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Last year, the planet was plagued by powerful hurricanes, blistering fires, and temperatures that ranked as some of the hottest on record—ratcheting up concern that we’re already knee-deep in climate change. To stave off the heat, some scientists have proposed blanketing Earth in a sheet of sunlight-reflecting particles called aerosols. This solar shield could cool the planet and buy us time, but a new study suggests that if politicians turned off the hypothetical cloud, they could plunge the planet into a sudden ecological Armageddon. The idea of injecting aerosols into the atmosphere first came to prominence in 2006, when...

In order to meet its share of the carbon pollution cuts needed to achieve the 2°C Paris international climate target, America’s policies are rated as “critically insufficient” by the Climate Action Tracker. The Trump Administration has taken every possible step to undo the Obama Administration’s climate policies. In 2020, the next American president will have to make up the lost ground and come up with a plan to rapidly accelerate the country’s transition away from fossil fuels. Currently, transportation and power generation each account for about 30% of US greenhouse gas emissions, so those sectors represent the prime targets for...

In California, seven cities have sued energy companies for misrepresenting the dangers of global warming, but a review of public records reveals those communities may have done a little misrepresenting themselves.And ExxonMobil, the principle target of these suits, has had it. It says the lawsuits seek only to use the courts to win a public policy battle it otherwise could not win, and the claims the cities make are undermined by claims they have made to investors in recent months to obtain bond financing.In its lawsuit against energy companies, the city of Oakland declared “Global warming has caused and continues...

Earth’s surface will almost certainly not warm up four or five degrees Celsius by 2100, according to a study released Wednesday which, if correct, voids worst-case UN climate change predictions. A revised calculation of how greenhouse gases drive up the planet’s temperature reduces the range of possible end-of-century outcomes by more than half, researchers said in the report, published in the journal Nature. “Our study all but rules out very low and very high climate sensitivities,” said lead author Peter Cox, a professor at the University of Exeter. How effectively the world slashes CO2 and methane emissions, improves energy efficiency,...

"Make America Great Again" is a slogan to be sure, but it also has truth inside of it. It was 1914 when Great Britain made a fateful decision to enter the First World War, a war that would cost the nation lives and limbs, but would also cost treasure. So much treasure that by the end of the war the mighty British Empire was borrowing money from the United States. This was the beginning of that nation's decline as a world power, a beginning of what some like journalist and writer Peter Hitchens see as the process of the United...

STUDY: Concern over climate change linked to depression, anxiety – ‘Restless nights, feelings of loneliness and lethargy’ By: Marc Morano - Climate DepotJanuary 20, 2018 1:55 PM with 0 comments Depression and anxiety are afflicting Americans who are concerned at the fate of the environment, according to a study of the mental health effects of climate change. Those hit hardest are women and people with low incomes who worry about the planet’s long-term health, said the study published this week in the journal Global Environmental Change. Symptoms include restless nights, feelings of loneliness and lethargy. “Climate change is a persistent...

What will happen to the federal government’s environmental protection work if Congress can’t pass a funding bill on time? Right now, it’s hard to say. [snip] Agencies conducting research on climate change will feel the effects of a shutdown. During the 17-day government shutdown in 2013, research on melting ice, rising seas, and global weather ground to a halt. Much of climate field research requires extensive careful planning, and research sites like the polar ice caps are only accessible at certain times of the year. Stopping work in these areas proved especially disruptive for data collection: It created gaps in...

Climate change could threaten breakfast. According to a new study, sugar maples that provide sap for syrup may not survive the hot and dry climate caused by global warming. Sugar maples in the northern hardwood forests across eastern North America are particularly drought-sensitive. As global temperatures rise, the lack of enough water could stunt their growth, a new, decades-long study found. The number of sugar maple trees will decrease, diminishing the amount of maple syrup available and eliminating the stunning colors of these forests during autumn. "This is probably the most striking species in these forests," Inés Ibáñez, forest ecology...

Thanksgiving was right around the corner, and a sizable number of one of America’s most famous migrants could be seen still sputtering south. Not across the Texas-Mexico border, where most monarch butterflies should be by that time of year. These fluttered tardily through the migratory funnel that is Cape May, N.J., their iconic orange-and-black patterns splashing against the muted green of pines frosted by the season’s first chill. This delayed migration is not normal, and it alarmed monarch researchers across the country. Scientists fear that climate change is behind what they’re calling the latest monarch migration ev er recorded in...

Do animals get bigger as the climate they live in gets colder? According to a rule established in 1847, they do – which has had biologists concerned over what climate change might do to animal body size. But now an analysis of the weights and geographical locations of nearly 274,000 individuals from 952 bird and mammal species has challenged the idea. Bergmann’s rule, formulated in 1847 by German anatomist Carl Bergmann, states that an animal’s body size is negatively related to the temperature of its environment: smaller individuals of a species are found in hotter regions of the species’ range,...

New research from a Florida State University scientist has revealed a surprising relationship between surging atmospheric carbon dioxide and flower blooms in a remote tropical forest. FSU researchers studying the rich tropical forests of Panama's Barro Colorado Island found that climbing rates of carbon dioxide have set the stage for a multidecade increase in overall flower production. The findings were outlined in a paper published in the journal Global Change Biology. "It's really remarkable," said Assistant Professor of Geography Stephanie Pau, who led the study. "Over the past several decades, we've seen temperatures warming and carbon dioxide increasing, and our...

The Pentagon scrubbed its latest National Defense Strategy of all references to climate change, an Orwellian rhetorical shift away from a scientific reality at an agency that has long avoided the issue’s politics. A summary document released Friday morning makes no mention of “climate,” “warming,” “planet,” “sea levels” or even “temperature.” All 22 uses of the word “environment” refer to the strategic or security landscape. The 11-page memo, signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis, is the first update to the policy in a decade. It’s unlikely the Department of Defense will release a full National Defense Strategy report; instead, the...

Columbia University and the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund today launched an online tracker of the Trump administration's crackdown on climate science. The project, called the Silencing Science Tracker, has so far assembled 96 entries of federal restrictions or prohibitions on climate science since November 2016. The database is built from media reports, and it's searchable by agency, date and type of action. More than half the entries are listed as censorship, either from government restriction or researchers who are self-censoring. Other instances include targeted personnel changes, budget cuts and other federal actions aimed at minimizing or hindering climate research....

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Winter is off to a late start in parts of the nation’s largest — and usually coldest — state. Months of higher-than-normal temperatures in parts of rural Alaska have opened dangerous gaps in frozen rivers that residents use to travel from village to village and to hunting grounds, since there are no roads. One troublesome ice highway is the half-mile-wide Kuskokwim River, where a man died New Year’s Eve after he and five family members — traveling on a snowmobile and sled — fell into a gaping hole. The others survived.

KUTUBDIA, Bangladesh — Anyone who doubts climate change should come to this lovely low-lying island, lapped by gentle waves and home to about 100,000 people. But come quickly, while it’s still here. “My house was over there,” said Zainal Abedin, a farmer, pointing to the waves about 100 feet from the shore. “At low tide, we can still see signs of our house.” Already much of Kutubdia has been swallowed by rising seas, leaving countless families with nothing. Nurul Haque, a farmer who lost all his land to the ocean, told me that he may have to pull his daughter,...

We road into Cheyenne around sunset yesterday. Cheyenne, Wyoming - elevation 6062 feet -  in the middle of January; it was 57 degrees. No snow anywhere, not in the air, on the wind or on the ground.  It was clear and balmy. And I am truly grateful that the only place in Wyoming Al Gore would ever consider going is Jackson Hole – they don’t mind the snow this time of year.I can only tell you that this year’s trip has been much better than any number of the nightmarish winter journeys we’ve been on before global warming. So if...

The snowstorm that crippled the Gulf Coast is gone, but cold weather remains in place across most of the eastern U.S., stretching all the way to Florida. The storm on Wednesday left a foot of snow in parts of North Carolina, and daily records in Raleigh (5.9 inches) and Atlanta (2.3 inches). On Thursday morning, the cold has moved all the way to southern Florida. A wind chill advisory has been issued all the way to Naples and West Palm Beach, Florida, where wind chills are near freezing this morning. It was so cold in the Gulf of Mexico you...

Earth last year wasn't quite as hot as 2016's record-shattering mark, but it ranked second or third, depending on who was counting. Either way, scientists say it showed a clear signal of man-made global warming because it was the hottest year they've seen without an El Nino boosting temperatures naturally. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the United Kingdom's meteorological office on Thursday announced that 2017 was the third hottest year on record. At the same time, NASA and researchers from a nonprofit in Berkeley, California, called it the second. The agencies slightly differ because of how much they...

We always knew there would be winners and losers. The depressed mud crab is dealing with a lot right now. There’s climate change, pollution, and a real downer of a name. (Its scientific name, Eurypanopeus depressus, is no more cheery). But its greatest burden is probably the genital parasites. Yes, there’s a particular barnacle that latches onto depressed crab crotches, takes over the machinery therein, and co-opts it for its own reproduction. (And you thought herpes was bad.) But relief may be coming. Ocean ecologist Alyssa-Lois Gehman at the University of British Columbia has modeled how this host-parasite relationship will...

In the mountains of western Iran, the province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari is known for mile-high lagoons, flowing rivers and wetlands that attract thousands of species of migratory birds. But years of diminishing rainfall have shriveled water sources. Conditions worsened, residents say, after Iranian authorities began funneling water 60 miles away to the lowland city of Esfahan, sparking protests as far back as 2014. The uprising — in which at least 21 people died and thousands were arrested before authorities reimposed order — had many sparks: rising prices, persistent unemployment, bank collapses, a wide wealth gap, corruption in the theocracy. But an...