Bay Area Ecosystems Climate Change Consortium (BAECCC)

Climate Ark Climate Change & Global Warming RSS News Feed

06/19/2013 02:03 AM
Climate change threatens trouble in the near future, World Bank says
Washington Post: The World Bank is beginning to commit billions of dollars to flood prevention, water management and other projects to help major Asian cities avoid the expected impact of climate change, a dramatic example of how short the horizon has become to alleviate the effects of global warming. Places such as Bangkok, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City are now considered "hot spots' that will bear the brunt of the impact as sea levels rise, tropical storms become more violent, and rainfall becomes both more sporadic...

06/19/2013 01:55 AM
Greenland's Great Melt Is Pinned On Climate Change
Climate News Network: First: the story so far. For a few days in July 2012, almost 97% of the surface of Greenland began suddenly to thaw. This was a melt on an unprecedented scale. Greenland carries a burden of three million cubic kilometres of ice and even in the summer, most of it stays frozen, partly because of the island’s high latitude and partly because ice reflects sunlight, and tends normally to serve as its own insulator. The event was so unusual, and so unexpected, and on such a scale that nobody seriously...

06/19/2013 01:59 AM
G8 leaders commit to 2015 climate change treaty
RTCC: G8 leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to cutting levels of greenhouse gases and agreeing a climate change deal in 2015. Syria and the parlous state of the world economy ensured climate issues were relegated to a G8 foreign Ministers meeting in the Autumn. But a statement released moments after talks closed, the leaders of the world’s most developed countries said they would continue to work with parties at the United Nations to ensure global warming does not exceed dangerous levels. ...

06/19/2013 02:00 AM
Climate change a factor in UK’s unusual weather – Met Office
RTCC: Climate change is just one of the factors behind recent unusual weather patterns in the UK. That was the conclusion from a Met Office summit of climate scientists convened on Tuesday to investigate the underlying causes of a series of washout summers and colder than average winters. Weather patterns in northern Europe, the UK and the North East of the US are affected by the position of the jet stream. When the jet stream moves further south, it draws more rainfall in and around the UK making...

06/19/2013 01:58 AM
Singapore pollution soars as haze from Indonesia hits air quality
Associated Press: Singaporeans reduced military training exercises, kept cough-stricken children indoors and wore protective masks to work after a smoky haze triggered by forest fires in neighbouring Indonesia caused air pollution to hit its worst level in nearly 16 years. Singapore's main measurement of air quality has hovered at the unhealthy classification as smoke from blazes on Sumatra island drifted across the sea and cast a grey pall over the city-state's skyscrapers. The readings on the pollutant standards...

06/19/2013 01:04 AM
World's poorest will feel brunt of climate change, warns World Bank
Guardian: Millions of people around the world are likely to be pushed back into poverty because climate change is undermining economic development in poor countries, the World Bank has warned. Droughts, floods, heatwaves, sea-level rises and fiercer storms are likely to accompany increasing global warming and will cause severe hardship in areas that are already poor or were emerging from poverty, the bank said in a report. Food shortages will be among the first consequences within just two decades, along...

06/19/2013 02:00 AM
China takes cautious step toward carbon emissions trading
Reuters: China launched its first pilot carbon emissions exchange on Tuesday, though plans for a nationwide rollout and efforts to apply the scheme to some polluting heavy industries could be undermined by a slowdown in the world's No.2 economy. High-emission industries such as aluminum and steel are likely to resist higher costs as they are already battling weak prices due to tepid demand and a persistent supply gut. "It is a very big concern for Beijing and for local governments - how to strike a...

06/18/2013 10:20 AM
Cut Soot Emissions to Cool the Planet Kevin Bullis
MIT Technology News: Cutting our overall use of fossil fuels has proved a daunting challenge, but it might be possible to get some relief from the effects of climate change by selectively reducing the particulate pollution we produce. Recent research suggests that if we can clean up diesel engines and primitive cookstoves in India and China, for example, that could delay the effects of greenhouse-gas buildup even if pollution from coal-fired power plants persists. A study released last week concludes that if every country...

06/18/2013 11:32 AM
Colorado Wildfire Expected to be Contained by Thursday, $5.5 million Spent Battling Blaze
Nature World News: The most destructive fire in Colorado state history is being reined in and some evacuation orders are being rescinded, with officials reporting the Black Forest fire 75 percent contained after one week of burning in and around the city of Colorado Springs. Hundreds of evacuees were able to return home Tuesday morning, local ABC station 7 News reported. But hundreds more were not so fortunate. According to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, 502 homes were declared a total loss and an additional...

06/18/2013 08:14 AM
Temperature to rise by 5.3C by end of century
Western Morning News: The world is on track to see temperature rises of up to 5.3C by the end of the century, the International Energy Agency has warned as it set out swift action governments must take to curb climate change. A global average temperature rise of 2C from pre-industrial levels is being targeted by the United Nations in what scientists believe would be manageable climate change, avoiding worst-case-scenario increases in droughts, storms, floods and sea levels. But in a recent report, which outlined a series...

06/18/2013 08:00 AM
Biodiversity report fails climate change test
WAtoday: The final report of a cross-party inquiry into Australia's biodiversity and climate change produced only "weak and ineffective" recommendations and was a missed opportunity to act, the Australian Conservation Foundation said. The House of Representatives Standing Committee inquiry report, tabled on Monday, called for extending grants periods to as long as a decade to ensure continuity in research, and proposed the Council of Australian Governments consider national accounting of biodiversity, among...

06/18/2013 08:00 AM
Enbridge proposes spill fund to ease pipeline fears
The Globe and Mail: Enbridge Inc. has rejected the national energy regulator’s demand to have almost $1-billion in liability coverage set aside for the Northern Gateway project, and is calling for the creation of an industry-bankrolled fund that would help pay for cleanup in the case of “a catastrophic oil release” from a Canadian pipeline. As the final arguments for and against the controversial pipeline project are heard in Terrace, B.C., this week and next, Enbridge executive John Carruthers said an industry fund...

06/18/2013 06:49 AM
Germany leans on EU states to weaken car emissions law
Reuters: Senior members of the German government have warned EU member states that German automakers could scale back or scrap production plans in their countries unless they support weakened carbon emissions rules, according to diplomatic sources. With EU governments and lawmakers aiming to finalize the rules next week, which most of the 27 member states back, Germany has stepped up the pressure on them to water down limits on vehicle emissions to protect the country's mighty car industry, particularly...

06/17/2013 07:48 PM
Planes, trains, or automobiles: Travel choices for a smaller carbon footprint
ScienceDaily: Planes, trains, or automobiles: what's the most climate-friendly way to travel? A new study by researchers from IIASA and CICERO brings better estimates of how much personal travel impacts the climate. The study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology by researchers at IIASA and Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) calculates the climate impact for passenger trips of 500-1000 km -- typical distances for business or holiday trips. It shows that...

06/18/2013 02:59 AM
China to launch carbon market trading scheme
CCTV: China is set to launch its first carbon trading scheme Tuesday in the southern city of Shenzhen. It’s one of seven pilot cities for emissions trading before a national rollout. In the spot light, but compared with Shenzhen government officials, the city’s ambitious carbon city blueprint is attracting more attention. The plans were unveiled at a forum in Longgang, 50 kilometers away from downtown Shenzhen. This is what the city envisions for the future. It’s the miniature, and could be the start...

06/17/2013 04:00 PM
Mayors aim for resilience to weather, energy challenges
Reuters: U.S. mayors pledged Monday to make their communities more resilient to increasingly severe floods, droughts, extreme storms and wildfires, which they said was more efficient and cost-effective than disaster clean-up afterwards. Four dozen elected officials, from localities as diverse as Washington D.C., Des Moines, Iowa and Santa Barbara County, California, released a one-page plan which laid out actions such as using more renewable energy and making buildings and infrastructure more energy-efficient....

06/17/2013 01:32 PM
Controversial Agrichemical Company Monsanto Holds Bee Health Conference
Nature World News: Controversial agrichemical company Monsanto announced recently the close of the first-ever "Honey Bee Health Summit" held in an effort, according to the company, to bring together and learn from bee experts from both public and private sectors. The three-day event included nearly 100 members of the "bee community," including academics and beekeepers as well as those representing government industry sectors. Held in response to the continuing decline of the insect, Project Apis m (PAm) hosted the...

06/17/2013 03:02 PM
Climate Change Impact of Individual Transportation Choices Reported in New Study
Nature World News: A new study of the individual carbon footprint from leisure or business travel reveals that while air travel continues to have the largest environmental impact, people's terrestrial transportation preference can still make a big difference in how much individual actions contribute to climate change. Researchers at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research (CICERO) studied the impact of passenger trips of 500-1,000...

06/17/2013 10:19 AM
Pesticide maker discredited critics to protect controversial herbicide, court papers show
Environmental Health News: To protect profits threatened by a lawsuit over its controversial herbicide atrazine, Syngenta Crop Protection launched an aggressive multi-million dollar campaign that included hiring a detective agency to investigate scientists on a federal advisory panel, looking into the personal life of a judge and commissioning a psychological profile of a leading scientist critical of atrazine. The Switzerland-based pesticide manufacturer also routinely paid “third-party allies” to appear to be independent...

06/16/2013 11:52 PM
Australia: Gov't Report Says 80% of Fossil Fuel Reserves Must Stay in the Ground
ABC: The latest Climate Commission report has warned that 80 per cent of global fossil fuel reserves will have to stay in the ground if the planet is to avoid dangerous climate change. The paper says global emissions need to trend downward by the end of the decade to keep temperatures at a "manageable" level. Professor Will Steffen, a climate commissioner who co-authored the report, says reaching the goal will be a challenge, given greenhouse gas concentrations are now at the highest level on record....