December 12, 2015 The Paris conference is over, and member nations have unanimously adopted a resolution to keep global mean temperature within 1.5°C of that which existed before the industrial era and to help needy nations cope with the effects of global warming. Pundits are already criticizing it due to … Continue reading
Category Archives: Environment
Making Paris 2015 Successful
December 11, 2015 As at Copenhagen, the sticking point in Paris is money –who is going to pay how much so the entire world won’t look like Beijing during a red-alert smog storm. The real issue is not money per se but that the world’s powers are reluctant to simply … Continue reading
The South China Sea & Climate Change
11/24/2015 Background So what does the South China Sea have to do with climate change, the yawning gap in the distribution of wealth and income and the approaching water crisis? In a word, everything. In “Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea And The End Of A Stable Pacific,” Robert D. … Continue reading
Financing Climate Change
October 30, 2015 Background At the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Convention an impasse emerged. Nonetheless, wealthy nations finally committed to provide poor nations with $100 billion by 2020. So far, little or no cash has actually been disbursed, and as it now stands the world’s temperature is on track to increase … Continue reading
Last Chance in Paris
An Impending Crisis A tsunami of methane –a greenhouse gas 27 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2)- of El Niño proportions may soon be released into the atmosphere, and no one can prevent that. If and when it happens, the concentration of greenhouse gases will exceed current projections by … Continue reading
Secretary Kerry on the Road to Paris Dec. 2015
Remarks at the Atlantic Council John Kerry Secretary of State Washington, DC March 12, 2015 SECRETARY KERRY: Well, good morning, everybody. Fred, thank you very, very much for a very generous introduction. I’m delighted to be here with everybody. Distinguished ambassadors who are here this morning, thank you for taking … Continue reading
Mercury Pollution in the Permafrost
October 12, 2015 The inexhaustible stream of ominous news related to climate change continues. A study published in the journal Science found that ancient methylating bacteria, dormant for thousands of years in the Arctic permafrost, may become active and begin transforming inert mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants long accumulated … Continue reading
Study of Mercury Pollution in Northeastern U.S.
Chemical and Biological Control of Mercury Cycling in Upland, Wetland and Lake Ecosystems in the Northeastern U.S. EPA Grant Number: R827633 Title: Chemical and Biological Control of Mercury Cycling in Upland, Wetland and Lake Ecosystems in the Northeastern U.S. Project Period: November 1, 1999 through October 31, 2002 (Extended to … Continue reading
President Obama’s Climate Action Plan – 2013
Official .pdf of the Climate Action Plan.
Halting Global Warming
October 3, 2015 Exactly two months ago President Obama announced a plan to limit the amount of carbon that power plants dump into the atmosphere, the single biggest pollutant contributing to climate change. Likewise, at the United Nations, President Putin announced plans to reduce by 2030 Russia’s greenhouse emissions to … Continue reading