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Category Archives: Climate Change

Climate Change removed from new White House website

HuffPo: “The White House website has removed the page devoted to climate change action and posted newly sworn-in President Donald Trump’s pledge to undo environmental regulations and “revive America’s coal industry.”  The 361-word policy outline on the new page, titled “America First Energy Plan,” makes no reference to global warming or climate change, except to… Continue Reading

2016 marks three consecutive years of record warmth for the globe

“With a boost from El Nino, 2016 began with a bang. For eight consecutive months, January to August, the globe experienced record warm heat.  With this as a catalyst, the 2016 globally averaged surface temperature ended as the highest since record keeping began in 1880, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The… Continue Reading

Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter

Impending extinction crisis of the world’s primates: Why primates matter. Science Advances 18 Jan 2017: Vol. 3, no. 1, e1600946 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600946. “Nonhuman primates, our closest biological relatives, play important roles in the livelihoods, cultures, and religions of many societies and offer unique insights into human evolution, biology, behavior, and the threat of emerging diseases.… Continue Reading

NDC Explorer – one-stop-shop for exploring national climate action plans

Via Data Driven Journalism: “In 2013, the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) decided that every member state should formulate a concrete national contribution to address the challenges of climate change. To this end, each country developed a Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) that communicated their planned climate change mitigation… Continue Reading

EPA Notifies Fiat Chrysler of Clean Air Act Violations

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued a notice of violation to Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. and FCA US LLC (collectively FCA) for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act for installing and failing to disclose engine management software in light-duty model year 2014, 2015 and 2016 Jeep Grand Cherokees and Dodge Ram 1500… Continue Reading

NPS – Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy

Cultural Resources Climate Change Strategy, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Cultural Resources, Partnerships, and Science Climate Change Response Program, December 2016. “The purpose of this Strategy is to set out the broad scope of cultural resources in relation to climate change and identify major directions of action in cultural resources and climate… Continue Reading

Valuing Climate Changes: Updating Estimation of the Social Cost of Carbon Dioxide

“The social cost of carbon (SC-CO2) is an economic metric intended to provide a comprehensive estimate of the net damages – that is, the monetized value of the net impacts, both negative and positive – from the global climate change that results from a small (1-metric ton) increase in carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions. Under Executive Orders… Continue Reading

Polar Bear Conservation Management Plan

“In response to today’s release of the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Polar Bear Conservation Management Plan, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released the following statement from Elisabeth Kruger, Arctic program officer and polar bear expert: “The plan shows the complexity of what it means to truly protect America’s most iconic Arctic species. It addresses the… Continue Reading

Researchers confirm ocean warming underestimated

Via The New Reddit Journal of Science – “…researchers [Zeke Hausfather, Kevin Cowtan, Dave Clarke, Peter Jacobs, Mark Richardson, Robert Rohde] who just published a new open access paper in Science Advances showing that ocean warming was indeed being underestimated, confirming the conclusion of a paper last year that triggered a series of political attacks.… Continue Reading

NYT – Falcons, Drones, Data: A Winery Battles Climate Change

Jackson Family Wines is among California winemakers employing both high-tech and old-school techniques to adapt to hotter, drier conditions: “On a misty autumn morning in Sonoma County, Calif., Katie Jackson headed into the vineyards to assess the harvest. It was late in the season, and an army of field workers was rushing to pick the… Continue Reading

House moves forward rules to ease constraints to sell federal lands

Washington Post: “House Republicans on Tuesday changed the way Congress calculates the cost of transferring federal lands to the states and other entities, a move that will make it easier for members of the new Congress to cede federal control of public lands. The provision, included as part as a larger rules package the House approved… Continue Reading

GAO Report on Climate Change

Climate Change: Improved Federal Coordination Could Facilitate Use of Forward-Looking Climate Information in Design Standards, Building Codes, and Certifications, GAO-17-3: Published: Nov 30, 2016. Publicly Released: Jan 3, 2017. “The houses we live in, buildings we work in, and roads and bridges we use daily are supposed to be built to last—whatever the local forecast… Continue Reading