During the last glacial maximum, for a period of about 7000 years ending roughly 10,000 years ago, glaciers formed ice dams across large rivers in North America. Water blocked by dams naturally spreads out to form lakes, and some of … Continue reading
An article by Damian Carrington in today’s issue of The Guardian summarizes some of the the problems created by warming oceans. I recommend the whole article, but here are a few extracts: The number of heatwaves affecting the planet’s oceans … Continue reading
This summer has been extraordinarily hot and dry in much of Europe, including places where air conditioning is rare. It’s been miserable for a lot of residents and tourists, but on the positive side, a side effect has been the … Continue reading
David Wallace-Wells has an article in July 10 issue of New York magazine summarizing the best current knowledge about the consequences of doing nothing to address human-caused global warming. The magazine’s website has an updated and corrected copy of the … Continue reading
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) recently published an interesting report (PDF) of a survey of U.S. science teachers that gives an idea how they are talking about climate change. The good news is that the subject is fairly … Continue reading
An article by Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes just published in Environmental Research Letters concludes that “ExxonMobil contributed to advancing climate science — by way of its scientists’ academic publications — but promoted doubt about it in advertorials. Given this … Continue reading
In this TED Talk from 2012 Hans Rosling show data that suggest that the world’s population will not continue to explode but will likely stabilize at about 10 billion (as the United Nations estimates). This is a modest increase from … Continue reading
As usual, John Oliver manages to be entertaining and informative in this piece on why withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement makes no sense. Link: https://youtu.be/5scez5dqtAc Meanwhile, Trump’s fellow billionaire Sir Richard Branson (a considerably more successful businessman than Trump, … Continue reading
Back on June 1 President Trump gave a speech (official transcript here) announcing that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, claiming that the agreement “disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries.” Of … Continue reading
Astronomer and blogger Phil Plait has a good summary of climate concerns here. As he notes, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the independent research group Berkeley Earth all concur … Continue reading