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If human-induced climate change continues unchecked, 10 percent of the U.S. economy could evaporate by 2100, a 1,656-page federal report the White House slipped out on Black Friday (Nov. 23) warned — but a nearby world has an even hotter climate problem than ours, and scientists say we could learn some valuable lessons from it. That world is Venus, Earth's "evil twin," which was once nice enough — until something went wrong and the atmosphere began trapping a little too much heat. Scientists aren't positive precisely how events played out, but the runaway greenhouse effect that resulted is beyond debate:...

French President Emmanuel Macron made global warming a central part of his World Economic Forum speech on Wednesday in Davos, pledging to close all of his country’s coal-fired power plants by 2021. Macron’s anti-coal pledge comes as Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot announced France failed to meet its 2016 global warming target to limit greenhouse gas emissions to 447 million metric tons. Hulot said France would revise its global warming targets to better align with its Paris climate accord commitment to go “carbon neutral” by 2050, Reuters reported. Macron has been one of the most vocal supporters of the Paris climate...

Three years ago, world leaders from nearly every country around the world laid out specific plans to fight climate change that included strategies to slash their greenhouse gas emissions. Those commitments generated optimism that the world might finally address global warming and helped seal the deal on the Paris Agreement. Now, the majority of G20 countries aren’t following through on their promises, according to a new report from the United Nation Environment Programme. And, even if countries followed through, the world would fall short of limiting temperature rise to safe levels. The backsliding is largely the result of increased economic...

As summarized by CNN, below, a new report by climate action advocacy group Climate Transparency confirms the Paris Climate Hoax. Emissions are actually increasing from 15 of the G20 nations. As of now, not a single G20 country is meeting climate targets, research shows. Here are clips from the report’s executive summary:

Environmentalism: A new report calls the lie on the grand Paris climate change treaty. None of the promised cuts in CO2 emissions that 200-plus countries made will come close to preventing a climate "catastrophe." And many of the industrialized nations aren't even living up to the promises they did make.

The levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, have hit a new record high, the UN said Thursday, warning that the time to act was running out. Ahead of the COP 24 climate summit in Poland next month, top United Nations officials are again trying to raise the pressure on governments to meet the pledge of limiting warming to the less than two degrees Celsius, enshrined in the 2015 Paris accord. “Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases, climate change will have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth,” the...

It may be the last place you'd expect to find corals -- up to 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the ocean's surface, where the water is icy cold and the light dim or absent. Yet believe it or not, lush coral gardens thrive here. In fact, scientists have discovered nearly as many species of deep-sea corals (also known as cold-water corals) as shallow-water species... deep-sea corals don't need sunlight. They obtain the energy and nutrients they need to survive by trapping tiny organisms in passing currents... living even in waters as cold as -1ºC (30.2ºF)... occur in the waters of...

The scientist mapped the newly discovered canyon on board Irish ship, RV Celtic Explorer, over two weeks. Led by Dr Aaron Lim of UCC’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences (BEES), used the Marine Institute’s Holland 1 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) the team believes the new discovery will aid in understanding more about the transportation of carbon to the deep ocean. Lim told BreakingNews.ie “This is a vast submarine canyon system, with near-vertical 700m cliff in places and going as deep as 3000m.” He added, “So far from land, this canyon is a natural laboratory from which we feel...

Due to a plethora of reasons, there are at least ten countries which may not survive the next 20 years. Although the list concocted by Top Lists remains highly speculative, it is worth knowing which nations may become extinct.

Environmental officials warned 30 years ago the Maldives could be completely covered by water due to global warming-induced sea level rise. That didn’t happen. The Indian Ocean did not swallow the Maldives island chain as predicted by government officials in the 1980s. In September 1988, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported a “gradual rise in average sea level is threatening to completely cover this Indian Ocean nation of 1196 small islands within the next 30 years,” based on predictions made by government officials. Then-Environmental Affairs Director Hussein Shihab told AFP “an estimated rise of 20 to 30 centimetres in the next...

Rising global sea levels may actually be beneficial to the long-term future of coral reef islands, such as the Maldives, according to new research published in Geophysical Research Letters. Low-lying coral reef islands are typically less than three metres above sea level, making them highly vulnerable to rising sea levels associated with climate change. However, research has found new evidence that the Maldives - the world's lowest country - formed when sea levels were higher than they are today... They found that large waves caused by distant storms off the coast of South Africa led to the formation of the...

Back in 1998, when we had the super El Niño, some of the warm water pooled east and west of Australia (seen in the 1998 image below) and damaged coral reefs there, setting off a cottage industry for noisy alarmy/worry types like Ove Hoegh-Guldberg that have turned the “save the coral reefs” issue into a career.1998 Super El ñino – Image: NOAA/NESDIS – click to enlarge Now it seems that mother nature has simply ignored his concerns and does what she does best – adapt and fill the void, and saved the reefs on her own. This must be...

The exploration vessel Nautilus, with a team of experts of the University of Haifa’s Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences, headed by Prof. Zvi Ben Avraham, discovered for the first time an area of reefs with deep-sea corals in the Mediterranean, offshore of Israel. This area apparently stretches over a few kilometers, 700 meters under the surface and some 30-40 km off the coast of Tel Aviv. According to the researchers, this southeastern region of the Mediterranean has only sparse sea life and therefore the discovery is in fact parallel to discovering an oasis in the middle of an...

Climate change drove coral reefs to a total ecosystem collapse lasting thousands of years, according to a paper published this week in Science. The paper shows how natural climatic shifts stopped reef growth in the eastern Pacific for 2,500 years. The reef shutdown, which began 4,000 years ago, corresponds to a period of dramatic swings in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). "As humans continue to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the climate is once again on the threshold of a new regime, with dire consequences for reef ecosystems unless we get control of climate change," said coauthor Richard Aronson,...

Guest post by David ArchibaldWillis Eschenbach’s post on lab work on coral response to elevated carbon dioxide levels, and The Reef Abides, leads to a large scale, natural experiment in Papua New Guinea. There are several places at the eastern end of that country where carbon dioxide is continuously bubbling up through healthy looking coral reef, with fish swimming around and all that that implies.Coral Reef at Dobu Island with carbon dioxide bubbling through it (photo: Bob Halstead)What that implies is that ocean acidification is no threat at all. If the most delicate, fragile, iconic ecosystem of them all can...

Climatologists find familiar fluctuations in Pacific's past - test. “During past ice ages the tropical Pacific Ocean behaved rather as it does today in an El Niño event, bringing downpours to some places and drought to others.” Thus began a 2002 article Nature magazine (12 Jul 2002) For example, it could explain the low atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, during the last ice age. It is not clear whether this was a cause or a consequence of the difference in global climate, but such decreases would have lowered global temperatures still further,...

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam is poised to implement a new regulation without legislative approval to join 10 other states in a climate change agreement based on restricting carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.But lawmakers, policy analysts, and tea party activists in Virginia who oppose what they consider costly regulations of industry are raising questions about the economic and scientific arguments underpinning the proposed rule.They say the Virginia General Assembly should have a straight up-or-down vote on Northam’s plan, in part to ensure that any revenue the governor raises from “carbon trading” is collected and dispersed in a manner consistent...

For a potential prize of $1 million, the government space agency is inviting the public to submit ideas about how to turn carbon dioxide, which is plentiful on the red planet, into glucose, which is more useful for human consumption. The goal is to allow astronauts to visit Mars with fewer materials and ultimately “to enable humans to live and thrive on the planet.” ... NASA has also asked for help controlling a humanoid robot in a simulated mission to Mars and with building “sustainable housing for deep space.” NASA isn’t the only organization trying to get people on Mars....

Take a wild guess what country is reducing its greenhouse gas emissions the most? Canada? Britain? France? India? Germany? Japan? No, no, no, no, no and no. The answer to that question is the U.S. of A. Wow! How can that be? This must be a misprint. Fake news. America never ratified the Kyoto Treaty some two decades ago. We never enacted a carbon tax. We don't have a cap-and-trade carbon emission program. That environmental villain Donald Trump pulled America out of the Paris climate accord that was signed by almost the entire rest of the civilized world. Yet the...

Here's what you need to know: * The PM has abandoned the emissions reduction target section of his National Energy Guarantee * Cabinet ministers have openly admitted this morning they were facing an outbreak of disunity within the party over energy * It's been suggested the Coalition's Longman by-election loss sparked a push for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to challenge Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's leadership * The PM says Mr Dutton has given him "his absolute support" and Cabinet ministers maintain Mr Turnbull has the confidence of the party