REPORTS & PAPERS 2021 | Climate Change Resources

REPORTS AND PAPERS

Already by the beginning of June, there were dozens of reports on subjects from air quality to conserving and restoring America’s lands and waters, from melting ice to gas emission inventories, from health consequences to economic consequences.

At the end of May, Michael Svoboda at Yale Climate Connections, published a piece outlining 12 reports “on what the U.S. may make possible on climate.” Perhaps Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector released by the International Energy Agency, on May 1, is the one you should read first. It is both demanding and optimistic.

On August 9, a landmark U.N. report from the IPCC “issued its latest and most dire assessment about the state of the planet, detailing how humans have altered the environment at an “unprecedented” pace and cautioning that the world risks increasingly catastrophic impacts in the absence of rapid greenhouse gas reductions.” As reported in the Washington Post, “the landmark report, compiled by 234 authors relying on more than 14,000 studies from around the globe, bluntly lays out for policymakers and the public the most up-to-date understanding of the physical science on climate change. Released amid a summer of deadly fires, floods and heat waves, it arrives less than three months before a critical summit this November in Scotland, where world leaders face mounting pressure to move more urgently to slow the Earth’s warming.

Monday’s sprawling assessment states that there is no remaining scientific doubt that humans are fueling climate change. That much is “unequivocal.” The only real uncertainty that remains, its authors say, is whether the world can muster the will to stave off a darker future than the one it already has carved in stone.”

CREDIT: Carbon Brief

2021 REPORTS & PAPERS

NATURE 11/30/21

nature communications

New climate models reveal faster and larger increases in Arctic precipitation than previously projected

By Michelle R. McCrystall, Julienne Stroeve and Others 11/30/21

As the Arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of the planet, evidence mounts that the region is experiencing unprecedented environmental change. The hydrological cycle is projected to intensify throughout the twenty-first century, with increased evaporation from expanding open water areas and more precipitation.

Nov 30 2021

The Washington Post

The Arctic could get more rain and less snow sooner than projected. Here’s why that matters.

By Brady Dennis and Kasha Patel Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

The planet’s warming is transforming the sprawling and fragile Arctic, moving it toward a future that can be summed up in four words: more rain, less snow. But now researchers say that unprecedented shift — and the profound impacts that are likely to accompany it — could come decades sooner…

NATURE 11/10/21

NATURE

Globally resolved surface temperatures since the Last Glacial Maximum

By Matthew B. Osman, Jessica E. Tierney and Others 11/10/21

Climate changes across the past 24,000 years provide key insights into Earth system responses to external forcing. Climate model simulations and proxy data have independently allowed for study of this crucial interval; however, they have at times yielded disparate conclusions. Here, we leverage both types of information using paleoclimate data assimilation to…

Dec 10 2021

Simon Clark

Video: What the Hockey Stick missed about climate change

By Simon Clark

The infamous hockey stick figure was published in 1999. A new paper just blew it out of the water with an INCREDIBLE reconstruction. Learn how climate change altered human history on CuriosityStream...

Nov 10 2021

Science Daily

Global temperatures over last 24,000 years show today’s warming ‘unprecedented’

An effort to reconstruct Earth's climate since the last ice age, about 24,000 years ago, highlights the main drivers of climate change and how far out of bounds human activity has pushed the climate system...

CCDH 11/2/22

Center for Countering Digital Hate

How ten fringe publishers fuel 69% of digital climate change denial

11/02/21

It is the greatest crisis ever faced by our species. Through collective will, we can mitigate and avert the worst impacts of climate change. But, just as we’ve experienced recently with vaccine and COVID-19 disinformation, we continue to be up against vested interests with financial stakes, such as companies and…

Feb 23 2022

CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE

Facebook failing to flag harmful climate misinformation, new research finds

CCDH researchers have now used the social analytics tool NewsWhip to assess 184 articles featuring climate denial content published by the Toxic Ten. Articles in the sample have accumulated more than one million likes, comments or shares on Facebook...

OECD 11/1/21

OECD

Managing Climate Risks, Facing up to Losses and Damages

11/01/21

Time is running out to address the impacts of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest scientific assessment makes the severity of the climate hazards we face very clear; even large-scale, high-impact events such as ice sheet collapse and abrupt ocean circulation changes cannot be ruled out.

WH 10/31/21

whitehouse.gov

Report On The Impact Of Climate Change On Migration

10/31/21

The climate crisis is reshaping our world, as the Earth’s climate is now changing faster than at any point in the history of modern civilization. Defined by changes in average weather conditions that persist over multiple decades or longer, climate change includes changes in temperature, precipitation patterns, the frequency and…

Nov 05 2021

CSIS

The White House Report on Climate Migration, Explained

By Erol Yayboke, Catherine Nzuki and Sierra Ballard Photo: Sanjay Kanojia/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden-Harris administration released a major report on climate migration on Thursday, October 21, 2021. Strategically timed to coincide with final preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in early November 2021, the report demonstrates a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the interlinked challenges of climate…

SOTB 10/31/21

State Of The Beach Report

10/31/21

Greta is known for her famous speeches before world leaders. She recently spoke at COP 26 where delegates from around the world are charged with fulfilling goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Greta’s quote perfectly captures the gravity of the climate crisis and…

IOP 10/21/21

IOP

Unprecedented threats to cities from multi-century sea level rise

By Benjamin H. Strauss 10/11/21

A portion of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions will stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, raising temperatures and sea levels globally. Most nations' emissions-reduction policies and actions do not seem to reflect this long-term threat, as collectively they point toward widespread permanent inundation of many developed areas.

Oct 11 2021

Climate Central

Picturing Our Future

Climate and energy choices this decade will influence how high sea levels rise for hundreds of years. Which future will we choose?

Sep 17 2021

AXIOS

UN warns of “catastrophic” climate change failure without more emissions cuts

By Matt Lavietes Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

A United Nations report released Friday warned that the planet will likely warm by more than 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of the century unless governments take extra steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Why it matters: The report, released just months ahead of November's UN Climate Summit, highlights the…

LANCET 10/20/21

lancetcountdownus.org

Lancet Countdown: Policy brief for the United States Of America

10/20/21

This fifth annual Policy Brief is supported by a diverse group of health experts from over 70 institutions, organizations, and centers who recognize that climate change is first and foremost a health crisis. It uses indicator data for the United States (U.S.) from the 2021 global Lancet Countdown report and…

Oct 20 2021

NPR

Climate change is bad for your health. And plans to boost economies may make it worse

By Nathan Rott Photo: Matt Rourke/AP

It may seem obvious: Heat kills. Wildfires burn. Flooding drowns. But the sprawling health effects of a rapidly warming world can also be subtle. Heat sparks violence and disrupts sleep. Wildfire smoke can trigger respiratory events thousands of miles away. Flooding can increase rates of suicide and mental health problems.…

Sep 07 2021

NPR

Climate Change Is The Greatest Threat To Public Health, Top Medical Journals Warn

By Lauren Sommer Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The rapidly warming climate is the "greatest threat" to global public health, more than 200 medical journals are warning in an unprecedented joint statement that urges world leaders to cut heat-trapping emissions to avoid "catastrophic harm to health that will be impossible to reverse."

Jul 02 2021

NPR

Hundreds Are Believed To Have Died During The Pacific Northwest Heat Wave

Photo: Nathan Howard/AP

Many of the dead were found alone, in homes without air conditioning or fans. Some were elderly — one as old as 97. The body of an immigrant farm laborer was found in an Oregon nursery.

Feb 18 2020

NPR

How Warming Winters Are Affecting Everything

By Lauren Sommer, Mose Buchele and Others. Photo: Cornelia Li/NPR

Winters are warming faster than other seasons across much of the United States. While that may sound like a welcome change for those bundled in scarves and hats, it's causing a cascade of unpredictable impacts in communities across the country.

GCRMN 10/5/21

gcrmn.net

The Sixth Status of Corals of the World

10/05/21

Coral reefs occur in more than 100 countries and territories and whilst they cover only 0.2% of the seafloor, they support at least 25% of marine species and underpin the safety, coastal protection, wellbeing, food and economic security of hundreds of millions of people.

Oct 05 2021

The Washington Post

Climate change killed 14% of the world’s coral reefs in a decade, study finds

By Ellen Francis Photo: Lucas Jackson/Reuters

Climate change is wiping out coral reefs and will kill more if oceans keep getting warmer, researchers warned on Tuesday in a new study that spanned much of the globe. The world already lost 14 percent of its coral between 2009 and 2018 — or what amounts to more than…

BP 10/1/21

BEYOND PLASTICS

The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change

10/01/21

The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change is a comprehensive account of the United States plastics industry’s significant, yet rarely acknowledged contributions to the climate crisis. Using coal-fired power plants as a benchmark, the report examines ten stages in the creation, usage, and disposal of plastics: fracking for plastics, transporting…

Aug 26 2022

Living on Earth

The Climate and Plastic

Photo: Mark Dixon/Flickr

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental threats to this planet, and according to a report by the advocacy group Beyond Plastics, greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production in the United States are on track to outpace domestic coal emissions...

NATURE 9/30/21

Nature Food

Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods

By Xiaoming Xu, Prateek Sharma and Others 09/30/21

Agriculture and land use are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but previous estimates were either highly aggregate or provided spatial details for subsectors obtained via different methodologies. Using a model–data integration approach that ensures full consistency between subsectors, we provide spatially explicit estimates of production- and consumption-based GHG…

Sep 13 2021

Scientific American

Here’s How Much Food Contributes to Climate Change

By Andrea Thompson

As with most things related to people, the food we eat comes with a carbon cost. Soil tillage, crop and livestock transportation, manure management and all the other aspects of global food production generate greenhouse gas emissions to the tune of more than 17 billion metric tons per year, according…

Sep 13 2021

The Guardian

Meat accounts for nearly 60% of all greenhouse gases from food production, study finds

By Oliver Milman Photo: Jim West/Alamy Stock Photo

The global production of food is responsible for a third of all planet-heating gases emitted by human activity, with the use of animals for meat causing twice the pollution of producing plant-based foods, a major new study has found. The entire system of food production, such as the use of…

FOE 9/16/21

Friends of the Earth

Four Days Of Texas-Sized Disinformation

09/16/21

The fossil fuel industry has spent millions over decades to sow doubt and prevent action on the climate crisis. This narrative campaign largely failed to sow doubt, as it is no longer credible to deny climate change entirely, and most Americans are demanding action on the issue. However, social media…

Sep 24 2021

Targeted News Service

Friends of Earth Issues White Paper Entitled ‘Truth and Lies: Four Days of Texas-Sized Disinformation’

Friends of the Earth issued a 12-page white paper in August 2021 entitled "Truth and Lies: Four Days of Texas-Sized Disinformation - Social Media Companies Threaten Action on Climate Change."

SCIENCE 9/3/21

science.org

Linking Arctic variability and change with extreme winter weather in the United States

By Judah Cohen, Laurie Agel and Others 09/03/21

Despite the rapid warming that is the cardinal signature of global climate change, especially in the Arctic, where temperatures are rising much more than elsewhere in the world, the United States and other regions of the Northern Hemisphere have experienced a conspicuous and increasingly frequent number of episodes of extremely…

Sep 03 2021

The Independent

Study: Warmer Arctic led to killer cold in Texas, much of US

Warming of the Arctic caused by climate change has increased the number of polar vortex outbreaks, when frigid air from the far north bathes the central and eastern United States in killer cold, a study finds.

Sep 03 2021

BBC

Climate change: Arctic warming linked to colder winters

By Matt McGrath Photo: Getty Images

A new study shows that increases in extreme winter weather in parts of the US are linked to accelerated warming of the Arctic. The scientists found that heating in the region ultimately disturbed the circular pattern of winds known as the polar vortex. This allowed colder winter weather to flow…

Sep 02 2021

Bloomberg Green

How Melting Arctic Sea Ice Caused $90 Billion Texas Freeze

By Laura Millan Lombrana Photo: Thomas Ryan Allison/Bloomberg

The rapid melting of sea ice in some parts of the Arctic could unleash phenomena that result in extraordinary North American cold spells, scientists have found — including the one that paralyzed Texas in February, causing an estimated $90 billion in losses.

Sep 02 2021

U.S.NEWS

Study: Warmer Arctic Led to Killer Cold in Texas, Much of US

By Associated Press Photo: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP

BGCI 9/1/21

BGCI

BGCI Launches the State of the World’s Trees Report

09/01/21

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) has published a landmark State of the World’s Trees report. The report, compiling work led by the Global Tree Assessment (GTA), is the culmination of five years of research to identify major gaps in tree conservation efforts. It is one of the first assessments of…

Sep 01 2021

BBC

One in three trees face extinction in wild, says new report

By Helen Briggs Photo: David Bartholomew

For a healthy world, we need tree species diversity, added Sara Oldfield, co-chair of the Global Tree Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature...

Aug 12 2021

Our Daily Planet

Siberian Fires Now Larger Than All Others Combined

By Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer Photo: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team / NASA GSFC

According to NASA, the “airpocalypse” caused by Siberia’s record-breaking wildfires has reached the geographic North Pole for the first time in history. The region’s blazes are now larger than all others burning across the earth combined. Half of the current fires are burning so hot that firefighters are incapable of…

IPCC 8/9/21

IPCC

Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis

08/09/21

The Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report is the most up-to-date physical understanding of the climate system and climate change, bringing together the latest advances in climate science, and combining multiple lines of evidence from paleoclimate, observations, process understanding, and global and regional climate simulations.

Aug 24 2021

Yale Climate Connections

Cartoonists’ ‘Code Red’ caricatures of new IPCC report

By Michael Svoboda

The first part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report, described by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres as “code red for humanity,” was released August 9 amidst a maelstrom of highly charged news stories.

Aug 17 2021

Chicago Tribune

Climate change a ‘code red for humanity’ — and the Great Lakes

By The Editorial Board Photo: Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune

A recent report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a 4,000-page document viewed as the most comprehensive look at climate ever undertaken. Among the findings: “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”

Aug 13 2021

CLIMATE WIRE

Climate scientists have a message for the world: Don’t give up

By Chelsea Harvey Photo: NASA/Newscom

Climate change is real, it’s happening now, and it’s wreaking havoc across the world. So said a much-anticipated report released Monday by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that has inspired dire headlines and international hand-wringing over the starkest warnings yet about droughts, floods, fires, extreme heat, rising sea…

Aug 12 2021

THE HILL

How IPCC went from ‘not proven’ that we cause climate change in 1990 to ‘we are guilty’ in 2021

By Ben Santer Photo: Getty Images

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) advises the world’s governments on climate change science, impacts and response strategies, and recently released their latest report on climate change science. It was the sixth in a series of scientific assessments that began in 1990.

Aug 12 2021

Newsweek Magazine

‘Code Red’ Climate Activism Art Around the World

By Kathleen Rellihan Photo: Zaria Forman

"Engaging with art can make the world felt. And this feeling spurs thinking, connection and even action," says Olafur Eliasson, the Danish-Icelandic climate-focused artist, about the power of art as activism.

Aug 12 2021

YALE Climate Connections

The new IPCC Report includes – get this, good news

By Dana Nuccitelli

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Sixth Assessment Report, summarized nicely on these pages by Bob Henson, much of the associated media coverage carried a tone of inevitable doom.

Aug 11 2021

The New Yorker

The U.N. Climate Panel Tries to Cut Through the Smog

By Bill McKibben Photo: Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Alamy

We all live in two worlds: a physical one and a social one. The new report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was released on Monday, is ostensibly about the physical world. It states—even more clearly and forcefully than it has stated in all its reports back to…

Aug 10 2021

AP NEWS

‘Code red’: UN scientists warn of worsening global warming

By Seth Borenstein Photo: Valentin Bianchi/AP Photo

Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity.”

Aug 09 2021

Time

The Language Of Climate Change Just Changed in a Major Way

By Elijah Wolfson Photo: Ben Stansall—AFP via Getty Images

In so many ways, not much has changed since the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—perhaps the premiere climate science-and-policy organization in the world—published its last major report in 2014. Just as it was seven years ago, the latest edition, published on Aug. 8, is largely gloomy in…

Aug 09 2021

THE CONVERSATION

IPCC climate report: Profound changes are underway in Earth’s oceans and ice – a lead author explains what the warnings mean

By Robert Kopp Photo: John McConnico/AP Photo

Humans are unequivocally warming the planet, and that’s triggering rapid changes in the atmosphere, oceans and polar regions, and increasing extreme weather around the world, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns in a new report.

Aug 09 2021

Wired

The UN Climate Report: All Is Not Well—but All Is Not Lost

By Matt Simon Photo: Yasin Akgul/Getty Images

Today the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released an alarming new report on the state of the climate: 14,000 pieces of scientific literature synthesized by hundreds of experts. It’s a full-throated declaration of what scientists know about how humanity has set the planet on fire: How hot it’s…

Aug 09 2021

Vox

The devastating new UN report on climate change, explained

By Umair Irfan and Rebecca Leber Photo: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations’ climate science research group, concluded in a major report that it is “unequivocal” that humans have warmed the skies, waters, and lands, and that “widespread and rapid changes” have already occurred in every inhabited region across the globe. Many of…

Aug 09 2021

Inside Climate News

Global Climate Panel’s Report: No Part of the Planet Will be Spared

By Bob Berwyn Photo: Bob Berwyn/Inside Climate News

A new IPCC science assessment, coming before COP26 in November, called for immediate action and showed that this summer’s extremes are only a mild preview of the decades ahead.

Aug 09 2021

Carbon Brief

In-depth Q&A: The IPCC’s sixth assessment report on climate science

By Alisa Singer Photo: Alisa Singer

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has published the first part of its sixth assessment report (AR6), which will form the cornerstone of climate science for the years ahead.

Aug 09 2021

Scientific American

Earth Is Warmer Than It’s Been in 125,000 Years

By Jeff Tollefson Photo: David Ryder Getty Images

Modern society’s continued dependence on fossil fuels is warming the world at a pace that is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years—and its effects are already apparent as record droughts, wildfires and floods devastate communities worldwide—according to a landmark report from the United Nations on the state of climate science. The…

Aug 09 2021

The Atlantic

It’s Grim

By Robinson Meyer Photo: NurPhoto / Getty Images

A new United Nations–led report from hundreds of climate scientists around the world makes it clear: The human-driven climate crisis is now well under way. Earth is likely hotter now than it has been at any moment since the beginning of the last Ice Age, 125,000 years ago, and the…

Aug 09 2021

GIZMODO

5 Big Takeaways From the New UN Climate Report

By Dharna Noor Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis / Getty Images

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s massive new report, published early Monday morning, makes it absolutely clear that the climate crisis isn’t waiting for us in some far-off future; it’s here right now.

Aug 09 2021

CLIMATE HOME NEWS

Five takeaways from the IPCC’s 2021 climate science report

By Isabelle Gerretsen Photo: Subrata Biswas / Greenpeace

The UN’s climate science body has published a major report on the physical changes happening and projected to occur as a result of human activity, from devastating floods to destructive wildfires.

Aug 09 2021

The Guardian

Climate crisis ‘unequivocally’ caused by human activities, says IPCC report

By Damian Carrington Photo: Sébastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images

“It is unequivocal.” Those stark three words are the first in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new report. The climate crisis is unequivocally caused by human activities and is unequivocally affecting every corner of the planet’s land, air and sea already.

Aug 09 2021

Independent

IPCC report: Greta Thunberg says world ‘must be brave’ to overcome climate emergency

By Rory Sullivan

The world must be “brave” in confronting the climate emergency, Greta Thunberg has said after the publication of a comprehensive new UN report. The environmental activist spoke out in response to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) warning that there would catastrophic consequences unless immediate action was taken to…

AMOC 8/5/21

Nature

Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

By Niklas Boers 08/05/21

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a major ocean current system transporting warm surface waters toward the northern Atlantic, has been suggested to exhibit two distinct modes of operation. A collapse from the currently attained strong to the weak mode would have severe impacts on the global climate system and…

Aug 05 2021

USA TODAY

Study warns of ‘irreversible transition’ in ocean currents that could rapidly freeze parts of North America

By Doyle Rice

A large system of ocean currents in the Atlantic – which includes the Gulf Stream – has been disrupted due to human-caused climate change, scientists reported in a new study published Thursday. If that system collapses, it would lead to dramatic changes in worldwide weather patterns.

Aug 05 2021

The New York Times

A Crucial System of Ocean Currents Is Faltering, Research Suggests

By Heather Murphy Photo: Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

The water in the Atlantic is constantly circulating in a complex pattern that influences weather on several continents. And climate scientists have been asking a crucial question: Whether this vast system, which includes the Gulf Stream, is slowing down because of climate change.

Aug 05 2021

The Washington Post

A critical ocean system may be heading for collapse due to climate change, study finds

By Sarah Kaplan Photo: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post

Human-caused warming has led to an “almost complete loss of stability” in the system that drives Atlantic Ocean currents, a new study has found — raising the worrying prospect that this critical aquatic “conveyor belt” could be close to collapse.

SOTC 8/1/21

ametsoc.net

State Of The Climate in 2020

By Jessica Blunden and Tim Boyer 08/01/21

Emissions from fossil fuel use in 2020 dropped by around 6% to 7% over 2019 due to decreased activity during the pandemic (section 2g1); however atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), still reached the highest levels in the modern climate record.

Aug 29 2021

Our Daily Planet

Greenhouse Gases Hit Highest Level in 800,000 Years

By Natasha Lasky and Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writers

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are the highest concentration ever recorded. CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere reached 412.5 parts per million in 2020–2.5 parts per million higher than in 2019– despite a brief decline in carbon emissions caused by the COVID-19…

IOP 2021

iopscience

Reducing CO2 emissions by targeting the world’s hyper-polluting power plants

By Don Grant 08/04/21

As the Version of Record of this article is going to be / has been published on a gold open access basis under a CC BY 3.0 licence, this Accepted Manuscript is available for reuse under a CC BY 3.0 licence immediately.

Aug 02 2021

fastcompany

Just 5% of power plants are responsible for 73% of electricity emissions

By Adele Peters Photo: Omar Marques/Getty Images

Each year, a sprawling coal power plant in Rogowiec, Poland, emits more CO2 than many countries—in 2018, roughly 38 million metric tons. It’s the most polluting power plant in the world. It’s also one of a relatively small number of power plants globally that are responsible for the majority of…

Aug 02 2021

Our Daily Planet

New Study Finds 5% of World’s Power Plants Cause 73% of Power Sector’s Emissions

By Natasha Lasky and Odp Staff Writer Photo: Annabel Driussi for odp

A new study has found a mere 5% of the world’s power plants are responsible for 73% of emissions released from energy generation. A group of researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder analyzed 2018 data from 29,000 fossil fuel power plants in 221 countries and found the world’s top emitters: six…

Jul 28 2021

e360.yale.edu

Just 5 Percent of Electric Plants Responsible for 73 percent of Power Sector Emissions

By Don Grant

Just 5 percent of all power plants globally — all of them coal-fired — are responsible for 73 percent of electricity-sector carbon emissions, according to a new study that calls for cutting emissions from “hyper-polluting” power plants.

Jun 26 2019

latimes

Which power companies are the worst polluters?

By Sammy Roth Photo: Zach Levitt

America’s climate change pollution comes from many sources: cars and trucks, power plants, farming operations, home-heating systems and even trees that burn in wildfires. But in the power sector, 85% of emissions come from just 100 companies and public agencies.

NATURE 7/26/21

nature.com

Increasing probability of record-shattering climate extremes

By E. M. Fischer, S. Sippel and R. Knutti 07/26/21

Society has often been surprised by the magnitude by which recent climate extremes exceeded previous observed records, such as during the extreme rainfall of Hurricane Harvey1–3, the 2020 warm anomaly over Siberia4 or the 2003 European and 2010 Russian heatwaves5,6 that caused tens of thousands of heat-related fatalities6–8. Week-long temperature…

Jul 27 2021

INDEPENDENT

‘Record-shattering’ heatwaves to become far more likely without urgent climate action, research warns

By Daisy Dunne

“Record-shattering” events similar to North America’s recent deadly heatwave could become far more likely in the coming years if little is done to tackle rapidly rising greenhouse gas emissions, a new study says. During an unprecedented heatwave last month, several regions in the US and Canada experienced temperatures that were…

Jul 26 2021

Carbon Brief

Climate change will drive rise in ‘record-shattering’ heat extremes

By Ayesha Tandon Photo: ZUMA Press Inc

“Record-shattering” extremes – which break weather records by large margins – will become more likely as a result of climate change, a new study finds. The paper, published in Nature Climate Change, finds that the northern mid-latitudes are particularly vulnerable to record-shattering heat. This is exemplified by the recent heatwave…

Jul 26 2021

AXIOS

Study: Get ready for many more record-shattering heatwaves

By Andrew Freedman Photo: NASA Earth Observatory

The recent deadly heat wave in the Pacific Northwest, during which all-time temperature records were shattered by several degrees, is a prologue to what is coming across much of the U.S., Europe and Asia, a new study finds.

Jul 26 2021

The New York Times

The world can expect more record-shattering heat waves, research shows.

By Henry Fountain Photo: Maranie Staab/Reuters

The ferocious heat wave that hit the Pacific Northwest in late June stunned some climate scientists because it was so much more extreme than anything the region had experienced before. In most heat waves, if local temperature records are broken, it might be by a few degrees Celsius at most.…

Jul 26 2021

The Guardian

‘Record-shattering’ heat becoming much more likely, says climate study

By Damian Carrington Photo: US Forest Service/AFP/Getty Images

“Record-shattering” heatwaves, even worse than the one that recently hit north-west America, are set to become much more likely in future, according to research. The study is a stark new warning on the rapidly escalating risks the climate emergency poses to lives.

CDP 2021

cdp

U.S. infrastructure projects in need of funding

07/23/21

The snapshot below presents infrastructure projects in cities around the nation pending public or private investment, most of which respond to years of deterioration and the need for enhanced climate and environmental resilience. Addressing these needs will also spur significant jobs creation across sectors, integrate the voices of historically marginalized…

Jul 20 2021

utilitydive

Billions more needed to address climate infrastructure needs of US cities: report

By Jason Plautz Photo: Scott Olson / Getty Images

A new report from the nonprofit CDP identified more than 300 sustainable infrastructure projects across 97 U.S. cities, with a collective funding and financing gap of at least $10.6 billion. The report, based on 2020 data from the CDP-ICLEI Unified Reporting System, found a total of $25.6 billion in sustainable…

NATURE 7/14/21

nature

Amazonia as a carbon source linked to deforestation and climate change

By Luciana V.Gatti, Luana S.Basso and more 07/14/21

Amazonia hosts the Earth’s largest tropical forests and has been shown to be an important carbon sink over recent decades1–3. This carbon sink seems to be in decline, however, as a result of factors such as deforestation and climate change1–3. Here we investigate Amazonia’s carbon budget and the main drivers…

Jul 15 2021

www.npr.org

Parts Of The Amazon Rainforest Are Now Releasing More Carbon Than They Absorb

By Sharon Pruitt-Young Photo: Carl de Souza/AFP via Getty Images

Portions of the Amazon rainforest are now releasing more carbon dioxide than they absorb, disrupting an important balancing act that signals a worsening of the climate crisis, according to a new study. Findings from the nearly decade-long research project, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, suggest that deforestation and fire, among…

Jul 14 2021

mongabay

Brazil’s Amazon is now a carbon source, unprecedented study reveals

By Liz Kimbrough Photo: Christian Braga/Greenpeace

According to a study published July 14 in Nature, the Brazilian Amazon is emitting more carbon than it captures. This study is the first to use direct atmospheric measurements, across a wide geographic region, collected over nearly a decade that account for background concentrations of atmospheric gases.

NATURE 6/2/21

Nature

Widespread deoxygenation of temperate lakes

By Stephen F. Jane and Gretchen J. A. Hansen 06/02/21

The concentration of dissolved oxygen in aquatic systems helps to regulate biodiversity1,2, nutrient biogeochemistry3, greenhouse gas emissions4, and the quality of drinking water5. The long-term declines in dissolved oxygen concentrations in coastal and ocean waters have been linked to climate warming and human activity6,7, but little is known about the…

Jun 02 2021

The Guardian

Climate crisis is suffocating the world’s lakes, study finds

By Damian Carrington Photo: Lukas Barth-Tuttas/EPA

The climate crisis is causing a widespread fall in oxygen levels in lakes across the world, suffocating wildlife and threatening drinking water supplies. Falling levels of oxygen in oceans had already been identified, but new research shows that the decline in lakes has been between three and nine times faster in…

SABIN 6/1/21

Climate Law Columbia

U.S. Climate Litigation in the Age of Trump: Full Term

By Korey Silverman-Roati 06/01/21

From beginning to end, the Trump administration pursued an agenda of climate deregulation. The administration aimed a portfolio of actions at weakening federal climate protections and promoting fossil fuels.1

NATURE 5/31/21

Nature

The burden of heat-related mortality attributable to recent human-induced climate change

By A. M. Vicedo-Cabrera, N. Scovronick and A. Gasparrini 05/31/21

Climate change affects human health; however, there have been no large-scale, systematic efforts to quantify the heat-related human health impacts that have already occurred due to climate change. Here, we use empirical data from 732 locations in 43 countries to estimate the mortality burdens associated with the additional heat exposure…

Nov 04 2021

The New York Times

Effort to Reframe Climate Change as a Health Crisis Gains Steam

By Winston Choi-Schagrin Photo: Alisha Jucevic/The New York Times

For the first time at a major United Nations climate conference, human health is emerging as a leading issue, a reframing that brings climate change’s far-reaching and long-lasting effects to the forefront.

May 31 2021

The New York Times

More Than a Third of Heat Deaths Are Tied to Climate Change, Study Says

By John Schwartz Photo: Tsering Topgya

More than a third of heat-related deaths in many parts of the world can be attributed to the extra warming associated with climate change, according to a new study that makes a case for taking strong action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to protect public health.

WMO 2021

hadleyserver.metoffice.gov.uk

Global Annual to Decadal Climate Update

05/28/21

Executive Summary This update presents a summary of annual to decadal predictions from the WMO designated Global Producing Centres and other contributing centres for the period 2021-2025. Latest predictions suggest that:

May 27 2021

World Meteorological Organization

New climate predictions increase likelihood of temporarily reaching 1.5 °C in next 5 years

There is about a 40% chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily reaching 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level in at least one of the next five years – and these odds are increasing with time, according to a new climate update issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

PNAS 5/15/21

PNAS

Air quality – related health damages of food

By Nina G. G. Domingo, Srinidhi Balasubramanian and Others 05/15/21

Poor air quality is the largest environmental health risk in the United States and worldwide, and agriculture is a major source of air pollution. Nevertheless, air quality has been largely absent from discussions about the health and environmental impacts of food. We estimate the air quality–related health impacts of agriculture…

May 13 2021

www.popsci.com

It’s not just methane—meat production fills the air with noxious particulate matter too

By Shaena Montanari Photo: Pixabay

Feeding the world is a necessity, but the process doesn’t come without health risks—even in the form of air pollution. Fossil fuel combustion in cars and factories is a notorious cause of air pollution, specifically inhalable microscopic particulate matter called PM 2.5. Still, food production produces about 20 percent of the pollutant…

May 11 2021

www.agriculture.com

AGRICULTURE LINKED TO ONE-FIFTH OF U.S. AIR POLLUTION DEATHS

By Chuck Abbott Photo: David Ekstrom

Air pollution is the largest environmental mortality risk in the United States, responsible for 100,000 premature deaths annually, and one-fifth of those deaths are linked to agriculture, said research published by the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. Scientists from five universities noted in their study that air quality is…

May 10 2021

The Washington Post

Air pollution from farms leads to 17,900 U.S. deaths per year, study finds

By Sarah Kaplan Photo: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg News

The smell of hog feces was overwhelming, Elsie Herring said. The breezes that wafted from the hog farm next to her mother’s Duplin County, N.C., home carried hazardous gases: methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide.

NCTF 2021

www.doi.gov

Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful 2021

05/11/21

A preliminary report to the National Climate Task Force recommending a ten-year, locally led campaign to conserve and restore the lands and waters upon which we all depend, and that bind us together as Americans.

May 07 2021

www.washingtonpost.com

A narrow path for Biden’s ambitious land conservation plan

By Sarah Kaplan and Juliet Eilperin Photo: Katherine Frey/The Washington Post

Months after President Biden set a goal of conserving 30 percent of the nation’s land and waters by 2030, the administration Thursday laid out broad principles — but few details — for achieving that vision. The new 22-page document from the Commerce, Interior and Agriculture Departments highlights one of the Biden administration’s central…

May 07 2021

apnews.com

Biden’s plan would boost conservation of US lands, waters

By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday detailed steps to achieve an ambitious goal to conserve nearly one-third of America’s lands and waters by 2030, relying on voluntary efforts to preserve public, private and tribal areas while also helping tackle climate change and create jobs.

May 07 2021

mailchi.mp

Biden Administration Releases America The Beautiful plan to Reach 30×30

By Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer

On Thursday, the Biden administration announced detailed steps to protect 30% of America's lands and waters by 2030. The report, titled "Conserving and Restoring America the Beautiful," calls for a 10-year commitment to making conservation and restoration a priority.

Jan 29 2021

www.ourdailyplanet.com

450 State and Local Officials Support Biden on #30×30 Executive Order

By Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer Photo: U.S. Bureau of Land Management

In an open letter, 450 elected officials from all around the U.S. support President Biden’s Executive Order action this week to protect 30% of U.S. lands and waters by 2030. The officials hope that the president will lead a swift and aggressive campaign to combat global warming and the extinction crisis through conserving land and ocean…

NATURE 5/5/21

www.nature.com

Projected land ice contributions to twenty-first-century sea level rise

By Tamsin L. Edwards, Sophie Nowicki 05/05/21

The land ice contribution to global mean sea level rise has not yet been predicted1 using ice sheet and glacier models for the latest set of socio-economic scenarios, nor using coordinated exploration of uncertainties arising from the various computer models involved. Two recent international projects generated a large suite of projections…

May 05 2021

www.carbonbrief.org

Limiting warming to 1.5C would ‘halve’ land-ice contribution to sea level rise by 2100

By Ayesha Tandon Photo: Global Vibes / Alamy Stock Photo

The Nature study, which brings together 84 authors from 62 institutions, projects future sea level rise using the latest models and future pathways. It estimates that, if current pledges to reduce emissions are met, land-ice loss will drive around 25cm of sea level rise by 2100. However, this falls to 13cm if…

May 05 2021

www.newscientist.com

Hitting Paris climate goal could cut sea level rise in half by 2100

By Adam Vaughan Photo: Ulrik Pedersen/NurPhoto via Getty Images

The amount of sea level rise facing coastal cities as a result of ice melt could be roughly halved if the world meets the Paris Agreement’s toughest goal of holding climate change to 1.5°C of warming. Coastal flooding would still worsen as meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets would raise…

May 05 2021

www.independent.co.uk

Meeting climate goals would ‘halve’ sea level rise from melting ice, study says

By Daisy Dunne

Limiting global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels could halve the amount of sea level rise from melting land ice this century, when compared to a scenario based on current climate pledges, a study finds.

May 05 2021

thehill.com

Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius could reduce sea level rise by 50 percent: research

By John Bowden Photo: Getty Images

The world can avoid the worst effects of rising sea levels if the world's countries are able to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a study released Wednesday found. The study, posted at Nature.com, found that the rate of melting sea ice could be cut in half should countries meet the ambitious target for…

IOP 5/4/21

iopscience.iop.org

Acting rapidly to deploy readily available methane mitigation measures by sector can immediately slow global warming

By Ilissa B Ocko1, Tianyi Sun 05/04/21

Methane mitigation is essential for addressing climate change, but the value of rapidly implementing available mitigation measures is not well understood. In this paper, we analyze the climate benefits of fast action to reduce methane emissions as compared to slower and delayed mitigation timelines. We find that the scale up…

Apr 27 2021

Swift action to cut methane emissions could slow Earth’s warming by 30 percent, study finds

By Brady Dennis and Steven Mufson Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast/AP

Moving quickly to cut emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas produced by everything from livestock farming to fossil fuel extraction, could slow the rate of the Earth’s warming as much as 30 percent, new research has found. The study, published in the journal Environmental Research Letters, calculated that a full-scale…

EPA 5/3/21

www.epa.gov

Climate Change Indicators in the United States

05/03/21

The Earth's climate is changing. Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events – like heavy rainstorms and record high temperatures – are already happening. Many of these observed changes are linked to the rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in…

May 14 2021

www.ourdailyplanet.com

Click to Climate: EPA’s Data Tracker is Back

By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Photo: EPA Climate Change Indicators

After a four-year hiatus under the Trump administration, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Change Indicators website is back in action. The public portal includes data on 54 indicators including sea-level rise, Great Lakes ice cover, heat waves, river flooding, and residential energy use. In tandem with the relaunch, the EPA released a report based on…

May 13 2021

www.washingtonpost.com

U.S. has entered unprecedented climate territory, EPA warns

By Dino Grandoni and Brady Dennis Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

For years, President Donald Trump and his deputies played down the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and delayed the release of an Environmental Protection Agency report detailing climate-related damage. But on Wednesday, the EPA released a detailed and disturbing account of the startling changes that Earth’s warming…

May 12 2021

www.axios.com

U.S. sees escalating climate change impacts, EPA report finds

By Shawna Chen Photo: Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post via Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency released a report on Wednesday warning of disturbing changes across the United States caused at least partially by global warming. Why it matters: The report was delayed for three years under the Trump administration. The former president and his officials, including EPA administrators, disputed the scientific evidence on global…

IEA 5/1/21

IEA

Net Zero by 2050

05/01/21

The number of countries announcing pledges to achieve net-zero emissions over the coming decades continues to grow. But the pledges by governments to date – even if fully achieved – fall well short of what is required to bring global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050 and…

May 27 2021

Yale Climate Connections

12 reports on what the U.S. may make possible on climate

By Michael Svoboda

The practical challenges increasingly made clear as the U.S. moves to address climate change; researchers address options for what they think may be possible.

May 23 2021

www.washingtonpost.com

Opinion: A new study shows getting to net-zero emissions is doable. Here’s how

By Editorial Board Photo: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

SCIENTISTS WARN that humanity must eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or risk devastating consequences. The International Energy Agency (IEA), a reputable international outfit of energy wonks, released last week a wide-ranging report arguing that such a transition is possible. It would just be very hard. The agency rejects fantasies that…

May 18 2021

THE NEW YORKER

The International Energy Agency Issues a Landmark Statement About Fossil Fuels

By Bill McKibben Photo: Erin Scott / Reuters

The crucial turning points of the climate era can be found in a series of sentences, some of them pretty opaque, but all of them critical. The latest came on Tuesday morning in a report from the International Energy Agency, in Paris, and it could very well signal the start…

NOAA 4/19/21

climate.gov

Climate change and the 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals

By Rebecca Lindsey 04/19/21

As soon as the 2021 New Year’s celebrations were over, the calls and questions started coming in from weather watchers: When will NOAA release the new U.S. Climate Normals? The Normals are 30-year averages of key climate observations made at weather stations and corrected for bad or missing values and…

Apr 21 2021

weather.com

Your Average Temperature Could Change Soon Thanks to Climate Change

By Chris Dolce

Climate averages for temperature and precipitation where you live could change next month and are influenced by climate change. The changes will come as a part of a once-a-decade update by NOAA, which manages such records. Climate normals are more commonly known as your average temperature and precipitation for any…

Apr 21 2021

www.msn.com

Climate change clearly visible as NOAA prepares to release new ‘normals’

By Monica Garrett, CNN Meteorologist

As weather experts and climatologists discussed the new climate normals being released next month, they came to a conclusion: "Climate change is clearly seen in these new normals," said Mike Palecki, a project manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) 1991-2020 climate normals.

USGS 2021

nap.edu

Global Change Research Needs and Opportunities for 2022-2031

01/01/21

The US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) is a collection of 13 Federal entities charged by law to assist the United States and the world to understand, assess, predict, and respond to human-induced and natural processes of global change. Global Change Research Needs and Opportunities for 2022-2031 advises the USGCRP…

Mar 16 2021

nationalacademies.org

U.S. Global Change Research Program Should Shift Focus to Preparing for and Avoiding Worst Potential Consequences of Climate Change, Says New Report

Global Change Research Needs and Opportunities for 2022-2031 recommends USGCRP accelerate research on the multidirectional relationships among human and natural systems to advance our understanding of how to manage urgent current and future climate risks. Our food availability, for example, depends on a complex interaction between natural systems, such as…

EPA 4/9/21

EPA

Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks

04/09/21

EPA has prepared the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks since the early 1990s. This annual report provides a comprehensive accounting of total greenhouse gas emissions for all man-made sources in the United States. The gases covered by the Inventory include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons,…

Apr 14 2021

EPA

EPA Publishes 28th Annual U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory

The GHG Inventory covers seven key greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride. In addition to tracking U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the inventory also calculates carbon dioxide that is removed from the atmosphere through the uptake of carbon in forests and other vegetation.

FOE 4/8/21

Friends of the Earth

Fair Shares Nationally Determined Contribution: United States of America

By Oscar Reyes et al. 04/08/21

Today, environmental, environmental justice, and international development groups are releasing the “Fair Shares Nationally Determined Contribution” (“Fair Shares NDC”) laying out the measures the United States should commit to carrying out to do its “fair share” of the global effort to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C, based on its…

TRIVIUM 4/1/21

TRIVIUM PACKAGING

Global Buying Green Report

04/01/21

The 2021 Buying Green Report is based on a survey of more than 15,000 end consumers across Europe, North America and South America. Within each region, the sample of respondents was representative of the overall population in terms of age, gender and income distribution. Survey questions explored participant behaviors related…

Mar 11 2022

TRIPLE PUNDIT

Sustainable Snacking is on the Rise, According to a New Report

By Ellen R. Delisio

Not too long ago, a snack meant milk and cookies after school, but snacking has exploded in popularity and variety, to the point where it’s now considered a meal category of its own. With all that growth has come an increase in socially-conscious noshing, with snackers favoring foods produced and…

GEOS-CHEM 4/1/21

HuffPost

The Gassing Of Satartia

By Dan Zegart Photo: Hokyoung Kim 08/26/21

A CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured last year, sickening dozens of people. What does it forecast for the massive proposed buildout of pipelines across the U.S.?

Science Direct

Global mortality from outdoor fine particle pollution generated by fossil fuel combustion: Results from GEOS-Chem

By Karn Vohraa , Alina Vodonos and others. 04/01/21

The burning of fossil fuels – especially coal, petrol, and diesel – is a major source of airborne fine particulate matter (PM2.5), and a key contributor to the global burden of mortality and disease. Previous risk assessments have examined the health response to total PM2.5, not just PM2.5 from fossil…

Feb 19 2021

NRDC

Fossil Fuel Air Pollution Kills One in Five People

By Clara Chaisson. Photo by Manish Rajput/SOPA Images/Sipa

If the consequences of burning fossil fuels—like melting glaciers, rising seas, and increasing global temperature averages—feel too far-flung or abstract, consider the fundamental act of taking a breath of air. A new study has found that air pollution from fossil fuels is responsible for nearly one in every five deaths…

Feb 10 2021

Forbes

Fossil Fuel Air Pollution Kills Twice As Many As Previously Thought, Study Finds

By Scott Carpenter. Photo by Hindustan Times / Getty Images

Several years ago, when a study involving thousands of researchers concluded that outdoor particulate matter had caused more than 7 percent of total global deaths in 2015, the sheer size of the number was difficult to grasp.

Feb 09 2021

MARKETPLACE

Fossil fuel pollution is killing 8.7 million people a year, study says

By Scott Tong. Photo by Brook Mitchell/Getty Images

Diesel trucks, gasoline cars, coal-fired power plants and other sources of fossil fuel air pollution cause an estimated 8.7 million deaths worldwide in 2018, a new study finds. For comparison, that annual toll is roughly equal to deaths attributed to smoking. The findings, published in the journal Environmental Research, shed…

EMP 4/1/21

ELECTRICITY MARKETS & POLICY

Halfway to Zero: Progress Towards a Carbon-Free Power Sector

By Ryan H Wiser, Dev Millstein and Others. 04/01/21

Sharply reducing carbon emissions is imperative to prevent the worst effects of climate change. Yet even in the power sector—often viewed as the lynchpin to economy-wide decarbonization, and where low-carbon solutions are increasingly plentiful and cost-effective—the pace and scale of the required transformation can be daunting. A review of historical…

NATURE 3/17/21

www.nature.com

Protecting the global ocean for biodiversity, food and climate

03/17/21

The ocean contains unique biodiversity, provides valuable food resources and is a major sink for anthropogenic carbon. Marine protected areas (MPAs)are an effective tool for restoring ocean biodiversity and ecosystem services1,2, but at present only 2.7% of the ocean is highly protected3. This low level of ocean protection is due…

Mar 18 2021

www.washingtonpost.com

How protecting the ocean can save species and fight climate change

By Sarah Kaplan

Humanity has no better friend on this planet than the ocean. It provides more than half the oxygen we need to breathe. It supplies food that helps sustain more than 3 billion people. It absorbs many of the pollutants we keep pumping into the atmosphere: carbon dioxide, ozone-depleting chemicals. …

Mar 18 2021

www.independent.co.uk

Trawling ocean floor for fish has carbon footprint equivalent to global aviation

By Louise Boyle

Commercial fishing vessels which drag the ocean floor produce carbon emissions on a level with global aviation, according to a groundbreaking study, which has calculated for the first time the climate impacts of the widespread practice. Bottom trawling is favoured by commercial fishing companies as the weighted nets drag up large quantities of…

Mar 17 2021

www.climatechangenews.com

Scientists push to add “huge” fish trawling emissions to national inventories

By Joe Lo Photo: Greenpeace/Roger Grace

A group of scientists and economists are pushing for bottom-trawling fishing emissions to be added to nations’ greenhouse gas inventories, as a study reveals the practice is responsible for 1 billion tonnes of underwater emissions every year. Trawlers catch fish by dragging nets along the seabed. This process disturbs the…

Mar 17 2021

time.com

How Industrial Fishing Creates More CO2 Emissions Than Air Travel

By Aryn Baker

It’s been well established by now that the agricultural systems producing our food contribute at least one fifth of global anthropogenic carbon emissions—and up to a third if waste and transportation are factored in. A troubling new report points to a previously overlooked source: an industrial fishing process practiced by dozens of…

Mar 17 2021

www.theguardian.com

Bottom trawling releases as much carbon as air travel, landmark study finds

Photo: Howard Wood

Fishing boats that trawl the ocean floor release as much carbon dioxide as the entire aviation industry, according to a groundbreaking study. Bottom trawling, a widespread practice in which heavy nets are dragged along the seabed, pumps out 1 gigaton of carbon every year, says the study written by 26 marine…

EDF 3/3/21

EDF

Recapturing U.S. Leadership on Climate: Setting an Ambitious and Credible Nationally Determined Contribution

By Nathaniel Keohane et al. 03/03/21

The United States is officially back in the Paris Agreement, after four years of climate inaction and science denial. Now, to restore American leadership and meet the scale of the climate crisis, the Biden administration must put forward a bold new commitment to the Paris Agreement – a Nationally Determined…

IPI 3/1/21

Institute for Policy Integrity

Gauging Economic Consensus on Climate Change

By Peter Howard and Derek Sylvan. 03/01/21

Thousands of economists have spent years or decades studying the interaction between climate change and the economic systems that underlie modern life. The views of these experts can help clarify how climate change will likely affect our society and economy, and how policymakers should approach greenhouse gas emission reduction efforts

Apr 13 2021

TRIPLE PUNDIT

Drought Is Consuming the Western U.S., but Water Technologies Offer Lifelines

By Kate Zerrenner.

Parts of Texas have yet to recover from the deadly winter storm two months ago while now facing an onslaught of hot, dry days punctuated by the upcoming hurricane season. It’s not unprecedented: Texas last saw such a severe winter storm in 2011, followed that summer by the worst year…

Mar 30 2021

Institute for Policy Integrity

Gauging Economic Consensus on Climate Change – Issue Brief

By Peter Howard and Derek Sylvan.

We conducted a large-sample global survey on climate economics, which we sent to all economists who have published climate-related research in the field’s highest-ranked academic journals; 738 responded. To our knowledge, this is the largest-ever expert survey on the economics of climate change. The results show an overwhelming consensus that…

KEARNEY 2/25/21

The New York Times

U.S. Warns Climate Poses ‘Emerging Threat’ to Financial System

By Alan Rappeport and Christopher Flavelle Photo: Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times 10/21/21

A Financial Stability Oversight Council report could lead to more regulatory action and disclosure requirements for banks.

KEARNEY

The economic costs of climate change: lessons learned from COVID-19

By Erik R. Peterson and Paul A. Laudicina. Photo: Niki Lewis Kearney / Alumnae 02/25/21

Three profound lessons can be drawn from the coronavirus pandemic for the ongoing climate crisis. First, the pandemic has thrown the spotlight on the capacity of the global population for behavioral change and adaptation in the face of severe exogenous shocks—as well as the limitations of that capacity.

UNEP 2/22/21

www.unep.org

New UNEP synthesis provides blueprint to urgently solve planetary emergencies and secure humanity’s future

02/18/21

Meeting ramped-up climate and biodiversity targets, cutting deadly pollution and achieving SDGs needs an all-society push for sustainability Shifting world views and putting nature at the heart of decision-making is key to achieving transformative change COVID-19 recovery plans are an unmissable opportunity to invest in nature and reach net zero…

Feb 19 2021

edition.cnn.com

A new UN report urges a radical shift in the way we think about nature

By Caitlin Hu

New York (CNN)The United Nations released a report Thursday on the health of the planet that proposes a radical shift in the way mankind thinks about it. The report, "Making Peace with Nature," spans 168 pages and distills the latest science on climate change and mankind's "war" on the planet.…

Feb 18 2021

www.theguardian.com

Human destruction of nature is ‘senseless and suicidal’, warns UN chief

By Damian Carrington Photo: Saul Loeb/Afp via Getty

Humanity is waging a “senseless and suicidal” war on nature that is causing human suffering and enormous economic losses while accelerating the destruction of life on Earth, the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has said. Guterres’s starkest warning to date came at the launch of a UN report setting out the triple emergency…

Feb 18 2021

www.dw.com

Making Peace With Nature

By Stuart Braun

A new UN blueprint offers an integrated 'peace plan' to tackle three interlinked environmental emergencies — the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and pollution — that cannot be solved in isolation. "Our war on nature has left the planet broken," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in the foreword of a new…

FSF 2/22/21

National Ocean Service

‘Coastal county snapshots’ delivers new tools, data for climate resilience

By NOAA Photo: Coastal County Snapshots 01/18/22

A major update to a popular NOAA tool used to inform planning and decision-making in coastal communities is now online. Coastal County Snapshots, available on NOAA’s Digital Coast platform, turns complex data into easy-to-understand charts, graphics, and information.

FIRST STREET FOUNDATION

The Cost of Climate: America’s Growing Flood Risk

02/22/21

New research from First Street Foundation analyzes the economic impact of underestimated flood risk to properties throughout the United States. Current understandings of expected flood risk and its potential damage continue to underestimate the full extent of flood risk in many parts of the country. This is problematic as these…

AGU 2/2/21

Advancing Earth and Space Science

Climate Impacts of COVID‐19 Induced Emission Changes

By A. Gettelman and others 12/29/20

The COVID‐19 pandemic led to dramatic changes in economic activity in 2020. We use estimates of emission changes for 2020 in two Earth System Models (ESMs) to simulate the impacts of the COVID‐19 economic changes.

Feb 02 2021

NEWS.UCAR.EDU

COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS TEMPORARILY RAISED GLOBAL TEMPERATURES

BY DAVID HOSANSKY

The lockdowns and reduced societal activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic affected emissions of pollutants in ways that slightly warmed the planet for several months last year, according to a new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

NATURE 2/2/21

www.nature.com

Under-reporting of greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. cities

By Kevin Robert Gurney 02/02/21

Cities dominate greenhouse gas emissions. Many have generated self-reported emission inventories, but their value to emissions mitigation depends on their accuracy, which remains untested. Here, we compare self-reported inventories from 48 US cities to independent estimates from the Vulcan carbon dioxide emissions data product, which is consistent with atmospheric measurements.

Feb 02 2021

www.reuters.com

U.S. cities underestimating their carbon emissions – study

By Reuters Staff

U.S. cities are underestimating their carbon dioxide emissions by an average of 18%, according to a study released on Tuesday, potentially hindering their efforts to craft effective policies to combat climate change.

RELDI 2/1/21

COLUMBIA LAW SCHOOL

Opposition To Renewable Energy Facilities In The United States

02/01/21

Achieving lower carbon emissions in the United States will require developing a very large number of wind, solar, and other renewable energy facilities, as well as associated storage, distribution, and transmission, at an unprecedented scale and pace.

Mar 25 2021

Los Angeles Times

California’s climate challenge: Move fast, don’t break things

By Sammy Roth Photo: Irfan Khan

It’s easy to change the world when you don’t care who gets hurt. Which is why what California is trying to do on the electric grid is so hard: Move very, very fast, without breaking a single damn thing.

LANCET 2/1/21

www.thelancet.com

The public health implications of the Paris Agreement: a modelling study

By Ian Hamilton 02/01/21

nationally determined contributions (NDCs) serve to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement of staying “well below 2°C”, which could also yield substantial health co-benefits in the process. However, existing NDC commitments are inadequate to achieve this goal. Placing health as a key focus of the NDCs could present an…

Feb 17 2021

www.carbonbrief.org

Guest post: Health benefits of Paris climate goals could save millions of lives by 2040

By Dr Alice McGushin Photo: Marcos Alvarado / Alamy Stock Photo

On World Health Day in 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that “protecting human health is the ‘bottom line’ of climate change strategies”. The WHO went on to describe climate change as “the biggest global health threat of the 21st century”. This is because – through its effects on food security, heatwaves, floods, storms, wildfires, infectious diseases, air quality, migration, conflict and mental health –…

Feb 09 2021

time.com

Healthy Planet, Healthy People. How Slowing Climate Change Saves Lives

By Aryn Baker Photo: Florian Gaertner/ Getty Images

Just because the United States has re-joined the Paris Agreement doesn’t mean that the world is on a path to a better climate future. The 2015 agreement, in which signatories pledged to collectively cap global warming at “well below” 2°C above pre-industrial levels, is only the first step. Member nations still have…

CCSC 1/21/21

news.climate.columbia.edu

New U.N. Report Highlights Need to Step Up Climate Change Adaptation

By Earth Institute Photo: UNDP 01/21/21

A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme finds that while almost three-quarters of countries have plans in place to adapt to climate change, financing and implementation are falling far short of what is needed. Cynthia Rosenzweig and Manishka De Mel at Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research…

Jan 14 2021

wwf.panda.org

A win for nature at the One Planet Summit – but this is just the start

Photo: Tom Vierus / WWF-US

While newly announced funding for Nature-based Solutions is greatly welcomed, governments must ensure it does not come at the expense of other climate, conservation and development priorities, write Chris Weber and Fernanda de Carvalho.

YALE 1/14/21

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

Near-real-time monitoring of global CO2 emissions reveals the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

By Zhu Liu, Philippe Ciais and more 01/14/21

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting human activities, and in turn energy use and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Here we present daily estimates of country-level CO2 emissions for different sectors based on near-real-time activity data.

Jan 15 2021

vox.com

Most Democrats and Republicans think the government should make climate change a priority

By Jariel Arvin Photo : Paul Harris/Getty Images

A new survey finds broad support among American voters for doing more on climate change. A new study has found widespread support for climate-friendly energy policies among registered Republicans and Democrats.

Jan 15 2021

The New York Times

Survey Finds Majority of Voters Support Initiatives to Fight Climate Change

By John Schwartz

A survey carried out after the November election found that 66 percent of respondents said that developing sources of clean energy should be a high or very high priority.

FRONTIERS 1/13/21

frontiersin.org

Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future

By Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Paul R. Ehrlich and more 01/19/21

We report three major and confronting environmental issues that have received little attention and require urgent action. First, we review the evidence that future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than currently believed.

Jan 13 2021

impakter.com

The World Needs to Wake Up: At Risk the Survival of Humanity

By Claude Forthomme - Senior Editor

At a time when the world, battered by COVID-19, is watching with dismay the rocky transition from Trump to President-Elect Biden, a group of 17 world scientists reminds us that maybe all our worries are futile. What is at risk is something far more important: The very survival of humanity.…

C2ES 1/1/21

C2ES

Climate Policy Priorities for the New Administration and Congress

01/01/21

The start of a new Administration and a new Congress provides a vital opportunity to dramatically scale up the U.S. response to climate change. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions has worked closely with leading companies to assess policy options for decarbonizing the U.S. economy. Drawing on these discussions,…

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2021 REPORTS AND PAPERS

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2021 REPORTS & PAPERS