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The most powerful climate video you’ll see all week
Bill McKibben published a must-read op-ed in The Washington Post last month about the connection between climate change and recent extreme weather events. Now Stephen Thomson has combined McKibben’s words with striking footage of the events he writes about. The result is a chilling must-see video:
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73 million sharks are dying for something that tastes lousy
As shark's fin soup becomes more popular in China, shark fishermen are killing as many as 73 million sharks each year in order to harvest their fins. It’s not because the fins are delicious, because they aren’t, says a local restaurateur. It’s just because people want to look rich. Shark's fin soup signals status, and […]
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How bad is climate change for your lungs?
Higher ozone concentrations could lead to more school absences.Photo: Ole OlsonA new study puts a hefty price tag on climate change by linking it to the air you breathe. The report, published last Thursday by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), concludes that CO2-induced temperature increases will worsen ground-level ozone concentrations (the kind coming from […]
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Industry-funded climate crank becomes a media darling
A new study examining TV news coverage of federal proposals to regulate global warming pollution has turned up evidence of journalistic malpractice when it comes to accurately informing viewers about one of the most critical issues of our time. It also shows how the mainstream media turned a relatively obscure climatologist into a star — […]
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Three energy developments that are changing your life — and not in a good way
This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. Here’s the good news about energy: Thanks to rising oil prices and deteriorating economic conditions worldwide, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that global oil demand will not grow this year as much as once assumed, which may provide some […]
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Watch the ad that made Australian climate scientists get death threats
I'm no Peggy Olson, but if someone asked me to put together an ad that would NOT cause anybody to get death threats, I'd probably say something like: "Make it positive and upbeat about the future. Throw a baby in there. Can we get Cate Blanchett? See if we can get Cate Blanchett." Positivity + […]
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The New Yorker slams oil-focused Obama for letting the planet burn
We’re screwed.Check out Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker: When Obama took office, he appointed some of the country’s most knowledgeable climate scientists to his Administration, and it seemed for a time as if he might take his responsibility to lead on this issue seriously. That hope has faded. The President sat on the sidelines […]
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How climate change is starving the world
It was supposed to take until 2080 for food prices to double. Sure, climate change can make arable land into irrigation-hungry desert, and increase the likelihood of crop-destroying severe weather (and wildfires). But ironically, increased carbon dioxide also helps plants grow, so this was all supposed to be under control for the foreseeable future. Turns […]
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What’s the relationship between climate change and Arizona’s forest fires?
A crazy-big forest fire is raging through Arizona, battled by 2,300 firefighters and covering 287 square miles. It's the third largest forest fire in the state's history. But is it a product of climate change? The short answer is that we have no idea until someone digs in to the specifics of this particular event. But […]
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Take a look at what we’ve done to fish populations
This image from Information is Beautiful (click to embiggen) shows the biomass of popularly-eaten fish (bluefin tuna, striped bass, all the ones you normally see in restaurants) in the northern Atlantic. On the left is 1900 — look at all that blue! Blue means 11 or more tons of fish in a given area. On […]
