Marine life on a warming planet

Humans’ continued pumping into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide – sometimes by the stupidest of chores like driving to the mailbox rather than walking there – is damaging the future of marine life. You can read more.

Oklahoma, where the denial comes right before the drought

I lived in Oklahoma, a half-hour’s commute from Tinker Air Force Base, where I was assigned, for nearly three years in the 80s. When I saw and read this article, I just had to share it here. So read it and then remember that Oklahoma is represented by denier-in-chief James Inhofe in the U.S. Senate. Whatta champ. Well isn’t he?

Appeal filed over Blair Mountain strip mining in W.Va.

A coalition of historic preservation, labor history and environmental protection groups filed a legal appeal Thursday morning, continuing their fight to restore the Blair Mountain Battlefield to the National Register of Historic Places.

The groups include: the Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Friends of Blair Mountain, West Virginia Labor History Association and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Arch Coal wants to strip mine the spot, never mind the historical legacy, wild nature and more. Read this to get the whole picture, then get mad.

Dr. James Hansen: Climate change is happening now

Another warning – and a stark one at that – from the scientist who first put the problem of climate change before the American public – of what awaits if no action is taken to stem the carbon tide.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/29/climate-change-carbon-price?fb=optOut

NASA: Ice sheet decline at both poles increasing

An international team of experts supported by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) has combined data from multiple satellites and aircraft to produce the most comprehensive and accurate assessment to date of ice sheet losses in Greenland and Antarctica and their contributions to sea level rise.

In a landmark study published Thursday in the journal Science, 47 researchers from 26 laboratories report the combined rate of melting for the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica has increased during the last 20 years. Together, these ice sheets are losing more than three times as much ice each year (equivalent to sea level rise of 0.04 inches or 0.95 millimeters) as they were in the 1990s (equivalent to 0.01 inches or 0.27 millimeters). About two-thirds of the loss is coming from Greenland, with the rest from Antarctica.

To me, these findings spell big trouble, especially for folks living on that once-beautiful oceanfront spread. Think: Miami, Fla., Virginia Beach, Va., Wilmington, Del., Portland, Maine, and many, many other places in North America alone. You can read all of NASA’s release.

Stand still for the apocalypse

Is columnist Chris Hedges pushing the envelope in this piece? Or is he on the mark? I’d bet that NASA’s James Hansen would agree with Hedges’s points.

What warming climate will flood

Folks who go gaw gaw at the prospect of a summer weekend at, say, Rehoboth Beach or Assateague Island, or any one of hundreds of other coastal spots will be out of luck before not too long. But their descendants will find things even wetter. Planning a trip to Miami Beach, Fla.? Better go now as it is among the places that will someday be inundated due to rising sea levels. Take a look at these maps.

Experts: Adirondacks should prep adaptation strategies for climate change

The experts include Paul Smith’s  College professor Curt Stager. This piece from North Country Public Radio is straightforward. Oh, and there is no “debate” on whether climate change is occurring. It is and human actions are to blame.

UN report warns of widening climate gap

Sure, today’s a holiday. And that means the bulldozers of “progress” are mostly stilled for the day. But they will be back, leveling more forests, more individual trees and fragmenting migration routes and more. And all the while, the climate keeps changing and humans are responsible. Here’s the latest report from the United Nations.

Quote of the week

World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said the 350 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere since 1750 “will remain there for centuries, causing our planet to warm further and impacting on all aspects of life on earth.”

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/science/article/UN-says-greenhouse-gases-at-record-high-in-2011-4052446.php#ixzz2ClskImNt