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Donald Trump once dismissed it as a “hoax” created by the Chinese to destroy American jobs, but on a freezing Thursday night in the eastern US the president found himself pining for some of that “good old global warming”.
On holiday in Florida on Thursday, Trump wondered if global warming might not be such a problem after all.
Related: Trump drops climate change from US national security strategy
1) There is a difference between #weather and #climate. 2) Short-term #cold snaps will continue to occur in a warming climate.3) 2017 will likely be a top three warmest year on record for the globe. (Graphic: Univ. of Maine - Climate Change Institute) https://t.co/kzuugeXi80 pic.twitter.com/gueOsp4yvu
Continue reading...Suganshi Ropia says a piece she read after the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement helped her realise we shouldn’t wait to make our voices heard
Suganshi Ropia, 21, is a law student from Pune, India
I try to keep in touch with news related to climate change, and am particularly interested in environmental law. My compulsion to do something positive about climate change was one of the reasons I decided to study law. When I read the opinion piece Civil disobedience is the only way left to fight climate change, by Kara Moses, in spring 2016, it crystallised my feelings about the responsibility we have as a community of humans to do more.
Continue reading...This year is set to be the third warmest on record in the US, as scientists say the fingerprints of climate change can be seen in numerous extreme weather events
Scientists say 2017 is set to be the third warmest year on record in the US as they look back on a year littered with stark signals of climate change.
The year-to-date average temperature across the contiguous US has been 2.6F above the 20th-century average, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), placing it only behind 2012 and 2016 in terms of record warmth.
Related: The year is 2037. This is what happens when the hurricane hits Miami
Is there a link between the storm and climate change?
The US is moving backwards as far as rational climate policy goes
Related: 'Soul-crushing' video of starving polar bear exposes climate crisis, experts say
Continue reading...The new president immediately made his mark on environmental policy, pulling out of the Paris climate accord and targeting America’s protected public lands
It was a tempestuous year – politically and literally.
Related: Al Gore: 'I tried my best' but Trump can't be educated on climate change
Continue reading...We have to develop digital forecasts of species’ responses to climate change, design robust strategies to protect as many as possible, and help nature to adapt
Each day increasingly dangerous hurricanes, wildfires, and floods betray the influence of climate change. We are appalled at the accruing losses of life and property. The arguments to address climate change at the recent UN climate conference in Bonn focused most often on these more concrete risks. However, the worst effects of climate change will come not from severe weather but from the irreversible loss of species and ecosystems.
Moulded over millions of years by natural selection, the diversity of species on Earth does more than just inspire awe. They are technical marvels and solutions to problems we do not yet know exist.
Related: Red list: thousands of species at risk of extinction due to human activity
Rising heat is pushing pikas to the top of the mountain, where they have nowhere else to go. They can’t climb sky
Related: ‘Devastated’: scientists too late to captive breed mammal lost to climate change
Related: Tim Flach's endangered species – in pictures
Continue reading...Replacing concrete pavements with wetlands, green rooftops and rain gardens means stormwater is absorbed back into the land, making water work for the city instead of against it
A small part of Shanghai is turning greener, street by street.
In the Lingang district, pavements are lined with trees, gardens and public squares full of plant beds. Between cranes and construction sites, plans display new buildings enveloped in the green and blue of parks, streams, and water features.
Continue reading...Australia is the land of droughts and floods, but they are becoming more frequent and forceful. The window of opportunity to act on climate change is closing
The fingerprints of climate change can be traced across 2017, with extreme weather events witnessed around the world; from supercharged storms, hurricanes, floods and heatwaves through to bushfires. 2017 has seen it all.
As the year draws to a close, it remains on track to become the third hottest year on record and the hottest in a non-El Niño year. Despite the United States and Europe continuing their decade-long decline in greenhouse gas pollution, Australia has been missing in action. Australia’s pollution has been rising year on year since March 2015. This pollution is contributing to driving worsening extreme weather here and around the world.
Related: More than 200 killed in Philippines mudslides and floods as storm hits
Related: Australia's record-breaking winter beats average highs by 2C, Climate Council says
Continue reading...Conservationists are battling to save the 700-mile Mesoamerican Barrier Reef in the Caribbean suffering the effects of mass tourism and global warming
‘I have a lot of enemies’: the Honduran marine park rangers facing death threatsThe Mesoamerican Barrier Reef is the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere – an underwater wilderness stretching over 700 miles along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras.
One of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the Americas, the reef is home to a dazzling variety of coral and more than 500 species of fish, and provides a livelihood for more than a million people. But now, a combination of mass tourism and poor waste management has left the reef increasingly vulnerable to climate change, placing this natural wonder in serious trouble.
Related: Spectacular rebirth of Belize's coral reefs threatened by tourism and development
The increase in waste acts as a fertiliser to macroalgae, a fleshy algae that competes with and kills the corals
Related: Oceans under greatest threat in history, warns Sir David Attenborough
Continue reading...Overfishing, development and pollution have all contributed to the reef’s decline, but climate change is its biggest threat. UN targets must be met to stop ocean acidification
The great Florida coral reef system stretches hundreds of miles down the eastern seaboard of the US. It is the world’s third largest, and nearly 1,400 species of plants and animals and 500 species of fish have been recorded there.
But last year marine scientists found nearly half the reef was missing. They took the latest satellite images, compared them with precisely drawn 250-year-old British admiralty charts and found them nearly identical.
Related: More coral bleaching feared for Great Barrier Reef in coming months
Fishing gear dragged along the ocean floor has crushed corals, dynamite has shattered colonies and cyanide has killed hosts of living creatures
Related: Scientists warn US coral reefs are on course to disappear within decades
Continue reading...“Technocognition” proposes that we use technology and psychology to break through the mental barriers that make people deny threats like climate change
People are very good at finding ways to believe what we want to believe. Climate change is the perfect example – acceptance of climate science among Americans is strongly related to political ideology. This has exposed humanity’s potentially fatal flaw. Denying an existential threat threatens our existence.
But that’s exactly what many ideological conservatives do. Partisan polarization over climate change has steadily grown over the past two decades. This change can largely be traced to the increasingly fractured and partisan media environment that has created an echo chamber in which people can wrap themselves in the comfort of “alternative facts” (a.k.a spin and lies) that affirm their worldviews. We’ve become too good at fooling ourselves into believing falsehoods, which has ushered in a dangerous “post-truth” era, with no better example than the subject of climate change.
“Fake news” has never really meant “This is a lie.” It’s tribal signaling. It means, “I give you permission to ignore this fact that’s not good for our team.” https://t.co/VHLnED159s
the idea that we should use what we know about psychology to design technology in a way that minimizes the impact of misinformation. By improving how people communicate, they hope, we can improve the quality of the information shared.
This obstacle is the gorilla in the room: Policy making in the United States is largely independent of the public’s wishes but serves the interests of economic elites.
When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the U.S. political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favor policy change, they generally do not get it…we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.
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