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U.N. Predicts Disaster if Global Warming Not Checked .. PETER JAMES SPIELMANN ... June 30, 1989 UNITED NATIONS (AP) _ A senior U.N. environmental official says entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000. Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of ″eco- refugees,′ ′ threatening political chaos, said Noel Brown, director of the New York office of the U.N. Environment Program, or UNEP. He said governments have a 10-year window of opportunity to solve the greenhouse effect before...

An organization that questions the role of humans in climate change is going to get access to the emails and records of work done by two scientists at the University of Arizona in its bid to argue that their research is flawed. The Arizona Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a last-ditch effort by the Arizona Board of Regents to overturn lower court rulings that ordered the documents immediately released. While the justices did not comment on their decision, they effectively rejected arguments by the Board of Regents that release would be “contrary to the best interests of the state.” David...

Scientists say a patch of ancient seagrass in the Mediterranean is up to 200,000 years and could be the oldest known living thing on Earth. Australian researchers, who genetically sampled the seagrass covering 40 sites from Spain to Cyprus, say it is one of the world's most resilient organisms - but it has now begun to decline due to global warming. The analysis, published in the journal PLos ONE, found the seagrass was between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old. This is far older than the current known oldest species,...

It's summer 2017 and the Arctic was supposed to be ice-free, hurricanes were going to be more frequent and more deadly, and sea levels should be rising alarmingly. Al Gore swore in his 2006 science fiction movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," that within a decade there would be a "true planetary emergency." "Unless we act boldly and quickly to deal with the underlying causes of global warming, our world will undergo a string of terrible catastrophes," said Gore in the movie's introduction. The grand storyteller also predicted in 2011 that "there will be no more snows" on Mt. Kilimanjaro "within the...

Wow, a star is born. Scott Pruitt came into Sean Spicer's press conference and executed a brilliant 10-minute sparring match with several Fake News reporters. Highlights: Pruitt emphasized: the Paris Accord was damaging to America's interests. The Fake News talking point was clear because Pruitt was asked several times the exact same question: What is Trump's view of Climate Change? Pruitt drove the reporters crazy by sidestepping the belief or non-belief in Climate Change question, and doubling down on all the non-climate, unfair to America reasons Trump decided to abandon Paris. It would have been fun for Pruitt to have...

If you're sniffling and sneezing a lot more lately, you're hardly alone. Climate change is making seasonal allergies worse, an expert says. "With the combination of increased temperature and carbon dioxide, we are seeing a dramatic change, and allergy sufferers can probably feel that change," said Dr. Richard Weber, president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. "We are experiencing longer allergy seasons, earlier onset and there is just more pollen in the air," said Weber, who's also an allergist at National Jewish Health in Denver. About 40 million Americans have seasonal allergies -- also known as hay...

Two years ago when I was living in Nicaragua, my friends and I were at a house party drinking Flor de Caña rum. Hearing that I was a journalist, an acquaintance leaned in and said that there was something I needed to hear. She began to tell me a story about that very rum we were drinking, and how people were dying because of it. Many of the workers who harvested sugarcane for the rum were suffering from chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology (CKDu), she said, a kidney failure disease correlated with heavy workload, heat, dehydration, and possibly pesticides....

While President Trump has talked tough in the past about his skeptical views on climate change, his administration appears to be taking a more cautious approach to the issue on the world stage in the early days of his presidency. U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signed a document today calling climate change a “serious threat” to the Arctic and noting the need for action to reduce its potentially harmful effects. The document, known as the Fairbanks Declaration, concluded Tillerson's chairing of a meeting of the Arctic Council, a board made up of indigenous groups and the eight countries bordering...

African-American, Caribbean-American and Hispanic communities are typically located miles from South Florida beaches where climate change is most visible — but people who live in those areas are profoundly vulnerable to the effects, political leaders and climate science experts said Wednesday. And, panelists at a Fort Lauderdale conference said, there’s a growing awareness in minority communities of the implications of climate change. The environmental movement was long seen as the province of “white tree huggers,” said Caroline Lewis, director of the CLEO Institute. But that is changing, said Lewis, who is Caribbean-American. “Here in southeast Florida, it is almost flipping,”...

Four U.S. states have sued Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, the Interior Department and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to block new leases of public lands for coal mining, according to papers filed on Tuesday in Montana federal court. State prosecutors for California, New Mexico, New York and Washington are arguing new coal extraction would exacerbate global warming and violate the federal government's statutory duty to use public lands "in a manner that will protect the quality of scientific, scenic, historical, ecological, environmental, air and atmospheric, water resource, and archaeological values," according to the filings. The move was one of...

A proposal to restructure one of California's landmark climate change initiatives goes before a state Senate committee on Wednesday, stepping up a legislative debate about the future of the state's cap-and-trade program. The measure would end the current program and impose a perpetually escalating tax on carbon emissions, with much of the revenue it generates going back to taxpayers to offset the higher bills they'd face for gas and energy. The bill, written by Democratic Sen. Bob Wieckowski of Fremont, would allow the state to charge a fee for carbon emissions that would apply to all industries, with a price...

The European Union urged the United States on Tuesday to keep funding U.N. agencies and stay committed to a global deal combating climate change. Agencies such as the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, the World Food Progamme and the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR are funded voluntarily by governments and the United States is a top contributor to many of them. "Let me be very clear, and speak directly to our American friends. It is essential for us that we all keep investing in these U.N. agencies. They are as important to global peace and security as defense spending – or even...

In January, Kehler Liddell was the first gallery in the state to present an exhibit of protest art stemming from the inauguration of the current president. That show focused on a myriad of human-rights and philosophical concerns. The New Haven art space is doing it again, this time zeroing in on one topic: the environmental devastation of global warming. "We have deemed ourselves gods of this planet, deciding to abuse and ravage our home, rather than cherish her many gifts," Elizabeth Asstle-O'Donnell, one of the artists in the show, said in an artist statement. Asstle-O'Donnell contributed a piece made of...

Global temperatures could rise more than 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2026 if the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation shifts into a positive phase. The Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, or IPO, is an ocean-atmosphere climate phenomenon that drives weather patterns and global temperatures. It's similar to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, but covers a large portion of the Pacific. According to a new study by climate scientists at the University of Melbourne, a positive phase IPO would dramatically accelerate global warming. The IPO has remained in a negative phase since 1999, but significant oceanic and atmospheric warming over the last three years suggests the phenomenon...

As the world continues to take in Emmanuel Macron's resounding victory in the French election, attention is already turning to his plans for the next five years, with the environment likely to be a key part of the independent centrist's presidency. In 2015, global leaders gathered in Paris for the COP21 summit. It is feared that U.S. President Donald Trump could pull out of the deal. Whatever Trump decides to do, it is clear that Macron wants to harness the talents of climate change researchers working in what appears - at least in some parts - to be an increasingly...

Climate change will bring some surprising effects: Bumpy plane rides, greater mood swings and more volcanic eruptions are just a few of the things we can expect over the decades to come. And yes, even more lightning. We're already familiar with some of the more evident effects of global warming such as melting glaciers and more extreme weather events. But few people are aware of some of the other, less obvious - and completely surprising - impacts of our changing climate, which could have a serious impact on the way we live. 1. Airplane turbulence will get worse 2. Icebergs...

The western spotted skunk, the 2-pound smelly creature, evolved more than a million years ago because of climate, according to new research. Adam Ferguson, the collections manager of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago, is the lead author of a new study, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, that examined how the spotted skunk can live in a variety of climates across the western United States and Mexico. "By analyzing western spotted skunk DNA, we learned that Ice Age climate change played a crucial role in their evolution," Ferguson said in a press release. "Over the past million...

Replacing half of the meat eaten worldwide with crickets and mealworms would cut farmland use by a third, substantially reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, researchers say. While consumers' reluctance to eat insects may limit their consumption, even a small increase would bring benefits, the team says. This could potentially be achieved by using insects as ingredients in some pre-packaged foods. Researchers say that replacing meat with crickets and mealworms could help tackle climate change. Using data collected primarily by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, scientists compared the environmental impacts of conventional meat production with those of alternative sources of...

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013, it was, at the time, the strongest storm in history ever to make landfall. After the skies cleared, a second humanitarian disaster unfolded in a sports arena where thousands took shelter. An underground economy took root as women and girls were sold for food and scarce aid supplies, or trafficked into forced labor and sex work by recruiters offering jobs and scholarships. Kristine says she was sold to men every night; some of the men were foreign-aid workers, she believes. The men raped her, and took graphic pictures and videos. Kristine...

Winery owner Brent Helleckson’s hands flew among his budding grapevines, pruning off bits of cane as a spring breeze ruffled the plastic tape keeping the vines trellised to wires. On the other side of Western Colorado’s North Fork Valley, snow lingered on mountain peaks, a reminder of the wintery weather that circumscribes the vineyard’s operations. “In theory we’re done with frost now,” Helleckson said. “But I wouldn’t bet on it.” In a warming West, areas where wine grapes are growing at the limit of their cold tolerance may see a respite from frigid, plant-damaging winters. Warmer areas, meanwhile, including parts...