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BERKELEY — UC Berkeley will host a “guerrilla archiving” event Saturday to save federal data in the public interest from a presidential administration that has expressed scorn for science and claims climate change is a hoax. The event, run by a group of Bay Area information technology experts, scientists, researchers and activists, is co-sponsored by UC Santa Cruz’ Science and Justice Center. DataRescue events feature the downloading of data, from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and Department of Energy (DOE), related to climate change, alternative energy, and toxic...

Soak up these rainy days. They are not going to last forever. Summer will be here before you know it, and if recent trends continue, it will likely be a hot one. Globally, 2016 was the warmest year on record. Here in Los Angeles, temperature records were shattered last summer during scorching heat waves that saw highs of 100 degrees for five days straight. If you think the city is too hot, you’ve got company at City Hall. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti agrees, and he wants to do something about it. As part of a sweeping plan to help...

If there were any lingering doubts over Donald Trump’s enthusiasm for shoving the US back into the smoggy embrace of fossil fuels, his decision to revive the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines banishes them utterly. Trump has thrown down the most provocative gauntlet possible to the environmental movement, which now sees its worst fears crystalizing within a few days of the inauguration. This will be an aggressively pro-oil and gas administration, even if that means boiling the planet. “Donald Trump has been in office for four days and he’s already proving to be the dangerous threat to our climate...

The Mainstream Media's reporting of Trump's interview with the New York Times says in that meeting he changed his mind on climate change. And if you read the transcripts, he didn't. If you read the transcripts, he spoke like Trump always speaks. He didn't commit himself to anything, and some of his answers were innocuous. Trump actually cited ClimateGate, restated skepticism of ‘Global Warming’.

GENEVA - The U.N. weather agency is warning of "fundamental change" afoot in the global climate and continued warming, accompanied recently by unusually high rainfall in parts of the US and Europe. The World Meteorological Organization was pointing Tuesday to data released by NASA a day earlier showing that this May was the hottest on record, and the Northern Hemisphere spring has been the hottest spring ever.

The Paris floods, that saw extreme rainfall swell the river Seine to its highest level in decades, were made almost twice as likely because of the manmade emissions driving global warming, scientists have found. As artworks in the Louvre were moved to safety and Paris's cobbled walkways were submerged, the French president, Francois Hollande, blamed the floods on climate change. Now a preliminary analysis by a group of scientists, including the Dutch weather agency and the University of Oxford, has concluded the risk of the flooding event in Paris was almost doubled - multiplied by a factor of 1.8 -...

Currently, about 40% of Americans support Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, and about 40% of Americans are not worried about global warming. While short of a majority, this is a substantial fraction of the American public failing to grasp the risks associated with a Donald Trump presidency and potentially catastrophic climate change impacts. The threat of catastrophic climate change isn't as tangible as a burning house, car accident, or lung cancer. Americans tend to view climate threats as distant in both time and space. We can only hope that the fraction of Americans failing to grasp the immense...

Former GE CEO Jack Welch said Thursday the Obama administration's heavy focus on combating climate change is "radical behavior" that's holding back the economy. "You get a reduced military," Welch said. "You get an economy that won't move. You get ozone regs that are wacky."

The devastating rise in Alaska's wildfires is making global warming even worse than scientists expected, US government researchers said on Wednesday. The sharp spike in Alaska's wildfires, where more than 5 million acres burned last year, are destroying a main buffer against climate change: the carbon-rich boreal forests, tundra and permafrost that have served as an enormous carbon sink. Northern wildfires must now be recognised as a significant driver of climate change - and not just a side-effect, according to the report from the US Geological Survey. The USGS warned last year that Alaska could lose about a quarter of...

There's no putting a chill on the worldwide air conditioning boom that's expected to heat up to historic levels over the next decade. Nations with emerging economies and spiking populations - including India, Indonesia and Brazil - are seeing air conditioner sales grow 10 to 15 percent a year. That means the world's supply of A/C units could nearly double from about 900,000 million in 2015 to roughly 1.6 million by 2030, according to a recent Berkeley National Laboratory study. So instead of simply trying to shut off the inexorable growth, scientists are working to find fresh energy-efficient technologies that...

The latest auction in California's cap-and-trade market for greenhouse gases fell sharply below expectations, as buyers purchased just 2% of the carbon credits whose sale funds a variety of state programs -- notably, the proposed high-speed rail project. The quarterly auction, conducted May 18 and announced Wednesday, will provide just $10 million for state programs, including $2.5 million for the bullet train. The rail authority had been expecting about $150 million. Whatever prompted the lack of buyers, the auction is a stark example of the uncertainty and risk of relying on actively-traded carbon credits to build the bullet train. The...

Study forecasts global temperature increases of up to 9.5 degrees C. The unmitigated burning of Earth's remaining fossil fuels would cause global warming on a scale bigger than previously anticipated, according to a new study out of the University of Victoria. Katarzyna Tokarska, a PhD student at the university, is the lead author of a new paper titled "The climate response to five trillion tonnes of carbon". Previous modelling, including those used by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, use projections that assume just two trillion tonnes of carbon would be released.

Donald Trump has said he doesn't believe in man-made climate change and has called global warming a "hoax," but he's trying to protect a golf course he owns on the coast of Ireland from its effects. The presumptive GOP nominee applied for a permit to build a seawall next to Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland in County Clare to prevent erosion, according to Politico. His application included an environmental impact statement that explicitly mentions "global warming and its effects." According to Politico's report, that statement says that rising sea levels in that region could accelerate erosion. The statement...

Donald Trump will have a climate plan and it will be ugly. For now, the Republican frontrunner is pedaling the kind of denialism his party loves, having called global warming everything from a "hoax" to a "con job" to a Chinese plot. But an interview with his energy adviser hinted that Trump might endeavor to Make Atmospheric Carbon Levels Great Again. "My advice would be, while I'm a skeptic as well", Trump energy honcho Kevin Cramer [said], "he is a product of political populism, and political populism believes that there needs [to be] some addressing of climate change". Cramer has...

The dodgy scientists who wrote to resident Obama and Attorney General Loretta Lynch demanding that RICO laws be used to prosecute climate skeptics just got even more badly screwed. Already one of them — George Mason University professor Jagadish Shukla — is under Congressional investigation for what has been described as the “largest science scandal in US history.” Now the background to their footling conspiracy has been exposed thanks to a FOIA request by the Competitive Enterprise Institute which has forced them to release their private letters and emails. Like Climategate, it makes for some fascinating reading, mainly because —...

Right now, thousands of people are taking direct action as part of a global wave of protests against the biggest fossil fuel infrastructure projects across the world. With so many governments still dependent on a fossil fuel economy, they can't be relied upon to make the radical change required in the time we need to make it. It is unjust that corporations and governments can commit crimes against the planet and society without retribution. And if we really want climate justice, protest in the pursuit of this must be normalized. To overcome political barriers, we need to reclaim our power...

Pension fund chiefs from California and New York City urged Exxon Mobil shareholders on Wednesday to back a measure that would force the company to finely detail how its business will be impacted as governments move to tackle climate change. CalPERS investment director Anne Simpson and NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer also said in a letter they would engage other shareholders as they push the world's largest publicly-traded oil company to say more about how its revenues, reserves and operations could be hurt by the Paris Agreement that governments signed in December to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. Their...

Rising temperatures, rising sea levels and the increasing likelihood of extreme weather will all alter children's lives and the lives of their own children. And yet, children are largely left out of discussions about appropriate responses to climate change, according to a journal released by Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. The findings in this issue have clear implications for policymakers and researchers trying to tackle the many challenges that climate change poses: * Policies must be developed to prepare and adapt in the face of inevitable climate change. States, cities and communities throughout the world must promote preparedness and...

To help address the nation's pressing need for better air quality, the U.S. EPA has awarded a research team co-led by a University of Washington civil engineer a $10 million Air, Climate and Energy (ACE) grant. The researchers will use a new approach combining air pollution research with the related areas of climate change and energy usage. Since air pollution and climate change are both largely caused by the combustion of fossil fuels, this integrated approach will address commonalities and encourage solutions that will positively impact all three areas. "A critical need facing our country is addressing air pollution and...

ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES, La. - A $48 million grant for Isle de Jean Charles, La., is the first allocation of federal tax dollars to move an entire community struggling with the effects of climate change. With a first-of-its-kind "climate resilience" grant to resettle the island's native residents, Washington is ready to help. "Yes, this is our grandpa's land," Ms. Bourg said. "But it's going under one way or another." In January, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced grants totaling $1 billion in 13 states to help communities adapt to climate change, by building stronger levees, dams and...