http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/science/climate-chaos-across-the-map.html Source:   By Justin Gillis, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: What is going on with the weather? With tornado outbreaks in the South, Christmas temperatures that sent trees into bloom in Central Park, drought in parts of Africa and historic floods drowning the old industrial cities of England, 2015 is closing with a string of weather anomalies all over the world. The year, expected to be the hottest on record, may be over at midnight Thursday, but the trouble will not be. Rain in the central United States has been so heavy that major floods are beginning along the Mississippi River and are likely to intensify in coming weeks. California may lurch from drought to flood by late winter. Most serious, millions of people could be threatened by a developing food shortage in southern Africa.  ...Scientists say the most obvious suspect in the turmoil is the climate pattern called El Niño, in wh

https://eos.org/articles/worlds-smallest-glaciers-risk-vanishing-in-warm-climate Source:   By JoAnna Wendel, EoS Earth & Space News (AGU) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The next few decades do not bode well for the world’s smallest glaciers. These tiny glaciers, less than half a square kilometer, dot mountains all over the world and account for 80%–90% of the globe’s mountain glacier population. But as temperatures rise, scientists worry that these glaciers will all but disappear. Even if they seem insignificant because of their size, these glaciers “respond very quickly and therefore they can contribute significantly, even on the global level, in terms of sea level rise for the next decade,” said Matthias Huss, senior lecturer at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and lead scientist in the research....

https://eos.org/features/how-biofuels-can-cool-our-climate-and-strengthen-our-ecosystems Source:   By Evan H. DeLucia and Carl R. Woes, Earth & Space News (AGU) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: As the world seeks strategies to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) into the atmosphere, bioenergy is one promising substitute for fossil fuels [Somerville et al., 2010]. Currently, the United States uses the starch component from roughly 40% of its corn harvest to produce ethanol for the transportation sector (see the National Agricultural Statistics Service website). ...Replacing annual crops with perennial grasses such as miscanthus and switchgrass would pull carbon out of the atmosphere and return it to the ground (Figure 2). These crops allocate a large fraction of their biomass below ground in their root systems, and they can rapidly build up carbon stores in soil, reversing losses associated with frequent tillage, particularly on degraded or heavily tilled soils....

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/study-shows-climate-change-rapidly-warming-world-s-lakes Source:   NASA Release 15-239 For Investigation:   Excerpt: Climate change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, threatening freshwater supplies and ecosystems, according to a new NASA and National Science Foundation-funded study of more than half of the world’s freshwater supply. ...Using more than 25 years of satellite temperature data and ground measurements of 235 lakes on six continents, this study -- the largest of its kind -- found lakes are warming an average of 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit (0.34 degrees Celsius) each decade. The scientists say this is greater than the warming rate of either the ocean or the atmosphere, and it can have profound effects. ...As warming rates increase over the next century, algal blooms, which can rob water of oxygen, are projected to increase 20 percent in lakes. Algal blooms that are toxic to fish and animals are expected to increase by 5 percent. Em

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/12/16/greenland-has-lost-a-staggering-amount-of-ice-and-its-only-getting-worse/ Source:   By Chris Mooney, Washington Post. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: A massive new study by 16 authors has calculated just how much ice the Greenland ice sheet has lost since the year 1900. And the number, says the paper just out in the journal Nature, is astounding: 9,103 gigatons (a gigaton is a billion metric tons). ...the rate of loss has been increasing, the research finds, with a doubling of annual loss in the period 2003 to 2010 compared with what it was throughout the 20th century. The study was led by Kristian K. Kjeldsen of the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University of Copenhagen.  ... “It’s the first observational based study that shows where Greenland has lost its mass over the last 110 years,” said Kurt H. Kjær, the paper’s senior author and also of the Natural History Museum of Denmark at the University

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/paris-climate-talks-agreement Source:   By Brian Palmer. By Brian Palmer, onEarth, NRDC For Investigation:  10.3 Excerpt: Negotiators in Paris [COP21] have signed on to an historic and comprehensive deal to address climate change. ...Reassessment: The Paris agreement requires each country to revisit its carbon reduction commitment every five years, beginning in 2020. ...Money: ...Rather than setting a specific finance goal, the developed countries agreed to “set a new collective quantified goal from a floor of USD 100 billion per year” before the 2025 climate change conference. ...Transparency: The document signed today mandates that all countries—regardless of income level—provide all the information necessary for external experts to track their carbon-cutting progress, making it possible for the international community to fully analyze the success of each participant.... See also New York Times articles: An Illustrated Guide to COP21   and http:/

https://eos.org/articles/ted-cruz-chairs-heated-senate-hearing-on-climate-change Source:   By Randy Showstack, EoS Earth & Space News. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Republican-invited witnesses reject consensus view of climate change, charge bias in federal funding. Democratic senators decry attempt to stir controversy about well-established climate findings. ...Witnesses Debate the Science. The hearing featured a panel of five witnesses, four of whom were invited by the Republican majority. ...John Christy, professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, ...Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, questioned findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ...William Happer, a physics professor at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Mark Steyn, a journalist and author of books on climate, threats to Wester

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/model-of-solar-cycles-impact-on-climate-gets-upgrade Source:   By Mark Zastrow,  EoS Earth & Space Science News For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...Over the course of the 11-year cycle, the rotation of the Sun slowly twists its magnetic field into knots, creating dark sunspots. Although the overall brightness of the Sun varies by only 0.1%, the twisted bundles of magnetic energy can boost its ultraviolet (UV) radiation by 4%–8% at the solar cycle’s peak. These powerful UV rays trigger chemical reactions in the stratosphere that bind oxygen atoms and molecules to form ozone. Since ozone itself is a good absorber of UV radiation, it can heat the stratosphere near the equator, which affects the winds that circle the globe. Increased solar activity also excites Earth’s magnetic field, sending high-energy particles hurtling into the upper atmosphere. During the long polar night, this can generate large amounts of the nitrogen compounds nitric o

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/projects/cp/climate/2015-paris-climate-talks Source:   New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Series of articles: A Path for Climate Change, Beyond Paris; A Formula for Deciding When to Extract Fossil Fuels; Highlights From Paris Climate Talks: Day 1; A Growing Push to Price Carbon....

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/11/28/science/what-is-climate-change.html Source:   By Justin Gillis, The New York Times. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: And so, as the Paris climate talks get underway, we’ve provided quick answers to often-asked questions about climate change....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/23/us-usa-climatechange-agencies-idUSKBN0TC2BH20151123#Raxsu7kPQibJX8jQ.97 Source:   By Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Alan Crosby, Reuters For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: U.S. federal agencies will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations to 41.8 percent below 2008 levels by 2025, the White House announced on Monday. The announcement comes one week before nearly 200 countries meet in Paris to negotiate a United Nations climate change pact and eight months after President Barack Obama ordered agencies to cut its emissions by at least 40 percent by 2025. The cuts will come from across the government's 360,000 buildings, 650,000 vehicles and from its extensive supply chain. "Federal agencies have developed targeted strategies to cut their GHG emissions by reducing energy use in their buildings, making their vehicles more efficient, using clean energy sources like wind and solar, and employing energy savings performance c

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/science/billions-of-people-depend-on-water-from-shrinking-snowpacks.html Source:   By SINDYA N. BHANOO, the New York Times. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Snowpacks are a vital source of water for humans, but they may shrink in some regions as the climate warms. A new study estimates how changes in s[n]owfall will affect water supplies. Justin S. Mankin, an earth scientist at Columbia University, and his colleagues analyzed 421 drainage basins in the Northern Hemisphere that depend on rainfall and snowmelt, and then combined the data with several different climate models. They found that 97 basins, currently serving two billion people, depend heavily on snowmelt. The scientists calculated that the likelihood the basins would receive less snow in the coming century was 67 percent. ...“Water managers need to prepare themselves for the worst outcome,” Dr. Mankin said. The public can help mitigate threats to snowpacks by limiting contributions of

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-earth-warms-nasa-targets-other-half-of-carbon-climate-equation Source:   nasa.gov Release 15-219 For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...ongoing analysis of the first year-plus of satellite data from NASA’s recently launched Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 -- the agency’s first satellite designed to measure carbon dioxide from the top of Earth’s atmosphere to its surface....  http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/as-earth-warms-nasa-targets-other-half-of-carbon-climate-equation   See also Briefing recording/visuals: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/77531778 Downloadable graphics: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=12044 B-roll video: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/Gallery/CarbonGallery.html  and http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=12047&button=recent NASA.gov Feature: http://www.nasa.gov/carbonclimate Seven case studies: http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/seven-case-studies-in-carbon-and-climate JPL Education resourc

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/magazine/the-secrets-in-greenlands-ice-sheets.html Source:   By Jon Gertner, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...If the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica were to collapse and melt entirely, the result would be a sea-­level rise of 200 feet or so. This number, though fearsome, is not especially helpful to anyone but Hollywood screenwriters: No scientist believes that all that ice will slide into the oceans soon. During the last year, however, a small contingent of researchers has begun to consider whether sea-­level-­rise projections, increased by the recent activity of collapsing glaciers on the periphery of the ice sheets, point toward a potential catastrophe. It would not take 200 feet to drown New Orleans. Or New York. A mere five or 10 feet worth of sea-­level rise due to icebergs, and a few powerful storm surges, would probably suffice. ...When it comes to understanding the implications of ice-­sheet collapse, the sp

URL & Source:   See below For Investigation:   10.3 2015-11-02. A Rooftop View of Insect Migration in a Warming Climate  by Sindya N. Bhanoo, New York Times. 2015-11-04.  Toxin Taints Crabs and Kills Sea Mammals, Scientists Warn .  By Jonah Bromwich,  New York Times. 2015-11-05.  Something's Hot in the State of Denmark   - An 18-year survey hints at how global warming may be changing the face of Danish bugs. By Alisa Opar, OnEarth, NRDC.

http://www.ucsusa.org/our-work/ucs-publications/EV-global-warming-emissions Source:  By Rachael Nealer, Union of Concerned Scientists For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), which run solely on electricity. My research shows that BEVs, which have the largest batteries, produce less than half the global warming emissions than comparable gasoline vehicles over their lifetime.  ...compared to an average 29-mile-per-gallon (mpg) car—similar to a Mazda 3 or a VW Golf—a 84-mile-range battery-electric car such as a Nissan Leaf would offset its additional manufacturing emissions within six months of average U.S. driving.  ...Today there are about 20 EV models on the U.S. market in various sizes, shapes and prices, and many of them would suit most routine transportation needs. Our 2013 survey with Consumer’s Union, for example, found 42 percent of U.S. households, given their driving habits, could use today’s EVs....   See also Cleaner Cars from C

http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2015/10/collapse-new-england-s-iconic-cod-tied-climate-change Source:   By Marianne Lavelle, Science. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The Atlantic cod, a fish that came to symbolize bounty to America’s colonial settlers, is on the brink of disappearing, despite years of fishing limits aimed at rebuilding stocks. A new study reveals why: Cod spawning and survival has been hampered by rapid, extraordinary ocean warming in the Gulf of Maine, where sea surface temperatures rose faster than anywhere else on the planet between 2003 and 2014. ...The scientists used satellite data to track the daily sea surface temperature trend in the Gulf of Maine. From 1982 until 2004, they found, temperatures rose by 0.03°C per year, or three times the global mean rate. That warming accelerated sevenfold beginning in 2004, peaking in 2012 with a large “ocean heat wave” that persisted for 18 months, according to the study. ...Using recent Gulf of Maine cod stock as

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/27/world/greenland-is-melting-away.html Source:   By Coral Davenport, Josh Haner, Larry Buchanan and Derek Watkins, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: On the Greenland Ice Sheet — The midnight sun still gleamed at 1 a.m. across the brilliant expanse of the Greenland ice sheet. Brandon Overstreet, a doctoral candidate in hydrology at the University of Wyoming, picked his way across the frozen landscape, clipped his climbing harness to an anchor in the ice and crept toward the edge of a river that rushed downstream toward an enormous sinkhole. If he fell in, “the death rate is 100 percent,” said Mr. Overstreet’s friend and fellow researcher, Lincoln Pitcher. But Mr. Overstreet’s task, to collect critical data from the river, is essential to understanding one of the most consequential impacts of global warming. The scientific data he and a team of six other researchers collect here could yield groundbreaking inf

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/26/extreme-heatwaves-could-push-gulf-climate-beyond-human-endurance-study-shows Source:   By Damian Carrington, The Guardian. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Oil heartlands of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha and Iran’s coast will experience higher temperatures and humidity than ever before on Earth if the world fails to cut carbon emissions. ...The Gulf in the Middle East, the heartland of the global oil industry, will suffer heatwaves beyond the limit of human survival if climate change is unchecked, according to a new scientific study [ http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nclimate2833 ]....    See also 2015-10-27. Report predicts temperatures too hot for humans in Persian Gulf. By Joby Warrick, Washington Post. "A scientific study released Monday warns that at least five of the region’s great metropolises could see summer days that surpass the ‘‘human habitability’’ limit by the end of the century. Heat and humidity would be so h

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/13/150-countries-pledge-to-curb-carbon-emissions Source:  By Arthur Nelson, The Guardian.  For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Some 150 countries representing around 90% of the world’s carbon emissions have now filed pledges to curb them, dramatically increasing the chances of a deal at the Paris climate summit in December....

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/350/6257/169.1.full Source:   Science ...a book review written by Amory B. Lovins about Philip Warburg's book "Harness the Sun -- America's Quest for a Solar-Powered Future For Investigation:   10.3 The review is inspiring and restorative of optimism that we can emerge from the dark age of fossil fuel energy systems. Excerpts: "...And while solar power added 32% of new U.S. generating capacity in 2014, in 2013 alone, China added more photovoltaic (PV) capacity than the United States has added since Bell Laboratories unveiled the first modern solar cell in 1954." "...The solar industry’s pace drives and is driven by steeply falling prices (low prices make us buy more PVs, so they get cheaper, so we buy more, and so on). Spurred by German success, which inspired massive Chinese production, solar modules went on a price path akin to sneakers, falling more than 100-fold since 1975 and by 80% just in the past 5 yea

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/09/17/new-statistical-studies-dismantle-the-notion-of-a-global-warming-pause/?postshare=231442584982024 Source:   By Chelsea Harvey, Washington Post For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The climate science sphere has been wrapped up in a major debate for the past several years: over the global warming “pause.” But now, a growing body of research has some scientists saying that the case may, in fact, be closed. They’re arguing that the pause never existed. The notion of a global warming pause, or “climate hiatus,” suggests that the rising of global surface temperatures has significantly slowed or even stopped during the past 15 years.  ...two new studies, released within days of each other, are adding to the evidence that the pause may not exist. ...a statistical analysis of global temperature data and concludes that “there have been 6 occasions since 1970 when a 15-year trend would have failed to reach significance.” The

http://newsroom.unfccc.int/unfccc-newsroom/tunisia-submits-its-climate-action-plan-ahead-of-2015-paris-agreement/ Source:   UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The Republic of Tunisia has submitted its new climate action plan to the UNFCCC. This Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) comes well in advance of a new universal climate change agreement which will be reached at the UN climate conference in Paris, in December this year. This INDC and all others submitted by countries are available on the UNFCCC website  http://www4.unfccc.int/submissions/indc/Submission%20Pages/submissions.aspx . Including the Republic of Tunisia, 62 parties to the UNFCCC have formally submitted their INDCs. ...The Paris agreement will come into effect in 2020, empowering all countries to act to prevent average global temperatures rising above 2 degrees Celsius and to reap the many opportunities that arise from a necessary global transformati

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/09/15914-Sierra-California-snowpack-mountains-drought-centuries/ Source:   By Cheryl Katz, National Geographic. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: This year’s snowpack is the driest it’s been in at least 500 years, according to new research published Monday. This stark finding comes from an analysis of more than 1,500 California blue oak tree rings dating back to the early 1500s, when Spanish explorers were just beginning their conquest of the state. ...“What happened in 2015 is that very low precipitation co-occurred with record high temperatures. And that’s what made this snowpack low so extremely low,” says Valerie Trouet, a tree-ring research specialist at the University of Arizona in Tucson and co-author of the study published in Nature Climate Change. ...The 2015 Sierra snow water equivalent, a measure of water content, was just 5 percent of average over the past half-millennium, the researchers found. The next-closest lows were 2014 a

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-climate-change-messing-bees-ability-pollinate-180956523/ Source:   By Marissa Fessenden, Smithsonian Magazine For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Bees are vitally important to the health of the planet: The more than 30,000 bee species around the world are the most important group of pollinators for farming and wild plants. But populations are declining due to a variety of factors including human development, pesticides, disease and a changing climate, reports Clayton Aldern for Grist. ...Rebecca Irwin, an associate professor at Dartmouth College conducts her work at at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado. There, she investigates the effects of changes in phenology — or the timing of when something occurs. "When the snow melts earlier, the flowers are going to emerge earlier and they’re going to bloom earlier," she says in the video. "We don’t really understand if the bees are going to follow suit." ..

http://writersalmanac.org/episodes/20150905/ Source:   Writer's Almanac For Investigation:   2.1, 2.2 James Glaisher and Henry Tracey Coxwell broke the world record for altitude on [September 5] in 1862 . Glaisher was a British meteorologist, and he wanted to investigate what happened to water vapor at different altitudes. The country had just been through a period of extended drought, and there was much interest in studying rain in particular, and weather in general. In order to get high enough into the atmosphere, Glaisher needed to go up in a balloon. That’s where Coxwell came in. The son of a naval officer, he was an avid and accomplished balloonist as well as a scientist. He built a balloon especially for Glaisher’s project: it was 55 feet wide and 90 feet high. The men and their instruments rose steadily, but they were unprepared for what they would experience above the clouds. At an altitude of five miles, Coxwell started to feel short of breath, and Glaish

https://ir.citi.com/hsq32Jl1m4aIzicMqH8sBkPnbsqfnwy4Jgb1J2kIPYWIw5eM8yD3FY9VbGpK%2Baax Source:   Citigroup Inc. For Investigation:   10.3 A new report from Citibank states that investing in low-carbon energy would save the world $1.8 trillion through 2040. Not acting will cost $44 trillion by 2060 from the “negative effects” of climate change. Here are two quotes from the report, Energy Darwinism : “We believe that that solution does exist. ...The incremental costs of following a low carbon path are in context limited and seem affordable, the ‘return’ on that investment is acceptable and moreover the likely avoided liabilities are enormous. Given that all things being equal cleaner air has to be preferable to pollution, a very strong ‘Why would you not?’ argument begins to develop.” "Overall, we find that the incremental costs of action are limited (and indeed ultimately lead to savings), offer reasonable returns on investment, and should not have too detrim

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-science-zeros-in-on-ocean-rise-how-much-how-soon Source:   NASA Release 15-174 For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Seas around the world have risen an average of nearly 3 inches since 1992, with some locations rising more than 9 inches due to natural variation, according to the latest satellite measurements from NASA and its partners. An intensive research effort now underway, aided by NASA observations and analysis, points to an unavoidable rise of several feet in the future. ...“Given what we know now about how the ocean expands as it warms and how ice sheets and glaciers are adding water to the seas, it’s pretty certain we are locked into at least 3 feet of sea level rise, and probably more,” said Steve Nerem of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and lead of the Sea Level Change Team. “But we don't know whether it will happen within a century or somewhat longer.” ...“Sea level along the west coast of the United States has actually fal

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/science/climate-change-intensifies-california-drought-scientists-say.html Source:   Justin Gillis, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Global warming caused by human emissions has most likely intensified the drought in California by roughly 15 to 20 percent, scientists said Thursday, warning that future dry spells in the state are almost certain to be worse than this one as the world continues to heat up. Even though the findings suggest that the drought is primarily a consequence of natural climate variability, the scientists added that the likelihood of any drought becoming acute is rising because of climate change. The odds of California suffering droughts at the far end of the scale, like the current one that began in 2012, have roughly doubled over the past century, they said. “This would be a drought no matter what,” said A. Park Williams, a climate scientist at Columbia University and the lead author of a paper published b

https://www.google.com/get/sunroof/about/ Source:   Google For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt:  Project Sunroof puts Google's expansive data in mapping and computing resources to use, helping calculate the best solar plan. ...When you enter your address, Project Sunroof looks up your home in Google Maps and combines that information with other databases to create your personalized roof analysis. ...Project Sunroof computes how much sunlight hits your roof in a year. It takes into account: Google's database of aerial imagery and maps; 3D modeling of your roof; Shadows cast by nearby structures and trees; All possible sun positions over the course of a year; Historical cloud and temperature patterns that might affect solar energy production. ...Project Sunroof recommends an installation size to generate close to 100% of your electricity use, based on roof size, the amount of sun hitting the roof, and your electricity bill. ...We recommend an installation that covers less than

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/18/islamic-leaders-issue-bold-call-rapid-phase-out-fossil-fuels Source:   The Guardian For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Islamic leaders have issued a clarion call to 1.6bn Muslims around the world to work towards phasing out greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and a 100% renewable energy strategy. The grand mufti’s of Lebanon and Uganda endorsed the Islamic declaration on climate change, along with prominent Islamic scholars and teachers from 20 countries, at a symposium in Istanbul. ...“We particularly call on the well-off nations and oil-producing states to lead the way in phasing out their greenhouse gas emissions as early as possible and no later than the middle of the century,” it says. ...So far, Morocco is the only Middle Eastern country to present an emissions-cutting climate pledge ahead of the summit.  ...The Istanbul declaration was made by Islamic figures from Bosnia to Indonesia and follows a ground-breaking Papal encycli

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/melting-arctic-national-geographic-atlas Source:   By Clara Chaisson, NRDC. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Climate change is keeping the mapmakers over at National Geographic busy. As the Arctic warms twice as fast as the rest of the world, ...the updates to the region reflect “one of the most striking changes in the publication’s history,” the magazine says. So striking, in fact, that President Obama referred to it while unveiling his Clean Power Plan last week. The redrawn map is based on data from a 30-year NASA study, published in 2012....

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-08-09/will-residents-kivalina-alaska-be-first-climate-change-refugees-us Source:   Science Friday, National Public Radio For Investigation:   Excerpt: [hear recording of interview] In 2008, the Inupiat village sued 24 of the world's biggest fossil fuel companies for damages. In 2013, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case and the village has declared it will not file a new claim in state court. Meanwhile, nature, heedless of humankind’s eternal squabbles, goes about its business: the sea around Kivalina continues to rise, the storms get stronger, the ice gets thinner — and Kivalina's 400 residents must grapple with how to relocate in the decade they're estimated to have left. Kivalina is on a very thin barrier reef island between the Chukchi Sea and the Kivalina Lagoon, in the northwest of Alaska, above the Arctic Circle.  ...In May, June and July, the men of the village go out on the ice hunting bearded seals. They cut up the seals

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/08/05/science/ap-us-sci-carbon-pollution.html Source:   The Associated Press, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Heat-trapping pollution from U.S. power plants hit a 27-year low in April, the Department of Energy announced Wednesday. A big factor was the long-term shift from coal to cleaner and cheaper natural gas, said Energy Department economist Allen McFarland. Outside experts also credit more renewable fuel use and energy efficiency....

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/07/business/energy-environment/coal-industry-wobbles-as-market-forces-slug-away.html Source:   By James B. Stewart, New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: In April 2005, President George W. Bush hailed “clean coal” as a key to “greater energy independence,” .... But a decade later, the United States coal industry is reeling as never before in its history, the victim of new environmental regulations, intensifying attacks by activists, collapsing coal prices, and — above all — the rise of cheap alternative fuels, especially natural gas. This week President Obama slammed the industry with tougher-than-expected rules from the Environmental Protection Agency limiting power plant carbon emissions, which will accelerate an already huge shift from coal to natural gas and other alternatives. “Clean coal” remains an expensive and thus far impractical pipe dream. Coal is the world’s biggest source of carbon emissions by far and the leadin

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/08/03/fact-sheet-president-obama-announce-historic-carbon-pollution-standards Source:   The White House For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt:  Today at the White House, President Obama and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy will release the final Clean Power Plan , a historic step in the Obama Administration’s fight against climate change. We have a moral obligation to leave our children a planet that’s not polluted or damaged. The effects of climate change are already being felt across the nation [ National Climate Assessment ]. ...The Clean Power Plan establishes the first-ever national standards to limit carbon pollution from power plants. We already set limits that protect public health by reducing soot and other toxic emissions, but until now, existing power plants, the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States, could release as much carbon pollution as they wanted....

https://eos.org/articles/leading-companies-take-white-house-climate-pledge Source:   By Randy Showstack, Earth & Space Science News—EoS (AGU) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...Alcoa, Cargill, General Motors, Microsoft, and nine other major U.S. companies have committed to cut greenhouse gases as part of a new White House program. ...Thirteen of the biggest companies in the United States have signed on to a new initiative by President Obama to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the White House announced Monday. ...Brian Deese, senior advisor to the president, praised the companies for “setting an example” for their industries. ...The administration intends to announce a second round of pledges “from a far broader spectrum of American companies” later this year, prior to the Paris conference, Deese said....

http://news.sciencemag.org/evolution/2015/07/hot-spells-doomed-mammoths Source:   By Elizabeth Pennisi, Science For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: About 30,000 years ago, mammoths, giant sloths, and other massive mammals roamed the earth. Twenty thousand years later they were all gone. Some researchers blame human hunting, but a new study claims that abrupt shifts in climate set in motion a downward spiral for many of these species, one that humans aggravated. The results, the authors say, are a warning to modern humans that, if not slowed, current warming could doom many more species....

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/world/europe/mayors-at-vatican-pledge-efforts-against-climate-change.html Source:   By Gaia Pianigiani, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: VATICAN CITY — About 60 mayors from around the world gathered here on Tuesday and pledged to combat global warming and help the poor deal with its effects, at a conference swiftly organized by the Vatican barely a month after Pope Francis’ sweeping encyclical on the environment. The two-day conference, which also focused on fighting forms of modern slavery, was not the first time that the Vatican had organized a meeting on the issue. But it was the first time that it specifically invited local officials, hoping to mobilize grass-roots action and maintain pressure on world leaders for action ahead of a global summit meeting on climate change scheduled for December in Paris....

http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/nasa-captures-epic-earth-image   Source:   NASA Deep Space Climate Observatory satellite For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: A NASA camera on the Deep Space Climate Observatory [DSCOVR] satellite has returned its first view of the entire sunlit side of Earth from one million miles away...taken by NASA’s Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC), a four megapixel CCD camera and telescope. [This...is the first complete picture of our planet since 1972 (those in the interim have actually been composites). ...DSCOVR [is] a joint mission between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Air Force....

http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.8127 Source:   By Steven T. Corneliussen, Physics Today For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The Royal Astronomical Society  press release "Irregular heartbeat of the Sun driven by double dynamo"  explains that at the recent National Astronomy Meeting in Wales, Northumbria University astrophysicist and mathematics professor Valentina Zharkova reported on a new model of the Sun's solar cycle. The model suggests that "solar activity will fall by 60 per cent during the 2030s to conditions last seen during the 'mini ice age' that began in 1645." The resulting media stir merits notice.... See also The Guardian article  No, the sun isn't going to save us from global warming .

http://time.com/3951339/bees-climate-change/ Source:   By Justin Worland, Time Magazine For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: As if pesticides, disease and habitat loss were not enough, there's more bad news for bees. Changing temperature and weather conditions due to climate change has restricted the area where bees can survive, and the pollinators have struggled to adapt, according to new research published in the journal Science. "They just aren’t colonizing new areas and establishing new populations fast enough to track rapid human-caused climate change," said study author Jeremy Kerr, a professor at the University of Ottawa, on a call for journalists. "Impacts are large and they are underway. They are not just something to worry about at some vague, future time." For the study, researchers looked at 110 years of data on 67 bumblebee species to track their movements over time. Activity between 1901 and 1974 was compared to movement in recent decades when c

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/science/bumblebees-global-warming-shrinking-habitats.html Source:   Nicholas St. Fleur, The New York Times For Investigation:   Excerpt: Climate change has narrowed the range where bumblebees are found in North America and Europe in recent decades, according to a study published Thursday. The paper, published in the journal Science, suggests that warming temperatures have caused bumblebee populations to retreat from the southern limits of their travels by as much as 190 miles since the 1970s. Logic would suggest that the northern reaches of their home turf would shift to higher latitudes by a corresponding distance. But that has not happened, leading researchers to think that the more northern habitats may be less hospitable to them. “Bumblebee species across Europe and North America are declining at continental scales,” Jeremy T. Kerr a conservation biologist at the University of Ottawa in Canada who was the lead author of the report, said at a

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-study-finds-indian-pacific-oceans-temporarily-hide-global-warming Source:   NASA Release 15-147 For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: A new NASA study of ocean temperature measurements shows in recent years extra heat from greenhouse gases has been trapped in the waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Researchers say this shifting pattern of ocean heat accounts for the slowdown in the global surface temperature trend observed during the past decade. ..."The western Pacific got so warm that some of the warm water is leaking into the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian archipelago," said Nieves, the lead author of the study. The movement of the warm Pacific water westward pulled heat away from the surface waters of the central and eastern Pacific, which resulted in unusually cool surface temperatures during the last decade. Because the air temperature over the ocean is closely related to the ocean temperature, this provides a plausible

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33317451 Source:  By Helen Briggs, BBC News. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: China - the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases - has announced details of its climate action plan. ...The statement, released following a meeting in Paris between Li and French President Francois Hollande, said China aimed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65% by 2030, from 2005 levels. The carbon intensity target builds on a previous plan to cut carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020. China also aimed to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption to about 20% by 2030, the statement added. Beijing previously set a goal of getting around 15% of its energy from clean sources by 2020....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/25/us-pakistan-heatwave-idUSKBN0P40FV20150625 Source:   By Syed Raza Hassan, Reuters For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt:  The worst heat wave to hit Pakistan's southern city of Karachi for nearly 35 years has killed more than 1,000 people, a charity said on Thursday, as morgues ran out of space and residents rushed to supply over-stretched public hospitals....

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/world-religious-leaders-climate-change Source:   By Nicole Greenfield, OnEarth, NRDC For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: When it comes to climate change, Pope Francis and many other world religious leaders are cut from the same cloth.  ...maybe it’s no surprise that yesterday Pope Francis delivered the Roman Catholic Church’s first-ever encyclical on the environment —most notably, on climate....

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/23/science/risk-of-extreme-weather-from-climate-change-to-rise-over-next-century-report-says.html Source:   By Sabrina Tavernise, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: More people will be exposed to floods, droughts, heat waves and other extreme weather associated with climate change over the next century than previously thought, according to a new report in the British medical journal The Lancet - http://www.thelancet.com/commissions/climate-change ....

http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/06/feature-researchers-push-prevent-last-dance-lesser-prairie-chicken Source:   By Marianne Lavelle, Science For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...as many as 2 million lesser prairie chickens once lent crimson to the often beige landscape of the midwestern and southwestern United States. But just some 22,000 birds remain today, occupying about 16% of the species' historic range. The birds are found in five states: Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Kansas—which holds an estimated 60% to 70% of the remaining population. The birds “are facing a tremendous number of threats,” says retired biologist Randy Rodgers, an expert on “lessers” who spent 37 years with the Kansas wildlife department. Lessers can tolerate some human disturbance, he says... “But as with many things,” Rodgers says, “a little is good. A lot is not.” Beginning in the 1950s, modern center-pivot irrigation farming became a major threat, carving crop circles i

http://news.discovery.com/earth/oceans/mysterious-warm-water-blob-in-pacific-wreaking-havoc-150617.htm Source:   By Patrick J. Kiger, D news For Investigation:   9.2, 9.3, 10.3 Excerpt:  A large expanse of unusually warm water in the northern Pacific Ocean continues to grow and is having a profound effect upon marine animals from Mexico to Alaska, and may be altering weather across the continent. “The blob,” a term coined by University of Washington meteorologist Nicholas Bond, who was among those who first observed it in late 2013, consists of  water that is roughly around 5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the typical ocean temperature. While that may not seem like much of a difference, the circular patch of warmth, which started as a small patch of water off the coast of Alaska, has grown to 500 miles across,and is the biggest and longest-lasting temperature anomaly in the historical record. ...Scientists aren’t sure exactly what caused the blob, but they think it may have links

http://www.americangeosciences.org/critical-issues/ Source:   American Geoscience Institute For Investigation:   10.3 AGI’s Critical Issues Program provides introductory information on issues at the intersection of geoscience and society, including energy, climate, water, natural hazards, and mineral resources....

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/texas-floods-drought-climate-change Source:   By Clara Chaisson, OnEarth, Natural Resources Defense Council. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: After years of severe drought, Texas is swamped. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported last Thursday that Texas was finally free of  extreme drought. After five debilitating dry years, it was great news. But what the weekend then brought—torrential rainfall and flash flooding that left at least 17 dead and numerous people missing in Texas and Oklahoma—seemed like a very cruel joke (one that still isn’t over). By yesterday, Governor Greg Abbott had declared disasters in 37 counties. El Niño is partially to blame for the soaking, because its warm waters drive rain in the southern United States. But this oscillation between extreme dry and extreme rainfall is also indicative of climate change. As Eric Holthaus of Slate reports, “A steadily escalating whipsaw between drought and flood is one of the most

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/National_Security_Implications_of_Changing_Climate_Final_051915.pdf Source:   The White House For Investigation:   10.3 11 page document with sections on Coastal Areas at Risk, Changing Arctic, Risks to Infrastructure, Demands on Military Resources Excerpt: ...With climate change, certain types of extreme weather events and their impacts, including extreme heat, heavy downpours, floods, and droughts, have become more frequent and/or intense. In addition, warming is causing sea level to rise and glaciers and Arctic sea ice to melt. These and other aspects of climate change are disrupting people’s lives and damaging certain sectors of the economy. The national security implications of climate change impacts are far-reaching, as they may exacerbate existing stressors, contributing to poverty, environmental degradation, and political instability, providing enabling environments for terrorist activity abroad. For example, t

http://www.globalsystemsscience.org/uptodate/2015-05-15inbrazilcattleindustrybeginstohelpfightdeforestation Source:    By Allie Wilkinson, Science.   For Investigation:   10.3

http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-study-shows-antarctica-s-larsen-b-ice-shelf-nearing-its-final-act Source:   NASA Release 15-092. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: A new NASA study finds the last remaining section of Antarctica's Larsen B Ice Shelf, which partially collapsed in 2002, is quickly weakening and likely to disintegrate completely before the end of the decade. A team led by Ala Khazendar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, found the remnant of the Larsen B Ice Shelf is flowing faster, becoming increasingly fragmented and developing large cracks. ..."These are warning signs that the remnant is disintegrating," Khazendar said. "...This ice shelf has existed for at least 10,000 years, and soon it will be gone." ...Ice shelves are the gatekeepers for glaciers flowing from Antarctica toward the ocean. Without them, glacial ice enters the ocean faster and accelerates the pace of global sea level rise. This stud

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-32599228 Source:   By Stephanie McClellan, BBC News. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Scientists have found a 200-year lag time between past climate events at the poles. The most detailed Antarctic ice core provides the first clear comparison with Greenland records, revealing a link between northern and southern hemisphere climate change. ...abrupt and large temperature changes first occurred in Greenland, with the effect delayed about 200 years in the Antarctic. The study appears in Nature journal. ...In the 1990s, scientists took ice cores from Greenland that revealed very abrupt and large swings in temperature approximately 20,000 to 60,000 years ago. But it wasn't clear how this influenced global climate change. The 3,405 metre-long ice core, taken from the centre of West Antarctica, is the longest high resolution ice core. Researchers documented 18 abrupt climate events. "This record has annual resolution, meaning we can

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/30/us/california-governor-orders-new-target-for-emissions-cuts.html Source:   By Adam Nagourney, The New York Times. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt:  ...Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order Wednesday sharply speeding up this state’s already ambitious program aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions, saying it was critical to address “an ever-growing threat” posed by global warming to the state’s economy and well-being. The order, announced early Wednesday morning, was intended as a jolt to a landmark 2006 environmental law requiring an 80 percent cut in greenhouse gas reductions by 2050, compared with 1990. Under Mr. Brown’s order, the state would have to get halfway there — a 40 percent reduction — by 2030. ...Under the law put into place by Mr. Brown’s predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the state was required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 on the way to reach the 2050 target; California is already well on its w

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/04/27/study-global-warming-has-already-dramatically-upped-the-odds-of-extreme-heat-events/ Source:   By Chris Mooney, The Washington Post. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...scientists have...explained that while global warming doesn’t “cause” any single event, it can make them more likely to occur.... Indeed, published papers have shown that a warming climate had indeed increased the odds of a number of individual extreme events, including the 2003 European heat wave, the 2010 Russian heat wave and the 2013 Australian summer heat. ...in a new study in Nature Climate Change, Erich Fischer and Reto Knutti, of the science-focused Swiss university ETH Zurich, perform an analysis not for any individual event but rather for all daily heat and precipitation extremes of a “moderate” magnitude occurring over land in our current climate. And they find, strikingly, that 18 percent of today’s moderate precipitation extremes, and

http://www.globalchange.gov/health-assessment Source:   U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Climate change threatens human health and well-being in many ways. The draft report, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment (available for download for public comment only between April 7 and June 8, 2015. ), was developed by USGCRP’s Interagency Group on Climate Change and Human Health as part of the sustained National Climate Assessment and as called for under the President’s Climate Action Plan. This assessment report is intended to present a comprehensive, evidence-based, and, where possible, quantitative estimation of observed and projected public health impacts related to climate change in the United States. Once finalized (expected early 2016), the report will provide needed context for understanding Americans’ changing health risks. ...The public comment period is open until

http://environment.yale.edu/poe/v2014 Source:  Yale Project on Climate Change Communication For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Public Opinion Estimates, United States, 2014, on these statements: Global warming is happening; Global warming is caused mostly by human activities; Most scientists think global warming is happening; Worried about global warming; Global warming is already harming people in the US; Global warming will harm me personally; Global warming will harm people in the US; Global warming will harm people in developing countries; Global warming will harm future generations; Fund research into renewable energy sources; Set strict CO2 limits on existing coal-fired power plants; Require utilities to produce 20% electricity from renewable sources; A carbon tax if refunded to every American household. Charts are granular at national, state, congressional district, and county levels....

http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/california-snowpack-levels-by-satellite Source:  By Clara Chaisson, onEarth, NRDC For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: California’s ... snowmelt normally meets about 30 percent of the state’s annual water needs. But this...is not a normal year. Ongoing drought has driven statewide snowpack down to just five percent of the historical average for the date of April 1—obliterating the previous record low of 25 percent. Worse yet, increasing low water levels may be the “new normal.” The downtrend becomes clear in ...NASA satellite imagery. [Satellite images interactive] of the Central Valley in March 2010 and March 2015 is basically like using a snow eraser....

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/24/science/earth/amazon-forest-becoming-less-of-a-climate-change-safety-net.html Source:   By Justin Gillis, the New York Times. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The ability of the Amazon forest to soak up excess carbon dioxide is weakening over time, researchers reported last week. That finding suggests that limiting climate change could be more difficult than expected. For decades, Earth’s forests and seas have been soaking up roughly half of the carbon pollution that people are pumping into the atmosphere. That has limited the planetary warming that would otherwise result from those emissions. ...In a vast study spanning 30 years and covering 189,000 trees distributed across 321 plots in the Amazon basin, researchers led by a group at the University of Leeds, in Britain, reported that the uptake of carbon dioxide in the Amazon peaked in the 1990s, at about 2 billion tons a year, and has since fallen by half. ...“Forests are doing us a

http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2015/03/warming-arctic-may-be-causing-heat-waves-elsewhere-world Source:  By Carolyn Gramling, Science.  For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Global warming is increasing temperatures twice as fast in the Arctic as elsewhere on the planet. Some scientists have suggested that this so-called Arctic amplification can alter circulation patterns that affect weather in the United States, Europe, and Asia, potentially helping cause the powerful winter storms and deep freezes that have blasted the midlatitudes over the past decade. A new study suggests Arctic warming could ultimately pack a summertime punch, too, possibly contributing to extreme events such as the deadly 2010 Russian heat wave. Melting sea ice in the Arctic has left vast expanses of dark open water available to absorb the sun’s energy. In the late autumn and early winter, when sea ice is at a minimum and temperatures begin to cool, the ocean releases that extra heat and moistu

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2015/03/11/new-material-captures-carbon-at-half-the-energy-cost/ Source:  By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News Center For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: UC Berkeley chemists have made a major leap forward in carbon-capture technology with a material that can efficiently remove carbon from the ambient air of a submarine as readily as from the polluted emissions of a coal-fired power plant. The material then releases the carbon dioxide at lower temperatures than current carbon-capture materials, potentially cutting by half or more the energy currently consumed in the process. The released CO2 can then be injected underground, a technique called sequestering, or, in the case of a submarine, expelled into the sea....

http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/events/a-discussion-on-climate-change-evidence-and-causes/ Source:   U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society (U. K.) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The leadership of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.K.’s Royal Society convened a UK-US team of leading climate scientists to produce this brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. The publication makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate

http://news.sciencemag.org/sifter/2015/02/vanishing-ice-could-wipe-out-alaskan-village Source:  Science For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Say goodbye to the tiny Inupiaq village of Kivalina, one of dozens of villages in Alaska that may soon be abandoned due to climate change. For years, thick fringes of sea ice protected Kivalina, a town of 85 homes perched on a barrier island at the edge of the Chukchi Sea, from being washed away by powerful waves and winter storms—but the ice is vanishing. The village needs to be relocated, and stat, but who’s going to dole out the more than $100 million that it would cost is an open question, .... ... Kivalina is becoming a poster child for Alaskan villages in peril....

http://news.sciencemag.org/climate/2015/02/cold-pacific-ocean-offsetting-global-warming Source:   By Carolyn Gramling, Science For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...Greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide, continue to be pumped into the atmosphere, but sometime around 1998, the rise in Earth’s average temperatures slowed, deviating from the rates predicted by models. ...a new study suggests that natural cycles in the Pacific Ocean are the culprit. Since the end of last El Niño warming event of 1997 to 1998, the tropical Pacific Ocean has been in a relatively cool phase—strong enough to offset the warming created by greenhouse gas emissions. But, this is just a temporary balm: When the switch flips and the waters turn warm again, the researchers say, Earth will likely continue warming. “What this study addresses is what’s better described as a false pause, or slowdown,” rather than a hiatus in warming, says climate scientist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State Univ

http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/02/20/2015/habitats-shift-as-arctic-temps-creep-above-freezing.html Source:   Produced by Christopher Intagliata, Senior Producer, Science Friday For Investigation:   10.3 [Podcast] In 1975 ornithologist George Divoky began his study of black guillemots on Cooper Island, on the Alaskan shore of the Arctic Ocean. Back then ice used to be onshore for much of the summer, he says. But in the past decade, ice has disappeared to as far as 500 miles offshore. And as the ice retreats, habitats shift, and certain food chains have begun to crumble. Divoky and wildlife biologist Cheryl Rosa of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission take stock of how climate change is reshaping the flora and fauna of the Arctic.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/world/asia/pakistan-braces-for-major-water-shortages.html Source:   Salman Masood, The New York Times. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Energy-starved Pakistanis, their economy battered by chronic fuel and electricity shortages, may soon have to contend with a new resource crisis: major water shortages, the Pakistani government warned this week. A combination of global climate change and local waste and mismanagement have led to an alarmingly rapid depletion of Pakistan’s water supply, said the minister for water and energy, Khawaja Muhammad Asif....  .

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/13/science/earth/plastic-ocean-waste-levels-going-up-study-says.html Source:   John Schwartz, The New York Times. For Investigation:   9.2 Excerpt: Some eight million metric tons of plastic waste makes its way into the world’s oceans each year, and the amount of the debris is likely to increase greatly over the next decade unless nations take strong measures to dispose of their trash responsibly, new research suggests. The report, which appeared in the journal Science on Thursday, is the most ambitious effort yet to estimate how much plastic debris ends up in the sea. Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia and lead author of the study, said the amount of plastic that entered the oceans in the year measured, 2010, might be as little as 4.8 million metric tons or as much as 12.7 million....

http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/february/nasa-study-finds-carbon-emissions-could-dramatically-increase-risk-of-us/ Source:   NASA RELEASE 15-020 For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...Droughts in the U.S. Southwest and Central Plains during the last half of this century could be drier and longer than drought conditions seen in those regions in the last 1,000 years, according to a new NASA study...published Thursday in the journal Science Advances.... "Natural droughts like the 1930s Dust Bowl and the current drought in the Southwest have historically lasted maybe a decade or a little less," said Ben Cook, climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York City, and lead author of the study. "What these results are saying is we're going to get a drought similar to those events, but it is probably going to last at least 30 to 35 years." ...the current likelihood of a me

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/11/science/panel-urges-more-research-on-geoengineering-as-a-tool-against-climate-change.html Source:   Henry Fountain, The New York Times. For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: With the planet facing potentially severe impacts from global warming in coming decades, a government-sponsored scientific panel on Tuesday called for more research on geoengineering — technologies to deliberately intervene in nature to counter climate change. ....  .

  http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2015/02/09/electricity-from-biomass-with-carbon-capture-could-make-western-u-s-carbon-negative/ Source:   By Robert Sanders, UC Berkeley News Center. For Investigation:   10.3 For GSS Climate chapter 10. Excerpt: Generating electricity from biomass, such as urban waste and sustainably-sourced forest and crop residues, is one strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, because it is carbon-neutral: it produces as much carbon as the plants suck out of the atmosphere. ...A new UC Berkeley study shows that if biomass electricity production is combined with carbon capture and sequestration in the western United States, power generators could actually store more carbon than they emit and make a critical contribution to an overall zero-carbon future by the second half of the 21st century.... .