Tag: climate change

Specialists begin to detail impacts of climate change to Minnesota

Less snow, more rain. Warmer winters and frequent late-summer droughts. More invasive species entering the state and some of our most beloved wildlife and trees departing.

Those are some of the upshots of climate change in Minnesota, as detailed by three experts testifying before the newly created House Energy and Climate Finance and Policy Division on Tuesday. In the first day of a two-part presentation, University of Minnesota professors in the fields of climatology, meteorology, atmospheric science and forest resources detailed changes the state is experiencing, and what is projected to happen in the future.

The division and a standing-room-only crowd heard some dire predictions, but also listened as scientists forged connections between weather the state has experienced in recent years and how it fits with larger climate change patterns. While climate change is a global problem, former University of Minnesota Extension Climatologist and Meteorologist Mark Seeley emphasized the state is being affected far more than many regions.

View the complete January 15 article by Rob Hubbard on the Minnesota House of Representative’s website here.

Ice loss from Antarctica has sextupled since the 1970s, new research finds

An alarming study shows massive East Antarctic ice sheet already is a significant contributor to sea-level rise

Antarctic glaciers have been melting at an accelerating pace over the past four decades thanks to an influx of warm ocean water — a startling new finding that researchers say could mean sea levels are poised to rise more quickly than predicted in coming decades.

The Antarctic lost 40 billion tons of melting ice to the ocean each year from 1979 to 1989. That figure rose to 252 billion tons lost per year beginning in 2009, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That means the region is losing six times as much ice as it was four decades ago, an unprecedented pace in the era of modern measurements. (It takes about 360 billion tons of ice to produce one millimeter of global sea-level rise.)

“I don’t want to be alarmist,” said Eric Rignot, an Earth-systems scientist for the University of California at Irvine and NASA who led the work. But he said the weaknesses that researchers have detected in East Antarctica — home to the largest ice sheet on the planet — deserve deeper study.

View the complete January 14 article by Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis on The Washington Post here.

Trump administration resists global climate efforts at home and overseas

Scientists say global warming nears an irreversible level, President Trump has been promoting business growth instead of climate change. (Jenny Starrs /The Washington Post)

The United States joined a controversial proposal by Saudi Arabia and Russia this weekend to weaken a reference to a key report on the severity of global warming, sharpening battle lines at the global climate summit in Poland aimed at gaining consensus over how to combat rising temperatures.

Arguments erupted Saturday night before a United Nations working group focused on science and technology, where the United States teamed with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to challenge language that would have welcomed the findings of the landmark report, which said that the world has barely 10 years to cut carbon emissions by nearly half to avoid catastrophic warming.

“There was going to be an agreement to welcome the . . . report,” said Jake Schmidt, the managing director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s international program, who is in Poland. “The U.S. wanted to ‘note’ it, which is saying in essence that we know it’s out there but we have no comment.”

View the complete December 9 article by David Nakamura and Darryl Fears on The Washington Post website here.

‘We are in trouble.’ Global carbon emissions reached a record high in 2018.

As nations assemble in Poland for climate talks, the figures suggest there is no clear end in sight to the growth of humanity’s contribution to climate change.

As environmental activists protest in Brussels, the United Nations’ climate change talks begin in Poland on Dec. 2. (Reuters)

Global emissions of carbon dioxide are reaching the highest levels on record, scientists projected Wednesday, in the latest evidence of the chasm between international goals for combating climate change and what countries are doing.

Between 2014 and 2016, emissions remained largely flat, leading to hopes that the world was beginning to turn a corner. Those hopes appear to have been dashed. In 2017, global emissions grew 1.6 percent. The rise in 2018 is projected to be 2.7 percent. Continue reading “‘We are in trouble.’ Global carbon emissions reached a record high in 2018.”

Even More Editorial Boards Call on Trump Administration to Tackle Climate Change

A week after the Trump administration tried to bury its own report revealing the that climate change could cost our economy hundreds of billions of dollars and harm Americans across the country, editorial boards nationwide are still calling out Trump’s ignorance and inaction on this looming threat. See below:

NEW— Palm Beach Post: “By rejecting the reality of climate change, the president is putting all of America – all the world, really – in unnecessary danger. The same goes for other leading Republicans who maintain that taking steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions – with, say, a carbon tax – will harm our economy (Read: fossil-fuel industries). If that’s our government’s unshakable position, we’re in trouble.”

NEW — Yakima Herald: “Here, according to a scientific consensus, is the gist about what awaits our state should climate change continue unabated: fires in the forest, spread of disease, droughts in parched fields, floods on the coast, salmon die-offs, closed ski resorts, smoky summer (and fall) skies. Think the drought year of 2015. Every. Single. Year. Yes, it’s that severe.” Continue reading “Even More Editorial Boards Call on Trump Administration to Tackle Climate Change”

The world has just over a decade to get climate change under control, U.N. scientists say

“There is no documented historic precedent” for the scale of changes required, the body found.

The world stands on the brink of failure when it comes to holding global warming to moderate levels, and nations will need to take “unprecedented” actions to cut their carbon emissions over the next decade, according to a landmark report by the top scientific body studying climate change.

With global emissions showing few signs of slowing and the United States — the world’s second-largest emitter of carbon dioxide — rolling back a suite of Obama-era climate measures, the prospects for meeting the most ambitious goals of the 2015 Paris agreement look increasingly slim. To avoid racing past warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial levels would require a “rapid and far-reaching” transformation of human civilization at a magnitude that has never happened before, the group found.

“There is no documented historic precedent” for the sweeping change to energy, transportation and other systems required to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)wrote in a report requested as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

View the complete October 7 article by Chris Mooney and Brady Dennis on the Washington Post website here.

Dean Phillips to Moderate Climate Change and Clean Water Issue Forum

Free educational forum to be held on Wednesday, September 26 in Wayzata

Excelsior, MN – Dean Phillips will moderate a free and open-to-the-public panel discussion focused on climate change and clean water on Wednesday, September 26. The solutions-focused educational forum will feature a variety of leading voices on the environment.

Event details:

“Everyone’s Invited! Issue Forum” – Climate Change and Clean Water

Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Location: Wayzata High School
Doors Open: 5:15 PM
Event Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM

Special Guests

  • Greg Page, CEO of Cargill
  • Kate Knuth, former MN State Representative and member of the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board
  • Della Schall Young, clean water professional and founder of Young Environmental Consulting LLC
  • Lia Harel, Hopkins High School student and Earth Club president

Phillips has been endorsed by the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club, and Clean Water Action.

Five recent events stoking climate change fears

The following article by Miranda Green was posted on the Hill website August 25, 2018:

The Trump administration this month introduced rules that would roll back Obama-era regulations on vehicle emissions and coal fired plants, raising concerns in the scientific community about how a slower approach to decreasing carbon emissions will affect the world’s climate.

Arctic melting, raging forest fires and increasingly brutal summer temperatures are just a handful of the signs that climate change may have transitioned from a lingering threat to a phase where it might be too late to mitigate some of its effects.

Here are five recent events and developments stoking climate change fears.

View the complete article here.

Sea level rise is eroding home value, and owners might not even know it

The following article by John Tibbetts and Chris Mooney was posted on the Washington Post website August 20, 2018:

Elizabeth Boineau stands on her dock at Edisto Island in South Carolina on Aug. 13. Flooding damaged her home in Charleston’s historic district and has threatened her property value. Credit: Hunter McRae for The Washington Post

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Elizabeth Boineau’s 1939 Colonial sits a block and a half from the Ashley River in a sought-after neighborhood of ancient live oaks, charming gardens and historic homes. A year ago, she thought she could sell it for nearly $1 million. But after dropping the price 11 times, Boineau has decided to tear it down.

In March, the city’s Board of Architectural Review approved the demolition — a decision not taken lightly in Charleston’s historic district.

“Each time that I was just finishing up paying off the bills, another flood would hit,” Boineau said.

View the complete article here.