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 signi...

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 ...

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 we...

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 G...

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 de...