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Manmade climate change is now dwarfing the influence of natural trends on the climate, scientists say. The acting director of the UK Met Office, Prof Peter Stott, told BBC News: "It's extraordinary that temperatures in 2017 have been so high when there's no El Niño. In fact, we’ve been going into cooler La Niña conditions. "Last year was substantially warmer than 1998 which had a very big El Niño. "It shows clearly that the biggest natural influence on the climate is being dwarfed by human activities – predominantly CO2; emissions." “The record temperature should focus the minds of world leaders,...

There could be no starker illustration of the profound differences that exist between Washington and London -- despite alignment on many other issues -- than comments this week by our two leaders on climate change and the environment. For President Trump, the Paris Agreement is a bad deal that will close US businesses -- perhaps even has closed some already. Meanwhile, in London last week, Prime Minister Theresa May was launching the UK's 25-year Plan for Nature. Its flagship pledge is to "leave the environment in a better state than we found it". The evidence is entirely against the world...

California is poised to meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gases 33 percent, to 1990 levels, by the year 2020. Its targets for use of more renewable energy by that date are, in some cases, already exceeded. ...hold on tight for what comes next. The state’s overarching plan was intended to ease industry and consumers into a carbon-free future bit by bit; ten years in, the training wheels are off. Emissions-reduction must hit 40 percent by 2030 and twice that by 2050. In 12 years, half the state’s energy must come from renewable sources. 14 million buildings must operate twice...

Norway’s prime minister told President Donald Trump on Wednesday that her country remains committed to the Paris climate agreement, making the business case of the “green economy” to the real estate developer-turned president. Prime Minister Erna Solberg noted that many Norwegians drive U.S.-made Tesla electric cars and said her country saw “tremendous economic and business opportunities” as nations around the world fight climate change. “Norway is combatting climate change — it’s an important issue for us and we are committed to the Paris agreement,” Solberg said during a joint news conference with Trump. “We could conceivably go back in,” Trump...

To scientists who study lakes and rivers, it seems humans have embarked on a huge unplanned experiment. By burning fossil fuels, we have already raised the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by 40 percent, and we’re on track to increase it by much more. Some of that gas may mix into the world’s inland waters, and recent studies hint that this may have profound effects on the species that live in them. “We’re monkeying with the very chemical foundation of these ecosystems,” said Emily H. Stanley, a limnologist (freshwater ecologist) at the University of Wisconsin — Madison. “But...

Washington Governor Claims ‘Just 59 Days’ To Save Children From Global Warming Michael Bastasch 4:47 PM 01/09/2018 Washington state’s Democratic Governor Jay Inslee warned there was “just 59 days” to save future generations from “an endless cycle of crop-killing droughts one year, and rivers spilling their banks the next.” Inslee went on a lengthy Twitter rant in efforts to convince the state legislature to pass legislation to tax carbon dioxide emissions. Washington residents voted down Inslee’s last carbon tax plan by a wide margin in 2016. We have just 59 days to do our part to save our children from...

Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer says he will spend $30 million to get young voters to the polls for the 2018 midterm elections. Steyer is a former hedge fund manager who has invested some of his wealth into an array of political causes, most notably fighting climate change. […] He says it’s critical for Democrats to “run the table” in the 2018 elections. …

With a seeming rise in the occurrence of snow days, blizzards and icy travel, the common belief that climate change isn’t happening comes as no surprise. Scientists stress that locally wintry weather conditions are not indicators of changes in climate, and weather conditions in one part of the world are not representative of what’s occurring globally. “It’s like saying, 'if everyone around me is wealthy, then poverty is not a problem,'” Peter Frumhoff, the Union of Concerned Scientists science and policy director and chief climate scientist, told CNN. Scientists point to hard data, including temperature measurements on land and water...

An unusually powerful storm is threatening the East Coast of the U.S. this week with heavy snow, high winds, and record-shattering cold not seen in some places since the early 20th Century — if at all. The storm will be the result of a combination of three strong pieces of atmospheric energy, known to meteorologists as shortwaves. Think of these shortwaves as protein bars for storm formation. This particular storm, which is already beginning to form off the coast of Florida, will devour enough of them to allow it to become so powerful that it will contain hurricane force winds...

Policies aimed at limiting climate change by boosting the burning of biomass contain critical flaws that could actually damage attempts to avert dangerous levels of global warming in the future. That is the stark view of one of Britain’s chief climate experts, Professor John Beddington, who has warned that relying on the cutting down and burning of trees as a replacement for the use of fossil fuels could rebound dangerously. Beddington, a former UK government chief scientific adviser, said there was now a real risk that increasing wood-burning in order to help European countries, including Britain, reach renewable energy targets...

(CNN)At 8 p.m. Thursday, after a third straight day of golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, and the temperature was 72 degrees, President Donald Trump tweeted this: "In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!" The "logic" at work here is simple: How can climate change, aka global warming, be real if it is so cold outside? Trump tweets that...

President Trump took to Twitter Thursday to note the record-breaking cold weather currently slamming much of the eastern U.S., saying the country could use some “global warming” during the cold snap. “In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record,” Trump tweeted. “Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!” Large swaths of the US are expected to see record-breaking cold temperatures over New Year’s weekend, with some areas expected to have...

The European Union has agreed a host of climate and energy targets this week: It’s set energy efficiency standards for new buildings, and agreed to climate targets for 2030. Europe has a history of progressive environmental legislation, and it political leaders often position themselves as climate heroes. Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron appears to have moved in on German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s traditional territory as international climate champion, with public displays of support for climate science and attacks on US President Donald Trump’s regressive climate policies. But behind the bravado, is Europe doing enough to cut emissions? The short answer,...

The Atlantic claims online pornography is killing the environment at a greater pace than physical pornography ever did, in an article this week. “So many people watch porn online that the industry’s carbon footprint might be worse now that it was in the days of DVDs and magazines,” declared Atlantic writer Matt Kessler. […] … “Using a formula that Netflix published on its blog in 2015, Nathan Ensmenger, a professor at Indiana University who is writing a book about the environmental history of the computer, calculates that if Pornhub streams video as efficiently as Netflix (0.0013 kWh per streaming hour),...

BackgroundThe sea level records since the start of the twentieth century show oscillations with many periodicities up to multi-decadal. The sea level may then change because of local factors such as subsidence or uplift, and global factors such as mass addition and thermal expansion of the oceans.PurposeWe use non-aligned data from the tide gauges of Aden, and the tide gauges of Mumbai and Karachi, to reconstruct the most likely pattern of sea levels for these three locations of the west Indian Ocean.MethodsLinear and parabolic fittings of monthly average mean sea levels (MSL) from the different tide gauges of the three...

French President Emmanuel Macron issued a stark warning on climate change at a summit in Paris on Tuesday, telling world leaders “we are losing the battle” against global warming. “We’re not moving fast enough, that’s the problem,” Macron told the One Planet Summit called to boost the 2015 Paris climate accord, which US President Donald Trump has renounced. “We must all act because we will all be held to account,” Macron told the gathering on an island in the River Seine, adding: “We cannot say we did not know.” Dozens of world leaders and hundreds of ministers, company bosses, and...

Devastating wildfires fueled by climate change are “the new normal”, California’s governor has said. Jerry Brown said vast fires, such as the ones that have ravaged southern California in recent days, “could happen every year or every few years”. “We’re facing a new reality in this state,” he said. Mr Brown made the comments after surveying the damage in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. Thousands of firefighters have been battling the fires since Monday. Mr. Brown, a Democrat who has attacked the Trump administration’s stance on climate change, said: “We’re facing a new reality in this state, where fires...

Link only: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-29/moody-s-warns-cities-to-address-climate-risks-or-face-downgrades

Much of France is getting its first taste of winter this week, with 50 departments placed on alert for snow and ice. Snow and ice is expected to hit much of France, with national weather agency Météo France placing 50 departments on yellow alert — the third highest warning level. The departments, including nine in Brittany, Normandy and the Pays de la Loire were placed on yellow alert — the third highest warning which advises people to be careful and stay up-to-date with the situation — at 6 am on Wednesday morning. Drivers are warned to be particularly vigilant. “Our...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the federal government will provide €1 billion ($1.2 billion) to cities and towns across the country in 2018 in an effort to make traffic more environmentally friendly. […] Many cities in Germany face driving bans because the air pollution is frequently above the allowed maximum levels due to the many cars’ exhaust fumes. The funds are to be invested among other things into electric buses, electric charging stations and a more environmentally friendly traffic infrastructure. …