Posts tagged with ‘Climate Change’
If we’re focusing attention on storms in 2008, then let’s also pay serious attention to oft-neglected matters of hurricane preparedness policy.
Climate change is driving average temperatures upward, and the unmistakable long-term trend is toward a warmer, drier West. Firefighting alone can’t contend with growing fire danger; investment in strategic fuel reduction is the key.
Corporations typically underestimate their carbon footprints by an average of 75 percent, according to a new study from Carnegie Mellon researchers. One of the major blind spots is in calculating the total greenhouse gas emissions from myriad supply chain inputs, as opposed to the direct emissions involved in primary operations.
This week on the EPA’s Greenversations blog: “Why do you use a gasoline, electric, battery-operated, or push lawn mower?” It’s an apt question, as personal decisions about lawn grooming implements are connected to matters of climate and energy.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research has shut down a program that helps developing nations predict and prepare for natural disasters such as droughts, floods, and cyclones, Andrew Revkin reports in
The New York Times. The program, called the Center for Capacity Building, was created in 2004.
Like an unstable canoe that tips without warning, sudden climate changes can bring dramatic and unpredictable ecosystem transformations. If an abrupt change hit, would it doom our best efforts to save the planet?
How many more sordid tales concerning the Environmental Protection Agency can actually come out before November?
Former Time magazine-reporter-turned-environmental-policy-analyst Eric Roston will make his Colbert Report debut tonight talking about his new book, The Carbon Age.
Science Progress featured an interview with Roston earlier this month that ranged across the various scientific fields connected by the carbon atom.
Randy Olson’s new global warming mockumentary,
Sizzle, burns into your mind a lesson about how to reach broader audiences with science.
Could a mad scientist-like approach to reversing climate change provide our only remaining hope? A close look at geoengineering schemes.
Suing companies that pump greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere for damage to cities and states proved difficult a few years ago. But the latest court rulings could set the stage for a climactic battle over who pays for overheating the planet.
Carbon fuels evolutionary systems and climate change—and the story of this element cuts across a wide swath of scientific fields, underscoring much of the research that’s changing the way we think about everyday life.
The Pentagon’s dismissal of the EPA’s demand that it clean up Fort Meade and two Air Force bases is just the latest chapter in the saga of the administration’s denial and inaction on environmental and climate protection.
According to Lord Nicholas Stern, the cost of ignoring climate change is higher than the cost of acting to mitigate it. He also says he underestimated the danger of inaction in his previous report.
Human activity, from farming to energy generation, is upsetting ocean ecosystems and creating massive “dead zones” off our coasts. Unchecked, the number of such zones around the world will continue to grow.
Fast-growing western states are making the link between land use and water management by taking a hard look at the reliability of water sources for new development.
A growing body of research demonstrates that global waters are absorbing massive amounts of carbon dioxide, threatening species at the bottom of the food chain. So why are we still paying so little attention to climate change’s elephant in the room?
Now even the Bush administration basically admits that it misused and suppressed global warming information and the scientists who purvey it. Is the battle finally over?
Though well understood, the challenges presented by the changing nitrogen cycle remain under-appreciated. A global integrated approach will be needed to mitigate its future impacts on the climate, ecosystem biodiversity, and human health.
Metropolitan areas are more energy-efficient than areas of less-dense development, according to a new analysis from the Brookings Institution; they also have smaller per-capita carbon emissions. Here’s a new mashup comparing the per-capita transportation emissions across the 100 metro areas in the study.
Why the economic side of the global warming debate needs a more balanced ledger.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration released new numbers this week on U.S. carbon dioxide emissions from energy sources, and it turns out that our surprising 1.3 percent emissions decrease in 2006 was, indeed, a fluke caused by a milder winter and summer.
The Environmental Protection Agency identifies key steps to cope with the shrinking Rocky Mountain snow mass and subsequently depleted sources of water in the West.
Ramping up computing power for climate modeling can help researchers better understand and predict meteorological phenomena around the world, answer policy questions about the impact of climate change, and save lives from natural catastrophes.
Two writers claim there is no assault on the scientific information that informs public policy and don’t even bother engaging the facts of the case.
Death tolls continue to rise, a product of poverty, poor infrastructure, and a negligent government. Better forecasting for the North Indian region would be a start for protecting citizens from future cyclones. Democracy in Burma probably wouldn’t hurt, either.
There has been a near-complete breakdown at our central environmental regulatory agency under the Bush administration.
David Goldston wants to ask the big questions about federal science policy. Can the research establishment become unsustainably large? Are scientists always an asset to Congress? And what are the problems with current methods of creating science policy?
We desperately need to adapt our coastal infrastructure to climate change.
Progressive thinking takes a new turn in western water management, as states across the region, in cooperation with federal agencies, act to fix damaged rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
After last week’s industry-led field hearing in North Dakota on carbon capture and sequestration, a Monday briefing on CCS hosted by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was a breath of fresh air, with representatives from the scientific community and the UK.
When are Americans finally going to get accurate, timely information–not to mention action–from their government about global warming risks to the Gulf Coast and elsewhere? Part I of a two-part column series.
The Bush administration appeals court ruling on mercury pollution; the EPA faces congressional subpoena in wrangle over emissions regulations; Greenwire profiles CDC whistleblower; Tech companies call for increased H-1B visa cap; Al Gore launches new climate awareness campaign.
Two new studies on the potential economic effects of the Lieberman Warner bill appeared late last week. Both are only based on the potential of current technologies, and both of them will prove to be totally wrong.
The Heartland Institute gathered a group of skeptics of global warming in New York City during Mar. 2 through Mar. 4. The conference speakers criticized the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore, the two winners of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
Provisions in the Lieberman-Warner bill would allow companies to meet some of their emissions targets by purchasing “offset” credits from reductions in emissions not covered under cap-and-trade. But current offsets markets are unregulated and unreliable. Hayes explains how to regulate offsets that will enable verifiable emissions cuts.
Two new studies highlight the need for tight environmental standards for biofuels to help us solve global warming.
Experts testify that auction would foster green job growth, offset higher energy prices for low-income consumers, and fund R&D in alternative energy sources and technology.
Europe revises biofuels standards, NSF Science and Engineering Indicators in global context, and sub-national regions lead the world in climate policy.
Three stories focusing on innovation and on the impact of climate change demonstrate the difficulty of fairly distributing the costs, risks, and benefits of technologies.
Is the NIH monitoring conflicts of interest?; EPA won’t explain itself on nixing state emissions caps; controversial framing of new MRSA study; new paths to energy-efficient electronics.
The National Research Council of the National Academies convened a symposium Wednesday to explore approaches among “Future Directions in Research at the Intersection of the Physical and Life Sciences.” The intersections up for discussion ranged across the research spectrum: from synthetic biology to geoengineering to bioterrorism.
Senator John Kerry compares the decision to address carbon emissions with economic and policy reforms to Pascal’s Wager. “If we’re wrong,” he explained this morning at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, “we still have global development, clean air, a stronger economy here at home, healthier citizens, and no more addiction to the foreign oil that funds despots and terrorists.”
A profile of Shinya Yamanaka; developing a malaria vaccine; providing an overdose antidote to heroin addicts; the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speeches.
The House Oversight Committee on Bush Administration interference with climate science; Atlantis grounded; framing nanotech; sex difference in math and science; Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies; VCs doubtful on carbon regulation from the government.
Transparency for global health data; the legal status of embryos; the Bali Climate Declaration by Scientists; genome research open access; U.S. science education.
Atlantis launch moved; Facebook address online privacy concerns; energy and climate legislation makes headway in Congress; regulating airline emissions; commercial ventures to the moon.
The future of the Hubble Space Telescope, a new map of Antarctica, post-Katrina mental health, and metaphors for the climate crisis: in this week’s Science Times section of
The New York Times, several stories covering science, health, and technology policy.
The Bush administration wants to push clean-technology exports without taking meaningful measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at home. That’s the wrong message to send on the eve of a major global summit on climate change next week in Indonesia.
Humans should be extremely cautious about meddling any further with the Earth’s atmosphere. But we should study the possibility nevertheless, in case someone else tries it—or in case we don’t have a choice.
The Center for American Progress today releases the first pieces of
Progressive Growth, its Economic Plan for the Next Administration, which includes a chapter on new energy solutions.
How U.S. media coverage of global warming finally moved past “he said, she said, we’re clueless.”
Among the finalists for the Best Science Blog category in 2007 Weblog Awards is ClimateAudit.org, a site devoted to denying and downplaying the scientific data on global climate change.
Talking about about climate change solely in terms of impending catastrophe may still be reasonable from a factual standpoint, but it may not be the most effective frame for debates on climate and energy policy. Here are four other frames in current discussions.
Why are we really upset by the editing of Center for Disease Control Director Gerberding’s written testimony to Congress on the health effects of climate change?
The University of Michigan is hosting a conference on developing technology corridors this week as the Senate considers two major appropriations bills that fund science agencies.
Joseph Romm, climate advocate, on security through environmental peace, climate as a moral issue, and the bravery of scientists.
The shock of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik launch 50 years ago today reminds us at
Science Progress that the United States can deploy its scientific prowess swiftly to meet sudden challenges. A new resolve is needed again today, this time from the entire global community, not just the United States, to meet very different but equally dire threats to humanity.
