http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/20/science/2016-global-warming-record-temperatures-climate-change.html Source:   By Tatiana Schlossberg, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...It has been the hottest year to date, with January, February and March each passing the mark set in 2015, according to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. March was also the 11th consecutive month to see a new record for temperatures since agencies started tracking them in the 1800s....   See also: NOAA monthly update, March 2016 - http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201603

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/10/world/asia/climate-related-death-of-coral-around-world-alarms-scientists.html Source:   By Michelle Innis, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: SYDNEY, Australia — Kim Cobb, a marine scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, expected the coral to be damaged when she plunged into the deep blue waters off Kiritimati Island, .... Still, she was stunned.... “The entire reef is covered with a red-brown fuzz,... It is algae that has grown over dead coral. It was devastating.” The damage off Kiritimati is part of a mass bleaching of coral reefs around the world, only the third on record and possibly the worst ever. Scientists believe that heat stress from multiple weather events including the latest, severe El Niño, compounded by climate change, has threatened more than a third of Earth’s coral reefs. Many may not recover. Coral reefs are the crucial incubators of the ocean’s ecosystem, .... An estimated 30 million small-scale fi

http://ourchildrenstrust.org/event/740/breaking-victory-landmark-climate-case Source:   Our Children's Trust For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Today, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the federal District Court in Eugene, OR, decided in favor of 21 young Plaintiffs, and Dr. James Hansen on behalf of future generations, in their landmark constitutional climate change case brought against the federal government and the fossil fuel industry. The Court’s ruling is a major victory for the 21 youth Plaintiffs, ages 8-19, from across the U.S. in what Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein call the “most important lawsuit on the planet right now.” These plaintiffs sued the federal government for violating their constitutional rights to life, liberty and property, and their right to essential public trust resources, by permitting, encouraging, and otherwise enabling continued exploitation, production, and combustion of fossil fuels....

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/08/science/climate-models-may-overstate-clouds-cooling-power-research-says.html Source:   By John Schwartz, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The computer models that predict climate change may be overestimating the cooling power of clouds, new research suggests. ...The new paper suggests the effects of a flaw in the model could be serious: Based on its analysis of one model of climate change, the cloud error could mean an additional 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming than expected....

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/06/upshot/promising-signs-that-economies-can-rise-as-carbon-emissions-decline.html Source:   Coral Davenport, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 2016-04-05. . By . For GSS Climate Change chapter 10. 20th century, the global economy was fueled by burning coal to run factories and power plants, and burning oil to move planes, trains and automobiles. The more coal and oil countries burned — and the more planet-warming carbon dioxide they emitted — the higher the economic growth. And so it seemed logical that any policy to reduce emissions would also push countries into economic decline. Now there are signs that G.D.P. growth and carbon emissions need not rise in tandem, and that the era of decoupling could be starting. Last year, for the first time in the 40 years since both metrics have been recorded, global G.D.P. grew but global carbon emissions leveled off. Economists got excited, but they also acknowledged that it could have been an anoma

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/science/nasa-is-facing-a-climate-change-countdown.html Source:   John Schwartz, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Kennedy Space Center and other NASA facilities near coastlines are facing the prospect of continually rising waters. ...Like so much of Florida, the Space Coast — a 72-mile stretch along the Atlantic — is feeling the threat of climate change. Some of the erosion is caused by the churning energy of ocean currents along the coastline. Hurricane Sandy, whose power was almost certainly strengthened by climate change, took a big bite in 2012, flattening an already damaged dune line that provided protection from the Atlantic’s battering. ...According to a study published last week, warming pressure on the Antarctic ice sheet could help push sea levels higher by as much as five or six feet by the end of this century....

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/04/04/fact-sheet-what-climate-change-means-your-health-and-family Source:   The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...the Obama Administration released a new final report called The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, .... Air pollution and airborne allergens will likely increase, .... Extreme heat can be expected to cause an increase in the number of premature deaths, from thousands to tens of thousands, each summer, .... Warmer winter and spring temperatures are projected to lead to earlier annual onset of Lyme disease cases in the eastern United States .... Rising temperature and increases in flooding, runoff events, and drought will likely lead to increases in the occurrence and transport of pathogens in agricultural environments, which will increase the risk of food contamination and human exposure to pathogens and toxins. ... Climate

https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/does-nuclear-power-have-future-america Source:   By Brian Palmer, OnEarth NRDC For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: the first new reactor of the 21st century, Watts Bar Unit 2 had finally received its operating license ( https://www.tva.gov/Newsroom/Watts-Bar-2-Project ). ...growing concerns about climate change began beckoning a few wary environmentalists into the carbon-free nuclear camp, with such notables as Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand and renowned climatologist James Hansen endorsing a nuclear expansion. ...Nuclear’s heyday came in the 1970s. Utilities broke ground on dozens of reactors around the country, including two units at Tennessee’s Watts Bar facility in 1973. ...In the early 1970s, a utility could build a reactor for only $170 million. ...By the early 1980s, the average price for building a reactor had risen to $1.7 billion—a tenfold increase in a decade. ...financial analysts ... recognized that the industry could be viable