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What the U.S. climate report says about your state
Sarah van Schagen recounted how climate change will mess with salmon, skiing, and other essentials of life in the Pacific Northwest — according to the Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States report released today. As we say in Seattle, um… I don’t think we have a local saying for “oh crap.” globalchange.govLest you […]
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Gaia proponent Lovelock says it’s time to adapt to inevitable global heating
James Lovelock speaking at the World Nuclear Association Symposium in 2007Courtesy Jon and Lu via FlickrWhat is it with Preeminent Thinkers and intensely bleak public lectures? Two weeks ago Earth Institute economist Jeffrey Sachs, in an address at the Asia Society in New York, argued that climate change cannot be averted without massive use of […]
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Pacific Northwest says goodbye to salmon, skiing; hello to heat waves
The new U.S. climate change impacts report — on which we’ve been reporting all day — includes some hard-hitting regional data. For example, did you know that annual average temperatures in the Northwest rose about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century — with some areas seeing increases up to 4 degrees? And the rising […]
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Lots of great green stuff in the latest issue of The Atlantic
I haven’t read The Atlantic much lately, but I picked up the latest issue at the airport and it is superb. Three pieces are worth particular note. First, Joshua Green has a piece on “The Coming Green Economy” that is as good as anything I’ve ever read in popular media about the contours of the […]
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EPA refuses to reveal dangerous coal ash waste sites
Around the United States today, there are 44 coal ash waste disposal sites so hazardous that — were they to fail like the one at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston plant did last December — they could kill untold numbers of nearby residents. In fact, the sites are so dangerous that last week the federal […]
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Greenland ice sheet could raise East Coast sea levels 20 inches by 2100 – to over 6 feet
The eastern United States must plan on the very real possibility that total sea level rise by 2100 will exceed 6 feet on our current emissions path. Sadly, the Washington Post got the story only half right. This week I’ll focus on our best understanding of the impacts that Americans face from human-caused climate change. […]
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Robert F. Kennedy first challenged our Ponzi scheme pursuit of growth for growth’s sake
Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 41 years ago last week. He challenged our monomaniacal pursuit of GDP in “one of the most beautiful of his speeches,” as Obama described it an August 2008 NYT profile of his economic thinking. Obama is one of the few major politicians who constantly challenges our unsustainable economic worldview today […]
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How to get involved in the fight against climate change
Wondering what you can do? These groups have climate campaigns and info galore — check out their sites, connect with them on social networks, and get involved! Climate-focused groups 350.org A grassroots group led by author Bill McKibben and born out of the belief that climate change needs a robust social movement behind […]
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A tour through Indian energy projects suggests small is beautiful
A local irrigation project in southern India.Courtesy Michael Foley Photography via FlickrGeorge Black has a fascinating story about how India might lift its people out of poverty without torching the environment in the current issue of OnEarth, the magazine run by the Natural Resources Defense Council. Written largely as a travelogue through clean energy innovations […]
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The case for carbon speed limits
If the earth was a car, it would come with an operating instructions not to drive faster than 350 parts per million of carbon in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, like an unruly teenager, humanity – with the United States in the drivers seat – has already revved up the engine and broken all speed limits – […]
