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Report: Climate change stunting fish

Climate change may be stunting fish growth, a new study  said. Fish sizes in the North Sea have shrunk dramatically, and scientists believe warmer ocean temperatures and less oxygenated water could be the causes.  The body sizes of several North Sea species have decreased by as much as 29 percent over a period of four decades, according to the report published in the April issue of Global Change Biology. The report presents evidence gathered as researchers followed six commercial fish species in the North Sea over 40 years. Their evidence showed that as water temperatures increased by 1 to 2 degrees Celsius, an accompanying reduction in fish size was observed. It is generally accepted among scientists that decreased body size is a universal response to increasing temperatures, known as the ‘temperature size rule,’ the report said. But before this report, led by scientists at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen, there […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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The global Transition tipping point has arrived

Last Friday, I posted an exclusive report about a new NASA-backed scientific research project at the US National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (Sesync) to model the risks of civilisational collapse, based on analysis of the key factors involved in the rise and fall of past civilisations. The story went viral and was quickly picked up by other news outlets around the world which, however, often offered rather misleading headlines. ‘Nasa-backed study says humanity is pretty much screwed’, said . ‘Nasa-funded study says modern society doomed, like the dodo’, said the . Are we doomed? Doom is not the import of this study, nor of my own original research on these issues as encapsulated in my book, A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilisation: And How to Save It . Rather what we are seeing, as I’ve argued in detail before , are escalating, interconnected symptoms of the unsustainability of […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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California Drought: Is this the big one?

Rainstorms finally arrived in California, after a 14 month drought with no significant rain. But the big reservoirs are still pitifully low, and snow pack is less than a quarter of normal. Hundreds of thousands of acres will not be planted, and food bills will likely go up in North America, and possibly around the world. This is the Radio Ecoshock special on the California drought, as a case study of what we can expect in many parts of the Earth. I’ve lined up 4 experts all with something new for you. Dr. Peter Gleick is a climate and water specialist who has been warning this could happen for years. Dr. Reagan Waskom is another water and agriculture expert from Colorado. We connect with boots-on-the ground water conservation specialist David Schroeder in Montclair, right on the edge of thirsty Los Angeles.  Finally, we get back to the big picture, […]

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California Gov. Jerry Brown Faces Protests Over Fracking as Epic Drought Looms

California Gov. Jerry Brown is having a hard time maintaining his green image. Like President Obama, Brown has stumped about the dangers of climate change and the need to take action. But Brown’s message runs afoul of his own actions to open California to more oil and gas drilling enabled by hydraulic fracturing and other extreme extraction methods. Demonstrators protested the governor and the president’s hypocrisy on the issue of fracking (Obama’s been singing the praises of natural gas) when the two were part of a climate change task force (or “task farce” as demonstrators made clear) in Los Angeles last month. It’s not the first time Brown has come under attack since signing SB4 in September, a law to regulate fracking in California. Supporters of SB4, introduced by Fran Pavley, have called it the “toughest law in the country” (though it’s an extremely low bar) but opponents say […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Climate chief warns battle to curb warming is becoming harder

The struggle to curb global warming is becoming increasingly fraught and costly, the head of the world’s leading climate science authority has warned. “We will have to work much harder to win this battle now than we would have been required to do 10 or 15 years ago,” Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the FT in an interview. Speaking in London, Dr Pachauri said he was still optimistic the world would find a way of curbing the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that scientists say are warming the planet to potentially dangerous levels. “The challenge is daunting but I don’t for a moment feel pessimistic,” he said, explaining there were many examples of technical advances and political actions underway to combat the problem. The IPCC was set up in 1988 to give governments an expert assessment of how the climate is changing, and […]

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China Cities Flunk Air-Quality Test

A man exercises in the morning as he faces chimneys emitting smoke behind buildings across the Songhua River in Jilin. Reuters When it comes to China’s bad air problem, Beijing usually gets all the attention. But it has plenty of company. Only three of the 74 cities monitored by China’s own environmental authorities measured up in terms of air quality last year. According to Wu Xiaoqing, a deputy minister at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the 74 cities were measured against newly introduced air quality standards for particulate matters and gases. The five worst offenders were all in the northern province of Hebei, which surrounds Beijing. Xingtai led the list followed by Shijiazhuang, Handan, Tangshan and Baoding. Hengshui and Langfang, also in Hebei, were in the top ten. But the problem was far more widespread. Xian, Zhengzhou and Jinan were among the worst. Other cities in the monitoring sample […]

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Keystone Foes Try Flattery to Sway Kerry Against Pipeline

Environmentalists are praising Secretary of State John Kerry in hopes of burying, figuratively speaking, the Keystone XL pipeline. Bill Burton , a former press secretary to President Barack Obama who is helping a coalition of environmental groups opposed to the project, calls Kerry, “one of the great climate leaders of his generation.” Dan Weiss, climate strategy director at the Center for American Progress, put Kerry on par with environmental icons like the naturalist John Muir and anti-pollution writer Rachel Carson. Academy Award winner Jared Leto, along with other activists, sent a letter last week urging him to take a stand against Keystone as he did against the Vietnam War as a young veteran in testimony to a Senate committee in 1971. “We dare to believe that it’s not just an accident of history that this recommendation falls to you,” the group wrote. The accolades are piling up just as […]

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Polar Vortex Emboldens Industry to Push Old Coal Plants

The polar vortex may give new life to aging coal and nuclear power plants in the U.S. Masses of arctic air rolling down from the North Pole have driven electricity prices to more than 10 times last year’s average in many parts of the country and have threatened some cities with winter blackouts. They’ve also emboldened energy companies to call for extending the lives of older and dirtier coal plants, as well as aging nuclear reactors. Despite a concerted campaign by environmentalists and public health experts to stanch its use, coal, the most plentiful and cheapest fuel in the world, is proving globally resilient. In the U.S., rising natural gas prices are prodding utilities to switch back to coal at levels not seen since 2011. Now, Edison Electric Institute, the Washington-based trade group of U.S. investor-owned utilities, is turning to the latest series of cold snaps to bolster their […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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'Carbon bubble' threatens stock markets, say MPs

Investments in coal and oil may be overvalued, according to MPs The world’s financial markets could be creating a "carbon bubble" by over valuing the fossil fuel assets of large companies say MPs. Much of this coal and oil may have to be left in the ground to combat climate change, according to the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) The Committee also hits out at the lack of green finance. Less than half the £200bn needed to deliver emissions cuts by 2020 is in place they say. A number of studies in recent years have warned that stock markets around the world have overvalued companies with large holdings of coal, oil and gas. The problem stems from the fact that countries including the UK agreed at a UN meeting in Mexico in 2010 to limit global temperature rises to 2C. To achieve this, economists including Sir Nicholas Stern have calculated […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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‘Carbon bubble’ threatens stock markets, say MPs

Investments in coal and oil may be overvalued, according to MPs The world’s financial markets could be creating a "carbon bubble" by over valuing the fossil fuel assets of large companies say MPs. Much of this coal and oil may have to be left in the ground to combat climate change, according to the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) The Committee also hits out at the lack of green finance. Less than half the £200bn needed to deliver emissions cuts by 2020 is in place they say. A number of studies in recent years have warned that stock markets around the world have overvalued companies with large holdings of coal, oil and gas. The problem stems from the fact that countries including the UK agreed at a UN meeting in Mexico in 2010 to limit global temperature rises to 2C. To achieve this, economists including Sir Nicholas Stern have calculated […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple