Texas Climate Emergency

The Nation— A frightening new climate change study says the United States must eliminate its enormous rate of carbon emission within ten years. Read More

great dialogue between two important authors/activists read more

This is the consequence of failure at Copenhagen: A marked shift in scientific effort from solving global warming to adapting to its consequences, a hodge-podge of uncoordinated local efforts to trim emissions – none of which deliver the necessary cuts – and an altered climate. Read More

Waterwise, 20th century California was an anomaly, a relatively wet period in the midst of a historical cycle of severe drought. The changing climate will only magnify the problem: Central California could experience temperatures rivaling Death Valley’s Read More

Lord Stern, the economist who produced the single most influential political document on climate change, says he underestimated the risks of global warming and the damage that could result from it. The situation was worse than he had thought….read more

Researchers watching the loss of ice flowing out from the giant island of Greenland say that the amount of ice lost this summer is nearly three times what was lost one year ago. The loss of floating ice in 2008 pouring from Greenland’s glaciers would cover an area twice the size of Manhattan Island in the U.S., they said. (read more)

A report released at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union on December 16 provides new insights on the potential for abrupt climate change and the effects it could have on the United States, identifying key concerns that include faster-than-expected loss of sea ice, rising sea levels and a possibly permanent state of drought in the American Southwest. (read more)

By Bill McKibben for the Los Angeles Times

May 11, 2008

Even for Americans — who are constitutionally convinced that there will always be a second act, and a third, and a do-over after that, and, if necessary, a little public repentance and forgiveness and a Brand New Start — even for us, the world looks a little terminal right now.

It’s not just the economy: … It’s that, all of a sudden, those grim Club of Rome types who, way back in the 1970s, went on and on about the “limits to growth” suddenly seem … how best to put it, right.

All of a sudden it isn’t morning in America, it’s dusk on planet Earth. (read more)

Global warming represents not just an environemntal crisis but an economic crisis as well. A recent report estimates that doing nothing to mitigate climate change will cost the U.S. economy more than 3.6% of GDP or $3.8 trillion. Paul Volcker, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve under President Reagan, has flatly stated that “if [nothing is done,] you can be sure that the conomy will go down the drain in the next thiry years.” (full article)