Bill McKibben Articles on Global Warming, Local Economies, Alternative Energies and Renewable Resources, Self-Sufficiency. Bill is a frequent contributor to various magazines including The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside.
He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine. Here are links to some of Bill's articles and to various interviews for magazines and radio programs. Mike Hulme. Refuel on Nuclear Power – the Silver Bullet!!! Caves point to thawing of Siberia. Science 22 Feb 13 Frost crystals at the entrance of Ledyanaya Lenskaya Cave.
Photo: Vladimir V Alexioglo Evidence from Siberian caves suggests that a global temperature rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius could see permanently frozen ground thaw over a large area of Siberia, threatening release of carbon from soils, and damage to natural and human environments. A thaw in Siberia's permafrost (ground frozen throughout the year) could eventually release over 1,000 giga-tonnes of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere, potentially enhancing global warming. In Australia, Wind Power Is Already Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, And Solar Is Right Behind. By Jeff Spross on February 10, 2013 at 10:00 am "In Australia, Wind Power Is Already Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels, And Solar Is Right Behind" According to the latest research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, electricity from wind power can now be supplied more cheaply in Australia than power from either coal or natural gas — and solar and other forms of renewable energy aren’t far behind.
Older coal-fired power plants from the 70s and 80s still compete at lower prices than renewables — but only because their construction costs have depreciated. NASA-Led Study Finds Warming-Driven Megadroughts Jeopardizing Amazon Forest. By Joe Romm "NASA-Led Study Finds Warming-Driven Megadroughts Jeopardizing Amazon Forest" An area of the Amazon rainforest twice the size of California continues to suffer from the effects of a megadrought that began in 2005, finds a new NASA-led study.
These results, together with observed recurrences of droughts every few years and associated damage to the forests in southern and western Amazonia in the past decade, suggest these rainforests may be showing the first signs of potential large-scale degradation due to climate change. At left, the extent of the 2005 megadrought in the western Amazon rainforests during the summer months of June, July and August as measured by NASA satellites. The most impacted areas are shown in shades of red and yellow. A NASA JPL news release.
Saved. National Climate Assessment Details Stronger Evidence Of Global Warming And Its Impacts. A federal committee has published a draft of the nation's third climate assessment report, a comprehensive analysis of the latest and best peer-reviewed science on the extent and impacts of global warming on the United States.
None of the body's findings are entirely new, but the report suggests that evidence is now stronger and clearer than ever that the climate is rapidly changing -- primarily as a result of human activities, including the copious burning of fossil fuels. Observed weather extremes are on the rise, and the possible connection between at least some of these events and human-induced climate change is also more strongly supported by the science. The nation can expect increased impacts on everything from crops to fresh water supplies, and better and broader national plans for adaptation are needed, the assessment noted.
"Climate change presents a major challenge for society," the committee's leadership said in a letter addressed to the American people. The Elephant in the Room: Climate Change. The most under-reported news story of 2012?
The elephant in the room. Global climate change — and the failure of our leaders and media to act. The science is clear and unambiguous: climate change is real; it’s caused by humans burning fossil fuels; and it’s at or near an irreversible catastrophic tipping point. Despair after climate conference, but UN still offers hope. Ticking Arctic Carbon Bomb May Be Bigger Than Thought. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA—Scientists are expressing fresh concerns about the carbon locked in the Arctic's vast expanse of frozen soil.
New field studies, presented here this week at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union, quantify the amount of soil carbon at 1.9 trillion metric tons, suggesting that previous estimates underestimated the climate risk if this carbon is liberated. Meanwhile, a new analysis of laboratory experiments that simulate carbon release by thawed soil is bolstering worries that continued carbon emissions could unleash a massive Arctic carbon wallop.
Disappearing Arctic ice, which gets most of the attention from climate scientists, is an effect of humanmade climate change. By contrast, the melting of frozen soil, or permafrost, can drive warming. As it thaws, microbes devour carbon previously locked inside, unleashing carbon dioxide—a potent greenhouse gas—in the process. UN Climate Delegates Agree on Something: Geo-engineering Is No Solution. Climate Talks Yield Commitment to Ambitious, but Unclear, Actions. Osama Faisal/Associated Press Bard Vegar Solhjell, Norway’s environmental minister, with protesters on Saturday.
Delegates from more than 190 nations agreed to extend the increasingly ineffective Kyoto Protocol a few years and to commit to more ambitious — but unspecified — actions to reduce emissions of climate-altering gases. Wealthy nations put off for a year resolution of the dispute over providing billions of dollars in aid to countries most heavily affected by climate change. Industrial nations have pledged to secure $100 billion a year by 2020 in public and private financing to help poor countries cope with climate change, but have been vague about what they plan to do before then.
Climate Change Study Indicates Amount Of Heat-Trapping Pollution Rose By 3 Percent Worldwide Last Year. WASHINGTON -- The amount of heat-trapping pollution the world spewed rose again last year by 3 percent.
So scientists say it's now unlikely that global warming can be limited to a couple of degrees, which is an international goal. The overwhelming majority of the increase was from China, the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluter. Of the planet's top 10 polluters, the United States and Germany were the only countries that reduced their carbon dioxide emissions. Last year, all the world's nations combined pumped nearly 38.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, according to new international calculations on global emissions published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Geo-engineering wins scant enthusiasm at U.N. climate talks. Nov. 30 News: 'We Have To Face The Fact That The Deniers Are Wrong,' Says Sen. Whitehouse In Climate Hearing. “There is a new normal of new extremes and we have to be prepared for it,” Sen.
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said. Science Stunner: Greenland Ice Melt Up Nearly Five-Fold Since Mid-1990s, Antartica's Ice Loss Up 50% In Past Decade. By Joe Romm "Science Stunner: Greenland Ice Melt Up Nearly Five-Fold Since Mid-1990s, Antartica’s Ice Loss Up 50% In Past Decade" Based on the new study in Science, this chart shows changes in global sea level due to ice sheet melting since 1992. The background image shows thickening (blue) and thinning (red) of Antarctica’s ice sheets over the same period. Credit: ESA/NASA/Planetary Visions via NBC. A major new international study reconciles “an ensemble of satellite altimetry, interferometry, and gravimetry data sets” to determine polar ice-sheet ice loss with the highest accuracy to date.
The Insurance Industry Is Finally Waking Up And Smelling The Climate Chaos Coffee. By Climate Guest Contributor on November 6, 2012 at 2:00 pm "The Insurance Industry Is Finally Waking Up And Smelling The Climate Chaos Coffee" Businessweek Hurricane Sandy Cover: 'It's Global Warming, Stupid' (PHOTO) Seaside Heights, N.J.John Okeefe walks on the beach as a rollercoaster that once sat on the Funtown Pier in Seaside Heights, N.J., rests in the ocean on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012 after the pier was washed away by superstorm Sandy which made landfall Monday evening.
Ocean City, M.D.A National Guard humvee travels through high water to check the area after the effects of Hurricane Sandy Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012, in Ocean City, Md. Sandy, the storm that made landfall Monday, caused multiple fatalities, halted mass transit and cut power to more than 6 million homes and businesses. (Alex Brandon, AP)Lower ManhattanWater is pumped on to the street in lower Manhattan in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012. The New York region is replacing a rail network built over a century with a patchwork constructed day-by-day to move its 8 million people again as it struggles back to life after Hurricane Sandy.
Climate-changing methane 'rapidly destabilizing' off East Coast, study finds. In this visualization, the Gulf Stream is seen as the dark red current coming into the Atlantic from the Gulf of Mexico. By Miguel Llanos, NBC News A changing Gulf Stream off the East Coast has destabilized frozen methane deposits trapped under nearly 4,000 square miles of seafloor, scientists reported Wednesday. And since methane is even more potent than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas, the researchers said, any large-scale release could have significant climate impacts. Temperature changes in the Gulf Stream are "rapidly destabilizing methane hydrate along a broad swathe of the North American margin," the experts said in a study published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature. Using seismic records and ocean models, the team estimated that 2.5 gigatonnes of frozen methane hydrate are being destabilized and could separate into methane gas and water.
October 22 News: Rising CO2 Concentrations May Double Methane Output From Rice Production. By Stephen Lacey on October 22, 2012 at 7:36 am "October 22 News: Rising CO2 Concentrations May Double Methane Output From Rice Production" More carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, coupled with rising temperatures, is making rice agriculture a larger source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, according to a study published today in Nature Climate Change by a research team that includes a UC Davis plant scientist. [Daily Democrat] “Together, higher carbon dioxide concentrations and warmer temperatures predicted for the end of this century will about double the amount of methane emitted per kilo of rice produced,” said Chris van Kessel, professor of plant sciences at UCD and co-author of the study, published in this week’s edition of Nature Climate Change.
“Because global demand for rice will increase further with a growing world population, our results suggest that without additional measures, the total methane emissions from rice agriculture will strongly increase.” Seminal Study: Climate Change ‘Footprint’ In North America, ‘The Continent With The Largest Increases in Disasters’ Poll: Growing Majority Of Americans Understand The Earth Is Warming And Humans Are The Cause. World's biggest geoengineering experiment 'violates' UN rules. A controversial American businessman dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean as part of a geoengineering scheme off the west coast of Canada in July, a Guardian investigation can reveal.
Lawyers, environmentalists and civil society groups are calling it a "blatant violation" of two international moratoria and the news is likely to spark outrage at a United Nations environmental summit taking place in India this week. An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces. Extreme weather adds urgency for action on climate change – panel. The recent rash of extreme weather and climate events — droughts, heat waves, extreme precipitation — has provided a greater impetus for taking action to reduce planet warming greenhouse gas emissions. But a lack of political will and the complexities of the climate system pose enormous obstacles, according to international development and climate scientists who spoke at a Columbia University forum on Thursday.
American Newspapers Give Far More Coverage To Climate Deniers And Skeptics Than Other Countries. October 5 News: 'Once Again We Are Decades Ahead Of Schedule,' Says Michael Mann About Looming Sea Level Rise. The Climate Silence Continues: Lehrer, Obama, And Romney Ignore Climate Change In First Debate. : Ocean Acidification Occurring at Unprecedented Rates.
Fox News Climate Coverage 93% Wrong, Report Finds. Loss of Arctic Sea Ice … and of a ‘Giant Parasol’ Salt marsh carbon may play role in slowing climate warming. Southwest U.S. Forests Projected by 2050 to See Worst Drought Conditions in at Least 1,000 years, With Extensive Forest Die-off. Climate Change Kills 400,000 a Year, New Report Reveals. 'BEST' May Be Best Study Yet on Climate Change - Blog. Blog Directory > Science > Environment > Climate Change Blogs - Submit Blog. Changing Calif. climate a threat to crops. Climate Change is Already Damaging Global Economy. Climate Change Deaths Could Total 100 Million By 2030 If World Fails To Act. Record Arctic Snow Loss May Be Prolonging North American Drought. Arctic ice cap set for record-breaking summer melt session. Is It Too Late to Avoid the Worst Impacts of Climate Change? The Story Behind Record Ice Loss in Greenland.
In Hot Water: How Global Warming. How droughts will reshape the United States. Bay Area Landscape Likely to Come Up Short on Water. Ocean Acidification Is Climate Change's 'Equally Evil Twin,' NOAA Chief Says. Health officials more prepared for heat, but not for climate change. No Average Year, No Average Book: 'Global Weirdness' Hotter summers could be a part of Washington’s future. Scientists say ongoing weather extremes offer proof of climate change. The Heat is On: U.S. Temperature Trends. Global Temperatures Rising on a Devastating Trajectory. Global Temperatures Rising on a Devastating Trajectory. Indonesia Is Wilting. Rising Carbon Dioxide Confuses Brain Signaling In Fish. Big Antarctic Ice Sheet Appears Doomed. An Inconvenient Lawsuit: Teenagers Take Global Warming to the Courts - Katherine Ellison - National. Gaia creator rows back on climate. Some Asian glaciers 'putting on mass' Jonathan Foley: The other inconvenient truth.
New plan crafted to limit Ocean Beach erosion. GlobalWarming.org — Climate Change News & Analysis. Global Warming : Climate Change News, Facts, and Solutions.