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Sea creatures are being drowned out by noise pollution, but for once we’re listening

by HaiHeckel2 Posted on June 7, 2016

Sea creatures are being drowned out by noise pollution, but for once we’re listening

By on Jun 7, 2016Share

It’s always been noisy under the sea. Coral reefs crackle with life, dolphins whistle, and sperm whales click so loudly they’ll bust your eardrums. But that boisterous marine chorus is being drowned out by noise pollution from — you guessed it — us.

A growing body of research suggests that noise from commercial ships, seismic surveys, and industrial work like oil drilling interferes with the behavior of marine animals, who rely on sound to communicate and navigate. While scientists admit that the effects of noise pollution are still not fully understood, this fact is certain: The ocean is 10 times noisier today than it was 50 years ago. And as if the beleaguered beasts haven’t dealt with enough — plastics, pollution, overfishing — warming seas, apparently, are better conductors of sound.

Thankfully, a team of researchers is listening. Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released a draft for a strategy that will research and mitigate the effect of noise on marine life. Comments from the public are accepted until July 1 — so brainstorm away.

The Ocean Noise Strategy Roadmap  is a “high-level guide, rather than a prescriptive listing of program-level actions,” according to its website. To that end, some of its immediate goals include reviewing effects of noise pollution on habitats and populations; recommending noise management practices; and encouraging quieter technologies like, well, quieter ships. It also emphasizes cooperation between the various NOAA offices and external groups such as conservation groups and industry associations.

The roadmap is one of the first steps in an ambitious 10-year plan to make the undersea world sound less like Lollapalooza. (The first step, called CetSound, mapped man-made underwater noise in the ocean, as well as populations of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and debuted in 2012.)

The next critical step will be action. “The key, of course, is implementation,” writes Michael Jasny, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Marine Mammal Protection Project, on his blog. “What is needed, plainly and soon, is a concrete implementation plan and a budget to achieve it.”

There’s nothing sadder than an unheard whale — just ask Vince Chase.

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You can wave goodbye to this global warming goal

by BenitoVYNY Posted on April 20, 2016

You can wave goodbye to this global warming goal

By on Apr 20, 2016comments

Cross-posted from

Climate CentralShare

Global leaders are meeting in New York this week to sign the Paris climate agreement. One of the expressed purposes of the document is to limit warming to “well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C.”

A Climate Central analysis shows that the world will have to dramatically accelerate emissions reductions if it wants to meet that goal. The average global temperature change for the first three months of 2016 was 1.48 degrees C, essentially equaling the 1.5 degrees C warming threshold agreed to by COP 21 negotiators in Paris last December.

February exceeded the 1.5 degrees C target at 1.55 degrees C, marking the first time the global average temperature has surpassed the sobering milestone in any month. March followed suit checking in at 1.5 degrees C. January’s mark of 1.4 degrees C, put the global average temperature change from early industrial levels for the first three months of 2016 at 1.48 degrees C.

Climate Central

Climate Central scientists and statisticians made these calculations based on an average of global temperature data reported by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). But rather than using the baselines those agencies employ, Climate Central compared 2016’s temperature anomalies to an 1881-1910 average temperature baseline, the earliest date for which global temperature data are considered reliable. NASA reports global temperature change in reference to a 1951-1980 climate baseline, and NOAA reports the anomaly in reference to a 20th century average temperature.

NASA’s data alone showed a February temperature anomaly of 1.63 degrees C above early industrial levels with March at 1.54 degrees C.

Calculating a baseline closer to the pre-industrial era provides a useful measure of global temperature for policymakers and the public to better track how successful the world’s efforts are in keeping global warming below agreed-upon thresholds.

A similar adjustment can be applied to some of the temperature change projections in the most recent IPCC report.

The IPCC AR5 Working Group 1 Report contains projections of future global surface temperature change according to several scenarios of future socio-economic development, most of which are presented using a baseline of 1986 to 2005. The IPCC chose this baseline in order to provide its readers a more immediate base of comparison, the climate of the present world, which people are familiar with. But these representations may suggest that the Paris goals are easier to reach than is true.

The IPCC’s presentation of these scenarios was not designed to inform the discussion about warming limits (e.g., 1.5 degrees C, 2 degrees C goals of the Paris COP21 agreements). But the Panel does provide a way to make its projections of future warming consistent with discussions about targets.

IPCC estimates, using the best and longest record available, show that the difference between the 1986-2005 global average temperature value used in most of the Panel’s projections, and pre-industrial global average temperature, is 0.61 degrees C (0.55-0.67). Neglecting 0.61 degrees C warming is not trivial, and makes a significant difference for the assessment of the goals established in Paris. In fact, 0.61 degrees C amounts to about half the warming already experienced thus far.

To capture this warming and display the IPCC warming time series relative to the pre-industrial period, Climate Central adjusted a well known IPCC projection (SPM7(a)) to reflect a 1880-1910 baseline. This adjustment has a significant effect on the dates at which the 1.5 and 2 degrees C thresholds are crossed, moving them up by about 15-20 years.

If current emissions trends continue (RCP8.5) we could cross the 1.5 degrees C threshold in 10 to 15 years, somewhere between the years 2025-2030, compared to 2045-2050 when a 1985-2005 baseline is used.

The dramatic global hot streak that kicked off 2016 doesn’t mean the world has already failed to meet the goals in the Paris agreement. Three months do not make a year, and it is unlikely that 2016 will exceed the 1881-1910 climate-normal by 1.5 degrees C. This year is also in the wake of a strong El Niño, when higher-than-average temperatures would be expected.

And of course, exceeding the 1.5 degrees C threshold for even an entire year would not mean that global temperatures had in fact risen to that point, never (at least within our lifetime) to drop back below it as it’s too short of a time frame to make that determination.

But the hot start for 2016 is a notable symbolic milestone. The day the world first crossed the 400 parts per million (ppm) threshold for atmospheric carbon dioxide heralded a future of ever increasing carbon dioxide. So too, do the first three months of 2016 send a clear signal of where our world is headed and how fast we are headed there if drastic actions to reduce carbon emissions are not taken immediately.

Background

On Dec. 12, 2015, the 21st Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change approved the Paris Agreement committing 195 nations of the world to “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C above preindustrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C.” The pact commits the world to adopt nationally determined policies to limit greenhouse gas emissions in accord with those goals.

The 2 degrees C goal represents a temperature increase from a pre-industrial baseline that scientists believe will maintain the relatively stable climate conditions that humans and other species have adapted to over the previous 12,000 years. It will also minimize some of the worst impacts of climate change: drought, heat waves, heavy rain and flooding, and sea-level rise. Limiting the global surface temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C would lessen these impacts even further.

1.5 and 2 degrees C are not hard and fast limits beyond which disaster is imminent, but they are now the milestones by which the world measures all progress toward slowing global warming. And yet it is surprisingly difficult to find objective measures that answer the question, where are we today on the path toward meeting the 1.5 or 2 degrees C goals?

Every month NOAA and NASA update their global surface temperature change analysis, using data from the Global Historical Climate Network, and methods validated in the peer-reviewed literature (Hansen et al. 2010; NCDC). The monthly updates are posted on their websites, and made available to the public along with the underlying data and assumptions that go into their calculations.

These calculations are enormously useful for understanding the magnitude and pace of global warming. In fact, they are the bedrock measurements validating the fact that our planet is warming at all.

But none present their results in comparison to a pre-industrial climate normal.

Methods and Results

The NASA and NOAA monthly updates are presented as anomalies, or as the deviation from a baseline climate normal, calculated as an average of a 30-year reference period, or the 20th century average; they do not represent an absolute temperature increase from a specific date. NASA presents their results in reference to a 1951 to 1980 average temperature, NOAA in reference to a 20th century average temperature.

The NASA results, calculated by Goddard Institute for Space Studies, are published monthly on the NASA/GISS website (GISTEMP). NOAA methods and monthly updates are published via the National Centers for Environmental Information here.

Climate Central used data from NASA and NOAA to create an 1881 to 1910 climate normal for the months of January, February, and March. We then compared the reported monthly 2016 anomaly for each of these months to this “early-industrial” baseline reference period.  These anomalies were then averaged to produce a mean monthly NASA/NOAA anomaly for each month. The results are presented below.

The NASA anomaly is considerably higher than the anomaly reported by NOAA. This reflects the fact the NASA’s calculations are tuned to account for temperature changes at the poles, where there are far fewer monitoring stations. NOAA relies only on historical station data and makes no adjustment to account for sparse records at the poles, where warming has been more rapid relative to non-polar regions.

Climate Central

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You can wave goodbye to this global warming goal

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House Science Chair launches new attack on climate scientists

by MadelaiCHZ Posted on March 17, 2016

House Science Chair launches new attack on climate scientists

By on 17 Mar 2016commentsShare

Lamar Smith is at it again.

Smith, chair of the House Science Committee and — ironically — a noted climate change denier, has a history of harassing scientists. The Texas Republican has particularly targeted Kathryn Sullivan, a former NASA astronaut and the first American woman to walk in space, and now head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The conflict goes back to last year, when Smith began demanding that NOAA turn over internal documents related to a study he objected to. The study revised earlier findings that there has been a “pause” in global temperature rise at the beginning of this century.

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Here’s Smith’s objection in his own words, from an op-ed published in the conservative Washington Times:

NOAA often fails to consider all available data in its determinations and climate change reports to the public. A recent study by NOAA, published in the journal Science, made “adjustments” to historical temperature records and NOAA trumpeted the findings as refuting the nearly two-decade pause in global warming. The study’s authors claimed these adjustments were supposedly based on new data and new methodology. But the study failed to include satellite data.

There is no validity to Smith’s claim, according to actual scientists, but that didn’t stop him from subpoenaing NOAA emails containing the words “temperature,” “climate,” “change,” “U.N.” “United Nations,” “clean power plan,” “regulations,” “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” “President,” “Obama,” “White House,” and more. NOAA has turned over some documents, but not as many as Smith would like, arguing that this would be a massive burden on agency scientists, who are supposed to be doing, you know, science.

Smith used a hearing on Wednesday about NOAA’s budget to revisit the issue. The congressman, who has received more than $600,000 in donations from the fossil fuel industry, objects to NOAA’s proposed budget for 2017, which earmarks $190 million for climate change research and $100 million for weather forecasting.

“Instead of hyping a climate change agenda, NOAA should focus its efforts on producing sound science and improving methods of data collection,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, climate alarmism often takes priority at NOAA.”

He then proceeded to harangue Sullivan about that NOAA study (again), accusing the agency of manipulating data to support President Obama’s clean energy proposal. “It was published just before the administration was about to propose its final Clean Power Plan regulations at the U.N. Paris Climate Change Conference,” he said.

Sullivan wasn’t having it. “I stand by the integrity and quality of the study,” she told Smith, and assured him that the agency is working to comply with his subpoena.

But regardless of how many documents NOAA turns over, it looks like Lamar Smith is just getting warmed up for his fight against science.

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House Science Chair launches new attack on climate scientists

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The Disgrace of Lamar Smith and the House Science Committee

by ToddWeiland7196 Posted on November 17, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The Washington Post writes today about a long-running feud between die-hard climate-denier Lamar Smith and pretty much anyone who says that climate change is real:

The flash point in the feud between House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is a congressional subpoena. The congressman, a prominent global warming skeptic, is demanding that the government turn over its scientists’ internal exchanges and communications with NOAA’s top political appointees.

Smith believes this information, showing the researchers deliberative process, will prove that they altered data to fit President Obama’s climate agenda when they refuted claims in a peer-reviewed study in the journal Science that global warming had “paused” or slowed over the last decade.

“These are government employees who changed data to show more climate change,” the chairman said in a statement to The Washington Post. “Americans deserve to understand why this decision was made. Despite what some critics claim, the subpoena is not only about scientists. Political operatives and other NOAA employees likely played a large role in approving NOAA’s decision to adjust data that allegedly refutes the hiatus in warming.”

Over the last few years, harassment of climate scientists via subpoenas and FOIA requests for every email they’ve ever written has become the go-to tactic of climate skeptics and deniers. The purpose is twofold. First, it intimidates scientists from performing climate research. Who needs the grief? Second, it provides a chance to find something juicy and potentially embarrassing in the trove of emails.

In the case of Lamar Smith vs. NOAA, the key fact is this: Smith has no reason to think the scientists in question have done anything wrong. None. He doesn’t even pretend otherwise. He has simply asserted that it’s “likely” that politics played a role in “adjusting” the climate data. But at no time has he presented any evidence at all to back this up.

This is a pretty plain abuse of congressional subpoena power, and so far NOAA is refusing to comply. In the case of private critics using FOIA, it’s a pretty clear abuse of FOIA—and one of the reasons that I have some reservations about FOIA that might seem odd coming from a journalist. It’s one thing to demand private communications when there’s some question of wrongdoing. It’s quite another when it’s just a fishing expedition undertaken in the hope of finding something titillating.

In any case, Smith is a disgrace, and it’s a disgrace that Republicans allow him to chair a committee on science. Smith’s view of science is simple: if it backs up his beliefs, it’s fine. If it doesn’t, it’s obviously fraudulent. This is the attitude that leads to defunding of climate research or banning research on guns. After all, there’s always the possibility that the results will be inconvenient, and in the world of Smith and his acolytes, that can’t be allowed to stand. Full speed ahead and science be damned.

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The Disgrace of Lamar Smith and the House Science Committee

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Check out some of the prettiest (and most depressing) climate change data out there

by RoccoRaine9478 Posted on October 24, 2015

7 ways of looking at a climate

Check out some of the prettiest (and most depressing) climate change data out there

By on 24 Oct 2015commentsShare

Given ever-worsening hurricane news, the hottest September on record, and GOP obstructionism, it can be hard to get a handle on what’s even going on with our climate. There’s a lot of data out there — sometimes it can seem like too much — and a lot of it is unreliable. Climate data visualizations can help you sort through the noise to get at the signal.

Over at Climate Home, Megan Darby has compiled a veritable cornucopia of climate change data tools. It’s a stellar list, and if you’re looking for a deep data dive, you’d do well to check it out. But here at Grist we love data, too, and so we decided to put together our own compilation for your visualizing pleasure.

Without further ado, here are seven tools to help you hold a climate conversation without having to lean on the weather. (Unless, of course, you’re talking about NOAA’s Climate and Weather Toolkit, in which case you’ll really be talking about the weather.)

The 30,000-Foot View: Global Top 10 Greenhouse Gas Emitters (World Resources Institute)

The World Resources Institute’s CAIT project is the classic starting spot for historical emissions data. One tool we’re particularly fond of is the global emissions profiler embedded above. It’s particularly useful if you’re trying to get a sense of scale. How much is a hundred million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, anyway? Scroll around the wheel — it’s about the same size as the entire Chilean economy. CAIT also hosts a domestic state-by-state comparison tool.

The Bare Bones: The Keeling Curve (Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

In the world of climate data, there are technocrats and there are Luddites. The classic Keeling Curve is of the latter variety. It’s nothing fancy, but it gets to the root of the climate dilemma. The Mauna Loa Observatory started collecting atmospheric CO2 data in 1958, and the numbers have been climbing ever since. Wondering about that 350 ppm number people are always tossing around? We’re well past it.

The Metavisual: A World of Change (Google)

This is what we talk about when we talk about climate change. Google’s A World of Change tool allows people to get a handle on global search trends for environmental information. In addition to being rather pretty, the tool offers several crucial insights into the way different countries approach the idea of global warming. “We wanted to show how this big issue looks when viewed through the lens of Google search data,” Simon Rogers, data editor of Google News Lab told the Washington Post. “Google data is so big — there are over 3 billion searches a day — that our challenge was how to make those huge numbers meaningful.” You can decide whether or not they succeeded.

The Wonk’s Paradise: Energy Policy Simulator (Energy Innovation)

Energy Innovation

Climate Home also flagged this bad boy. Fresh off the press (the tool launched earlier this week), Energy Innovation’s Energy Policy Simulator lets you design your own U.S. energy policy suite and come to grips with the resulting emissions projections. What’s truly astounding about the simulator is the staggering degree of detail. “The desktop version allows even more policy options,” wrote POLITICO’s Eric Wolff in Morning Energy. “Considering that the web tool allows users to devote research money to reducing livestock flatulence, ME’s mind boggles at what would be more detailed.”

The Tree Hugger’s Terror: GFW Interactive Map (Global Forest Watch)

Global Forest Watch

Worried about deforestation? About land and resource rights? Carbon stocks and biodiversity? Global Forest Watch has got you covered. Earlier last month, the NGO reported that the Google-hosted tool helped pinpoint new hotspots of tree-cover loss. They’re constantly updating the data, so keep checking back for all your arboreal needs.

The Pretty One: Global Land Temperatures (Halftone)

Halftone

Halftone’s land temperature visualizer might not be the most practical tool in the world, but it’s divinely gorgeous. Visit the online version for all the beautiful, time-dependent, temperature-indicating Voronoi tessellations you could ever want.

The Doozy: Weather and Climate Toolkit (NOAA)

NOAA

And then there’s the tool for the hotshots. The big guns. Want the real deal? Access to more or less every climatic and meteorological variable under the sun? Then you want the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate and Weather Toolkit. Warning: It’s not for beginners. But you’re no beginner, are you? Check out this video introduction to the software.

That’s all for now, team. Let us know what we missed.

Source:

7 climate change data tools and what they tell you

, Climate Home.

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Everything You Need to Know About California Climate Change in One Chart

by frantalocuridemunca Posted on September 9, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

You’ve heard a lot about California’s current historic drought. But the state is also experiencing some of the hottest temperatures on record, and the latest data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show just how warm the past couple years have been. In the graph below, courtesy of a tweet from the Pacific Institute’s Peter Gleick, each dot represents the average temperature over the course of a year, from September of one year to August of the following.

NOAA

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Everything You Need to Know About California Climate Change in One Chart

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The World’s Carbon Dioxide Levels Just Hit a Staggering New Milestone

by FrancisOLN Posted on May 6, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

The monthly global average concentration of carbon dioxide just broke 400 parts per million for the first time since record-keeping of greenhouse gas levels began.

The milestone, reached last month, was announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday.

“It was only a matter of time that we would average 400 parts per million globally,” said NOAA scientist Pieter Tans in a press release. “We first reported 400 ppm when all of our Arctic sites reached that value in the spring of 2012. In 2013 the record at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory first crossed the 400 ppm threshold. Reaching 400 parts per million as a global average is a significant milestone.”

Crossing the 400 ppm threshold is equal parts disheartening and alarming. Less than a decade ago scientists and environmental activists, including Bill McKibben, launched a campaign to convince policy makers that global CO2 concentrations needed to be reduced to 350 ppm in order to avoid massive impacts from global warming. McKibben, who co-founded the group 350.org, explained the significance of that figure in a 2008 Mother Jones article entitled “The Most Important Number on Earth”:

And so we’re now in the land of tipping points. We know that we’ve passed some of them—Arctic sea ice is melting, and so is the permafrost that guards those carbon stores. But the logic of Hansen’s paper was clear. Above 350, we are at constant risk of crossing other, even worse, thresholds, the ones that govern the reliability of monsoons, the availability of water from alpine glaciers, the acidification of the ocean, and, perhaps most spectacularly, the very level of the seas.

…

It’s not clear if a vocal world citizenry will be enough to beat inertia and vested interest. If 350 emerges as the clear bar for success or failure, then the odds of the international community taking effective action increase, though the odds are still long. Still, these are the lines it is our turn to speak. To be human in 2008 is to rise in defense of the planet we have known and the civilization it has spawned.

We’re now at 400.

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The World’s Carbon Dioxide Levels Just Hit a Staggering New Milestone

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We just hit 400 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere, for a whole month

by ManuelaRuth Posted on May 6, 2015

We just hit 400 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere, for a whole month

By on 6 May 2015commentsShare

I have good news, and I have bad news. First, the bad news: The atmosphere just passed another doom threshold — there are now more than 400 parts per million of CO2 up there.

Actually, we’ve crossed this line before, but that was just for a few hours or days at a handful of observing sites. This time we’re talking the average global concentration of CO2 for a whole month, making March 2015 officially the doomiest month of the millennium so far. From NOAA:

“It was only a matter of time that we would average 400 parts per million globally,” said Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. “We first reported 400 ppm when all of our Arctic sites reached that value in the spring of 2012. In 2013 the record at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory first crossed the 400 ppm threshold. Reaching 400 parts per million as a global average is a significant milestone.

For reference, the pre-Industrial levels of CO2 were around 280 ppm, and the first measurement made in 1959 at Mauna Loa was 313 ppm. The number has been growing since then, at an average rate of more than 1 ppm per year since 1977 (some years the increase was well above 2 ppm). Scientists think we need to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentration to 350 ppm if we are to avoid the worst of climate chaos — to which pessimists say, fat chance.

The good news is, uh, I didn’t really think this far ahead. I guess the good news is that even though we’ve blundered past yet another bad milestone, there are some positive trends simultaneously at work — like the fact that emissions from energy sources flatlined in 2014 — not enough to end global warming in and of itself, but a good sign that we are at least starting to reverse the crazy emissions spike we’ve been in since the ’70s.

To weigh the pros and cons yourself, check out NOAA’s piece here, and for truly riveting live coverage, you can follow NOAA’s carbon-counting in real time here.

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Greenhouse gas benchmark reached

, NOAA.

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We just hit 400 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere, for a whole month

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Obama on Climate Change: “No Challenge Poses a Greater Threat to Future Generations”

by MildredUnwin Posted on January 21, 2015

Mother Jones

In his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama issued a direct rebuke to climate change deniers and to members of Congress who seek to block action to slow global warming.

“I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act,” he said, referring to talking points that are popular among Republican politicians. “Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But…I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate.”

The president referenced a report issued last week by NASA and NOAA that officially designated 2014 as the hottest year on record. He also cited the country’s ongoing clean energy boom, his bilateral climate agreement with China, and warnings from the Pentagon the global warming poses a national security threat.

Obama also took a shot at supporters of the Keystone XL pipeline. Republicans in Congress, along with some Democrats, have made approving the pipeline a top priority. The Senate is set to vote on a bill to approve the project later this week, but Obama has promised to veto it should it pass. “Let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline,” he said. “Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than 30 times as many jobs per year.”

The president walked a fine line between calling for bipartisan action and castigating his opponents on climate issues, said Elgie Holstein, senior director for strategic planning at the Environmental Defense Fund.

“I didn’t see the president’s remarks as defiance, so much as resolve,” Holstein said. “Sending a very clear message to Congress that he is resolved to stand by his position.”

The speech tended toward broad themes rather than specific policy proposals. For example, no mention was made of a new plan to cut back on emissions of methane from oil and gas operations that the White House announced last week. Still, Holstein said he thought the environmental community got what it was hoping for tonight.

Here are Obama’s full remarks on climate and energy issues, as prepared for delivery and released a few minutes before the speech began.

We believed we could reduce our dependence on foreign oil and protect our planet. And today, America is number one in oil and gas. America is number one in wind power. Every three weeks, we bring online as much solar power as we did in all of 2008. And thanks to lower gas prices and higher fuel standards, the typical family this year should save $750 at the pump…

So let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline. Let’s pass a bipartisan infrastructure plan that could create more than thirty times as many jobs per year, and make this country stronger for decades to come…

And no challenge—no challenge—poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.

2014 was the planet’s warmest year on record. Now, one year doesn’t make a trend, but this does—14 of the 15 warmest years on record have all fallen in the first 15 years of this century.

I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what—I know a lot of really good scientists at NASA, and NOAA, and at our major universities. The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe. The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.

That’s why, over the past six years, we’ve done more than ever before to combat climate change, from the way we produce energy, to the way we use it. That’s why we’ve set aside more public lands and waters than any administration in history. And that’s why I will not let this Congress endanger the health of our children by turning back the clock on our efforts. I am determined to make sure American leadership drives international action. In Beijing, we made an historic announcement—the United States will double the pace at which we cut carbon pollution, and China committed, for the first time, to limiting their emissions. And because the world’s two largest economies came together, other nations are now stepping up, and offering hope that, this year, the world will finally reach an agreement to protect the one planet we’ve got.

This story has been updated.

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Obama on Climate Change: “No Challenge Poses a Greater Threat to Future Generations”

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We just had the hottest August ever

by TerranceTimperl Posted on September 18, 2014

we’re all in this pot together

We just had the hottest August ever

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18 Sep 2014 4:56 PM

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We just had the hottest August ever

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On the tails of the hottest May, one of the worst droughts in U.S. history, some of the earliest big hurricanes ever, and just generally one of the weirdest years of extremes, we now have the hottest August on record. NOAA announced that the global temperature average for August 2014 was 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Now that’s no sauna — what do you expect, it’s already PSL-season and half the planet is still shivering through a sub-equatorial winter — but it seems especially toasty when you realize that average includes both land and sea temperatures. In fact, this was the hottest month in the oceans EVER.

Yeah, you know what that means: There are a lot of sweaty mermaids down there right now. (This just in: I’m being told that’s not really what that means.)

NOAA

The previous all-time-hottest record for oceans was set in June of this year; now, just two months later, we have already busted that by a slight but definitive 0.05 degrees F. We know that the oceans have been quietly absorbing our extra heat and carbon emissions forever, but now we’re finally starting to feel it. And with the oceans heating up at unprecedented rates, we can expect everything else to get a whole lot hotter, too.

When we talk about global warming, we have a tendency to leave out a large part of the globe — specifically, the three-quarters of it that are covered with water. This makes sense — humans don’t live there, and we are very good at ignoring things that aren’t a part of our own experience — but it makes less sense when you consider the numbers: More that 90 percent of the earth’s total warming to date has been absorbed by the oceans.

skepticalscience

We’re already feeling the effects of that 2.3 percent of warming in our atmosphere — now picture what’s happening to the ocean ecosystems we depend on. (If you can’t picture it, Google it.) Then then there are the three billion of us who rely on the ocean as a primary source of protein.

Oh, and speaking of everything else getting a lot hotter — the three-month period from June to August this year? Another one for the books: On land and at sea, the hottest summer we’ve ever had. Period. Just something to think about when you head to the Climate March this weekend.

Everyone loves a record-breaker, but maybe we could slow it down on these temperature records for a bit?

Source:
Global Analysis – August 2014

, NOAA.

World Smashes All-Time Temperature Records Ahead of UN Climate Summit

, Mashable.

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We just had the hottest August ever

Posted in Anchor, Everyone, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, PUR, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on We just had the hottest August ever