Three southern states battle for water

E120, e130, water

WHO: Air pollution leading cause of cancer

It’s not just the South: Water wars throughout the US

E145, e130, e120,

Faultlines- Evangelizing the Military

timjbd

Uploaded on Sep 16, 2009

We examine the influx of Evangelical chaplains in the US military and what that means for the military in general here and abroad.

Part 2:

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

The projected timing of climate departure from recent variability

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v502/n7470/full/nature12540.html

See news stories:

Climate change gets clocked : Nature News & Comment

and Climate Change – We Now Know The Point of No Return

• Camilo Mora,
• Abby G. Frazier,
• Ryan J. Longman,
• Rachel S. Dacks,
• Maya M. Walton,
• Eric J. Tong,
• Joseph J. Sanchez,
• Lauren R. Kaiser,
• Yuko O. Stender,
• James M. Anderson,
• Christine M. Ambrosino,
• Iria Fernandez-Silva,
• Louise M. Giuseffi
• & Thomas W. Giambelluca

• Affiliations
• Contributions
• Corresponding author

Nature, 502, 183–187, (10 October 2013) doi: 10.1038/nature12540 Received 25 April 2013 Accepted 06 August 2013 Published online 09 October 2013

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• Citation
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• Rights & permissions
• Article metrics

Abstract

• Abstract•
• Introduction•
• Sensitivity of the index•
• The timing of climate departure•
• Timing and absolute changes in climate•
• Discussion•
• Methods•
• References•
• Acknowledgements•
• Author information•
• Extended data figures and tables

Ecological and societal disruptions by modern climate change are critically determined by the time frame over which climates shift beyond historical analogues. Here we present a new index of the year when the projected mean climate of a given location moves to a state continuously outside the bounds of historical variability under alternative greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Using 1860 to 2005 as the historical period, this index has a global mean of 2069 (±18 years s.d.) for near-surface air temperature under an emissions stabilization scenario and 2047 (±14 years s.d.) under a ‘business-as-usual’ scenario. Unprecedented climates will occur earliest in the tropics and among low-income countries, highlighting the vulnerability of global biodiversity and the limited governmental capacity to respond to the impacts of climate change. Our findings shed light on the urgency of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions if climates potentially harmful to biodiversity and society are to be prevented.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Food-Matters http://Food-Matters.TV

Climate change gets clocked : Nature News & Comment

http://www.nature.com/news/climate-change-gets-clocked-1.13922

Within 35 years, global average temperatures will be hotter than historical extremes.

• Virginia Gewin

09 October 2013

Tropical coral reefs will be among the first ecosystems to shift to a climate hotter than any conditions of the past 150 years.

Keoki Stender/marinelifephotography.com

The Indonesian city of Manokwari is poised to become an unwitting icon for climate change. In about 2020, the coastal location will become one of the first places in recent history to adopt an entirely new climate — one in which its coldest years will be consistently hotter than any of the past 150 years.

That is one finding of a study published today in Nature1, which attempts to create a region-specific index of climate change. Researchers sought to identify the point at which temperature oscillations in each area will exceed the bounds of historical variability. Such ‘climate departures’ are predicted to start in the tropics and then spread to higher latitudes. If carbon dioxide emissions continue unabated, Earth’s mean climate could depart from historical averages in 2047.

“Very soon, extreme events will become the norm,” says lead author Camilo Mora, an environmental researcher at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Because temperatures in the tropics vary little between seasons, even a slight increase in the average temperature could lead to unprecedented conditions — with negative consequences for ecosystems that are home to much of the world’s biodiversity. Many tropical nations also have limited economic capacity to adapt or otherwise respond to such threats.

“The rules of the climate game — those governing everything from species interactions to frequency of large storm events — are changing,” says Jack Williams, a palaeoclimatologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who was not involved in the study.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Climate Change – We Now Know The Point of No Return

TheBigPictureRT

Published on Oct 11, 2013

Scientists have now found a way to predict when we’ve reached the global warming point-of-no-return. So – isn’t time we started talking about the “E” word – extinction?

View film: Last Hours   and see:  http://lasthours.org  and Nature journal article.

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Food-Matters http://Food-Matters.TV

Fukushima is collapsing – the worst is coming…

TheBigPictureRT

Published on Oct 17, 2013

Paul Gunter, Beyond Nuclear, joins Thom Hartmann. There are new concerns coming out of Japan – as the stricken Number 4 reactor at the Daichii nuclear power plant is on the verge of collapsing. How is TEPCO responding to this newest threat – and can they stop a complete nuclear disaster?

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120
Nuclear

Putting a price on nature | Harvard Gazette

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2013/10/putting-a-price-on-nature/

Unusual partnership leads to promising environmental shifts, wins Roy Family Award

October 10, 2013 | Popular

By Cristine Russell, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Communications

Planting a forest to improve air quality may prove to be as cost-effective as expensive new pollution-control equipment, according to preliminary results from a novel experiment at a Texas chemical plant. Officials involved in the study say this innovative approach could become a test case before the Environmental Protection Agency, which has identified reforestation as a possible strategy to improve air quality.

Leaders of an unusual collaboration between the Nature Conservancy, the largest international conservation group, and the Dow Chemical Co., a Fortune 100 company, told a Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) audience on Monday that they were encouraged by the initial findings’ confirmation that a dollars-and-cents approach to valuing nature may help businesses with their bottom line while improving the environment in their local communities.

The two organizations received the 2013 Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership, an HKS prize administered by the Environment and Natural Resources Program at the school’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.

….(read more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120

Canada Under Attack by Environmental Extremists

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/08/22/o-canada-the-greenies-are-on-the-attack/

Mike Brownfield   August 22, 2011 at 4:51 pm

Police arrested 65 environmentalists on August 20, 2011, outside the White House in Washington DC, as part of a demonstration urging President Obama to block the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would bring oil from Canada’s oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries.

It seems that Canada, America’s friendly neighbor to the north (and beloved by the left for its universal health care system) has a new enemy to the south—environmental activists. Its crime? Wanting to use its natural resources.

In the Natural Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) “onearth” blog, Andrew Nikiforuk lambastes Canada for a Calgary-based company’s attempt to build the Keystone XL pipeline to carry tar sands oil (“bitumen,” a type of petroleum) from Alberta to the Gulf of Mexico—bringing upwards of a million barrels of oil per day to refineries in Texas. The construction of the pipeline needs approval from the U.S. State Department, sparking a two-week protest at the White House that landed 110 people in jail over the weekend.

…(read more).

Global Climate Change http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre130
Environmental Justice http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre145
Environment Ethics http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~envre120