Climate Change Updates May 15 & 16, 2013
- Not much climate change doubt in science http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/8681809/Not-much-climate-change-doubt-in-science Having doubts over climate change and the role of humans? You’re unlikely to find many scientists who share your uncertainty. That is the finding of a University of Queensland-led study that surveyed the abstracts of almost 12,000 scientific papers from 1991-2011 and claims to be the largest peer-reviewed study of its kind. Of those who a stated a position on the evidence for global warming, 97.1 per cent endorsed the view that humans are to blame. Just 1.9 per cent rejected the view. The report’s lead author, John Cook, a fellow at the University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute and founder of the website com, said the scientific consensus was overwhelming, growing and had been around since the early 1990s.
- It’s true: 97% of research papers say climate change is happening http://theconversation.com/its-true-97-of-research-papers-say-climate-change-is-happening-14051 Today, the most comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed climate research to date was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. Our analysis found that among papers expressing a position on human-caused global warming, over 97% endorsed the consensus position that humans are causing global warming. Overwhelming agreement among scientists had already formed in the early 1990s. And the consensus is getting stronger.
- Survey finds scientific consensus on cause of climate change: humans http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/15/survey-finds-scientific-consensus-on-cause-of-climate-change-humans/ A survey of thousands of peer-reviewed papers in scientific journals has found 97.1% agreed that climate change is caused by human activity. Authors of the survey, published on Thursday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, said the finding of near unanimity provided a powerful rebuttal to climate contrarians who insist the science of climate change remains unsettled. The survey considered the work of some 29,000 scientists published in 11,994 academic papers. Of the 4,000-plus papers that took a position on the causes of climate change only 0.7% or 83 of those thousands of academic articles, disputed the scientific consensus that climate change is the result of human activity, with the view of the remaining 2.2% unclear.
- Climate change threatens global fish stocks http://theconversation.com/climate-change-threatens-global-fish-stocks-14293 Ocean warming has already affected global fisheries in the past four decades, a new international study has found, driving up the proportion of warm-water fish being caught and posing a threat to food security worldwide.
- North Pole wanders, thanks to climate change http://grist.org/news/north-pole-wanders-thanks-to-climate-change/ As if the swelling number of kids in the world isn’t enough to keep him busy, Santa Claus is being forced to shift his home eight inches every year to keep up with climate change. Assuming I’m getting this fable right, the jolly old dude who rose from the dead and ascended to the North Pole to construct a toy-building redoubt and a reindeer-based delivery system could consider himself one of the many refugees of the changing climate.
- For Insurers, No Doubts on Climate Change http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/insurers-stray-from-the-conservative-line-on-climate-change.html?pagewanted=allHYPERLINK “http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/insurers-stray-from-the-conservative-line-on-climate-change.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0″&HYPERLINK “http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/insurers-stray-from-the-conservative-line-on-climate-change.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0″_r=0 From Hurricane Sandy’s devastating blow to the Northeast to the protracted drought that hit the Midwest Corn Belt, natural catastrophes across the United States pounded insurers last year, generating$35 billion HYPERLINK “http://www.pciaa.net/legtrack/web/naiipublications.nsf/lookupwebcontent/A2A6472B1025107386257B58006CA14?opendocument”in privately insured property losses, $11 billion more than the average over the last decade.
- An undeniable truth http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/interactive/2013/may/14/alaska-politics-climate-change-sarah-palin In September 2007, a rising star of Alaskan politics dared to take on one of the toughest, most challenging issues for any leader: climate change. That summer, seasonal ice cover had fallen to its lowest extent since satellite records began in 1979, leaving much of the Arctic as open water. A few months earlier, Al Gore had won an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth.
- Helping Forests Gain Ground On Climate Change http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515125038.htm Maps developed by Laura Gray, a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Renewable Resources at the U of A, provide projections of climatically suitable habitat for tree species based on climate predictions for the 2020s, 2050s and 2080s. Currently, Alberta forestry companies and government agencies plant 80 million spruce, fir and pine seedlings to reforest more than 50,000 hectares of harvested land annually.
- Emotional Response to Climate Change Influences Whether We Seek or Avoid Further Information http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515151442.htm Because information about climate change is ubiquitous in the media, researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Texas, Austin, looked at why many Americans know so little about its causes and why many are not interested in finding out more.
- Climate change driven by human activity, ConocoPhillips’ chief says http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2013/05/15/climate-change-driven-by-human.html Human activity is speeding global climate change, ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) CEORyan Lance said following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday, Fuel Fix reported.
- Paris projected as pivotal climate point http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/vergano/2013/05/11/climate-paris/2149167/ We’ll always have Paris. Paris is a nice place for a romance, or restaurants, or writing poems, or all of the above, by all accounts. But how about Paris as a place to settle the world’s global warming troubles? Paris is about as perfect as we are going to get, predicts one climate analyst, and that meeting will be in 2015.
- South Korea to launch world’s most ambitious emissions trading scheme – report http://www.ecoseed.org/business/carbon-market/16464-south-korea-to-launch-world-s-most-ambitious-emissions-trading-scheme-report South Korea is set to introduce its emissions trading scheme which could be the most ambitious in the world, concluded a key report of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in collaboration with Ernst & Young. The impending cap and trade system is set to be implemented about 18 months from now and will see carbon prices potentially reaching as high as $90 per ton to cap around 70 percent of the country’s emissions. However, the report warned that the government has yet to make necessary changes in the design of the scheme to avoid strain on companies.
- Kerry: US must do more on climate change http://www.rtcc.org/kerry-us-must-do-more-on-climate-change/ The US response to climate change has been inadequate, Secretary of State John Kerry has admitted. Speaking en route to the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting in Sweden, Kerry praised his host’s efforts in cutting its emissions, but said his own country;’s performance was a matter of ‘regret’. “The Prime Minister [Fredrik Reinfeldt] pointed out to me that, in fact, Sweden’s contribution to the problem of climate change is a tiny point percentage of the total problem. And yet Sweden’s contribution to the solution is much more significant than anything that might be expected,” he said.
- Ice melt, sea level rise, to be less severe than feared: study http://planetark.org/enviro-news/item/68662 A melt of ice on Greenland and Antarctica is likely to be less severe than expected this century, limiting sea level rise to a maximum of 69 cm (27 inches), an international study said on Tuesday. Even so, such a rise could dramatically change coastal environments in the lifetimes of people born today with ever more severe storm surges and erosion, according to the ice2sea project by 24, mostly European, scientific institutions. Some scientific studies have projected sea level rise of up to 2 meters by 2100, a figure that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called a worst case that would swamp large tracts of land from Bangladesh to Florida. Ice2sea, a four-year project to narrow down uncertainties of how melting ice will pour water into the oceans, found that sea levels would rise by between 16.5 and 69 cm under a scenario of moderate global warming this century.
- For Insurers, No Doubts on Climate Change http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/business/insurers-stray-from-the-conservative-line-on-climate-change.html?_r=0 From Hurricane Sandy’s devastating blow to the Northeast to the protracted drought that hit the Midwest Corn Belt, natural catastrophes across the United States pounded insurers last year, generating$35 billion in privately insured property losses, $11 billion more than the average over the last decade.
- Climate change may be baring Mount Everest http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-everest-climate-20130514,0,7957473.story A warming climate is melting the glaciers of Mount Everest, shrinking the frozen cloak of Earth’s highest peak by 13% in the last 50 years, researchers have found. Rocks and natural debris previously covered by snow are appearing now as the snow line has retreated 590 feet, according to Sudeep Thakuri, a University of Milan scientist who led the research.
- World’s poorest set to assume leadership role at UN talks http://www.rtcc.org/worlds-poorest-set-to-assume-leadership-role-at-un-talks/ “The time is gone to think of this whole thing in terms of aid. I am one of those who argues the age of aid is over”. Not the words of a right wing politician, but Dipak Gyawali, a former government minister from Nepal, one of the poorest countries on the planet. They illustrate the growing sense of confidence among the world’s Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and a belief that the past 60 years of ‘development thinking’ has not worked. It is leading many of them to ask rich nations to keep their money and instead focus on ensuring their own economic goals do less damage to the planet. Gyawali was speaking at the offices of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), which is supporting a new LDC expert group aimed at influencing the UN’s proposed Sustainable Development Goals
- What will it take for policymakers to act on climate change? http://www.trust.org/item/20130513105831-dx6i8/ A year filled with superstorms, devastating floods and extreme droughts, 2012 left many people around the world wondering how extreme climate change impacts will have to be in order for policy and decision makers to make firm commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and finance measures to increase resilience to climate change. This year brings with it uncertainty of what climatic phenomena is to come but also opportunity to aggressively address climate change mitigation and adaptation policies, programs and practices.
Climate Changes Updates 15 May 2013
1. Mount Everest’s Ice Is Melting
http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/mount-everest-glaciers-melting-130515.htm
2. Arctic Nations Debate Future
http://news.discovery.com/earth/global-warming/arctic-nations-debate-oil-changes-future-130515.htm
3. Scientists say united on global warming, at odds with public view
http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-united-global-warming-odds-public-view-230726679.html
4. Research and Markets: Analyzing Carbon Management – 2013: How are Different Regions Dealing With Global Climate Change and Carbon Trading
http://news.yahoo.com/research-markets-analyzing-carbon-management-172400989.html
5. Arctic Council decision leaves region open for oil and gas drilling
http://www.rtcc.org/arctic-council-decision-leaves-region-open-for-oil-and-gas-drilling/
6. EU fast start finance claims ‘misleading’ say observers
http://www.rtcc.org/eu-fast-start-finance-claims-misleading/
7. New study confirms science consensus on climate change
http://www.rtcc.org/new-study-confirms-science-consensus-on-climate-change/
8. Scientists report glacial retreat in Mount Everest region
http://www.rtcc.org/scientists-report-glacial-retreat-in-mount-everest-region/
9. Sea levels could rise one metre by 2100 – scientists
http://www.rtcc.org/sea-levels-could-rise-one-metre-by-2100-scientists/
10. Meet America’s first climate refugees
http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/meet-americas-first-climate-refugees.html
11. Should we geoengineer the climate? We already are.
http://www.treehugger.com/climate-change/should-we-geoengineer-climate-we-already-are.html
12. US weather clean-up bill eclipses education and transport spend
13. Floods could ‘overwhelm Thames Barrier by end of century’
http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2268101/floods-could-overwhelm-thames-barrier-by-end-of-century
14. Should We Change the Climate If We Could?
http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/45980
15. What Do You Think About Geo-engineering?
http://www.enn.com/sci-tech/article/45978
16. EXCLUSIVE: Internal engagement ‘vital’ for a low carbon construction sector
17. Clam Fossils Divulge Secrets of Ecologic Stability
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515174029.htm
18. Methane Emissions Higher Than Thought Across Much of U.S.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515165021.htm
19. Emotional Response to Climate Change Influences Whether We Seek or Avoid Further Information
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515151442.htm
20. ‘Fish Thermometer’ Reveals Long-Standing, Global Impact of Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515131552.htm
21. Helping Forests Gain Ground On Climate Change
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515125038.htm