https://eos.org/research-spotlights/the-power-of-water-wind-and-solar-and-nothing-else Source:   By Sarah Witman, Eos/AGU Excerpt: From more frequent wildfires to devastating hurricanes to persistent droughts, we are already seeing the effects of climate change. It’s not just the planet that’s at risk: Air pollution causes 4–7 million human deaths each year, and energy security is a concern as our population grows. Addressing these challenges will require a collective effort by individuals, communities, businesses, nonprofits, and policy makers around the world, not to mention a road map to guide these disparate parties. Here Jacobson presents just such a road map. It outlines how the 139 countries that together contribute 99% of all global emissions can transition to 80% clean, renewable energy (water, wind, and solar) by 2030 and to 100% by 2050. By 2050, everything—transportation, agriculture, forestry, fishing, heating, cooling, and all industries—would run on electricity. ...

  https://eos.org/research-spotlights/humans-to-blame-for-higher-drought-risk-in-some-regions Source:   By Sarah Stanley, Eos/AGU Excerpt: The world’s population relies on the global water cycle for food security and economic prosperity. However, human activities may be jeopardizing this critical resource; new research by Douville and Plazzotta confirms that human emissions of greenhouse gases have already begun to alter the water cycle, resulting in a drying trend and increased risk of drought in certain parts of the world. To many researchers, these new findings are not surprising. For more than a decade, observational and numerical modeling studies have predicted that anthropogenic emissions would cause warming that could change the water cycle and expand dry regions. Nonetheless, other recent studies have cast serious doubts on these predictions. Two studies cautioned that simplified calculations used to process observational data could result in incorrect predictions ...

https://eos.org/articles/arctic-is-experiencing-a-warmer-new-normal-noaa-reports Source:   By Randy Showstack, AGU/Eos Excerpt: Recent observations of declining sea ice, persistent elevated temperatures, and other factors confirm that a new climate era endures in the Arctic, according to the just-released yearly, major assessment of the region by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “This year’s observations confirm that the Arctic shows no signs of returning to the reliably frozen state that it was in just a decade ago,” Jeremy Mathis, director of NOAA’s Arctic Research Program, said yesterday as the agency unveiled its 2017 Arctic Report Card. “Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the rate of global averages,” he told reporters at a news briefing yesterday at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in New Orleans, La. The mean Arctic air temperature this year over land exceeded the 1981–2010 average by 1.6°C, making it the second-hig...

https://www.ktoo.org/2017/09/15/can-kodiak-teach-world-renewable-energy-lot/ Source:    By   Rachel Waldholz, Alaska’s Energy Desk , KTOO.  Excerpt: ...Kodiak [2nd largest island in the US] generates about 20 percent of its electricity from wind. ...Since 2007, Kodiak has transformed its grid so that it now generates almost 100 percent of its power with renewable energy. The local electric co-op has managed to do that while keeping rates stable. In fact, the price of electricity in Kodiak has dropped slightly since 2000. It’s a model with lessons for remote communities from the Arctic to the equator — and for cities on the big grids of the Lower 48, from New York to Houston....  

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/climate/climate-extreme-weather-attribution.html Source:   By Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich, The New York Times Excerpt: Extreme weather left its mark across the planet in 2016, the hottest year in recorded history. Record heat baked Asia and the Arctic. Droughts gripped Brazil and southern Africa. The Great Barrier Reef suffered its worst bleaching event in memory, killing large swaths of coral. Now climate scientists are starting to tease out which of last year’s calamities can, and can’t, be linked to global warming. In a new collection of papers published Wednesday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, researchers around the world analyzed 27 extreme weather events from 2016 and found that human-caused climate change was a “significant driver” for 21 of them. ...1. Record temperatures around the world. ...2. Coral bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. ...3. Drought in Africa, ...4. Wildfires in North America. ...5. The wa...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/france-to-name-winners-of-anti-trump-climate-change-grants/2017/12/11/98ce181e-de4f-11e7-b2e9-8c636f076c76_story.html Source:   By Sylvie Corbet, AP Excerpt: PARIS — Eighteen climate scientists from the U.S. and elsewhere hit the jackpot Monday as French President Emmanuel Macron awarded them millions of euros in grants to relocate to France for the rest of Donald Trump’s presidential term. The “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants — a nod to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — are part of Macron’s efforts to counter Trump on the climate change front. Macron announced a contest for the projects in June, hours after Trump declared he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord. More than 5,000 people from about 100 countries expressed interest in the grants. A majority of the applicants — and 13 of the 18 winners — were U.S.-based researchers. Macron’s appeal “gave me such a psychological boost, to have that k...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/technology/from-the-arctics-melting-ice-an-unexpected-digital-hub.html Source:   By Cecilia Kang, The New York Times Excerpt: POINT HOPE, Alaska — This is one of the most remote towns in the United States, a small gravel spit on the northwest coast of Alaska, more than 3,700 miles from New York City. ...Needless to say, this is not the sort of place you expect to be a hub of the high-tech digital world. But in a surprising, and bittersweet, side effect of global warming — and of the global economy — one of the fastest internet connections in America is arriving in Point Hope, giving the 700 or so residents their first taste of broadband speed. The new connection is part of an ambitious effort by Quintillion, a five-year old company based in Anchorage, to take advantage of the melting sea ice to build a faster digital link between London and Tokyo....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/world/australia/elon-musk-south-australia-battery.html Source:   By Adam Baidawi, The New York Times Excerpt: ADELAIDE, Australia — The state of South Australia announced on Friday that it had powered up the world’s biggest battery ahead of schedule: a feat already being heralded as one of this century’s first great engineering marvels and a potential solution to the country’s energy woes. The battery is the size of an American football field ...capable of powering 30,000 homes, and its rapid deployment reflects the union of a blackout-prone state and a flashy entrepreneur, Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors, who pledged to complete its construction in 100 days or do it for free. ...Debate over the battery’s potential has become intense. Federal lawmakers who favor fossil fuels argue that its impact is being exaggerated, while supporters gush that the state’s embrace of Mr. Musk could change the future of energy in Australia — and the worl...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/world/americas/peru-climate-change.html Source:   By Nicholas Casey, The New York Times Excerpt: Accelerating glacial melt in the Andes caused by climate change has set off a gold rush downstream, letting the desert bloom. But as the ice vanishes, the vast farms below may do the same....

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/how-earths-orbit-affected-ice-sheets-millions-of-years-ago Source:   By Emily Underwood, Eos/AGU Excerpt: When Earth’s atmosphere warms, the vast sheets of ice over Antarctica and Greenland melt. This melting, in addition to the thermal expansion of water, leads to rising sea levels. Although it’s clear that seas are rising at an increasing rate, scientists can’t yet precisely predict how fast or how much they will rise in the future. Now, scientists are using climate and fossil data from one of the warmest periods in Earth’s history to help improve our understanding of ice sheet and sea level behavior in a warmer-than-modern world. When scientists look for hints of how Earth’s warming climate will affect ice sheets, they often refer to the late Pliocene era, between 3.264 and 3.025 million years ago. During this period, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere ranged between 300 and 450 parts per million (ppm)—as a reference po...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/climate/un-bonn-climate-talks.html Source:    Brad Plumer,  Lisa Friedman,  The New York Times 2017-11-18. At Bonn Climate Talks, Stakes Get Higher in Gamble on Planet’s Future. By Brad Plumer, The New York Times. Excerpt: Perhaps the most revealing moment at this year’s United Nations climate talks came on Wednesday, when Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany addressed the nearly 200 nations gathered here. ...Ms. Merkel acknowledged that Germany was likely to miss the goals it had set itself for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 because of its continued reliance on coal power....  https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/18/climate/un-bonn-climate-talks.html  --- 2017-11-18. What Happened (and Didn’t) at the Bonn Climate Talks. By Lisa Friedman and Brad Plumer. The New York Times. Excerpt: ...After wrangling through the night, the 23rd conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change wrapped up earl...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/business/tesla-electric-truck.html Source:    By Neal E. Boudette, The New York Time Excerpt: HAWTHORNE, Calif. — ...Elon Musk, Tesla on Thursday unveiled a prototype for a battery-powered, nearly self-driving semi truck that the company said would prove more efficient and less costly to operate than the diesel trucks that now haul goods across the country. And of course, it will emit no exhaust. In a surprise, Mr. Musk also showed he was not letting up on the car side of the business, unveiling a new Tesla Roadster that he said would be able to reach 60 miles per hour in 1.9 seconds and travel 620 miles before needing to recharge. ...It has a top speed of at least 250 miles per hour, said Mr. Musk, ... “The point of doing this is to give a hard-core smackdown to gasoline cars,” ...“You’ll be able to drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco and back.” ...He said the truck ...would have a single-charge range of 500 miles, ...go from zero to...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/16/us/keystone-pipeline-leaks-south-dakota.html Source:   By Mitch Smith and Julie Bosman, The New York Times Excerpt: About 5,000 barrels of oil, or about 210,000 gallons, gushed out of the Keystone Pipeline on Thursday in South Dakota, blackening a grassy field in the remote northeast part of the state and sending cleanup crews and emergency workers scrambling to the site. ...The spill, near Amherst, S.D., comes just days before regulators in neighboring Nebraska decide whether to grant the final permit needed to begin construction on a different pipeline proposal, the Keystone XL, which would be operated by the same company. An announcement in Nebraska is expected on Monday. ...Opponents of Keystone XL, which is proposed to run about 1,100 miles and would become part of the Keystone system, quickly cited Thursday’s spill as evidence of the risks posed by such pipelines, and urged Nebraska regulators to take note. “We’ve always said it’s not a ...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/11/climate/houston-flooding-climate.html Source:   By Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times Excerpt: HOUSTON — The mayhem that Hurricane Harvey unleashed on Houston didn’t only come from the sky. On the ground, it came sweeping in from the Katy Prairie some 30 miles west of downtown. ...Climate change holds a mirror up to every place its impact is felt. Global warming may not specifically have caused Harvey, any more than a single major league home run can be attributed to steroids. That said, scientists have little doubt that climate change is making storms worse and more frequent. The floods that ravaged Houston on Memorial Day in 2015 and in April of 2016 — now called the Tax Day flood — left behind billions of dollars in damage. Coming right after those events, Harvey has led even some pro-development enthusiasts to rethink the city and its surroundings. ...“Three 500-year floods in three years means either we’re free and clear fo...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/us/virgin-islands-hurricanes.html Source:   By Richard Pérez-Peña, The New York Times Excerpt: Hurricanes Irma and Maria both hit the United States Virgin Islands in September as rare Category 5 storms, but the devastation there has been largely overshadowed by the damage and death this year’s hurricane season left behind in Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean nations. The United States Virgin Islands were as hard-hit as any place in the country; in a territory with just 103,000 residents, more than 33,000 individuals and families have applied for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and government agencies reported on Thursday that 73 percent of customers still had no power. The storms so denuded the islands’ lush vegetation that where they once showed up in satellite photos as a green jewels in the sea, they were brown after the hurricanes passed.... 

https://science2017.globalchange.gov/ Source:  By U.S. Global Change Research Program, Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.) Excerpt: This report is an authoritative assessment of the science of climate change, with a focus on the United States. It represents the first of two volumes of the Fourth National Climate Assessment, mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. [from Executive Summary:]... Global annually averaged surface air temperature has increased by about 1.8°F (1.0°C) over the last 115 years (1901–2016). This period is now the warmest in the history of modern civilization. The last few years have also seen record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes, and the last three years have been the warmest years on record for the globe. These trends are expected to continue over climate timescales. This assessment concludes, based on extensive evidence, that it is extremely likely that human ...

https://eos.org/articles/ipcc-chair-discusses-limiting-global-warming-to-1-5c Source:   By Randy Showstack, Eos/AGU Excerpt: Several forthcoming reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change examine what needs to be done to take control of our climate future. ...With a United Nations climate change conference scheduled for Bonn, Germany, from 6 to 17 November, two high-level reports released this week warn about the increasing risk of climate change. In addition, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is working on a separate report, to be issued in 2018, about the effects of global warming at 1.5°C above preindustrial levels. A 30 October report from the World Meteorological Organization warned that in 2016, globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide surged in 1 year from 400 to 403.3 parts per million, the highest level in 800,000 years. Also, a 31 October report from the United Nations (UN) sounds an alarm about the need for accelerated short...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/climate/what-is-climate-change.html Source:   By Justin Gillis, The New York Times 2017-11. . . For GSS Climate Change chapter 10. Excerpt: We know. Global warming is daunting. So here’s a place to start: 17 often-asked questions with some straightforward answers.... 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/science/gulf-oil-spill-louisiana.html Source:   By Christina Caron, The New York Times 2017-10-29. . . For GSS Energy Use chapter 3 and Ecosystem Change chapter 1 or 7. Excerpt: Mention oil spills, and images of birds coated in black slime and a shiny slick on the ocean’s surface come to mind. But not all oil spills are the same. About 672,000 gallons of oil spilled when a pipeline fractured about a mile below the ocean’s surface this month in the Gulf of Mexico southeast of Venice, La., .... Hardly any of it was visible. ...16,000 barrels is “a pretty substantial leak,” said Edward B. Overton, an emeritus professor of environmental sciences at Louisiana State University who is studying the environmental effects of Deepwater Horizon. “But it was not enough on the surface to warrant a cleanup response.” In this case, the oil degraded quickly, in part because of environmental forces. ...most of the oil droplets that escaped from the pipe...were ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/climate/olive-oil.html Source:   By Somini Sengupta, The New York Times 2017-10-24. . . For GSS Climate Change chapter 8. Excerpt: ... Ms. Guidobaldi, an eighth-generation olive grower, bought water by the truckload, nearly every day, for most of the summer. The heat wave that swept across southern Europe this summer, which scientists say bore the fingerprints of human-induced climate change, is only the latest bout of strange weather to befall the makers of olive oil. Some years, like this one, the heat comes early and stays. Other years, it rains so much — as it did in 2014 — that the olive fly breeds like crazy, leaving worms inside the olives. Or there’s an untimely frost when the fruits first form, ...Gone are the days when you could count on the mild “mezze stagioni,” or half-seasons, that olives rely on before and after the heat. Gone, too, is the cycle you could count on: one year good, next year not good. ...Now, a changing climate is...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/climate/gao-climate-change-cost.html Source:   By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times Excerpt: ...Fires, floods and hurricanes are already costing the federal government tens of billions of dollars a year and climate change will drive those costs ever higher in coming years, a new federal study warns. The report by the Government Accountability Office , Congress’s auditing arm, urges the Trump administration to take climate change risks seriously and begin formulating a response. The study, scheduled to be released Tuesday, says that different sectors of the economy and different parts of the country will be harmed in ways that are difficult to predict. But one estimate projects that rising temperatures could cause losses in labor productivity of as much as $150 billion by 2099, while changes in some crop yields could cost as much as $53 billion. The Southwest will suffer more costly wildfires, the Southeast will see more heat-related deaths and...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/climate/epa-scientists.html Source:   By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times Excerpt: The Environmental Protection Agency has canceled the speaking appearance of three agency scientists who were scheduled to discuss climate change at a conference on Monday in Rhode Island, according to the agency and several people involved. ...Scientists involved in the program said that much of the discussion at the event centers on climate change. Many said they were surprised by the E.P.A.’s last-minute cancellation, particularly since the agency helps to fund the Narragansett Bay Estuary Program, which is hosting the conference. The scientists who have been barred from speaking contributed substantial material to a 400-page report to be issued on Monday. ...“It’s definitely a blatant example of the scientific censorship we all suspected was going to start being enforced at E.P.A.,” said John King, a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/climate/epa-climate-change.html Source:   By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times Excerpt: The Environmental Protection Agency has removed dozens of online resources dedicated to helping local governments address climate change, part of an apparent effort by the agency to play down the threat of global warming. A new analysis made public on Friday found that an E.P.A. website has been scrubbed of scores of links to materials to help local officials prepare for a world of rising temperatures and more severe storms. The site, previously the E.P.A.’s “Climate and Energy Resources for State, Local and Tribal Governments” has been renamed “Energy Resources for State, Local and Tribal Governments.” About 15 mentions of the words “climate change” have been removed from the main page alone, the study found. Among the now-missing pages are those detailing the risks of climate change and the different approaches states are taking to curb emissions. Also ed...

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tubbs-Fire-unleashed-fiery-tornadoes-that-12289228.php Source:   By Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle Excerpt: The Tubbs Fire that raged through Santa Rosa last week unleashed a series of fiery tornadoes powerful enough to flip cars, yank trees out of the ground and rip homes apart, fire scientists said Wednesday. Gusts of up to 73 mph were recorded at the weather stations after the fires broke out Oct. 8, but the extraordinary damage documented during postmortem evaluations indicated that much more powerful forces were at play. “We had trees ripped out of the ground, cars turned over, garage doors ripped off their hinges and wrapped around trees in the front yards,” said Scott Upton, the northern region chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and an expert on fire behavior. “It was no different than a hurricane, really, but instead of rain we had a fire event. I’ve been in this business 30 years and it’s t...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/14/world/australia/australia-adani-carmichael-coal-mine.html Source:   By Jacqueline Williams, The New York Times Excerpt: ...In a desolate corner of northeastern Australia, about 100 miles from the nearest town, a grassy stretch of prime grazing land sits above a vein of coal so rich and deep that it could be mined for decades. The Australian government is considering a proposal to build one of the world’s largest coal mines in this remote locale, known as the Galilee Basin, where acacia and eucalyptus trees grow wild between scattered creeks. An Indian conglomerate, the Adani Group, has asked for a taxpayer-financed loan of as much as $800 million to make the enormous project viable, promising to create thousands of jobs in return. But the plan has met intense opposition in Australia and abroad, focusing attention on a question with global resonance: Given the threat of climate change and the slowing global demand for coal, does the world reall...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/business/general-motors-electric-cars.html Source:   By Bill Vlasic and Neal E. Boudette, The New York Times. Excerpt: DETROIT — China has said it will eventually ban gasoline-powered cars. California may be moving in the same direction. That pressure has set off a scramble by the world’s car companies to embrace electric vehicles. On Monday, General Motors, America’s largest automaker, ... announced plans for 20 new all-electric models by 2023, including two within the next 18 months. ...after the G.M. news emerged, Ford let loose with its own announcement, saying it would add 13 electrified models over the next several years, with a five-year investment of $4.5 billion. “General Motors believes in an all-electric future,” said Mark L. Reuss, G.M.’s global product chief. “Although that future won’t happen overnight, G.M. is committed to driving increased usage and acceptance of electric vehicles.” ...it is regulatory pressure that is revving ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/climate/california-climate-change.html Source:   By Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times Excerpt: SACRAMENTO — The Trump administration may appear to control climate policy in Washington, but the nation’s most dynamic environmental regulator is here in California. Mary D. Nichols, California’s electric-car-driving, hoodie-wearing, 72-year-old air quality regulator, is pressing ahead with a far-reaching agenda of environmental and climate actions. She says she will not let the Trump administration stand in her way. ...For now, Scott Pruitt, the administrator of the E.P.A., has said that he will not seek to revoke the federal waiver that allows California to set auto emissions standards — an action that would likely propel the issue to court. Automakers, similarly, have not publicly asked for such a move. ...For much of the 20th century, swaths of Southern California were hit with smog outbreaks that turned the skies so dark that locals once misto...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/09/25/a-key-antarctic-glacier-just-lost-a-piece-of-ice-four-times-the-size-of-manhattan/ Source:   By Chris Mooney, The Washington Post Excerpt: An enormous Antarctic glacier has given up an iceberg over 100 square miles in size, the second time in two years it has lost such a large piece in a process that has scientists wondering whether its behavior is changing for the worse. The Pine Island Glacier is one of the largest in West Antarctica, ...which loses an extraordinary 45 billion tons of ice to the ocean each year — equivalent to 1 millimeter of global sea level rise every eight years — is 25 miles wide where its floating front touches the sea, and rests on the seafloor in waters more than a half-mile deep. The single glacier alone contains 1.7 feet of potential global sea level rise and is thought to be in a process of unstable, ongoing retreat. ...on Saturday, Stef Lhermitte , a satellite observa...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/22/climate/arctic-sea-ice-shrinking-trend-watch.html Source:   By Nadja Popovich, Henry Fountain, Adam Pearce, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Arctic sea ice has been in steep decline since the late 1970s, when satellite images were first used to study the region. NASA says that the extent of ice covering Arctic waters has fallen by 13 percent per decade. The 10 lowest ice minimums — measured each September, after the summer thaw — have all been recorded since 2007. Scientists say the disappearance of sea ice is largely a result of climate change, with the Arctic warming at a faster rate than any other region....

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/09/18/solar-fuel-system-recycles-co2-for-ethanol-ethylene/ Source:   By Sarah Yang, Berkeley Lab News Center For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have harnessed the power of photosynthesis to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and alcohols at efficiencies far greater than plants. The achievement marks a significant milestone in the effort to move toward sustainable sources of fuel. ...said Berkeley Lab chemist Frances Houle, JCAP deputy director for Science and Research Integration, who was not part of the study. “This is a big step forward in the design of devices for efficient CO2 reduction and testing of new materials, and it provides a clear framework for the future advancement of fully integrated solar-driven CO2-reduction devices.”...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/15/climate/does-climate-change-cause-hurricanes-drought.html Source:   By Nadja Popovich, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: It’s been a hectic end to summer, meteorologically speaking. Back-to-back hurricanes raked Texas, Florida and the Caribbean. A Labor Day heat wave broke temperature records in San Francisco and strained California’s electricity grid. Wildfires continue to rage in the Pacific Northwest. This string of extreme events has brought new focus to a familiar question: Is climate change to blame?...

  https://eos.org/opinions/taking-the-pulse-of-the-planet Source:   By Lijing Cheng, Kevin E. Trenberth, John Fasullo, John Abraham, Tim P. Boyer, Karina von Schuckmann, and Jiang Zhu, Eos (AGU) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: How fast is Earth warming? Ocean heat content and sea level rise measurements may provide a more reliable answer than atmospheric measurements. Humans have released carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in sufficient quantity to change the composition of the atmosphere (Figure 1). The result is an accumulation of heat in Earth’s system, commonly referred to as global warming. Earth’s climate has responded to this influx of heat through higher temperatures in the atmosphere, land, and ocean. This warming, in turn, has melted ice, raised sea levels, and increased the frequency of extreme weather events: heat waves and heavy rains, for example. The results of these weather events include wildfires and flooding, among other things [Intergove...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/science/parasites-extinction-climate-change.html Source:   By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...Recently, scientists carried out the first large-scale study of what climate change may do to the world’s much-loathed parasites. The team came to a startling conclusion: as many as one in three parasite species may face extinction in the next century. As global warming raises the planet’s temperature, the researchers found, many species will lose territory in which to survive. Some of their hosts will be lost, too. “It still absolutely blows me away,” said Colin J. Carlson, lead author of the study and a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley. ...Researchers have begun carefully studying the roles that parasites play. They make up the majority of the biomass in some ecosystems, outweighing predators sharing their environments by a factor of 20 to 1....

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Did-climate-change-cause-the-heat-wave-The-12181543.php Source:   By Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle For Investigation:   Excerpt: ...There’s still no simple answer to the question, “Was that hurricane caused by climate change?” But scientists can now often say whether an event was more likely, and more severe, due to the warming planet. A team of experts at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, among the pioneers of the evolving science of extreme event attribution, estimated that human-caused climate change probably raised temperatures in California by as much as 4 degrees last week. Similar accounting has been done for the California drought and strings of wildfires across the West, as well as the catastrophic hurricanes Harvey and Irma, whose devastation continues to unfold. ...While scientists can’t blame climate change for causing any one weather system, studies have found that past heat waves in both the U.S. and ab...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/why-are-arctic-rivers-rising-in-winter Source:   By Emily Underwood, Eos/AGU For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Increased glacial melt is boosting winter streamflows by filling aquifers, a new study on an Alaskan river suggests. Alaska’s glacier-fed, braided Tanana River is home to some of the world’s highest-quality salmon fisheries, which have provided sustenance for humans for nearly 12,000 years. Like many Arctic rivers, however, the Tanana and its tributaries are transforming because of rising global temperatures. One prominent change in recent decades is a steady rise in Arctic rivers’ winter flow, which has long puzzled researchers because there is no commensurate increase in precipitation in the Tanana River watershed. Now, a new study suggests that melting glaciers may drive this increased flow by amplifying headwater runoff, the water that drains the mountain region, which is partly lost to the underlying aquifer. In turn, the...

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/357/6354/853 Source:   By Julia Rosen, Science For Investigation:   10.3 Summary: Hurricane Harvey was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2005, but in some ways, it was long overdue. For decades now, tropical storms have been getting a boost from a powerful but still mysterious long-term cycle in North Atlantic sea surface temperatures, which appears to be holding steady in its warm, storm-spawning phase. This cycle, called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), swings between warm and cool phases every 20 to 60 years, shifting North Atlantic temperatures by a degree or so and setting the backdrop for hurricane season. Since about 1995, the AMO has been in a warm state, but researchers aren't sure where it's headed next. The AMO has traditionally been attributed to natural shifts in ocean currents, and some think it's on the cusp of shifting back toward a cool, quiescent phase. But others pr...

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/08/hurricane-harvey-provides-lab-us-forecast-experiments Source:   By Paul Voosen, Science For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: For years, U.S. forecasters have envied their colleagues at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) in Reading, U.K., whose hurricane prediction models remain the gold standard. Infamously, the National Weather Service (NWS) in 2012 failed to predict Hurricane Sandy’s turn into New Jersey, whereas ECMWF was spot on. But two innovations tested during Hurricane Harvey, one from NASA and another from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), could help level the playing field. ...Last week, GFDL [NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory] anxiously watched the developing storm to see how it compared with a test run of the next-generation model. On Thursday, a day prior to landfall, the experiment agreed with the European model that Harvey would plow inland, stall, then hea...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/world/americas/chile-green-energy-geothermal.html Source:   By Ernesto Londoño, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: ...they draw steam from the earth at South America’s first geothermal energy plant. With the ability to power roughly 165,000 homes, the new plant is yet another step in Chile’s clean energy transformation. This nation’s rapidly expanding clean energy grid, which includes vast solar fields and wind farms, is one of the most ambitious in a region that is decisively moving beyond fossil fuels. Latin America already has the world’s cleanest electricity, having long relied on dams to generate a large share of its energy needs, according to the World Bank. But even beyond those big hydropower projects, investment in renewable energy in Latin America has increased 11-fold since 2004, nearly double the global rate, according to a 2016 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, an intergovernmental organ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/world/asia/guam-north-korea-climate-change.html Source:   By Mike Ives, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: HONG KONG — The island of Guam made rare headlines this week when North Korea, responding to blustery language from President Trump, threatened to fire four ballistic missiles into waters near the American territory’s shores. ...Scientists in Guam, however, say they have at least one other major threat in mind: climate change. “We know that it’s serious,” said Austin J. Shelton III, a marine biologist and the executive director of the Center for Island Sustainability at the University of Guam. “Some of the impacts are here, and a lot more are coming.” Like other Pacific islands, Guam may be affected in the coming decades as climate change prompts shifts in weather, temperature and oceanic acidity, according to the Environmental Protection Agency....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/10/climate/climate-change-lawsuits-courts.html Source:   By John Schwartz, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Several groups and individuals around the United States have gone to court to try to do what the Trump administration has so far declined to do: confront the causes and effects of global warming. In California, two counties and a city recently sued 37 fossil fuel companies, seeking funds to cover the costs of dealing with a warming world. In Oregon, a federal lawsuit brought on behalf of young people is moving toward a February trial date.... And more than a dozen state attorneys general have sued to block Trump administration moves to roll back environmental regulations. Efforts in the United States are part of a wave of litigation around the world, including a 2015 decision in which a court in the Netherlands ordered the Dutch government to toughen its climate policies; that case is under appeal. A 2017 report f...

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40877099 Source:   By Matt McGrath, BBC News Environment correspondent For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Fires are rare on an island where 80% of the land is covered by ice up to 3km thick in places. However, satellites have observed smoke and flames north-east of a town called Sisimiut since 31 July. Experts believe at least two fires are burning in peat that may have dried out as temperatures have risen. ...Prof McCarthy believes that melting permafrost is likely to have contributed to this outbreak. She referred to studies carried out in the region that showed degraded permafrost around the town of Sisimiut. Locals say that what they call "soil fires" have happened before, especially in the last 20-30 years....  See also Southern Greenland Wildfire Extinguished

https://eos.org/editors-vox/preventing-climate-change-by-increasing-ocean-alkalinity Source:   Phil Renforthon, Eos/AGU For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: The oceans contain more carbon than soils, plants, animals and the atmosphere combined. Every cubic meter of seawater contains about 120 grams of negatively charged bicarbonate ions, which are balanced with positive ions such as calcium and magnesium. This carbon pool was created naturally over millions of years by mineral weathering. A recent review article published in Reviews of Geophysics explores the possibility of accelerating weathering processes to increase bicarbonate ions in the ocean, and thus prevent climate change and potentially ameliorate ocean acidification. The editors asked one of the authors some questions about the scientific basis for this idea and how it might work in practice....

http://news.berkeley.edu/2017/08/03/climate-policies-study-shows-inland-empire-economic-boon/ Source:   By Jacqueline Sullivan, UC Berkeley News For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: According to the first comprehensive study of the economic effects of climate programs in California’s Inland Empire, Riverside and San Bernardino counties experienced a net benefit of $9.1 billion in direct economic activity and 41,000 jobs from 2010 through 2016. Researchers at UC Berkeley’s Center for Labor Research and Education and the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at Berkeley Law report that many of these jobs were created by one-time construction investments associated with building renewable energy power plants. These investments, they say, helped rekindle the construction industry, which experienced major losses during the Great Recession. When accounting for the spillover effects, the researchers report in their study commissioned by nonpartisan, nonprofit group Next 10, t...

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/seas-rise-trees-die-climate-change-eyes-48961148 Source:   By Wayne Parry, Associated Press For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: They're called "ghost forests" — dead trees along vast swaths of coastline invaded by rising seas, something scientists call one of the most visible markers of climate change. The process has happened naturally for thousands of years, but it has accelerated in recent decades as polar ice melts and raises sea levels, scientists say, pushing salt water farther inland and killing trees in what used to be thriving freshwater plains. ..."I think ghost forests are the most obvious indicator of climate change anywhere on the Eastern coast of the U.S.," said Matthew Kirwan, a professor at Virginia Institute of Marine Science who is studying ghost forests in his state and Maryland. "It was dry, usable land 50 years ago; now it's marshes with dead stumps and dead trees." It is happening...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/26/world/europe/uk-diesel-petrol-emissions.html Source:   By Stephen Castle, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: LONDON — Scrambling to combat a growing air pollution crisis, Britain announced on Wednesday that sales of new diesel and gas cars would reach the end of the road by 2040, the latest step in Europe’s battle against the damaging environmental impact of the internal combustion engine. Britain’s plans match a similar pledge made this month by France, and are part of a growing global push to curb emissions and fight climate change by promoting electric cars. Carmakers are also adjusting, with Volvo notably saying recently that it would phase out the internal combustion engine in the coming years and BMW deciding to build an electric version of its popular Mini car in Britain....

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/are-humans-to-blame-for-worsening-heat-waves-in-china Source:   By Emily Underwood, Eos/AGU For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: A new study suggests that even hotter events will follow unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced. At least 40 people died during China’s record-breaking 2013 heat wave, when temperatures spiked to more than 105°F. The deadly event was just one of a string of intensifying heat waves that have hit the country over the past 50 years, and a new study finds that these events can be attributed in part to human-made climate change. Under business-as-usual carbon emissions, such extreme temperatures will become the new normal across roughly 50% of China’s landmass, the authors warn....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/17/climate/global-warming-air-travel.html Source:   By Aneri Pattani, The New York Times For Investigation:   Excerpt: Rising temperatures and more frequent heat waves could force up to 30 percent of airplanes to delay takeoffs in the coming decades, causing cancellations, missed connections and other hassles for passengers, and dealing a financial blow to the industry, a new study finds. As air warms, its density decreases. The wings of a plane moving down the runway on a hot day generate less lift. If it’s hot enough, the plane won’t be able to take off at all, according to the study, published in the journal Climatic Change. The plane can either delay departure or lighten its load by removing fuel, cargo or passengers. The consequences could affect passengers, airlines and airports worldwide, said Radley Horton, co-author and climatologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/climate/greenhouse-gases-spike-noaa-global-warming.html Source:   By Lisa Friedman, The New York Times For Investigation:    10.3 Excerpt: The climate-warming influence of greenhouse gas emissions rose more quickly last year than it has in nearly three decades, an increase scientists attributed in part to a strong El Niño weather pattern, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported this week. The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index also shows that the warming ability of global emissions of greenhouse gases, primarily driven by the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity, increased 40 percent between 1990 and 2016, a significant measure of man’s influence on the climate. Unlike most news releases accompanying the index during the Obama administration, NOAA’s announcement this year does not directly link human activity to emissions. “The role of greenhouse gases on influencing global temperatures is well understood ...

Source:   By Kurtis Alexander, San Francisco Chronicle 2017-07-12. . . For GSS Climate Change chapter 8. Excerpt: Coastal neighborhoods in several [San Francisco] Bay Area cities are likely to face such frequent flooding from rising sea levels over the next century that residents will simply pack up and leave, according to a new study of the effects of climate change. Every local county will be dealing with frequent inundation of its bay shoreline by 2100, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists . The group said its report and accompanying maps, published in the peer-reviewed journal Elementa, are the first nationwide effort to identify the point at which coastal communities face the no-win decision of having to flee or fight sea level rise.... http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Scientists-expect-floods-in-Bay-Area-from-rising-11284750.php

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2017/07/12/massive-iceberg-breaks-off-antarctica/102637874/ Source:   By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY For Investigation:   Excerpt: One of the largest icebergs ever recorded broke off from an ice shelf in Antarctica, British scientists announced Wednesday. The 1 trillion ton iceberg, with twice of the volume of Lake Erie, broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf between Monday and Wednesday, according to Project MIDAS, which has been monitoring the shelf. At 2,200 square miles, the chunk of floating ice is nearly the size of Delaware. ...The calving reduced the size of the ice shelf by some 12%. “We have been anticipating this event for months, and have been surprised how long it took for the rift to break through the final few kilometers (miles) of ice," [Adrian Luckman, a professor of Swansea University and the lead investigator of Project MIDAS] said. ...Project MIDAS said there is no evidence to directly link the calving of the i...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/business/energy-environment/france-cars-ban-gas-diesel.html Source:   By Jack Ewing, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: France is joining a growing movement to force the extinction of vehicles that run on fossil fuels, saying on Thursday that it would aim to end the sale of gasoline and diesel cars by 2040. The target is less ambitious than ones set by countries like Norway and India. Still, coming from a major car-producing country, France’s declaration gave additional momentum to efforts to fight climate change and urban smog by promoting the use of electric cars. ...On Wednesday, Volvo said that all of its new models beginning in 2019 would be either battery-powered cars or hybrids that combined electric motors with diesel or gasoline engines....    See also: Volvo to use electric motors in all cars from 2019 .

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/floating-solar-farms-catch-california Source:   By Corey Binns, NRDC OnEarth For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: In Sonoma, California, the most important renewable resource will always be grapes. Sonoma’s vineyards, framed by picturesque rolling green hills, produce some of the best wines on the planet; tourists flock to the region to sample the latest pinots and admire the scenery. “People like the rolling, grassy hills,” says local resident Dale Roberts. But as principal engineer at the Sonoma County Water Agency, Roberts is focused on another homegrown renewable: clean energy. So behind the scenes in Sonoma, he’s been busy “juicing” the landscape in a way that’s quite different from the neighboring vintners’ activities. To be specific, Roberts and his colleagues have begun to launch floating solar panels on six of the agency’s ponds, which hold recycled water saved for irrigation during drought years. When all panels are up and running, by ...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/01/climate/china-energy-companies-coal-plants-climate-change.html Source:   By Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: When China halted plans for more than 100 new coal-fired power plants this year, even as President Trump vowed to “bring back coal” in America, the contrast seemed to confirm Beijing’s new role as a leader in the fight against climate change. But new data on the world’s biggest developers of coal-fired power plants paints a very different picture: China’s energy companies will make up nearly half of the new coal generation expected to go online in the next decade. These Chinese corporations are building or planning to build more than 700 new coal plants at home and around the world, some in countries that today burn little or no coal, according to tallies compiled by Urgewald, an environmental group based in Berlin. Many of the plants are in China, but by capacity, roughly a fifth of these new ...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/massive-waves-of-melting-greenland-ice-warped-earths-crust Source:   By Emily Underwood, Earth & Space Science News (EoS, AGU) For Investigation:   Excerpt: Greenland’s roughly 1.7 million square kilometer ice sheet has waxed and waned for millennia, with slabs of ice calving into the sea during the summer and snow building the sheet back up in the winter. In recent decades, however, warming temperatures have caused the ice to melt faster than it can refreeze, sending large volumes of freshwater into the ocean. In a new study, Adhikari et al. deduced that the record-setting ice melts of 2010 and 2012 triggered a strange phenomenon: the propagation of an enormous solitary ice wave. This pulse traveled down glacier for many kilometers. The Earth’s crust is elastic, meaning that it changes shape with the redistribution of mass on its surface, much like the deformation of a foam mattress. When a glacier melts, as 95% of the Rink Glacie...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/how-shifting-winds-turn-tropical-storms-into-hurricanes Source:   By Emily Underwood, Earth & Space Science News (EoS, AGU) For Investigation:  10.3, 3.1, 3.2 Excerpt: Wind is a fickle force, frequently changing speed and direction. When this variation occurs over a short distance, it is called wind shear. Such sudden reversals are the bane of airline pilots because they can cause planes to lose altitude or change course. They can also disrupt the structure and trajectory of tropical cyclones, rotating complexes of thunderstorms that can strengthen into hurricanes if their path is undisturbed. The more wind shear one of these storms encounters, the more likely it is to be thrown off balance, wobbling like a top as its spin weakens. ...a recent study by Onderlinde and Nolan ...used a modified version of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model with a high-resolution grid (points separated by 2 kilometers) centered on developing tr...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/26/climate/carbon-in-atmosphere-is-rising-even-as-emissions-stabilize.html Source:   By Justin Gillis, The New York Times For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: CAPE GRIM, Tasmania — ...a bank of sophisticated machines sniffs that air day and night, revealing telltale indicators of the way human activity is altering the planet on a major scale. For more than two years, the monitoring station here, along with its counterparts across the world, has been flashing a warning: The excess carbon dioxide scorching the planet rose at the highest rate on record in 2015 and 2016. A slightly slower but still unusual rate of increase has continued into 2017. Scientists are concerned about the cause of the rapid rises because, in one of the most hopeful signs since the global climate crisis became widely understood in the 1980s, the amount of carbon dioxide that people are pumping into the air seems to have stabilized in recent years, at least judging from th...

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/world-rsquo-s-largest-wind-turbine-would-be-taller-than-the-empire-state-building/ Source:   By Annie Sneed, Scientific American For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Wind energy is soaring in the U.S.; the nation’s renewable energy capacity has more than tripled in the past nine years, and wind and solar power are largely responsible. Now businesses want to harness even more wind energy, at a cheaper price—and one of the best ways to lower cost is to build bigger turbines. That’s why an alliance of six institutions led by researchers at the University of Virginia are designing the world’s largest wind turbine at 500 meters tall—almost a third of a mile high, and about 57 meters taller than the Empire State Building. ...The team also envisions these gigantic structures standing at least 80 kilometers offshore, where winds tend to be stronger and where people on land cannot see or hear them, according to Loth. But powerful storms hit...

https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/great-barrier-reef-25000000-bc-ad-2017 Source:   By Jeff Turrentine, NRDC OnEarth For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef isn’t dead yet. But it’s dying. What’s killing the largest coral reef system on the planet? The short answer is us. We’re killing it via warmer waters, ocean acidification, pollution, poaching, and overfishing. Right now, scientists are most concerned about something called coral bleaching. ...Bleaching typically occurs when warm water stresses the coral polyps—the trillions of tiny animals that make up a reef—causing them to expel zooxanthellae, the photosynthetic algae that live within the polyps and serve as their principal food source, as well as the source of their Technicolor appearance. Though bleached coral isn’t dead, it’s weakened significantly by the loss of these algae; as a result, it’s far more likely to become diseased and to die. And while coral can recover, it generally takes about...

https://eos.org/research-spotlights/the-future-of-earth-looks-drier-but-just-how-dry Source:   By Sarah Stanley, Earth & Space Science News (EoS, AGU) For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: As global warming progresses, factors that promote drought and aridity will outweigh a gentle rise in precipitation, scientists predict, leading to a net increase in aridity over Earth’s landmasses. However, recent research suggests that the calculations behind these predictions may overestimate future dryness because they rely too much on indirect atmospheric factors. Instead, some scientists have called for predictions based directly on projected changes in the water cycle itself, such as changes in runoff and soil moisture. To help resolve this issue, Berg et al. recently analyzed the future of soil moisture as predicted by 25 climate models from Phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5). Although previous studies have focused mostly on soil moisture down to a dep...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/08/business/energy-environment/oil-north-sea-shell.html Source:   By Stanley Reed, The New York Times For Investigation:   Excerpt: As the energy industry evolves, production platforms in the North Sea, once a crucial source of crude oil, are being dismantled and sold for scrap. Moored off the port of Rotterdam, Netherlands, Pioneering Spirit looms so large that it is difficult to recognize as a ship. The crew of 450 is dwarfed by the cranes and pipes that dominate the sprawling layers of decks. ...The British North Sea was once a crucial source of oil for the world. At its peak in 1999, it produced about 2.9 million barrels of oil a day, more than Kuwait or Iraq at the time. Since then, production has generally been in a long slide as oil fields discovered decades ago are exhausted and high costs discourage new exploration. Its diminishing fortunes have been cemented by the rise of renewables and the push for cleaner alternatives to oil. ...

http://climatefeedback.org/report-heartland-institute-sent-to-influence-us-teachers-on-climate-change-earns-an-f-from-scientists/ Source:   By climatefeedback.org For Investigation:   10.3 Excerpt: Tens of thousands of science teachers in the US have recently received an unsolicited booklet titled “Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming”, which looks like a scientific report. It was published by the Heartland Institute (self-described as a “free-market think tank”), which plans to send a copy to every public school science teacher in the nation—more than 200,000 K-12 teachers. So how accurate is this book meant to teach elements of the science of climate change to teachers? Climate Feedback asked scientists who actually work on these topics. Their conclusion: it could hardly score lower. Scientists found that almost all the claims that made it to the “Key Findings” section are incorrect, misleading, based on flawed logic, or simply factually inaccurate. See the list...