Tag: climate change

‘This is science’: Teen climate activist Greta Thunberg testifies before Congress

Appearing on Capitol Hill for the second straight day Wednesday, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg told U.S. lawmakers she did not want them to listen to her.

“I want you to listen to the scientists,” Thunberg said in her testimony before the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, where she appeared with other youth leaders. “I want you to unite behind science. And then I want you to take action.”

Instead of prepared remarks, Thunberg submitted a 2018 report on global warming by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which warned about the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C that researchers say is likely between 2030 and 2052 if it continues at the current rate.

View the complete September 18 article by Dylan Stableford on the Yahoo News website here.

Rep. Heather Edelson (HD49A) Update: September 18, 2019

Dear Neighbors,

I hope the transition from summer to fall has been treating you well. I’m writing today to remind you of our upcoming Edina climate change event featuring climatologist Paul Douglas on September 23!

Continue reading “Rep. Heather Edelson (HD49A) Update: September 18, 2019”

Americans increasingly see climate change as a crisis, poll shows

Washington Post logoA growing number of Americans describe climate change as a crisis, and two-thirds say President Trump is doing too little to tackle the problem.

The results, from a poll conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), point to a growing disconnect between Americans worried about the warming planet and Trump administration officials, who have aggressively scaled back Obama-era environmental regulations and relinquished the nation’s role as a global leader in pushing for climate action.

The poll finds that a strong majority of Americans — about 8 in 10 — say that human activity is fueling climate change, and roughly half believe action is urgently needed within the next decade if humanity is to avert its worst effects. Nearly 4 in 10 now say climate change is a “crisis,” up from less than a quarter five years ago.

View the complete September 13 article by Brady Dennis, Steven Mufson and Scott Clement on The Washington Post website here.

Dangerous new hot zones are spreading around the world

Washington Post logoLA CORONILLA, Uruguay — The day the yellow clams turned black is seared in Ramón Agüero’s memory.

It was the summer of 1994. A few days earlier, he had collected a generous haul, 20 buckets of the thin-shelled, cold-water clams, which burrow a foot deep into the sand along a 13-mile stretch of beach near Barra del Chuy, just south of the Brazilian border. Agüero had been digging up these clams since childhood, a livelihood passed on for generations along these shores.

But on this day, Agüero returned to find a disastrous sight: the beach covered in dead clams.

View the complete September 11 article by Chris Mooney and John Muyskens on The Washington Post website here.

Republicans Seek To Weaken Environmental Appeals Board

Republicans are trying to weaken a federal board that helps minority and low-income communities challenge how much pollution can be released in their neighborhoods by power plants and factories.

The Environmental Appeals Board would be stripped of its ability to hear appeals of EPA-issued pollution permits from citizens, states, cities and Native American tribes. Businesses that hold permits could still ask the board to allow them to increase how much pollution is released.

“These changes would allow polluters to better game the system to the detriment of public health and the environment,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

View the complete September 8 article by Sarah Okeson on the National Memo website here.

Indonesia plans to move capital city from Jakarta to island of Borneo. Why? Jakarta is sinking

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has announced a plan to move the nation’s capital. While there have been various reasons that nations have relocated their capitals, there’s a serious reason for this move: The city is sinking. In fact, according to the World Economic Forum, Jakarta is one of the fastest-sinking cities in the entire world.

A new capital will be established on the island of Borneo. As of now, it’s estimated that the move will cost around $34 billion and could take 10 years.

There are two main reasons for this decision. First of all, sections of the city are sinking between three and 10 centimeters every year. This can be extremely hard on infrastructure and building foundations. Jakarta is also on the coast, meaning that the risk of flooding is very real. Specifically, high-tide seawater flooding is a risk, but stormwater flooding (brought on by rain) is also an issue.

View the complete August 28 article by Marissa Higgins on the Daily Kos website here.

Curbs on Methane, Potent Greenhouse Gas, to Be Relaxed in U.S.

New York Times logoWASHINGTON — The Trump administration laid out on Thursday a far-reaching plan to cut back on the regulation of methane emissions, a major contributor to climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule aims to eliminate federal requirements that oil and gas companies install technology to detect and fix methane leaks from wells, pipelinesand storage facilities. It would also reopen the question of whether the E.P.A. had the legal authority to regulate methane as a pollutant.

The rollback plan is particularly notable because major energy companies have, in fact, spoken out against it — joining automakers, electric utilities and other industrial giants that have opposed other administration initiatives to dismantle climate-change and environmental rules.

View the complete August 29 article by Lisa Friedman and Coral Davenport on The New York Times website here.

What would it take for Republicans to deal with climate change?

Washington Post logoClimate change is here. Short of getting rid of the filibuster in the Senate, it will take both parties to agree to start legislating seriously on climate change, and so far that hasn’t happened. So will there ever be a tipping point when Republicans will get on board?

There are early signs that, yes, there will be. But maybe not in the near future.

Politico recently reported that a number of GOP lawmakers want to do something about it after years of letting Democrats dominate the issues and conversation, while the New York Timesreported Republican strategists are worried the party could lose voters if it doesn’t turn around on this issue quickly.

View the complete August 29 article by Amber Phillips on The Washington Post website here.

It’s official: July was the hottest month ever

“July has re-written climate history.”

The world just lived through the hottest month of the year ever recorded in human history.

According to new data just released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), July 2019 has broken all records for the hottest month, with temperatures 1.71 degrees Fahrenheit (0.95 degrees Celsius) above the 20th century average.

NOAA’s calculations confirm the findings of three other recently released data sets. Independent findings from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (a European climate agency), Japan Meteorological Agency, and Berkeley Earth all show that last month was the warmest on Earth since record-keeping began.

View the complete August 15 article by Kyla Mandel on the ThinkProgress website here.

Huge wildfires in the Arctic and far North send a planetary warning

The planet’s far North is burning. This summer, over 600 wildfires have consumed more than 2.4 million acres of forest across Alaska. Fires are also raging in northern Canada. In Siberia, choking smoke from 13 million acres – an area nearly the size of West Virginia – is blanketing towns and cities.

Fires in these places are normal. But, as studies here at the University of Alaska’s International Arctic Research Center show, they are also abnormal.

My colleagues and I are examining the complex relationships between warming climate, increasing fire and shifting patterns of vegetation. Using locally focused climate data and models from the Scenarios Network for Alaska and Arctic Planning, the research group I help coordinate, we are finding evidence that is deeply worrying – not just for those of us who live within the fires’ pall of smoke, but for the world.

View the complete August 14 article by Nancy Fresco, SNAP Coordinator, Research Faculty, at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on the Conversation website here.