FOURTH NATIONAL CLIMATE ASSESSMENT
Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States The National Climate Assessment (NCA) assesses the science of climate change and variability and its impacts across the United States, now and throughout this century.
Summary Findings :
These Summary Findings represent a high-level synthesis of the material in the underlying report. The findings consolidate Key Messages and supporting evidence from 16 national-level topic chapters, 10 regional chapters, and 2 chapters that focus on societal response strategies (mitigation and adaptation). Unless otherwise noted, qualitative statements regarding future conditions in these Summary Findings are broadly applicable across the range of different levels of future climate change and associated impacts considered in this report.
https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/
4,000 people are set to gather in Nairobi this week for the first global conference to focus solely on the sustainable blue economy. Hosted by Kenya, with Canada and Japan as co-hosts, the event will be the first to focus on how to channel global water resources in sustainable ways to enhance development.
Described as a “bold initiative” by Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, the Sustainable Blue Economy Conference is expected to draw participants from some 180 countries, as well as heads of state.
https://www.devex.com/news/in-nairobi-a-landmark-push-for-a-global-blue-economy-93874
Climate goals are off course. Which countries are to blame? New study shows China leading world to 5.1C of global warming, US to 4C and EU to 3.2C
Policies of China, Russia and Canada threaten 5C climate change, study finds Ranking of countries’ goals shows even EU on course for more than double safe level of warming
and the study:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-07223-9
Unlike a Globalized Food System, Local Food Won’t Destroy the Environment
Scores arrested as thousands block London bridges in climate rebellion
Protesters close five main bridges across Thames over extinction crisis in huge act of peaceful civil disobedience
‘Precious little’: Democrats lack robust climate change plan despite global crisis
Party wary of wading into tough political fight on environment even though Democrats could retake House in midterms
Tackling Climate Change Requires Healing the Divide
Canadian climate change opinion is polarized, and research shows the divide is widening. The greatest predictor of people’s outlook is political affiliation. This means people’s climate change perceptions are being increasingly driven by divisive political agendas rather than science and concern for our collective welfare.
https://www.ecowatch.com/tackling-climate-change-requires-healing-the-divide-2619880310.html
World’s Largest Offshore Wind Developer to Invest $30 Billion in Green Energy
Danish energy company Orsted announced a major investment program as it seeks to become one of the “renewable majors” leading a global shift away from planet-warming fuels.
https://www.ecowatch.com/offshore-wind-developer-green-energy-2621762196.html
Farmers need flexibility to fight Lake Erie’s algae problem
Farmers are working hard to keep nutrients out of the Great Lakes. Let’s not let rigid regulation hamper their efforts. https://ensia.com/voices/lake-erie-algae/
Tripled climate cuts needed to fulfil pledge
https://climatenewsnetwork.net/tripled-climate-cuts-needed-to-fulfil-pledge/
Even Republicans at odds with Trump’s climate posture, poll finds
But many people still don’t agree with the consensus science
that shows humans are the dominant cause of climate change
We Can Pay For A Green New Deal
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-green-new-deal-cost_us_5c0042b2e4b027f1097bda5b
A sharing economy for plants: Seed libraries are sprouting up
https://theconversation.com/a-sharing-economy-for-plants-seed-libraries-are-sprouting-up-106432
Photos: Indian tribe revives heirloom seeds for health and climate security
California’s misguided plan to ‘save’ tropical forests (commentary)
Indigenous leaders, environmental justice campaigners, academics, and left-leaning green groups have raised vocal opposition to an updated version of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) now known in California policy circles as the Tropical Forest Standard.
The argument behind the TFS is that jurisdiction-wide policies to reduce deforestation implemented by state and provincial authorities will be different from scattershot private-sector-led REDD projects. But proponents leave out a key fact: the failures of REDD+ have often been driven by weak governance — that is to say, corruption, graft, neglect, and abuse of power — in tropical states.
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/californias-misguided-plan-to-save-tropical-forests-commentary/
Big Oil v the planet is the fight of our lives. Democrats must choose a side David Sirota
The industry has political supremacy even in left-leaning states,
but immediate action can hold off an environmental state of emergency
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/15/climate-change-democrats-oil-gas
Why companies should help pay for the biodiversity that’s good for their bottom line
Arctic Drilling Is “Ecocide on an Incredible Diversity of Wildlife”
https://truthout.org/articles/arctic-drilling-is-ecocide-on-an-incredible-diversity-of-wildlife/
‘Why not sequence everything?’ A plan to decode every complex species on Earth
The Earth BioGenome Project aims to sequence 1.5 million genomes and will probably cost US$4.7 billion.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07279-z
5 recycling myths busted
What really happens to all the stuff you put in those blue bins?
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/5-recycling-myths-busted-plastic/
How to stop half a trillion bottles polluting our planet each year
The plastic backlash: what’s behind our sudden rage – and will it make a difference?
Decades after it became part of the fabric of our lives, a worldwide revolt against plastic is under https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/13/the-plastic-backlash-whats-behind-our-sudden-rage-and-will-it-make-a-difference
Why I Have Hope in the Face of Human Extinction
Around the world, people are realizing the current path will lead only to disaster, and they’re beginning to ask the hard questions about what to do next.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/why-i-have-hope-in-the-face-of-human-extinction-20181101
‘It’s a ghost page’: EPA site’s climate change section may be gone for good
Material that said humans were warming the planet was taken down last year for an ‘update’
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/01/epa-website-climate-change-trump-administration
Federal judge blocks Keystone XL pipeline, saying Trump administration review ignored ‘inconvenient’ climate change facts
New rules and relaxed regulations have touched off a fracking boom in the western United States
The administration is auctioning off millions of acres of drilling rights and rolling back regulations, raising environmental concerns in states like Wyoming.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/27/climate/trump-fracking-drilling-oil-gas.html
Zinke’s own agency watchdog just referred him to the Justice Department
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has come under scrutiny on multiple fronts
Amazon rainforest sees more rain
https://physicsworld.com/a/amazon-rainforest-sees-more-rain/
Conservationists Worry about Amazon’s Fate after Bolsonaro’s Victory in Brazil
The far-right president-elect has proposed opening the rainforest to trade and
withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement
Ethiopia and Norway Thursday signed a grant agreement amounting $21.6 million (180 million Norwegian kroner) to support the east African Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) Strategy.
https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/ethiopia-gets-over-21m-grant-from-norway/
Climate change: ‘Wetlands vital to protect cities’
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46020176
The IEA Comes Up Short on Climate (Again)
http://priceofoil.org/2018/11/12/business-as-usual-iea-climate/
Al Gore calls Trump ‘the principal global face of climate denial’
https://www.washingtonpost.com/energy-environment/2018/11/29/al-gore-calls-trump-principal-global-face-climate-denial/?utm_term=.ac88cd3a1933
Claws out: crab fishermen sue 30 oil firms over climate change
Fossil fuel companies including Chevron and ExxonMobil ‘knowingly caused harm’ by contributing to warming, group says
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/14/crab-fishermen-sue-oil-firms-exxon-chevron
Five Big Ways the United States Will Need to Adapt to Climate Change
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/26/climate/adaptation-us-climate-change.html
Bitcoin’s popularity has a downside: It’s an energy glutton
that could hurt Earth’s climate, study finds
The new research finds that bitcoin’s greenhouse gas emissions are already comparable to those of a midsize country. But critics aren’t so sure.
Agroforestry saves soil and boosts livelihoods in Tajikistan
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/agroforestry-saves-soil-and-boosts-livelihoods-in-tajikistan/
Whendee Silver’s recent paper
The potential of agricultural land management to contribute to lower global surface temperatures
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaaq0932
The Chicken And The Egg: Stop Linear Farming And Embrace Circular Agriculture
Agronomist Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin wants to transform the food system from the ground up by introducing poultry-powered, planet-cooling, regenerative agriculture. Ashoka’s Simon Stumpf caught up with Haslett-Marroquin to hear more about his approach, what his Tree-Range™ system is all about, and what’s on the horizon for the smallholder farmers in his network. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashoka/2018/10/23/the-chicken-and-the-egg-stop-linear-farming-and-embrace-circular-agriculture
Part of the Answer to Climate Change May Be America’s Trees and Dirt, Scientists Say
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/climate/climate-change-natural-solutions.html
Growing the future
High-tech farmers are using LED lights in ways that seem to border on science fiction
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/lifestyle/led-growing/
Trump administration to cut air pollution from heavy-duty trucks
EPA to start writing rule requiring new trucks produce less nitrogen oxide, one of its first moves to regulate industry
Green New Deal? Bring It! But Don’t Forget Your Union Card.
To be truly transformational, any bold green jobs proposal must be rooted in the right to organize. https://inequality.org/research/green-new-deal-union-rights/
Brazil could lose Nepal-size area of rainforest due to policy revision
Oreo maker linked to destruction of orangutan habitat in Indonesia
Palm oil supplier to PepsiCo, Mars, and Hershey resumes deforesting in Indonesia
Industry studies show evidence of bias and misleading conclusions on widely used insecticide: Scientists Data just doesn’t add up behind industry conclusions on chlorpyrifos— a controversial insecticide linked to brain impacts for children
https://www.ehn.org/industry-studies-on-chlorpyrifos-misleading-2619918322.html
Shorebird egg theft is becoming a big problem in the Arctic.
And climate change is behind it. The daily rate of eggs stolen from shorebirds’ nests in the Arctic is three times higher than it was 70 years ago. The trouble, which coincides with warming temperatures, could impact vulnerable populations of stunning birds.
Bugs are full of our drugs—and they could be getting other critters hooked, too
Wildlife that feed on bugs near streams are at a higher risk of being dosed with pharmaceuticals Insects near streams are taking in loads of pharmaceutical drugs and can pass the compounds on to predators higher in the food chain, such as frogs, birds and bats, according to a new study. “Predators that consume aquatic invertebrates in wastewater-influenced streams may be exposed to about one quarter and up to one half of a human dose of some pharmaceuticals,” the authors wrote in the study, published today in Nature Communications. Pharmaceuticals are increasingly detected in waterways around the world as prescription drug use increases. The drugs get into the water via people excreting them or when they’re flushed down the toilet. Wastewater treatment plants were not designed to handle such contamination and previous research shows only about half of drugs are removed by sewer treatments. https://www.ehn.org/pharmaceuticals-in-streams-and-wildlife-2618088803.html
Using Trump Tax Cut for Good: Patagonia Donates $10 Million to the Planet
https://www.ecowatch.com/patagonia-donates-10-million-2621774314.html
85% of Tampons Contain Monsanto’s ‘Cancer Causing’ Glyphosate
https://www.ecowatch.com/do-tampons-contain-glyphosate-1882112780.html
WMO GREENHOUSE GAS BULLETIN
The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere
https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=5455
The Mainstream Media Is Lying About the California Fires
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-mainstream-media-is-lying-about-the-california-fires/
CALIFORNIA IS ON FIRE. TRUMP’S SOLUTION: RAKES?
America’s largest state is suffering one of its worst climate catastrophes to date, but the president refuses to see the obvious.
https://otherwords.org/california-is-on-fire-trumps-solution-rakes/
Minimal Media Attention Helped Sink Crucial Climate Initiatives
https://fair.org/home/minimal-media-attention-helped-sink-crucial-climate-initiatives/
Addressing Climate Change Through Degrowth: It May Be Less Contentious Than You Think.
It may seem far-fetched and radical to hope that degrowth could receive widespread public support, but it is impossible to shift society unless we begin putting forth a vision of what alternatives could look like
Fight Climate Change in Your Own Garden
Your backyard could be the next front in the war against global warming.
https://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/fight-climate-change-in-your-own-garden-20181112
The World Needs to Quit Coal. Why Is It So Hard?
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/climate/coal-global-warming.html
Tropics hit hardest – Humanity faces simultaneous climate disasters: study