: The world’s most profitable oil company squirmed. Exxon Mobil’s vice president of public and government affairs published a critique of divestment that concluded…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – NASA launched its sixth consecutive year of Antarctica overflights to study changes that could be a significant harbinger of climate change due to global warming. The science craft measures the ice sheet over all, the glaciers and the surrounding sea ice for changes that could provide scientists with the latest up-to-date information…
