International Energy Agency report: Global carbon dioxide emissions increased 1.4% in 2012, a record
The United States’ emissions were reduced by 200 million tons, bringing U.S. emissions close to levels present in the mid 1990s. Europe also saw a modest emissions reduction. On the other hand, China’s emissions growth was the largest in the world, releasing 300 million tons more carbon dioxide in 2012 than they did in 2011; Japan’s emissions increased 70 million tons between 2011 and 2012.— Report: Global Carbon Emissions Hit Record High
Belief in global warming has dropped by 10% in the last year, likely because of the cold winter
As previous polls have shown, Americans’ thoughts on climate change seem to vary with the weather. According to a new Yale University poll, 63 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening, a 10 percent drop from the number who believed it was happening last September, when a similar poll found that 70 percent of Americans believed global warming is happening.— After Cold Winter, American Attitudes Chill on Global Warming
Is Obama shifting his strategy on climate change?
Mr. Obama has given up on moving comprehensive climate change legislation through Congress and has ruled out a carbon tax as a way to finance the development of alternative energy sources, so he is pursuing smaller-scale projects that do not require new sources of revenue. The Energy Security Trust, as he calls his proposal to shift oil and gas royalties to alternative energy research, is one of those projects.— Obama Seeks $2 Billion in Research on Cleaner Fuels
“Our science is solid and it proves unequivocally that the world is warming and that this warming is due to human activities,” World Meteorological Organization Deputy Secretary-General Jerry Lengoasa told reporters in Durban, where almost 200 nations are gathered for U.N. climate talks.
The WMO, part of the United Nations, said the warmest 13 years of average global temperatures have all occurred in the 15 years since 1997. That has contributed to extreme weather conditions that increase the intensity of droughts and heavy precipitation across the world, it said.
“Global temperatures in 2011 are currently the tenth highest on record and are higher than any previous year with a La Nina event, which has a relative cooling influence,” it said.
The early-season climate is becoming warmer and drier in the high altitudes of the southern Rocky Mountains. These changing conditions are altering moisture availability and hence flowering timing in sub-alpine meadows, says Inouye. The result is a mid-season decline in number of wildflowers in bloom.
Learning From the Viking Age: Studying climate shifts in the Arctic and how people coped
“The Vikings are poster children for environmental destruction,” said John Steinberg, a research scientist at the Fiske Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. “They were burning and chopping as fast as they could, and during a time of variable climate. What they did really came back to haunt them. That’s why it’s important that we understand how the environment responded. It can help predict what might happen to us.’’
“The implication is that polar bears are likely to lose out in competition for food to grizzlies as warmer temperatures bring them into the same environments, because grizzlies’ stronger skulls are better suited to a plant-rich diet, said Slater and Blaire Van Valkenburgh, UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the research.”
