Tag archives for climate
Climate Change under the Microscope in Report, Leaked IPCC Draft
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on December 20, 2012 As lawmakers in Washington, D.C., debate the so-called fiscal cliff—when U.S. federal tax increases and spending cuts are due to take effect at the end of 2012—new research in the journal Nature Climate Change says we are already at the edge of a climate cliff. It explores the cost and risk associated with surpassing critical emissions thresholds by 2020, and what would need to…
Weaker Kyoto Protocol Extended at International Climate Negotiations
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on December 13, 2012 After weeks of deliberation among representatives of nearly 200 countries, the United Nations climate talks ended with an agreement to extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol. The only global agreement in place to curb greenhouse gas emissions from industrialized nations, it was set to expire at the end of this year. The second phase of the Kyoto Protocol still leaves…
Scientific Papers Share Lessons Learned from the BP Oil Spill
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on December 6, 2012 A collection of papers now out in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) looks at the response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010, examining whether it was successful and how it could be improved. The release of the reports comes just days after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended BP from obtaining new U.S. contracts due to…
Sandy Surfaces, Kyoto at Stake in U.N. Climate Talks
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 29, 2012 Thousands have converged for a two-week meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha for the 18th Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Running through Dec. 7, the U.N. conference brings together environmental minds across the world to work toward a legally binding agreement on climate change. At stake: the Kyoto Protocol.…
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By Elizabeth Brown and Carl Safina A few years ago, some scientists at the University of British Columbia were thinking about how climate change would affect fish. Climate change results from the collection of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from our burning of fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas), which causes the earth to warm. The…
Climate Change a Focus for President in Second Term
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 15, 2012 In his first press conference since being re-elected, President Barack Obama acknowledged he’ll focus on climate change in his second term. “I am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior, and carbon emissions,” Obama said at a televised news conference on Wednesday. “And as a consequence, I think we’ve got an obligation to…
Climate Change Back on Political Radar after Sandy, Election
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 8, 2012 In his re-election victory speech, President Barack Obama finally touched on a seldom-mentioned issue of the campaign—climate change: “We want our children to live in an America … that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” Whether or not Hurricane Sandy can be attributed to climate change, the storm’s devastating flooding brought…
Posted by El Niño patterns typically bring stormy weather to the southern U.S. and drought to places like Australia. But the National Weather Service has cancelled its El Niño watch. It just fizzled out, says Mark Halpert, deputy director of the Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. This is unprecedented…
Hurricane Resurfaces Forgotten Election Issue: Climate Change
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on November 1, 2012 As Hurricane Sandy made landfall this week, bringing blizzards to West Virginia and flooding to the northeast, some debated the storm’s connection to climate change. Scientists took to Twitter to share their opinions on how warming has made Sandy worse with Texas Tech University’s Katharine Hayhoe tweeting that sea level is 7 inches higher now compared to 100 years ago and about 15 percent of the…
Motivation at Mohonk
Posted by Shari Sant Plummer on October 26, 2012 
“Sometimes you’re in a rut so deep you think it’s a groove” said Annie Leonard at the 25th Annual Environmental Grantmakers Association Retreat held at the Mohonk Mountain House in October. The conversation centered on how to ramp up our efforts and fight smarter on every level to change the environmental trajectory, preferably to one that…
Romney, Obama Make History with Failure to Mention Climate Change in Last Debate
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on October 25, 2012 The final foreign-policy-focused presidential debate made history Monday when candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama failed to mention climate change. Despite historic drought and record melting of Arctic sea ice, failure to visit the topic marked the first time since the 1980s climate change hasn’t come up in a presidential debate. Some argued the climate should have come up, as almost every major international issue—food prices, military operations and…
Heated Discussion about Energy in Second Presidential Debate, but No Mention of Climate
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on October 18, 2012 Next to jobs and the economy, the National Journal reports, no other issue has dominated this year’s election as much as energy because it’s a proxy for many other things (subscription). “Energy has not been this big an issue in a presidential campaign since the tumultuous years of the 1970s,” when the Arab oil embargo raised gasoline prices and had…
Posted by National Geographic Explorer Neil Losin and his colleague Nate Dappen are planning an expedition to Africa’s Rwenzori Mountains, one of the few places on Earth where glaciers can be found on the equator – and you can help them make their expedition happen!
Experts Debate a Link between Climate Change and Extreme Weather
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on October 11, 2012 As the 2012 harvest season comes to a close, pumpkins appear to be one of the few successes for farmers following the severe drought felt across many parts of the United States. Damage to the nation’s two largest crops, corn and soybeans, puts these staples below demand for the first time since 1974, while the rising cost to feed cattle drives up…
Presidential Candidates Give Little Focus to Energy Policy in First Debate
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on October 4, 2012 Predictions voters would get some answers on energy in the first presidential debate seemed as though they just might come true Wednesday night in Colorado. Just minutes into the broadcast, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama touched on their policies for energy. Even so, the topic of energy was mostly overshadowed by tax policy and health care. As The…
Continuing Carbon Emissions Could Have Devastating Impacts on Poor Countries
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on September 27, 2012 Populations and livelihoods—mostly in developing countries—will suffer as average global temperatures continue to rise. This is according to a study, conducted by the humanitarian organization DARA, which found climate change could cost the world more than $1.2 trillion annually and contribute to the deaths of more than 100 million people if action against climate change isn’t taken.…
What Is the True Social Cost of Carbon?
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on September 20, 2012 A new study in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences contends that the U.S. government significantly underestimated the social cost of carbon in 2010 in its effort to establish a unified cost of carbon for various agencies to use when formulating policy. The government arrived at a cost at $21 per ton of carbon, but the new study argues the…
Deep-Sea Methane, Wind that Could Power World?
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on September 13, 2012 The U.S. Energy Department announced plans to spend more than $5 million researching the potential to produce natural gas from deep-sea methane hydrates—ice-like formations that contain natural gas and are stable at depths of more than 300 feet. The Energy Department calls them “the world’s largest untapped fossil energy resource”—some estimate they are twice as abundant as all remaining…
Presidential Candidates, Studies Dissect Climate Change
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on September 6, 2012 As campaigning for the November presidential election moves forward, President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney spelled out their interpretations on one issue in a bit more detail than usual. To Science Debate, Obama identifies climate change as one of the most pressing concerns of the era and lists the steps he has taken during his…
Hurricane Isaac Disrupts Energy Production, Stirs Old Wounds
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on August 30, 2012 While Hurricane Isaac managed to leave Gulf oil platforms largely untouched, New Orleans’ strengthened levees were put to the test as the storm made landfall on the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. More than 90 percent of all oil production and roughly 66 percent of all gas output was shut down as a precautionary measure as Isaac approached the Louisiana coast Tuesday. As…
Federal Court Tosses EPA’s ‘Good Neighbor’ Pollution Rule
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on August 23, 2012 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week threw out the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which set stricter limits on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants in 28 states and the District of Columbia. In a 2–1 ruling, the panel held the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the…
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In search of deep-sea corals that live much shallower in Patagonian fjords, Rhian Waller has spent weeks diving in frigid waters. Follow her account of the expedition’s final days and the work that’s still ahead.
Crop Damage Sparks Fuel Versus Food Debate
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on August 16, 2012 Dry conditions that continue to grip Midwestern states, damaging crops and threatening to push up food prices, stirred new debate this week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released crop yield projections capturing the severity of the drought. Though the U.S. is the largest producer of corn and soybeans, the report puts corn production at 10.8 billion bushels, down 13…
Scientists: Mars Rover Can Help Us Better Understand Climate Change on Earth
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on August 9, 2012 NASA’s rover, Curiosity, made a successful landing on Mars earlier this week. Some scientists say the car-sized rover, the most high-tech ever designed by the space agency, could have a lot to tell us about our own climate. As Mother Jones reports, scientists have made great strides in predicting what will happen to our climate, but we only have one climate to…
Harnessing Sun, Wave Power for Energy
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on July 26, 2012 Oceans, which cover more than two-thirds of the planet, hold a large amount of energy. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates ocean wave and tidal currents have the potential to account for 15 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030. While technologies harnessing energy from tides and currents have been domestically discussed for decades, the…
