CLIMATE

BEGREEN--In June, I delivered a keynote presentation on Australia’s vulnerability to climate change and our policy challenges at the annual meeting of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, the main conference for those working in the climate science community. I saw it as an opportunity to summarize the post-election political and scientific reality we now face.

BEGREEN--As France, India, the U.S., and other nations face unprecedented and deadly heat waves, new research published Wednesday showed the planet has warmed more quickly in recent decades than at any point in the past 2,000 years.

BEGREEN--The Republican Party's stance on climate change has been shifting. Prominent conservatives who once might have been labeled climate deniers have begun acknowledging the reality that our climate is changing. Though not all have accepted the role of humans in causing that change, many now say that human action must be a part of the solution, releasing conservative climate policies to counter environmental policies from the left, including the Green New Deal.

CLIMATE CHANGE--The world is in the throes of an extinction crisis unlike any throughout paleoclimate history, a.k.a., the Sixth Mass Extinction -- keeping in mind that the normal “background rate” for extinction is 1-to-5 species gone per year. But, what if it’s five every 24 hours? 

OTHERWORDS--Every year around Earth Day, I’m reminded of papers I graded in an environmental sociology class.

BEGREEN--For decades, majorities of Americans have favored swift, meaningful action on climate change. They understand that we must transition away from dirty fuels and toward clean, renewable energy. Yet despite this overwhelming support, Congress has repeatedly failed to act.

BEGREEN--“I believe that for a moment I thought the explosion might set fire to the atmosphere and thus finish the Earth, even though I knew that this was not possible.”

BE GREEN--Many pollinator insect species like bees, butterflies, and hoverflies are on the decline, due in large part to habitat destruction driven by conversion of land to agricultural fields and urbanization. But, while cities are generally considered to be poorer in biodiversity than rural areas, new research finds that urban areas could actually play a key role in conserving pollinator communities.

BEGREEN--NASA scientists were startled when a recent exploratory mission revealed a huge and rapidly-growing cavity on the underside of one of Antaractica's glaciers—signaling that the ice mass has been melting much faster than experts realized.

BEGREEN--We either keep fossil fuels in the ground, or we fry.

That’s the conclusion of another new blockbuster study on climate change, this one from the National Academy of Sciences. Our fossil-fuel industrial economy, the study details, has made for the fastest climate changes our Earth has ever seen.

BE GREEN--More Americans are taking climate change seriously. A new report by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication reveals that 8 percent of participants in three separate surveys said they had changed their mind on the topic over the previous year—and of those, 84 percent said their level of concern had increased.

BE GREEN--As world leaders are meeting at the COP24 in Poland to discuss how to achieve goals outlined in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, scientists and activists are raising alarm about "brutal" new research published by the Global Carbon Project on Wednesday which offers the international community a "reality check" by showing that carbon emissions will hit a record high this year.

BE GREEN--Warnings about ecological breakdown have become ubiquitous.

CLIMATE POLITICS--Climate activists are cheering after the California Assembly passed legislation on Tuesday that requires the state to transition to 100 percent fossil-fuel free electricity generation by the year 2045.

CLIMATE POLITICS--The California Natural Resources Agency just released its fourth Climate Change Assessment, a call to action on rising global temperatures — the state’s first in six years.

BE GREEN--Nationally, our coasts and estuaries offer irreplaceable environmental benefits, and are worth nearly $1 trillion annually to the American economy.

BE GREEN--"The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle," Michael Mann, a climate scientist and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, told CNN.

BE GREEN--The United States Supreme Court on Monday refused to halt a lawsuit that represents a novel attempt by children and teenagers to sue the federal government over its inaction on climate change.

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIONS-Trump administration officials announced this week that they’re now considering dropping protections for a vast swath of the California desert to open up more land to energy development. 

BE GREEN--Long before assuming office, President Donald Trump established himself as a climate change denier, one firmly opposed to most legislation aimed at environmental protection. In his first year in office, he’s shown himself to be determined, yet somewhat ineffectual, at rolling back environmental protections put in place by former administrations.

BE GREEN--Greenpeace is launching a campaign on Monday to back the creation of the largest protected  area in the history of conservation by setting aside 700,000 square miles of seas surrounding Antarctica in order to save fragile marine ecosystems and curb the damage to key planetary systems.

BE GREEN---As a December megafire continues to spread, there are new indications that occasionally extreme fire weather will persist across Southern California for at least two more weeks, with an urgent new weather forecast for the next few days. California's terrifying, Dantean December will last a little longer. (Photo above: The Thomas Fire approaches a home on December 12th, 2017, in Montecito, California.)

VOICES--Last week, late on Wednesday night (11/29/17) and on into Thursday, thousands of residents across Los Angeles’ Westside smelled “gas” touching off concern, fear, distress, worry and … a host of adverse health effects. 

BE GREEN---A new study published Wednesday, revealing populations of flying insects like bees and butterflies plunged more than 75 percent in German nature preserves over the past 27 years, has scientists calling for further research into probable causes such as climate change and pesticide use, and raising alarms about a potential "ecological Armageddon." 

BE GREEN--If you don’t already agree with me on something, odds are I can’t convince you I’m right.

There’s plenty of science showing that the global climate crisis is already affecting us, that vaccines don’t cause autism, and that humans evolved from a common ancestor with apes. Yet many Americans don’t believe in man-made climate change, the safety of vaccines, or hum›an evolution. (Photo above: Cuba after Hurricane Irma.)

TRIGGER HAPPY WITH TOXINS--For many years, genetically engineered crops were said to be environmentally responsible.

BEGREEN--The images from Houston and its environs are heart-breaking and we at IC wish all those affected a speedy and safe return to normality.

BE GREEN--A draft report on the current impact of global heating on the United States, produced by 13 Federal agencies, has been leaked to the New York Times.  The scientists who leaked it are afraid that the anti-science Trump administration will suppress the findings to help its friends in Big Oil.

BE GREEN--If humans go on burning fossil fuels, then California might, after all, remain the Golden State. It will get warmer. But, against all predictions, it might also get wetter.

BEGREEN--Last year was the deadliest in history to be an environmental activist, according to a new report that found, on average, nearly four people were killed per week. (Photos:  ("We are fighting for our lands, for our water, for our lives," Jakeline (right), who has received death threats for protesting mining in Colombia, told Global Witness for the report.)