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
Category Archives: Global Warming
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
Average Temperature for May 2015 Highest in 136 Years
June 18, 2015 Report from the National Centers for Environmental Information Excerpt The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces for May 2015 was the highest for May in the 136-year period of record, at 0.87°C (1.57°F) above the 20th century average of 14.8°C (58.6°F), surpassing the previous … Continue reading
World’s Largest Aquifers Beyond Tipping Point
June 16, 2015 An informative, pivotal article explains how some of the largest aquifers on Earth are being depleted. This is “fossil” water, stored naturally underground over hundreds or thousands of years. Some of the aquifers are in deserts with little or no precipitation to offset their high use. The … Continue reading
Crops and Climate: Plants Will Suffer as Earth Warms (Op-Ed)
June 16, 2015 By Marlene Cimons, Climate Nexus Marlene Cimons writes for Climate Nexus, a nonprofit that aims to tell the climate story in innovative ways that raise awareness of, dispel misinformation about and showcase solutions to climate change and energy issues in the United States. She contributed this article … Continue reading
NASA Climate Projection for 2100
June 9, 2015 A new NASA high-resolution climate forecast released to the public for the end of the 21st Century, capable of examining daily changes in individual cities and towns. Among its many benefits, it will help polities around the world prepare for catastrophic consequences such as floods and droughts. … Continue reading
Global Warming Not Slowing
A study published on June 4 2015 by the National Climatic Data Center at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that a UN 2013 report erroneously concluded that there had been a 15-year hiatus in global warming. Turns out, the rate of global warming was measured incorrectly: the hiatus … Continue reading
California Needs 42 Cubic Km of Water
December 16, 2014 RELEASE 14-333 NASA Analysis: 11 Trillion Gallons to Replenish California Drought Losses It will take about 11 trillion gallons of water (42 cubic kilometers) — around 1.5 times the maximum volume of the largest U.S. reservoir — to recover from California’s continuing drought, according to a new … Continue reading
Sao Paulo’s Water Crisis
December 9, 2014 Sao Paulo, a city of 20 million people, has water for 60 days. Whether the cause is global warming, deforestation in the Amazon, or something else is irrelevant. The point is that the city depends on rainfall to replenish its reservoirs. Well, it’s not raining, and there’s … Continue reading
Compromise at the Convention on Climate Change, Lima 2014
December 7, 2014 As at previous similar conventions, there is agreement on the overall goal, not on who should do what, when, and pay how much. Rather than repeating the entire list of disagreements, the following might become the basis for a possible compromise. The overall goal is to reduce … Continue reading