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Category Archives: Environment
Steam Injection Fractures Caprock in Big Alberta Spill, Regulator Confirms
Steam Injection Fractures Caprock in Big Alberta Spill, Regulator Confirms Incident highlights fragility of high-cost energy extraction. Large fractures in earth seeped bitumen at one of four well sites operated by CNRL near Cold Lake, Alberta. Photo: CNRL, September 2013. Three years after an eruption of 10,000 barrels of melted bitumen contaminated the boreal forest […]
February’s global temperature spike is a wake-up call
February’s global temperature spike is a wake-up call Global temperatures for February showed a disturbing and unprecedented upward spike. It was 1.35℃ warmer than the average February during the usual baseline period of 1951-1980, according to NASA data. This is the largest warm anomaly of any month since records began in 1880. It far exceeds the records set […]
Can Geology Tell Us What is Warming the Climate?
Can Geology Tell Us What is Warming the Climate? On Monday this week, and rather late in the day, Dr Colin Summerhayes from the Scott Polar Institute, Cambridge University, left this lengthy comment at the end of the thread on Prof. Richard Lindzen’s post called Global Warming and the Irrelevance of Science. I wanted to respond to some of the […]
Emissions standstill boosts Paris hopes
Emissions standstill boosts Paris hopes Reduced coal use in China will have a positive impact on poor air quality. Image: V.T. Polywoda via Flickr The link between global economic growth and emissions growth has been further weakened as greenhouse gas levels show no increase for the second year in succession. LONDON, 18 March, 2016 – The world continued […]
It’s the Food Economy, Stupid!
It’s the Food Economy, Stupid! I believe Rod MacRae (shown here) is one of a handful of experts to develop a critique of today’s food system based on its bad business case and its failure to do proper scenario planning. If you don’t like reading arithmetic, you will find his writings tough going, but as soon […]
Food Insecurity: Arctic Heat Is Threatening Indigenous Life
Food Insecurity: Arctic Heat Is Threatening Indigenous Life Subsistence hunters in the Arctic have long taken to the sea ice to hunt seals, whales, and polar bears. But now, as the ice disappears and soaring temperatures alter the life cycles and abundance of their prey, a growing number of indigenous communities are facing food shortages. An […]
Meltdown Earth: the shocking reality of climate change kicks in – but who is listening?
Meltdown Earth: the shocking reality of climate change kicks in – but who is listening? Parts of the Arctic were 16℃ warmer than normal in February. Bernhard Staehli / shutterstock And another one bites the dust. The year 2014 was the warmest everrecorded by humans. Then 2015 was warmer still. January 2016 broke the record for the largest monthly temperature anomaly. […]
Monsanto threatens to quit Indian GM-cotton market if govt cuts its royalties
Monsanto threatens to quit Indian GM-cotton market if govt cuts its royalties Farmers plough and sow cotton seeds in a field in Shahpur village, India © Amit Dave / Reuters American agrochemical giant Monsanto has threatened to pull out of India and hold back new genetically modified cotton technologies if the government continues its “arbitrary […]
Why we need a diverse electricity generation portfolio: House hearing 2013
Why we need a diverse electricity generation portfolio: House hearing 2013 House 113-12. March 5, 2013. American Energy security and innovation. The role of a diverse electricity generation portfolio. House of Representatives. 135 pages. June 5, 2015. Proposed Clean Power Plan would accelerate renewable additions and coal plant retirements. U.S. Energy Information Administration Even without the Clean […]
Is Global Warming Quickening?
Is Global Warming Quickening? On Monday 14th March, Channel 4 News (UK terrestrial news channel) carried a report on catastrophic February warming and involved two distinguished UK climate scientists. What was said was so far away from the physical reality that I experience here on Earth that I was left wondering if they were talking […]
In-depth: the scientific challenge of extreme weather attribution
In-depth: the scientific challenge of extreme weather attribution © Gene Blevins/LA Daily News Working out whether human activity is supercharging extreme events, such as floods, storms, droughts and heatwaves, is one of the youngest branches of climate science. But it’s moving at breakneck pace. So much so, that the US National Academy of Sciences has fast-tracked a report, […]
Confusion and Fear in North Carolina As State Ends Drinking Water Safety Warning
Confusion and Fear in North Carolina As State Ends Drinking Water Safety Warning “I’m fighting for my kids and my neighbors,” says a determined Amy Brown. Brown and hundreds of other North Carolina residents have been using only bottled water for the better part of a year now for cooking, drinking, hygiene and even for […]
Analysis: The legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster
Analysis: The legacy of the Fukushima nuclear disaster © Noboru Hashimoto/Corbis/Pool Five years ago, on 11 March 2011, a large region of Japan was shaken for three minutes by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake. The movement was so severe that the country moved a few metres east, the local coastline dropped, and it triggered a tsunami which killed […]
Global Warming and Food Prices
Global Warming and Food Prices Given that we all have to eat and that there are some concerning environmental developments out there, here’s an interesting question: has global warming led to higher or lower food prices (thus far)? As always the answer depends on how this affects the balance between supply and demand. Assuming that […]
