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Archive for September, 2013
It’s Clear Humans Are Changing World’s Climate, Panel Says
Posted by National Public Radio: Mark Memmott on September 27th, 2013
National Public Radio: Declaring that "human influence on the climate system is clear," a U.N.-assembled panel of scientists reported Friday that "it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which brings together hundreds of researchers from around the world, adds that "warming in the climate system is unequivocal and since 1950 many changes have been observed throughout the climate system...
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Comments Off on It’s Clear Humans Are Changing World’s Climate, Panel SaysClimate Panel Says Upper Limit on Emissions Is Nearing
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
New York Times: For the first time, the world’s top climate scientists on Friday formally embraced an upper limit on greenhouse gases while warning that it is likely to be exceeded within decades if emissions continue at a brisk pace, underscoring the profound challenge humanity faces in bringing global warming under control.
A panel of experts appointed by the United Nations, unveiling its latest assessment of climate research, reinforced its earlier conclusions that global warming is real, that it is caused...
Scientists: cut carbon or face consequence
Posted by BusinessGreen: Jessica Shankleman on September 27th, 2013
BusinessGreen: The world must drastically slash its annual emissions of greenhouse gases if it has half a chance of limiting global warming to below 2ºC, scientists have today warned in a landmark report on climate change.
The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today unveiled the first part of its fifth assessment (AR5), which says scientists are more convinced than ever that climate change is caused by human activity.
The Summary of the Report for Policy Makers was being...
Key findings of IPCC report on climate change
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Associated Press: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an international body established by the U.N. in 1988, presented a summary of its latest assessment on climate change on Friday. Here are the key findings:
-- Global warming is "unequivocal," and since the 1950's it's "extremely likely" that human activities have been the dominant cause of the temperature rise.
-- Concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased to levels that are unprecedented in at least 800,000...
Malaysia: Borneo tribesmen block road as controversial rainforest dam impoundment begins
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Mongabay: Indigenous leaders have set up roadblocks in Malaysian Borneo to protest Sarawak's newest dam, report environmental activists who oppose the project.
According to the Borneo Project and the Bruno Manser Fund, more than 100 Penan are blocking road traffic to protest for higher compensation from Sarawak Energy Berhad, the state-owned power company behind the Murum Hydro Electric Power dam. Having failed to stop the project, indigenous leaders are seeking bigger cash payments, more land, and a greater...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Malaysia: Borneo tribesmen block road as controversial rainforest dam impoundment beginsWhat are the prospects for the polar regions?
Posted by New Scientist: Fred Pearce on September 27th, 2013
New Scientist: Pretty dire. We now know that the rapid retreat of the Arctic sea ice over the summer months - which reached its lowest point since records began in 2012 - is unprecedented in at least the last 1450 years.
The new report forecasts that the Arctic is likely to continue warming faster than the rest of the planet. This means that the sea ice could almost entirely disappear in September by mid-century, and that up to 81 per cent of Arctic permafrost could thaw by then.
Meanwhile, glaciologists...
Australia: Coalition urged raise emissions reduction target
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Guardian: The government has been urged to raise its emissions reduction target in the wake of the IPCC report findings, with the Greens calling on Tony Abbott to "abandon his anti-science ideological view" towards climate change.
Leaked drafts of the keynote UN report on climate change, which is released once every six years, show that global carbon emissions need to be cut by 10% a decade if a widely agreed limit of 2C of warming is to be met.
Australia has a bipartisan target of a 5% emissions reduction...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Australia: Coalition urged raise emissions reduction targetLivestock Steroids can Persist in Waterways. Study Finds
Posted by Nature World News: None Given on September 27th, 2013
Nature World News: Steroids given to livestock can stay in the water for a long time and don't always break-down, a new study has found. Researchers said that regulatory agencies might have to closely monitor some "safe" livestock steroids to prevent damage to the aquatic ecosystem.
Anabolic steroids are usually given to livestock to boost their growth and are generally believed to be harmless. But, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno and colleagues found that certain steroids such as trenbolone might...
Posted in Water Conservation Comments Off on Livestock Steroids can Persist in Waterways. Study FindsUN panel delivers landmark climate change report
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
USA Today: Global warming is "unequivocal" and it is "extremely likely" that humans are the primary contributors to this warming, according to a report released Friday morning in Stockholm by the U.N.-created Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's top climate research group.
"Human influence has been detected in warming of the atmosphere and the ocean, in changes in the global water cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global mean sea level rise, and in changes in some climate...
Climate change will hit poor countries hardest, study shows
Posted by Washington Post: Juliet Eilperin on September 27th, 2013
Guardian: Low-income countries will remain on the frontline of human-induced climate change over the next century, experiencing gradual sea-level rises, stronger cyclones, warmer days and nights, more unpredictable rains, and larger and longer heatwaves, according to the most thorough assessment of the issue yet.
The last major UN assessment, in 2007, predicted runaway temperature rises of 6C or more by the end of the century. That is now thought unlikely by scientists, but average land and sea temperatures...
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