Climate Change This Week: US Kabooming, Solar Winning, and More!

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a litte more crowded.



@@ Climate Change, The Elevator Pitch: Climatologist Simon Donner


@@ How To Combat Climate Denial: the Online Course where you can see the above video and many more interviews at the new Skeptical Science Massive Online Course (MOOC) on climate denial; you can sign up here.




A new dance production on climate change by Karole Armitage will premiere in New York City, March 25th at the American Museum of Natural History.

@@ ON THE NATURE OF THINGS March 25-27, 2015, 8:00pm $25-35
The American Museum of Natural History, The Milstein Hall of Ocean Life
Tony nominated choreographer Karole Armitage will premiere a new site-specific dance production about climate change and its cultural context, created specifically for the Museum's Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. Check it out!


OO Dear Alaska: We Have Your Air.
Please Come Pick it Up.
And Bring us Back Ours.
Love, Eastern US.



Credit Max Boschini at flickr

A Perfect Storm of Population and Climate Change: Water Rationing and Riots have begun in cities, especially in developing countries like Pakistan, reports Michael Specter in the New Yorker. Climate change has disrupted increasingly the natural global distribution of water into floods and droughts, as human populations have increased exponentially. So will social disruption, unless we confront both imbalances soon, and fast.


Credit funnelogy at instagram

@@ Everyday Climate Change at Instagram
Bringing you the face of climate change daily

Palm Trees Imperiled by rising water levels on Siargao Island, Philippines, where they are no longer supported by the soil that they grew from, now washed away by the tide.

The coastline is being carved deeper and deeper by powerful waves as palm trees tumble down, one by one.

The island is doing its best to adapt by protecting its wealth of mangrove swamp forests.

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SOLAR KEEPS FLYING



OO Getting Everyone Involved:
Major US Solar Companies Announce Workforce Initiative - to diversify the force both in gender and economic backgrounds.


OO Solar Energy's New Best Friend Is ... The Christian Coalition - as Christians note their mandate of preserving God's creation and their children's future.


OO Buyers Will Pay More For Homes With Solar Panels says a new study.



Source GreenTechMedia

OO How Do You Know Your Solar Panels Are Working Correctly?
You Probably Don't - many homes have malfunctioning or even non-functioning systems, a study found, despite meters that tell owners how the system is performing.


OO San Diego, CA Utility to Expand Solar-Power Microgrid
With a $5 Million State Grant


OO San Antonio, TX: Offer Free Electricity For Using Rooftops as Solar Power Sources - is the tack for a pilot utility program to spread solar rooftops into lower income communities.



Source climateparl.net

OO Decentralized Renewables Set for 70% Annual Growth in India says a new report.


OO India Starts Building World's Largest Solar Plant, Overtaking U.S. - the 750 MW project could ultimately power some 2 million households.


OO Bangladesh Aims to Be the World's First Solar Nation via rooftop solar mainly, says the government, with financial assistance from the World Bank and others.



This man uses his solar panels (visible on the roof behind him) to power up villagers' cellphones. He charges them for 12 cents apiece. Credit: Tim McDonnell/the Climate Desk

OO These Tanzanian Villages Don't Have Plumbing -
They Have Solar Power


OO One Million Solar Homes - Tanzanian Style - means designing, building and installing solar panels, lighting, batteries and a meter in an off-the-grid home, which is then paid in installments as cheap as twenty cents a day. It's a model that might light up Africa.






Check it out here, right now!
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GOOD CLEAN NEWS



OO Deutsche Bank Seeks to Buy $1 Billion in Green Bonds


OO Citigroup Sets $100 Billion Funding Goal for Green Projects


OO Influential Financiers, From Warren Buffett To Bill Gates,
Are Divesting Fossil Fuels




A campaign to get universities to stop investing in greenhouse gas-producing fuels has come to the University of Colorado requesting it divest from coal and petroleum companies. Source: University of Colorado

OO Fossil Fuel Divestment Effort Comes To Colorado - as activists ask the university to divest.


OO Michele Bachmann Inspired Factcheck.Org
To Debunk Lies About Science - finally, Michelle inspires truth, even if she has no idea what it is.


OO Oil Price Drop Won't Derail Climate Push, Says White House



Source, osxdaily.com

OO Apple Gears Up to Challenge Tesla in Electric Cars


OO Utilities Expand Into Charging Stations For Electric Cars


<<< Big Bad Batteries!! >>>

OO Vanadium Flow Battery Aims to Compete With Lithium and Lead-Acid at Grid Scale


OO Advances in Lithium-Sulfur Batteries Offer Promise for Electric Cars



Huffington Post

OO U.K. Approves World's Largest Offshore Wind Farm


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WHAT WORKS

Speaking Out:

OO Harvard Prepares To Fight Fossil Fuel Divestment Case In Court - as students represent themselves and future generations of Harvard students in the fight for a decent future.


OO BP: Huge Rise In Energy Demand At Odds With Climate Change Fight - but is BP really going to do anything about it? Ha!



OO Catholics Around The World Will Fast For Climate Action During Lent



Bill Nye on the Bill Maher show. screencapture

@@ Video: Bill Nye: Let's Be Honest, Climate 'Skeptics' Are Just Deniers


OO World's Biggest PR Firm Calls It Quits With American Oil Lobby - despite a multi-million dollar relationship.



Source: the Daily Climate

OO Americans Should Consider Eating Less Meat
For Environmental Reasons, Scientists Say


OO Scientists, Policy Experts: Time to Phase Out Carbon Emissions Entirely



OO State Lawmakers Push Electric-Car Ownership With Bevy Of Bills




Future US landscapes?

OO NASA Study Warns Of Unprecedented North American Drought


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WHAT DOESN'T WORK

Fossil Fuel Follies:

OO Huge Explosion Rips Through California Oil Refinery,
Adding Fuel To Oil Worker Strike



Which Fire Do YOU Prefer? A serious accident - fire, explosion, toxic release - happens almost weekly in a US oil refinery. Electricity from solar power could power cars and heat homes instead.

"Take a gallon of gasoline.
Close it up.
Put it on a hot barbecue grill.
Multiply that by a million.
That's a refinery."

Oil Refinery Safety Expert Kim Nibarger testifying before Congress, 2013


YOU CAN ACT : Oil workers are 6 times more likely to die on the job than the average American. http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/17623/oil_strike Demand safe working conditions at oil refineries now.

Then resolve to personally divest from oil: get rooftop solar panels and an electric heater, for starters.


The BP ad spoof that tells it like it is ... enjoy!

OO Fed Predicts Up To 10 Derailments A Year Of Fuel-Hauling Trains


OO California: Health Concerns Mount After Refinery Explosion
Coats City With White Ash
Exposure to amorphous silica, which Exxon said the dust was composed of, is associated with an increased risk for inflammation, granuloma formation and emphysema..




Source Daily Climate

OO West Virginia In State Of Emergency After Massive Oil Train Explosion


Related Headlines:

OO West Virginia Oil Train Derailment Sends Crude Tanker Into River


OO Train Carrying 3 Million Gallons of Crude Still Burning


OO After W Va Explosion, Oil Trains Rerouted Through Virginia Towns



Credit Andrew Breiner, images from AP, Shutterstock, CTV

OO Four Oil-Related Spills Reported In North Dakota -
Latest In A Week Of Oil Mishaps


OO Bill Gates Still Ignores Climate Change --
It Will Undo His Foundation's Work



Source: The Daily Climate

OO US Charges Duke Energy With Illegal Pollution From 5 Coal Ash Dumps


OO India's Air Pollution Is Cutting 3 Years Off Residents' Lives -more than half of the country's population live in regions with high levels of air pollution, a new study has found.


Misleading the Public:
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Wei-Hock "Willie" Soon, a scientist who promoted climate change as neither important nor manmade, listed his work as "deliverables" when billing fossil fuel companies that paid him to write climate doubting papers, discovered documents show. He often violated ethical publishing guidelines by failing to disclose his ties to these companies. Source: The Daily Climate

OO Contrarian Scientist Is Accused Of Taking Corporate Cash For Science - Willie Soon: "no amount of money can influence what I say or do or research or write." If recently released documents are accurate, he is a liar.


Related Headlines:

OO Deeper Ties To Corporate Cash For A Doubtful Climate Scientist



OO Documents Reveal Fossil Fuel Fingerprints On Contrarian Climate Research




OO Taps Start To Run Dry In Brazil's Largest City - São Paulo water crisis is linked to growth, leaky distribution, climate change, and deforestation, and now officials contemplate evacuation.


OO As China Gets Richer, The World Gets Dirtier,
Via the Momentum of Over One Billion People - not surprising, especially as much of its one billion people rise above poverty and start consuming like the rest of the developed world, via rapid industrialization, the same process that has made it a major contributor of greenhouse gases.


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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS



Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Mar 2, 2015

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is "caused" by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Looking above at recent temperature anomalies, much of the US lower 48 are colder than normal, although the waters surrounding it are experiencing warmer than normal temperatures: the eastern Pacific warm spot has drifted south and north of the California coast, but little rain is reaching the state, sending it into further drought.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole, including Alaska, are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures - not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.

Natural Repercussions:

And The Heat Goes On...

OO USA, January & February 2015:
Vastly More Daily Warm Records Than Cold Ones


OO Hottest 12 Months On Record Globally Thanks To Warm January,
Reports NASA



US 2015 winter snowfall to date vs the average.

OO Dry or Snowy? Extreme Winter Weather Splits Much of U.S.



OO Sea Ice Still Declining, Despite Antarctica's Gains



Source, the Daily Climate

OO California Sea Lion Deaths: Warmer Seas May Be To Blame which can affect vital things like food sources.



Many of Madagascar's lemurs are endangered from deforestation; now climate change threatens them further. Wikipedia

OO Climate Change Threatening Madagascar's Endangered Unique Lemurs - already declining from rampant deforestation and poaching, the lemurs will be further devastated by climate change.

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Social Repercussions:




Climate Change Threat to US Seafood and Fishing Economies Is Rising as ocean acidity rises, reports Brian Kahn at Climate Central, and a new study analyzes how this will affect US coastal economies.

OO California Water Becomes Scarce and Energy Hungry - as the continuing drought forces much more energy to be used to pump water from groundwater rather than surface water supplies, such as rivers.


OO Climate Change To Make Infectious Disease Outbreaks More Frequent



Credit H. Raab at Flickr

OO Climate Change Hampering World Food Production - profound societal changes will be needed in coming decades to feed the world's growing population, researchers at an annual science conference said. Like changing family size, humanely?




Source: Climate Central

OO Rising Sea Levels And Temperatures Ahead For NY City


OO Global Warming Could Make
NYC Super-Rich Jealous Of Row House Residents - as reports project what would happen if city buildings lost power in extreme heat and cold.



OO SF, CA: King Tides At Candlestick Point Offer Glimpse Of Planet's Future - As recent king tides washed over a small beach there, San Francisco Bay became a classroom for teaching the grim reality of sea-level rise.


OO Early Start To US West Wildfire Season - over the last forty years, the fire season has more than doubled across the West, now spanning 7 months or more.




Source AidIndia.org

OO Millions At Risk From Rapid Sea Rise In Swampy Sundarbans - seas are rising more than twice as fast as the global average in this low-lying Bengal Bay delta of 200 islands, where some 13 million impoverished people live.




Climate Deniers Fail To Convince Sardines, Which Vote With Their Fins - the Mediterranean food staple is swimming north to cooler waters. Source: The Daily Climate

OO Sardines Swim North To Keep Cool - and escape warming seas, leaving Mediterranean fishermen with empty nets.


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KEEPING CARBON STORED: FORESTS UPDATE
Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon

OO Indonesia To Squander Fuel Savings On Biofuel Subsidies
That May Drive Deforestation, say environmental groups.


YOU CAN ACT



You cut down my home for fuel? Tell the Indonesian president here to stop this gift to the deforesting palm oil industry.

Threats:

OO New Guinea Rainforest Being Leveled For Palm Oil - revealing gaps in zero deforestation pacts.



Many endangered chimpanzees in East Africa live in habitat threatened by oil palm expansion. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

OO Scientists Sound The Alarm On African Palm Oil Investment


OO Chinese Banks Funding Rainforest Destruction In Indonesia



Paraguay: A traditional communal Ayoreo house that was abandoned because of bulldozing activity. Photo courtesy of Survival International.

OO Paraguay: Indigenous Communities Threatened By Deforestation,
Despite Having Land Rights


Solutions:

OO Campaign Asks Consumers To Directly Support Forest Conservation



Maintaining healthy biodiversity could reduce the threat of disease from wild habitats worldwide, a new study indicates. Credit Gui Becker at mongabay

OO Biodiversity May Reduce The Threat Of Disease


OO Indonesian Forestry And Fishery Ministries Move To Eradicate Corruption



Credit Tiffany Roufs at Mongabay

OO Local Technicians Effective At Forest Monitoring study finds.


Insights:

OO Brazil: Land Threatened By Dam Projects Belongs To Indigenous Munduruku Tribe - confirms the independent foundation, Funai.



Brazil: A Munduruku indigenous native. Credit Marcio Isensee e Sá at mongabay

OO Dams Or Indigenous Land: The Battle Over The Munduruku Frontier -The Munduruku indigenous tribe are marking their land boundaries , in an action that could halt Brazil's giant São Luiz do Tapajós hydroelectric dam,, which would flood this sacred land. 'We are not leaving,' says the village chief.


OO Selective Logging Causes Long-Term Changes To Forest Structure



There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list I've compiled, "Climate Change News Resources," at Wordpress.com here. For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here.

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by thesegentian I photographed one summer. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here. It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there. For more detailed summaries of the above and other climate change items, audio podcasts and texts are freely available.