Most recent 40 articles: Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming
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How Do You Talk to Children about Climate Change? One Book Has a Few Ideas - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Sep 12) |
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Sep 12 · Science communication is strengthened when we use creative approaches. Art is such a powerful tool for this, especially when communicating to kids.
Last year, I met Dave Schneider, a climate scientist who studies ice sheets and climate systems, work very similar to my own. He recently published a children’s book titled Goodnight Fossil Fuels! that’s specifically about climate change and fossil fuel accountability. The book was co-written and illustrated by environmental educator and artist Kira Davis. It stars a penguin who teams up with scientists to help solve the problem of how fossil fuels are harming the climate system and features colorful watercolor ... Read more ...
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Newsom Can Continue His Climate Leadership by Signing These Three Bills - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Sep 5) |
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Sep 5 · Throughout his two terms, Governor Gavin Newsom has driven California to the top of the world in clean transportation policies that will improve air quality and fight the climate crisis. Under Newsom, California passed policies to get the state to 100% zero emission vehicle (ZEV) sales, transition large truck fleets from dirty diesel to zero emissions, and fund billions of dollars in incentives and infrastructure for clean transportation.
But California can’t take the foot off the gas (or uh, accelerator) now and neither can Newsom. As these policies change our transportation future, new hurdles arise, and we need new solutions to address them.
EVs are abundant in much ... Read more ...
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Climate Plans for Aging US Must Focus on Higher Risks to Older Adults - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Sep 3) |
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Sep 3 · It’s hard to keep up with the latest stories on extreme heat. 2023 was the world’s hottest year - a record that is likely to be broken by 2024. And just last month, NASA recorded the hottest day on record ever on July 22, the latest in a 13-month stretch of consecutive record-setting weather. These events are part of an upward march in extreme heat in the US that has turned summer into a veritable danger season. And what gets lost as we confront these record-breaking conditions is the reality that heat - like many other effects of climate change - has a disproportionate impact on older adults. But the good news is that when we center our heat response and broader climate resilience ... Read more ...
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Solutions to Rising Cost of Climate Change in California Should Include Passage of Prop 4 - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 26) |
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Aug 26 · The heat is on: it’s burning down forests and towns, it’s melting down grids, and it’s making hard jobs even harder. Beyond the staggering human and environmental toll of danger season’s extreme weather, there are rising costs associated with climate damages. And those costs are not being borne equitably. California has taken important steps to address some of these equity concerns - and now has another big opportunity to pass the water and wildfire bond, which will be on the ballot this November as Proposition 4.As one example of these rising costs, Californians’ electricity bills have been skyrocketing over the past few years. This is concerning not only because people are ... Read more ...
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Heat, Flooding, and Fire Overwhelming Halfway through 2024 Danger Season - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 13) |
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Aug 13 · It is halfway through August and this year’s Danger Season, the period between May and October when climate change makes summers extremely hot and brings more intense hurricanes, heat waves, flooding, and wildfires. Just this past week, the US was hit with record heat, wildfires, and a hurricane, with 2024 already ranking second for the number of billion-dollar disasters recorded.
In our Danger Season tracker, we are keeping tabs on how many people in the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands have been under heat, storm, flooding, or fire weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service.
Danger Season got a quick jump start early this year. By May 7, ... Read more ...
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Inside the IPCC 61st Plenary Meeting: Debates and Decisions Shaping Climate Policy - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 2) |
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Aug 2 · This post was co-authored by UCS Principal Climate Scientist Kristina Dahl.
Last week, we participated in an IPCC plenary meeting held in Sofia, Bulgaria. Delegates from around the world convened with three main, substantive tasks: approving outlines for a new special report on cities and climate change; approving outlines for a methodology report on short-lived climate pollutants; and agreeing on a timeline for the publishing the three main IPCC working group reports for the organization’s seventh assessment cycle.
As the IPCC has a consensus-based decision-making system, the days involved long, detailed, intense debates. At times, it seemed as though consensus would be ... Read more ...
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Our New Research Says the Solid Earth Can Help Protect the Antarctic Ice Sheet - Only if We Cut Emissions Now - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 2) |
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Aug 2 · This post was co-authored with Natalya Gomez, Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair in Geodynamics of Ice sheet – Sea level interactions at McGill University.
The Antarctic Ice Sheet faces an uncertain future under climate change. As the Earth’s air and oceans warm, the ice sheet is starting to melt at an ever-faster rate. As it melts it contributes to sea level rise, causing harm to coastal and island communities around the world.
To more accurately project how sea levels will rise in the future, scientists also need to consider the structure of the solid Earth that the ice sheet rests upon. This often ignored variable plays an important role in how the ice ... Read more ...
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What Happens at Meetings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Aug 1) |
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Aug 1 · Dearest blog readers, I’m attending my first meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and it is so. dang. fascinating. For twenty-ish years, I’ve relied on the IPCC’s reports countless times, and in countless ways. But seeing the IPCC’s consensus-based decision-making process in action is giving me a new perspective on the incredible amount of work that goes into producing each of the organization’s reports. Here are some observations that have particularly struck me as a newbie to the world of the IPCC while attending its 61st session in Sofia, Bulgaria.
There have been Friday nights when my four-person household has failed to come to consensus on ... Read more ...
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Reporting from Bulgaria on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 29) |
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Jul 29 · My colleague Dr. Kristy Dahl and I arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria, last week for the 61st session of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We are here to engage in early discussions about timelines and content for this cycle of IPCC reports. Over the next week, we will hear delegations and organizations from all across the world discuss, debate, and make decisions that will set the stage for this 7th cycle of the IPCC.
For me, this planning is deeply personal and vital to my work. As a scientist, I rely heavily on the IPCC’s reports. These documents offer an internationally accepted summary of the state of climate science, and form the ... Read more ...
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Climate Change Fuels Catastrophic Wildfires Across the Western U.S. and Canada - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 26) |
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Jul 26 · Over the past few weeks, many large wildfires have broken out across the Western United States and Canada, forcing thousands of people to evacuate. Hotter, drier conditions driven by climate change are a significant underlying factor in this trend toward larger wildfires and longer, more intense wildfire seasons in the West. And with more people and property located in close proximity to wildfire-prone terrain, the risks and costs are mounting as the erratic and extreme behavior of these fires has grown much more difficult to fight.
The largest wildfire in the U.S. right now - the Durkee Fire - is raging in Oregon, while the Park Fire, California’s largest so far this year, is ... Read more ...
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Twisters, and the Elephant in the Room - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 24) |
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Jul 24 · I didn’t walk into the movie theater last week, popcorn in hand, expecting Twisters, a summertime action movie about “taming” tornadoes, to be a movie about climate change. And to be clear, at no point did Twisters actually mention climate change. But beneath the cowboy hats, the quotable one-liners, and the impressive special effects, the film mirrors two climate change realities:
Sure, I left the theater having been entertained. But I also left feeling deeply unsettled. Here’s what Twisters has me thinking about.
Unlike other types of extreme weather, such as heat waves and hurricanes, the influence of climate change on tornado activity is unclear. That’s in part ... Read more ...
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Ask a Scientist: What Happens When Sea Level Rise Comes for Public Housing? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 15) |
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Jul 15 · Rising seas threaten the viability of thousands of coastal communities in the US. Encroaching water means higher high tides that seep into streets and first floors, sunny-day flooding, and more water to fuel dangerous and destructive storm surges. So many buildings - homes, schools, hospitals, parks, fire stations - are clustered on our coasts, at risk of being regularly inundated with seawater, and built for a climate that no longer exists.
In some communities, disruptive flooding is already affecting necessary infrastructure, especially housing. This crisis converges with the US housing crisis.
Millions of people in the US already struggle to find adequate and ... Read more ...
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Ripe for Disaster Declarations: Heat, Wildfire Smoke…and Death Data - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 12) |
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Jul 12 · Extreme heat and wildfire smoke should of course be defined as major disasters by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. According to the National Weather Service, heat kills more people in this nation than hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and lightning combined. The Washington Post reported that extreme heat killed at least 28 people across the nation in the past week.
Yet, despite several requests from states over the years, most recently California during a 2022 “heat dome” and wildfires, no White House has ever approved a disaster declaration for heat or smoke.
Some states outright ignore the dangers in the name of greed. Over the last 13 months, Texas and Florida ... Read more ...
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How the Supreme Court’s Chevron Decision Benefits Big Oil and Gas - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jul 1) |
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Jul 1 · Last Friday, the Supreme Court overruled the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, fundamentally changing the landscape of federal regulatory power. This decision, reached with a 6-3 majority led by Chief Justice John Roberts, marks a significant shift in administrative law and has profound implications for environmental regulations and climate accountability.
Ironically, the downfall of the Chevron doctrine will give Chevron and other major oil and gas corporations more latitude to slow down and block regulations, allowing them to pollute with near impunity. At the end of the day, this decision means that courts will play a more active role in interpreting regulatory statutes, ... Read more ...
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Infrastructure at Risk in Your Hometown: New Map Shows What Will Flood as Sea Level Rises - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 25) |
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Jun 25 · A new map tool from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows you where and when critical pieces of coastal infrastructure such as public housing buildings, schools and power plants are at risk of repeated, disruptive flooding due to climate change-driven sea level rise.
The map tool is based on data from our new analysis and report, Looming Deadlines for Coastal Resilience: Rising Seas, Disruptive Tides, and Risks to Coastal Infrastructure. Covering the contiguous United States, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam, the analysis finds that by 2050, with a medium sea level rise scenario, seawater would flood more than 1,600 critical coastal infrastructure assets ... Read more ...
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How to Protect Coastal Infrastructure at Risk from Sea Level Rise - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 24) |
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Jun 24 · A new UCS study released today, Looming Deadlines for Coastal Resilience, shows that risks are growing to vital infrastructure and services that millions of people in coastal communities depend on as global sea levels rise in the coming decades. This will have wide-ranging implications for public health, safety, education, and well-being, and for coastal ecosystems and ways of life. Policymakers and public and private decisionmakers must act with urgency to take protective action now, working together with communities.
Decisionmakers, planners, and technical experts involved in funding, developing, designing, insuring, operating, and maintaining infrastructure must take ... Read more ...
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New Analysis Pinpoints Critical Infrastructure Threatened by Rising Seas in Hundreds of Coastal Communities - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 24) |
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Jun 24 · A new analysis out today and led by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) reveals a significant amount of critical infrastructure along US coastlines at risk of disruptive flooding today and in the near future as sea level rises, potentially affecting millions of coastal residents. We unpack the results of our analysis in a new report - Looming Deadlines for Coastal Resilience - and a slick new interactive mapping tool. Here, I’ll summarize why we did this analysis, what we found, and how the nation can address the risks we’re facing.
Sea level rise is a climate change impact that doesn’t charge into our lives the way a wildfire or a hurricane might - exploding in size and ... Read more ...
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It’s Danger Season–Is Our Nation’s Infrastructure Ready? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 24) |
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Jun 24 · We’re now in the midst of “Danger Season”– the months between May and October when we witness extreme events turbo-charged by climate change. These six months bring dangerous and often deadly conditions due to peaks in heat waves, heavy rainfall, hurricanes and wildfires.
We’re witnessing an increase in costly damages thanks to fossil-fueled climate change, which has increased the intensity and frequency of some extreme events, and also thanks to more buildings and people in risky areas. On the ground, this means communities, local, state and the federal government, territories and tribes have less time to prepare for the next event and less time to respond after an event. ... Read more ...
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Sea Level Rise is Already Threatening Communities - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 19) |
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Jun 19 · In an era when massive heat domes blanket large swaths of continents for days, wildfires burn through areas the size of small countries, and hurricanes regularly push the limits of what we once thought possible, sea level rise can seem like extreme weather’s low-key cousin. But with estimates suggesting that sea level rise will affect more than one billion people around the world in the next 25 years, this is one member of the dysfunctional climate change family that shouldn’t be ignored.
Why is this? Read on for the science you need to know about sea level rise, in seven parts.
Globally, sea level is rising at more than double the 20th-century rate. Since 1901, global ... Read more ...
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Climate Change Is Driving an Insurance Crisis: Policymakers and Regulators Must Act - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 18) |
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Jun 18 · If you own a home in a flood-prone community or in a wildfire-prone area, you’ve probably seen your flood or home insurance rates go up in the last year, or are worried that they soon will. You may even worry you’ll be dropped entirely by your insurance provider.
If you’re a renter, you too may be feeling the pinch as rising insurance premiums are also hurting the rental market for affordable housing. Accelerating risks from climate change are colliding with shortcomings in insurance markets - such as a lack of transparent information and affordability provisions - to create a perfect storm for people and communities on the front lines of floods, droughts, and wildfires. ... Read more ...
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'Project 2025’ Would Be Disastrous for Our Nation and Our Climate - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 14) |
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Jun 14 · The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” is a dangerous and detailed guide to undermining our democracy and a broadside attack on our health and well-being, not to mention our economic prosperity. Among other things, it takes specific aim at the federal government’s ability to address the climate crisis and instead doubles down on actions to worsen it. Anyone sobered by the relentless rise in global average temperatures and the spate of devastating and costly extreme weather and climate disasters we’ve been experiencing, anyone who thinks policies to benefit the public should be informed by robust, independent science, should take this threat very, very seriously.
Project 2025 ... Read more ...
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Can the Realities of “Danger Season” Pierce Climate Denial? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jun 10) |
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Jun 10 · Can a heat wave ever melt climate denial in Florida? It certainly hasn’t yet. Governor Ron DeSantis’s recent response is a scorched-earth campaign to wipe out climate science from state policy. On the very day in May that Key West registered a record 115-degree heat index, DeSantis signed a bill that:
Waving his magical-thinking wand to make climate change disappear from virtually every aspect of policymaking, DeSantis bloviated that he is “rejecting the agenda of radical green zealots.” Not even two weeks later, Florida was hit with a Memorial Day weekend of yet more heat records in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Tampa hit a daily record of 97 degrees on May ... Read more ...
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Get Ready: 85% Chance of Above-Normal Atlantic Hurricane Season that May Break Records - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (May 29) |
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May 29 · The May 23 outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts 17 to 25 named storms, eight to 13 of which could become hurricanes.
Four to seven major hurricanes are forecast. This is a concerning outlook, and it can be explained as follows.
Ingredients:
NOAA https://www.climate.gov/media/13556
Instructions:
Put everything together leading up to May, test for possible results.
Results:
This is the highest ever May hurricane outlook issued by NOAA. But that is not what we should focus on, because we know it only takes one landfall to bring disaster.
We must be ready. US coastal communities are tired of ... Read more ...
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Here’s What We’re Asking Major Fossil Fuel Corporations at This Year’s Annual Meetings - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (May 28) |
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May 28 · At this year’s annual general meetings, major investor-owned fossil fuel corporations are facing fewer climate-related shareholder proposals than at any time since the adoption of the Paris climate agreement in 2015. But that doesn’t mean they’re under less pressure over their role in driving the climate crisis. As ExxonMobil retaliates against its own shareholders with an unprecedented lawsuit over a resolution requesting medium-term targets for reducing global warming emissions, institutional investors are upping the ante with calls to vote against members of the company’s board of directors.
And this spring’s corporate annual meetings are taking place against a backdrop of ... Read more ...
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Danger Season 2024: It’s Already Started - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (May 23) |
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May 23 · Ahead of Memorial Day, the unofficial kick-off of summer, we are back with an annual warning that gets more pointed each year: it is now Danger Season 2024, and everyone needs to be ready. Because the hits are coming, and they’re going to hurt.
“Danger Season” refers to the warmer months when, turbo-charged by climate change, extreme events like heat waves, heavy rainfall, wildfires, and poor air quality bring miserable and often dangerous, conditions. You already know you’re not experiencing the summers of your youth (given the accelerating pace of climate change, this applies to almost anyone who can read this post). It’s important to know, also, that climate change isn’t ... Read more ...
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International Court Backs Need to Protect Oceans and Island Nations from Climate Impacts - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (May 21) |
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May 21 · In a historic development, a recent opinion by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) recognizes global warming emissions as a marine pollutant. While nonbinding, the unanimous advisory opinion offers important support for small island nations facing climate impacts and raises the bar for other nations to reduce their global warming emissions to protect the world’s oceans.
Back in December, 2022, a group of small island nations, under the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, submitted a request to the tribunal (pictured above in Hamburg, Germany). They sought to clarify the obligations of state parties under the United ... Read more ...
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New California Legislation Would Help Us Better Understand Wildfire Health Impacts - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 26) |
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Apr 26 · Last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) made headlines across the country when we published a report demonstrating how worsening wildfires in the West are linked to the unrelenting, shameless emissions of the fossil fuel companies. While we hope that our science will bolster efforts to hold these companies accountable, the truth is that such accountability is necessary but insufficient.
Climate-change fueled disasters will continue to have impacts on human health. We must measure these impacts and mitigate them. Wildfires have the most obvious and devastating effects on the lives of the people living in the neighborhoods that they destroy, but the impact they have ... Read more ...
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A Call for Climate Justice at the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 25) |
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Apr 25 · This week, the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights (IACHR) started to hear testimony at the University of the West Indies, near Bridgetown, Barbados, addressing one of the most pressing global issues of our time: climate change and its implications on human rights. Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) Research Scientist Carly Philips (pictured on the left above) testified on April 24. With dozens testifying over three packed days, the court heard powerful statements focused on impacts to small nation-states, connections between climate and health, calls for intergenerational justice, and - the focus of UCS’s input - state obligations to reduce corporate emissions. All testimony was ... Read more ...
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Fossil Fuel Companies Make Billions in Profit as We Suffer Billions in Losses: 2024 Edition - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 17) |
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Apr 17 · Above: Lahaina, Hawai’i after the devastating August 2023 wildfire that killed more than 100 people and destroyed 2,700 homes.
Last year, I wrote that fossil fuel companies made billions of dollars in profit during 2022 as people around the world suffered billions of dollars in damage from climate and weather related disasters. The climate impacts people around the world experience are connected to the fossil fuel industry’s record-breaking profits:
“The profits made by the oil and gas majors come at the direct expense of all of us and our shared planet. These companies continue to extract more fossil fuels from the ground, lobby for their interests, deceive and ... Read more ...
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Swiss Women Lead the Way in Historic Climate Justice Victory - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 10) |
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Apr 10 · In a pivotal week for environmental justice, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, delivered rulings on three climate cases. A landmark ruling in the Swiss Women’s case criticized governments for not acting in line with science and unequivocally stated that inadequate government action on climate change constitutes a violation of human rights. The other two cases were dismissed due to procedural issues, not due to the merits of the cases. The ECHR rejects as inadmissible approximately 90 percent of all cases brought before it.
Below, I detail some of the key aspects of each case and outline how the courts ruled. Looking at each of these rulings, it’s ... Read more ...
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As its Lone Climate Scientist Board Member Departs, ExxonMobil Still Heads in the Wrong Direction - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 4) |
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Apr 4 · As ExxonMobil prepares for its annual general meeting (AGM) this spring, the corporation is facing calls to drop an unprecedented lawsuit against shareholders who are asking for deeper global warming emissions reductions. There has been comparatively less attention to the decision by climate scientist Dr. Susan Avery not to seek re-election to the ExxonMobil board of directors. Yet this shift in corporate leadership is significant, marking the end of a chapter in ExxonMobil’s long and ongoing history of climate deception and disinformation.
Here’s a primer on why a climate scientist was on ExxonMobil’s board, what Dr. Avery accomplished during her tenure, and how ... Read more ...
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The Fossil Fuel Industry Continues Producing Heat-Trapping Emissions that Drive Climate Change - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 3) |
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Apr 3 · A new dataset released by InfluenceMap provides information on heat-trapping emissions traced to the 122 largest investor and state-owned fossil fuel companies in the world. Fossil fuels are the main driver of climate change and the terrifying effects of it that we see happening across the world. That makes this dataset a powerful tool for understanding how each of these entity’s heat-trapping emissions have contributed to climate change.
I have been working with this new InfluenceMap dataset in my own research, and here I’ll share how I’m using it and offer a look at heat-trapping emissions from five major investor-owned fossil fuel companies: ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, ... Read more ...
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What’s the Role of the Land Carbon Sink in Achieving US Climate Goals? - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 2) |
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Apr 2 · The longevity of naturally occurring carbon sinks, like those in Earth’s forests, is a key part of all modeled and projected pathways to net-zero. Without the considerable carbon absorption capacity of our lands (and oceans), we’d currently have much more CO2 in the atmosphere and an accelerated timeline of warming.
But the complexities of the interactions between the land and atmosphere, especially in a rapidly changing climate, are challenging to model, leading to uncertainty around the magnitude and persistence of this critical carbon sink. I dug into this complexity with my energy colleagues in the context of their recent analysis of pathways for how the US can meet its ... Read more ...
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Four Reasons You Should Care about California Snow - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Apr 1) |
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Apr 1 · Last week, I visited Yosemite National Park and walked along a gorgeous trail surrounded by snow-blanketed sequoia trees. Beyond the horizon of pine trees to the south lies the Sierra National Forest, and beyond the rocky horizon to the north lies the Stanislaus National Forest. Further beyond these national forests lies the rest of the expansive Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, spanning 400 miles.
Tomorrow, April 2nd, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) will perform the last open-to-the-media snow survey of the year. These seasonal snow surveys offer a health check-up for our water system. If you’re a precipitation nerd, you can follow the livestream here.
The ... Read more ...
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Growing Shade Equity, One Tree at a Time - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Mar 11, 2024) |
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Mar 11, 2024 · Beneath the reputation of Los Angeles as a land of cars, palms, and sunshine lies a reality of stark inequalities - including access to trees and shade. Nearly 20% of L.A.’s urban forest is concentrated where only 1% of the city’s population lives, endangering lower-income communities and people of color with hotter-feeling summers and poor environmental quality. In the US and elsewhere, heat is the biggest weather-related killer, and people who live with less shade are two to three times more likely to suffer from heat-related illness and death.
From one neighborhood to the next, heat is not experienced evenly. That’s because every neighborhood is made up of a unique ... Read more ...
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Wildfire Threat to Texas Nuclear Weapons Facility Highlights Intersecting Risks - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Mar 07, 2024) |
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Mar 07, 2024 · Last week, Texas’s Windy Deuce Fire, one of several large fires that broke out in the state’s panhandle region, passed within a few miles of a nuclear weapons facility and necessitated an emergency evacuation of nonessential employees. The immediate threat of wildfire to the Pantex nuclear facility, at which nuclear weapons are assembled and disassembled, has passed for now. But is it normal for a wildfire to be burning in Texas in February? What role is climate change playing? And with wildfires growing more severe and burning larger areas, how many other nuclear facilities are at risk?
As climate change increases the frequency or intensity of extreme events such as ... Read more ...
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Banks Continue to Prop Up the Fossil Fuel Industry - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Feb 05, 2024) |
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Feb 05, 2024 · The hypocrisy of the world’s biggest banks on climate change keeps mounting. Last month, the British-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) reported that London-based HSBC, one of the world’s top-10 biggest banks, has helped raise $47 billion for the fossil fuel industry since its 2022 announcement that it would not finance new gas and oil infrastructure.
Some of HSBC’s dealings were on behalf of Saudi Aramco, the world’s second-ranked company in Fortune’s Global 500 and often dubbed the world’s biggest polluter for being the largest corporate emitter of greenhouse gases. In response to the report, the bank told TBIJ that its investments remain “science-based,” under ... Read more ...
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IPCC Must Include More Global South Scientists, Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge Holders - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jan 29, 2024) |
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Jan 29, 2024 · The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) met in Istanbul, Türkiye, in January 2024 to try to agree on the core scientific products it will produce in its 7th assessment cycle (AR7). I was there representing the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) along with my colleague Dr. Delta Merner, who wrote about the main decisions taken at the meeting. My goal was to advocate for increased consideration of cultural heritage, including Indigenous and traditional knowledge, in IPCC’s work.
The Istanbul meeting saw a prolonged, and ultimately unresolved debate about whether the IPCC’s main reports could, or should, be produced in time to help inform the United Nations ... Read more ...
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The IPCC and the Need for Actionable Science - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jan 22, 2024) |
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Jan 22, 2024 · The 60th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded on Friday, culminating in a marathon 26-hour final session that underscored the urgency and complexity of global climate discussions. As I outlined in my day-one blog, the opening session of the 7th assessment of the IPCC (AR7) last week in Istanbul aimed to address four key questions, but many of these were deferred to the next session as delegates engaged in rigorous debate about what reports they should produce and more importantly, when they would be completed. The IPCC always produces scientific reports, but the structure, topics, and timelines of these reports are not set in stone and were the ... Read more ...
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Why the IPCC 7th Assessment Matters - Union of Concerned Scientists - Global Warming (Jan 16, 2024) |
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Jan 16, 2024 · I’m currently in Istanbul, Türkiye, with my colleague Adam Markham, for the opening session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) seventh assessment cycle. While the global understanding of climate change is well-established, the world’s response remains sluggish. It’s essential that as policies and public awareness evolve, the science keeps pace, offering the latest policy-relevant insights to effectively combat climate change.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is an official observer organization of the IPCC, and we traveled here because decisions are being made about the structure, topics, and processes that will guide the 7th assessment ... Read more ...
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