OilPrice.com | The Environment | Global Warming

OilPrice.com | The Environment | Global Warming Global warming news and analysis. We cover both sides of the climate change debate and look at fossil fuels impact on the environment and renewable energies http://oilprice.com/ Fri, 25 May 2012 1:45:23 GMT Oilprice.com (info@oilprice.com) The Effects of Global Warming being Felt in the US http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/The-Effects-of-Global-Warming-being-Felt-in-the-US.html In a recent PBS documentary, the mayor of Norfolk, Virginia, Paul Fraim, talks about how flooding has become a monthly occurrence in his town, and how global warming and sea level rise are as much a daily issue for him as education and fighting crime. In some parts of Norfolk, streets turn into rivers at high tide. Homes are flooded five out of six years. People lose their carpets, their appliances, their savings. And they can’t afford to move elsewhere.Sea levels have risen 14 inches in Norfolk since 1930–almost double the global rate.…

]]> cp@oilprice.com (Climate Progress) Thu, 17 May 2012 22:28:44 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/The-Effects-of-Global-Warming-being-Felt-in-the-US.html Carbon Isotopes Prove Humans Have Caused Global Warming http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Carbon-Isotopes-Prove-Humans-Have-Caused-Global-Warming.html The earth is warming. But can we be sure that humans are the cause? Yes. The same way cycling officials were sure that biker Floyd Landis doped with synthetic testosterone while winning the 2006 Tour de France.With Lance Armstrong retired and most of the other top riders expelled for illegal drug use, Landis had become one of the favourites. He was leading when in stage 16 he fell to eleventh place. Then, just as his chances of winning seemed dashed, Landis won the next stage going away and went on to ride the Champs-Élysées in the…

]]> cp@oilprice.com (Climate Progress) Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:10:58 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Carbon-Isotopes-Prove-Humans-Have-Caused-Global-Warming.html Never Mind Earth Day, Carbon Emissions are still too High http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Never-Mind-Earth-Day-Carbon-Emissions-are-still-too-High.html The first observance of Earth Day was March 21, 1970. I was 17, and along with other students at Broad Run High School, went out with garbage bags to clean up the side of the road leading to the school. Even then, of course, the world faced much more serious pollution issues than roadside litter. But that problem was one we students could do something about.Given the magnitude of the challenges the earth now faces, provoked by man-made global climate change as a result of our spewing massive amounts of carbon dioxide and soot into the atmosphere,…

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]]> juancole@oilprice.com (Juan Cole) Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:13:32 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Never-Mind-Earth-Day-Carbon-Emissions-are-still-too-High.html Catastrophic Climate Change to Hit Africa and the Middle East within a Decade http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Catastrophic-Climate-Change-to-Hit-Africa-and-the-Middle-East-within-a-Decade.html A new study just published in Nature Geoscience has found it plausible for the first time that the world’s average surface temperature could rise by as much as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (3 C.) by 2050, only 38 years from now. In February, the United Nations warned that the world only has a few years to substantially reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons, if it was to avoid the disasters facing the earth with a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees C. The likelihood that such a rise in temperature can be avoided is now low (emissions were up…

]]> juancole@oilprice.com (Juan Cole) Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:12:37 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Catastrophic-Climate-Change-to-Hit-Africa-and-the-Middle-East-within-a-Decade.html Scrapping all Coal Plants Would have no Significant Effect for 100 Years http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Scrapping-all-Coal-Plants-Would-have-no-Significant-Effect-for-100-Years.html Who could have dreamed solving climate change would be so easy? A new paper in Environmental Research Letters called “Greenhouse gases, climate change and the transition from coal to low-carbon electricity” concludes that replacement of all of the world’s currently operating coal-fired power plants — which produce about 40% of the world’s electricity — and replacing them with renewable energy would have an impact of 0.2 degrees Celsius 100 years from now. Cherry-Picking Conclusions According to One’s Viewpoint…

]]> pir@oilprice.com (Robert Rapier) Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:50:13 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Scrapping-all-Coal-Plants-Would-have-no-Significant-Effect-for-100-Years.html How Severe an Impact Would the Keystone XL Pipeline have on the Environment? http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/How-Severe-an-Impact-Would-the-Keystone-XL-Pipeline-have-on-the-Environment.html Last month, a group of 15 climate scientists (included the now disgraced Peter Gleick) sent a letter to Congress expressing their displeasure over the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. President Obama has weighed in against approval, but Congress wants a green light to allow construction of the 1,700-mile, $7 billion project. Most recently, Bill Clinton weighed in for the pipeline, indicating just how deep the positives of the project are for the U.S. and world oil market. So why are physical scientists getting political about a market-friendly pipeline…

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]]> MasterResource@oilprice.com (MasterResource ) Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:59:18 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/How-Severe-an-Impact-Would-the-Keystone-XL-Pipeline-have-on-the-Environment.html The Climate Change Controversy Continues http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/The-Climate-Change-Controversy-Continues.html There are a couple of controversial items that have made it into the mainstream press recently that seem to have stirred a little controversy, and which are worth at least a mention. The first was the Opinion piece in the WSJ back in Januuary in which 16 scientists wrote that there was no need to panic over Global Warming. They note, in their letter: Alarmism over climate is of great benefit to many, providing government funding for academic research and a reason for government bureaucracies to grow. Alarmism also offers an excuse for governments…

]]> summersd@oilprice.com (Dave Summers) Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:19:45 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/The-Climate-Change-Controversy-Continues.html Why Oil Companies Don't Want Us Talking About Climate Change http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Why-Oil-Companies-Dont-Want-us-Talking-about-Climate-Change.html If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet -- as we shall see -- it’s unfortunately largely invisible to us. In compensation, though, we have some truly beautiful images made possible by new technology. Last month, for instance, NASA updated the most iconic photograph in our civilization’s gallery: “Blue Marble,”…

]]> postcarbon@oilprice.com (Post Carbon) Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:50:57 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Why-Oil-Companies-Dont-Want-us-Talking-about-Climate-Change.html We are not Thinking Big Enough with our Solutions to Climate Change http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/We-are-not-Thinking-Big-Enough-with-our-Solutions-to-Climate-Change.html Climate change presents us with a pressing challenge. A global consensus accepts that human activity is responsible for climate change and its associated dangers. However, there is disagreement on how best to address this challenge. The essay argues that leading proposals are unsatisfactory, such as the ecological footprint and polluter pays principle. The reasons include that they do not effectively manage climate change and may contribute to further problems. We require a new approach to address climate change. Even if you don’t accept…

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]]> (Judith Curry) Mon, 30 Jan 2012 23:36:50 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/We-are-not-Thinking-Big-Enough-with-our-Solutions-to-Climate-Change.html Global Warming - Fact or "Fuzzy Science"? http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Global-Warming-Fact-Or-Fuzzy-Science.html Perhaps no environmental issue arouses more fierce partisan debate than global warming. On the one side are environmentalists and many scientists, on the other many governments and businessmen, who decry both the phenomena and the attendant costs in dealing with it. The debate was opened by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol climate treaty and has raged ever since. While the Clinton administration supported it, the Bush administration simply walked away from it. On 7 June 2005 the U.S. National Academy of Sciences posted a statement on its website noting,…

]]> admin@namecake.com (John Daly) Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:07:56 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Global-Warming-Fact-Or-Fuzzy-Science.html Interstellar Energy Cloud may be as much to Blame for Climate Change as CO2 Emissions http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Interstellar-Energy-Cloud-May-Be-As-Much-To-Blame-For-Climate-Change-As-CO2-Emissions.html For years climate change has been blamed on global warming, which has in turn been blamed on green-house gases produced from the combustion of fossil fuels. However there is another explication that perhaps can’t be held culpable for all changes affecting the global environment at the moment, but it certainly doesn’t improve the situation. On July 14th 2010 it was officially revealed that information from the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 satellites prove that our solar system is passing through an interstellar cloud of electrical energy. According…

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]]> burgessj@oilprice.com (James Burgess) Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:02:07 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Interstellar-Energy-Cloud-May-Be-As-Much-To-Blame-For-Climate-Change-As-CO2-Emissions.html Startling the Global Community, Canada Withdraws from the Kyoto Convention http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Startling-The-Global-Community-Canada-Withdraws-From-The-Kyoto-Convention.html Canada has announced its intention to withdraw from the Kyoto treaty on greenhouse gas emissions (GGE), sandbagging the other signatories to the convention. The Kyoto protocol, initially adopted in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, was designed to combat global warming with the agreement allowing countries like China and India take voluntary, but non-binding steps to reduce their greenhouse gas carbon emissions. International condemnation was swift. China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a news briefing, "It is regrettable and flies in the face…

]]> admin@namecake.com (John Daly) Thu, 15 Dec 2011 0:01:11 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Startling-The-Global-Community-Canada-Withdraws-From-The-Kyoto-Convention.html A Look at Why the Durban Climate Talks Failed http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/A-Look-At-Why-The-Durban-Climate-Talks-Failed.html Why did the Durban climate talks fail? Ultimately, the culprit is the near-universal pursuit of economic growth. All the major players want growth: the US, because it’s still pulling out of a recession; China, because it knows 10 percent annual growth can’t go on forever, but is trying to avoid a hard landing; Europe, which is trying to pull out of its sovereign debt spiral. The US and China, in particular, know that fossil fuels have given them growth in the past, and are especially reluctant to give them up now. The Chinese pulled…

]]> postcarbon@oilprice.com (Post Carbon) Tue, 13 Dec 2011 2:21:40 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/A-Look-At-Why-The-Durban-Climate-Talks-Failed.html Insurance Companies Feeling the Effects of Climate Change http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Insurance-Companies-Feeling-The-Effects-Of-Climate-Change.html Environmentalists are not the only ones who worry as projections about climate change keep getting worse and worse. So do insurance companies, which feel the effects financially as the pace of climate-related disasters accelerates. It is telling that, even as some business groups oppose climate-change legislation in Washington, many of the companies with the most to lose from global warming are treating it as a reality – and pricing their products accordingly. Losses from extreme weather related to climate change are no longer chump change.…

]]> sinclairp@oilprice.com (Peter Sinclair) Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:46:33 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Insurance-Companies-Feeling-The-Effects-Of-Climate-Change.html Global Warming Naysayers Says the Heat is On! http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Global-Warming-Naysayers-Says-The-Heat-Is-On.html The subject of Climate Change and Global Warming has a polarizing effect in the U.S. Like religion, you either believe or don’t believe. Strong sentiments resonate on both sides. It seems impossible to try to sway either camp. One of the biggest excuses used by anthropogenic climate change and global warming skeptics has been the unscrupulous nature of the scientific community. In a poll I conducted a few years ago titled “Climate Change – Fact or Fiction,” about 40% of 478 pages of comments raised concern over Climategate,…

]]> stevensba@oilprice.com (Barry Stevens) Mon, 05 Dec 2011 3:46:14 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Global-Warming-Naysayers-Says-The-Heat-Is-On.html Could Geo-Engineering Solve all our Climate Fears? http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Could-Geo-Engineering-Solve-All-Our-Climate-Fears.html Gio-engineering a.k.a climate engineering is the study of how to manipulate the planets climate to counter act the effect of global warming. This video describes various strategies to achieve this, from dispersing the suns rays with trillions of space based lenses, to creating denser clouds to reflect the suns heat. These suggestions could seriously help reverse global warming, but many people are worried about the impact on the global climate that any form of manipulation might have, and whether it could make the situation worse for many people.…

]]> sinclairp@oilprice.com (Peter Sinclair) Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:50:26 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Could-Geo-Engineering-Solve-All-Our-Climate-Fears.html Is Climate Change Real? Take a Look at the Science Before you Decide http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Is-Climate-Change-Real-Take-A-Look-At-The-Science-Before-You-Decide.html Today, we’re going to make the world less comfortable, in two easy steps that each of you can do at home. Step 1 shows how easy it is to account for the carbon dioxide excess in the atmosphere based on our cumulative use of fossil fuels. Step 2 bypasses intricacies of thermal radiation to put an approximate scale on the amount of heating we would expect the excess CO2 to produce. Serves 7 billion. Climate Change in Context I view climate change as a genuine challenge to the stability of our coexistence with the planet. But it is not my primary…

]]> murphyt@oilprice.com (Tom Murphy) Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:50:40 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Is-Climate-Change-Real-Take-A-Look-At-The-Science-Before-You-Decide.html Global Warming Debate Finally Over? Five Questions For Richard Muller http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Global-Warming-Debate-Finally-Over-Five-Questions-For-Richard-Muller.html In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, The Case Against Global-Warming Skepticism, California Berkeley physicist Richard A. Muller describes the results from a recent re-examination of climate records and declares the debate is finally, really, truly over. Skepticism, Muller explains, may have been warranted before (how generous of him!), but now that the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project folks have worked over the temperature data again, there’s no more cause for skepticism about whether or not the globe has warmed. Warming Red Herring…

]]> MasterResource@oilprice.com (MasterResource ) Wed, 26 Oct 2011 12:29:03 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Global-Warming-Debate-Finally-Over-Five-Questions-For-Richard-Muller.html Arctic Ice Melting Rapidly - Yet Global Warming is Slowing http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Arctic-Ice-Melting-Rapidly-Yet-Global-Warming-Is-Slowing.html The numbers are in for this year’s summer sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean. By most measures the ice loss in 2011 came in a close second to the current and still record holder, 2007. But the failure to set a new record for the least amount of summer Arctic sea ice observed during the satellite era (which begins in 1979) has done little to alter the overall picture of what is going on there. Summer sea ice has been in decline in the Arctic Ocean since, conservatively, the mid-20th century, and it has been picking up steam. And sea ice declines…

]]> MasterResource@oilprice.com (MasterResource ) Wed, 12 Oct 2011 12:33:51 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Arctic-Ice-Melting-Rapidly-Yet-Global-Warming-Is-Slowing.html Carbon Dioxide May Destroy All Coral Reefs by the End of the Century http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Carbon-Dioxide-May-Destroy-All-Coral-Reefs-By-The-End-Of-The-Century.html A new book out this week by United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health leader Peter Sale predicts that coral reefs will be wiped off the face of the earth by the end of the century. Sheril Kirshenbaum, author and reserach associate at the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy, explains why in this climate progress cross-post. Marine chemist Richard Feely, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, has been collecting water samples in the North Pacific for over 30 years.…

]]> acienceprogress@oilprice.com (Science Progress) Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:42:31 GMT http://oilprice.com/The-Environment/Global-Warming/Carbon-Dioxide-May-Destroy-All-Coral-Reefs-By-The-End-Of-The-Century.html