Climate change strike: thousands of school students protest across Australia

‘Strike 4 Climate Action’ brings thousands of students together in defiance of prime minister’s warning

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 Thousands of students join climate protest – video

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/nov/30/climate-change-strike-thousands-of-students-to-join-national-protest

Sono Motors – Sion Electric Car

The Sion is the first mass-produced electric car that can charge its battery using solar power. All for €16,000, excluding battery.





What makes the exterior truly exceptional are the solar cells located on both sides, the roof, the rear, and the hood. The Sion’s standout efficiency and long life are guaranteed through the use of lightweight components. The exterior, for example, consists primarily of highly durable polycarbonate.

Sono Motors – Sion Electric Car

Climate change already a health emergency, say experts | Environment | The Guardian

Deadly heatwaves and spread of diseases affect people’s health today – report

 Farmers on the outskirts of Guwahati, India. The country lost the equivalent of 7% of its total working hours due to extreme heat in 2017. Photograph: EPA

Climate change already a health emergency, say experts | Environment | The Guardian

Climate change: CO2 emissions rising for first time in four years - BBC News

Global efforts to tackle climate change are way off track says the UN, as it details the first rise in CO2 emissions in four years.



The emissions gap report says that economic growth is responsible for a rise in 2017 while national efforts to cut carbon have faltered.



Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionCarbon emissions have not yet peaked in many countries the report says

Climate change: CO2 emissions rising for first time in four years - BBC News

Federal climate change report paints grim picture for Midwest - Chicago Tribune

Rising temperatures in the Midwest are projected to be the largest contributing factor to declines in U.S. agricultural productivity, with extreme heat wilting crops and posing a threat to livestock, according to a sweeping federal report on climate change released Friday.

Midwest farmers will be increasingly challenged by warmer, wetter and more humid conditions from climate change, which also will lead to greater incidence of crop disease and more pests and will diminish the quality of stored grain. During the growing season, temperatures are projected to climb more in the Midwest than in any other region of the U.S., the report says.

John Kiefner checks soybean plants on his farm near Manhattan, Ill., on July 24, 2018. Midwest farmers will be increasingly challenged by warmer, wetter and more humid conditions from climate change, according to a federal report released Nov. 23, 2018. (Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune)

Federal climate change report paints grim picture for Midwest - Chicago Tribune

World's Water Could Become Scarce if the Amazon Rainforest Is Destroyed

The Amazon rainforest is home to 10% of the world’s species, generates 20% of global oxygen, and creates half of its own rain through an intricate water cycle dynamic.

It’s a natural system that’s a world unto itself — and it faces potentially catastrophic levels of deforestation under the new administration of Brazil’s president-elect Jair Bolsonaro, who has vowed to allow industrial interests to have more access to the forest.

If that happens, the effects would be felt far beyond Brazil. In particular, countries around the world could face droughts and water shortages, according to National Geographic.





World's Water Could Become Scarce if the Amazon Rainforest Is Destroyed

The other COP: the plan to save the world’s biodiversity - Unearthed

COP14 opens this week, but these global talks aren't about climate change. Parties to the Global Convention on Biodiversity are meeting in Egypt to prepare for a potential landmark biodiversity deal in two years time.

Aerial views of the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns, Australia. Reefs are facing extinction within a few decades. Photo: Phil Walter/Getty

The other COP: the plan to save the world’s biodiversity - Unearthed

Yards With Non-Native Plants Create ‘Food Deserts’ for Bugs and Birds | Audubon

One reason to plant native plants and not showy gardening varieties - as supported by most garden clubs...Add the support of our struggling pollinators - it becomes a no-brainer...

New research finds that Carolina Chickadees require a landscape with 70 percent native plants to keep their population steady.

A nesting Carolina Chickadee will collect more than 400 caterpillars each day. The bugs are packed with nutrients like carotenoids that growing chicks need to thrive. Photo: Douglas Tallamy


Yards With Non-Native Plants Create ‘Food Deserts’ for Bugs and Birds | Audubon

Stop a Climate-denier from Distorting Our Energy Future! | Help Wildlife, Protect the Environment, Support Nature Conservation, Save the Planet

Last month, Donald Trump nominated Bernard McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an independent regulatory body that's meant to ensure reliable and affordable energy for people across the country. But McNamee, a former Trump administration Energy Department official and fossil fuel industry insider, is the wrong person to fill an open seat on the commission charged with being non-partisan on directing our energy future. Next week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee could vote on McNamee's nomination. We must demand our senators make the right choice for our climate and our communities by rejecting this nomination.







Stop a Climate-denier from Distorting Our Energy Future! | Help Wildlife, Protect the Environment, Support Nature Conservation, Save the Planet

How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet | The New Yorker

With wildfires, heat waves, and rising sea levels, large tracts of the earth are at risk of becoming uninhabitable. But the fossil-fuel industry continues its assault on the facts.

By Bill McKibben

California is currently ablaze, after a record hot summer and a dry fall set the stage for the most destructive fires in the state’s history. Above: The Woolsey fire, near Los Angeles, seen from the West Hills. Photograph by Kevin Cooley for The New Yorker

How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet | The New Yorker

Germany Has a Major Dirty Coal, and Climate, Problem | Sierra Club

The Hambach coal mine, largest of its kind in Europe, is ground zero for the German climate movement: The mine produces 44 million tons of lignite coal per year. In terms of carbon emissions, lignite is one the dirtiest fossil fuels. Widely hailed for its “energy transition,” Germany has actually failed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions for nearly a decade, and lignite is one of the biggest reasons. Now activists have resorted to civil disobedience in response to the lack of government climate action.

PHOTO BY MAURICE FRANK

Germany Has a Major Dirty Coal, and Climate, Problem | Sierra Club

A Green New Deal | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

DRAFT TEXT FOR PROPOSED ADDENDUM TO HOUSE RULES FOR 116TH CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES



A Green New Deal | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Court Reverses Course in Canyon Mine Lawsuit | Grand Canyon Trust

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently changed its mind about whether the Grand Canyon Trust and other plaintiffs can challenge the government’s decision to exempt a uranium mine from a 2012 ban on new mining claims on more than 1 million acres of public land surrounding Grand Canyon National Park. The new decision should land the case back in the U.S. District Court in Arizona to resolve our arguments challenging the U.S. Forest Service’s finding that Energy Fuels Resources Inc. had a valid right to operate the Canyon uranium mine before the ban.







Court Reverses Course in Canyon Mine Lawsuit | Grand Canyon Trust

The Renewed Legal Challenge Against the Dakota Access Pipeline | Earthjustice

I admire the work of this charity. Earth indeed needs a good lawyer...

A new chapter opens in the legal fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline, as the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe renews their lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers challenging its recently completed review of the pipeline’s impacts.

The Renewed Legal Challenge Against the Dakota Access Pipeline | Earthjustice

Radical Realism for Climate Justice

A Civil Society Response to the Challenge of Limiting Global Warming to 1.5°C

Limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial is feasible, and it is our best hope of achieving environmental and social justice, of containing the impacts of a global crisis that was born out of historical injustice and highly unequal responsibility.

https://www.boell.de/en/2018/09/17/radical-realism-climate-justice?dimension1=ds_radicalrealism

U.S. judge bars Trump administration from OKing fracking off California coast - SFChronicle.com

A federal judge barred the Trump administration Friday from approving oil companies’ requests to use the high-pressure drilling technique known as fracking in offshore wells along the Southern California coast until a review of the possible effects on endangered species and state coastal resources.

Pump jacks at the Belridge Oil Field and hydraulic fracking site which is the fourth largest oil field in California. 

Photo: Education Images, UIG via Getty Images

U.S. judge bars Trump administration from OKing fracking off California coast - SFChronicle.com

The many ways climate change worsens California wildfires » Yale Climate Connections

The many ways climate change worsens California wildfires

by Dana Nuccitelli



Years of record-setting California wildfires are consistent with mounting evidence of climate change as a principal factor.

Now designated as California’s deadliest fire, the still-raging Camp Fire by November 13 had led to 42 deaths, with many residents still unaccounted for and more than 7,000 structures destroyed. (Image credit: NASA)

The many ways climate change worsens California wildfires » Yale Climate Connections

Common plastics emit global warming pollution » Yale Climate Connections

All is connected...

Sarah-Jeanne Royer shows plastics from the ocean at Kamilo Point, Hawaii. (Photo credit: Olivier Poirion)

Common plastics emit global warming pollution » Yale Climate Connections

Efforts to Fight Climate Change Had a Tough Election Day | The New Yorker

Several Democrats who campaigned on climate change flipped their congressional districts, but five of seven climate-related ballot measures across the country did not go in the planet’s favor.

Photograph by Jose Carlos Fajardo / Digital First Media / Getty

Efforts to Fight Climate Change Had a Tough Election Day | The New Yorker

Keystone Pipeline XL blocked by federal judge in major blow to Trump administration - The Washington Post

At least another temporary halt...







Keystone Pipeline XL blocked by federal judge in major blow to Trump administration - The Washington Post

Opinion | We Have to Save the Planet. So I’m Donating $1 Billion. - The New York Times

If more billionaires are following we might have a chance?

Tourists in Argentina viewed the Perito Moreno Glacier in Los Glaciares National Park in March.CreditCreditWalter Diaz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Opinion | We Have to Save the Planet. So I’m Donating $1 Billion. - The New York Times

Mapped: nitrogen dioxide pollution around the world - Unearthed

In the last few years, governments and corporations around the world have come under increasing pressure to act on a global air pollution crisis.

In Europe, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) has been at the centre of the debate, following the dieselgate scandal and numerous legal battles faced by governments that have been shown to be in breach of legal limits.

As the World Health Organisation hosts its first global air pollution conference, new satellite data reveals the scale and spread of global NO2 on an unprecedented scale, from lignite power plants in Europe to wildfires in Africa.

Mapped against known pollution sources, it shows that NO2 pollution doesn’t come from diesel pollution alone; it is also emitted by coal, oil, gas and biomass plants as well as forest fires and crop burning.

Mapped: nitrogen dioxide pollution around the world - Unearthed

This Electric Airplane Could Revolutionize How We Fly

The airplane industry generates about 12% of all transportation-related carbon emissions in the US according to the EPA. In fact, the single best way to reduce your personal carbon footprint is to fly less often and outset your flights. One round-trip flight from New York to California generates 20% of the greenhouse gases that a car produces in over a year.



This Electric Airplane Could Revolutionize How We Fly

EasyJet plans electric planes by 2030 | CNN Travel

(CNN) — Passengers concerned about the impact of air travel on the environment could soon opt for a cleaner alternative.

EasyJet, the British-based budget airline, has pledged to develop a fleet of electric planes to cover short-haul routes by 2030, which would effectively reduce carbon emissions and noise from its operations.

The no-frills carrier is in partnership with US-based manufacturer Wright Electric to build battery-propelled jets for flights of less than two hours.

Founded in 2016, Wright Electric already has a two-seater electric plane and plans to begin flying a nine-seater next year. It has now applied for a patent on a motor for an electric airliner.







EasyJet plans electric planes by 2030 | CNN Travel

Startling new research finds large buildup of heat in the oceans, suggesting a faster rate of global warming - The Washington Post

Less time - this is not good news as humanity is usually slow and unwilling to adapt to the inconvenient truth - unless it is not possible to ignore it anymore.
Any further delays in effective greenhouse gas reduction by phasing out fossil fuels, restoring forests and wetlands, switching to diversified ecological agriculture, reducing meat consumption, and a more humble lifestyle, would be the devastating as the temperature will rise higher than 1.5C globally with dire effects on catastrophic weather events, heat, flooding, drought and diseases - and it will take hundreds of years to reverse...


Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Image captionThe new study says the oceans have absorbed far more heat than previously thought

The world’s oceans have been soaking up far more excess heat in recent decades than scientists realized, suggesting that Earth could be set to warm even faster than predicted in the years ahead, according to new research published Wednesday.

Over the past quarter-century, Earth’s oceans have retained 60 percent more heat each year than scientists previously had thought, said Laure Resplandy, a geoscientist at Princeton University who led the startling study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The difference represents an enormous amount of additional energy, originating from the sun and trapped by Earth’s atmosphere — the yearly amount representing more than eight times the world’s annual energy consumption.

Startling new research finds large buildup of heat in the oceans, suggesting a faster rate of global warming - The Washington Post