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The warmer it gets, the more it snows in Antarctica. Huh?

by AlbertinaKimpton Posted on August 26, 2016

global weirding

The warmer it gets, the more it snows in Antarctica. Huh?

By on Aug 26, 2016Share

Antarctica is a weird place. While it’s losing ice faster than an heiress in a caper movie, it’s also getting a whole lot more snow — at least, it’s supposed to.

Warmer air holds more moisture, so globally warmed jet streams should dump even more snow over the frozen continent than they used to. Since Antarctica is cold as fuck, scientifically speaking, the snow won’t melt despite the warmer air, making the continent probably the only place on Earth where glaciers might actually grow (at least for the time being).

All that extra precipitation is good for the rest of us: Snow that falls on Antarctica is water that’s not adding to sea-level rise. While sea level is definitely increasing (you didn’t think it was that easy, did you?), Antarctica’s blizzard forecast could spare us a few critical inches.

But, so far, the snowfall has not increased as scientists expected. According to research published this week, that’s OK — there’s enough natural wobble-wobble in Antarctica’s climate to account for the lower-than-expected snow levels. In the next couple of decades, however, we should see the white stuff really start to pile up.

But as Antarctica’s ice sheets continue to crumble into the sea around the edges, faster and less predictably than scientists had hoped, we’ll need more than snow to save us.

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The warmer it gets, the more it snows in Antarctica. Huh?

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Climate change will cost millennials more than student debt or the Great Recession

by RobbieDelee Posted on August 23, 2016

the root of all evil

Climate change will cost millennials more than student debt or the Great Recession

By on Aug 23, 2016Share

It costs a lot to be young in the era of climate change — $187,000 per college-educated millennial, to be precise. That figure, which represents the amount of income lost over the lifetime of someone born in 1994, is significantly greater than the usual culprits blamed for young people’s economic challenges. Your old pals Student Debt and the Great Recession will only cost millennials $113,000 and $112,000 over their lives, respectively.

NextGen Climate

A new report from NextGen Climate, an environmental advocacy organization, quantifies the economic impacts of a rapidly changing global ecosystem. For the millennial generation as a whole, the price tag is nearly $8.8 trillion.

As communities scramble for resources to deal with various climate impacts, young people will pay for the ecological and social disasters created by older generations: rising sea levels, drought, declining crop productivity, heat-related health problems, wildfires — you name it. In response, incomes will plummet and tax bills will climb.

And if no action is taken, today’s 1-year-old babies will eventually bear an even bigger financial burden: $581,000 over the course of their lifetimes.

NextGen Climate

Millennials are certainly more saddled with student debt than any other generation, and in addition, we’ve lived through the second-worst economic crisis in the nation’s history. But those costs are small potatoes compared to what’s in store — unless we act fast.

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Climate change will cost millennials more than student debt or the Great Recession

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Exxon is looking for ways to slash carbon emissions

by HassanD97urycmei Posted on August 19, 2016

Exxon is looking for ways to slash carbon emissions

By on Aug 19, 2016Share

A new breakthrough in climate-change-fighting technology may come from, of all places … Exxon?

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. Exxon and other fossil fuel companies are under pressure from lawmakers and stakeholders to publicly own up to its role in causing climate change.

Instead of, say, diversifying its portfolio in renewables, the oil giant is looking for an alternate way to decrease their footprint — one that will let them keep burning fossil fuels.

Reuters reports that scientists from ExxonMobil and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a method to reduce carbon emissions from chemicals manufacturing. Currently, this is done using heat, but using a new method of reverse osmosis at room temperature theoretically would reduce the industry’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by up to 45 million tons if the technology were widely adopted, according to the company.

Now, if only they’d use all that brain power to create a time machine, go back to 50 years, and warn us about climate change when their own scientists first warned executives about it.

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Exxon is looking for ways to slash carbon emissions

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John Oliver to oil lobby: You bozos picked the wrong man to plagiarize

by NataliaSalcido0 Posted on August 15, 2016

Nah

John Oliver to oil lobby: You bozos picked the wrong man to plagiarize

By on Aug 15, 2016Share

Incredulous British person and Last Week Tonight host John Oliver has a new nemesis: the American Petroleum Institute.

Oliver pointed out on Sunday that the lobbying arm of the oil industry aired a commercial during the Rio Olympics that essentially carbon-copied the opening credit sequence of his own show. In response, he aired an imitation of one of API’s more shameless millennial-targeted ads.

A sunny, #relatable actress in Oliver’s version of the ad explains: “Did you know that [API] had research warning them about the link between fossil fuels and climate change as early as 1968? Maybe that’s why their logo looks like it’s being impaled by a polar bear’s dick.”

For the full ad, and more of Oliver’s thoughts on the organization that spent decades and millions of dollars fighting the public acceptance of climate change, watch the clip above.

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John Oliver to oil lobby: You bozos picked the wrong man to plagiarize

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Electric cars are so popular we’re running out of plugs

by ElidaHuskz Posted on August 11, 2016

Plug Ugly

Electric cars are so popular we’re running out of plugs

By on Aug 11, 2016Share

In Los Angeles, there are approximately 20 electric vehicles for every public electric car charger. In a fair and just world, that ratio should be more like four to one, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power told Utility Dive. But as things stand, L.A. Water and Power has some of the most heavily used car chargers in the state.

And this isn’t just true in L.A. — similar situations in other cities confirm that we’re staring down a plug shortage.

Faced with a world of cutthroat plug competition, many electric car owners choose to charge at home. But home charging often means that electric cars are pulling energy from the electrical grid during the time it’s used most heavily — i.e., nighttime hours when commuters come home, make dinner, watch The Bachelor in Paradise, have living room disco parties, et cetera. If electric cars could charge all day, they could actually help the grid work more efficiently.

A hundred years ago, drivers of gasoline-powered cars were in the same fix — gas stations were few and far between. Less than 1 percent of cars on the road are electric right now. But when that percentage gets higher, then we’ll see a serious plug boom.

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Electric cars are so popular we’re running out of plugs

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There’s a new toxin in your water to worry about, America

by VioletPHLsk Posted on August 11, 2016

This Mess Again

There’s a new toxin in your water to worry about, America

By on Aug 11, 2016Share

To add to the “what might kill me in my home today?” files: According to a new report from Harvard researchers, 33 states have high levels of industrial pollutants polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl (PFASs) in their municipal water supplies.

There are loads of chemicals in our water, but PFASs are pretty rough. They’ve been linked with cancer, hormone disruption, high cholesterol, and obesity. High levels of the toxins were found in the water supplies of at least 6 million people, according to study author Xindi Hu, but because the government doesn’t keep data on PFASs in drinking water for a third of the country, exposure is likely far more widespread.

How did so many PFASs get in the water supply? Well, they can be found in literally thousands of wildly varied products — from pizza boxes to camping gear. They’re the Max Martin of product manufacturing.

“Virtually all Americans are exposed to these compounds,” Hu told the Washington Post. “They never break down. Once they are released into the environment, they are there.”

Currently, PFASs aren’t regulated at all. But in May, EPA issued health advisories for polyfluoroalkyl substances, and asked utilities to follow stricter standards. But as Hu notes, we’re definitely stuck with them for now.

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There’s a new toxin in your water to worry about, America

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The Olympics keeps getting greener — well, the pools do, anyway

by LourdesManor Posted on August 10, 2016

algae whiz

The Olympics keeps getting greener — well, the pools do, anyway

By on Aug 10, 2016Share

This wasn’t part of Rio’s plan to host the greenest Olympics ever.

When the diving pool turned a frightening shade of St. Patty’s Day sometime Monday night, it caught us all off guard — including Tom Daley, a British diver.

Less than 24 hours later, it happened again.

The leading theory is that the green color was caused by algae. The “heat and a lack of wind” sapped the chlorine in the pool, a Rio spokesperson said. Apparently, it’s safe to swim in — at least, compared to the actual bodies of water that surround Rio, which are teeming with sewage and superbacteria.

Algae are a familiar menace in many waterways (not just of the swimming-pool variety). The harmful blue-green variety is made worse by phosphorous- and nitrogen-rich fertilizers, but climate change hasn’t helped matters either. Toxic algae blooms thrive best in warm, tepid waters, and the consequences are much bigger in freshwater than a change in color.

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The Olympics keeps getting greener — well, the pools do, anyway

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Here’s a new Olympic sport to consider: Safe sex

by JulianeStalling Posted on August 9, 2016

Smashing Records

Here’s a new Olympic sport to consider: Safe sex

By on Aug 9, 2016Share

Olympic organizers are supplying attendees with 450,000 condoms — fully three times the number available in London in 2012. “Would you be more inclined to rampantly bang in the country that gave us that guy from Love Actually, or the one that gave us that other guy from Love Actually?” pondered the Official Sexy Times Division of the International Olympic Committee, immediately before buying out several Costcos’ worth of prophylactics.

As Yahoo! Sports reports, the push for protection is partially attributed to anxieties around the Zika virus, which is sexually transmittable. But also, just as a general rule: If you’re going to have casual, celebratory, romping sex, do it with protection. Or as they say — adorably — in Brazil, with “a little shirt:”

I know what you’re thinking: “But wouldn’t it be a fantastic thing if all of these incredible physical specimens combined their perfect genes for a better world? Why are the Olympics cockblocking the beautification of our planet?”

Counterpoint:

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Here’s a new Olympic sport to consider: Safe sex

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These huge buses drive right over the top of cars

by CharlieIVP Posted on August 4, 2016

Not your parents’ transit

These huge buses drive right over the top of cars

By on Aug 4, 2016Share

You may have imagined the future of transit as jetpacks that fly above traffic or self-driving cars that transport you back from the bar while you drool in the backseat, but it’s much stranger. Meet the straddle bus.

China has begun testing the long-teased concept of an elevated bus, an odd-looking machine that gets around traffic by going over it.

The bus, which can carry 300 passengers at a time and is partly solar-powered, is meant to help ease some of China’s notorious congestion problems. Last year, thousands of travelers were stuck in a 50-lane traffic jam, and in 2010, a 62-mile bottleneck left motorists stranded for 12 days. Kind of puts your morning commute in perspective.

Smog from traffic is tied to respiratory distress, eye, nose, throat irritation, and even birth defects. In China, where smog is particularly terrible, birth defects are far more likely in urban areas with lots of traffic congestion than in rural areas without.

If the straddle bus fails, then there’s always another miracle technology that can bypass traffic. You might know it as the train.

See footage of the future above, brought to us from New China TV.

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These huge buses drive right over the top of cars

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Climate change turns birds into cannibals

by MargariBlohm Posted on August 2, 2016

bird brains

Climate change turns birds into cannibals

By on Aug 2, 2016Share

Could climate change be turning some species into cannibals? No, not humans — not yet, anyway. We’ve already seen polar bears and lobster eat their own kind for sustenance, thanks to melting ice and rising water temperatures.

Now, you can add Washington State’s gull population to that list. In the Pacific Northwest researchers have noticed a disturbing trend: As sea temperatures rise, plankton have dropped into lower, colder waters; fish have followed the plankton down. Gulls, which can no longer find enough food in shallow waters, have turned to eating each other’s chicks.

“It doesn’t seem like a lot, but a one-tenth of a degree change in seawater temperature correlates to a 10 percent increase in (the odds of) cannibalism,” said Jim Hayward, a seabird biologist, according to the Associated Press.

In the past 60 years, the Pacific Ocean has been warming 15 times the rate as any measured in 10,000 years.

If the gulls’ food-scarcity situation doesn’t improve, Hayward worries that “super cannibals” could evolve: A bird adapted to feed exclusively off its own species.

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Climate change turns birds into cannibals

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