Warming Arctic The melting permafrost in the Arctic (warming arctic) could cost the world dearly. New research calculates that the economic damage that would flow from loss of permafrost and the increased emissions of greenhouse gases would add up to $43 trillion. This is very nearly the estimated combined gross domestic product last year of the U.S., China, Japan, Germany, UK, France ... Read More »
Renewable Energy While countries have dragged their feet for years on meaningful climate action, many cities around the world have forged ahead with sustainability efforts. In July, about 60 mayors pledged to fight climate change at a two-day conference hosted by Pope Francis. Several cities have even made impressive strides to ditch fossil fuels in favor of renewables. Two recent reports have ... Read More »
Climate Policy New research reveals that nearly half (45 percent) of the world’s 100 largest companies are “obstructing climate change legislation.” And those that aren’t actively obstructing climate policy are members of trade associations that do. A full 95 percent of these companies are members of trade associations “demonstrating the same obstructionist behavior.” With help from the Union of Concerned Scientists, UK-based ... Read More »
Marine Species A new report on the health of the ocean finds that the marine vertebrate population has declined by 49 percent between 1970 and 2012. WWF’s Living Blue Planet Report tracks 5,829 populations of 1,234 mammal, bird, reptile and fish species through a marine living planet index. The evidence, analyzed by researchers at the Zoological Society of London, paints ... Read More »
Polar Bear The polar bear in Svalbard, a remote group of islands in the Arctic, are not doing well, according to photographer Kerstin Langenberger. Langenberger posted on her Facebook: I see the summers being so pleasant (and warm) as never before. I see the glaciers calving, retreating dozens to hundreds of metres every year. I see the pack ice disappearing in record ... Read More »
Clean Energy Yesterday NextGen Climate released polling showing that young voters in key presidential swing states are looking for a presidential candidate with a plan to tackle climate change, strengthen our economy, create jobs and improve public health by accelerating the transition to clean energy. In a poll of young voters in key battleground states conducted by Hart Research, 74 percent of voters under 35 said they would ... Read More »
Extinction Earth’s living community is now suffering the most severe biodiversity crisis in 65 million years, since a meteorite struck near modern Chicxulub, Mexico, injecting dust and sulfuric acid into the atmosphere and devastating 76 percent of all living species, including the dinosaurs. Ecologists now ask whether or not Earth has entered another “major” extinction event, if extinctions are as ... Read More »
Extreme Climates Extreme climates includes unexpectable, unusual, unpredictable severe or unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. Often, extreme events are based on a location’s recorded weather history and defined as lying in the most unusual ten percent. In recent years some extreme weather events have been attributed to human-induced global warming, with ... Read More »
Climate My hometown, Vancouver, is in a rainforest, so we celebrate sunny days. People I talk to are enjoying the recent warm, dry weather, but they invariably add, “This isn’t normal”—especially with all the smoke from nearby forest fires. With no mountain snowpack and almost no spring rain, rivers, creeks and reservoirs are at levels typically not seen until fall. ... Read More »
WhosGreenOnline.com Your Online Magazine and Directory for Green Business, Product, Service and News!
