In The News

Greenland Melting

Jeff Goodell August 5, 2013
Greenland’s ice sheets are melting more rapidly than once predicted, and abrupt changes in the Earth’s climate and landscape are contributing to a new sense of urgency among some researchers, including climatologist Jason Box who studies Greenland’s surface. “Box doesn’t shy away from bold strokes,” writes Jeff Goodell for Rolling Stone. “As he sees it, the general public has been betrayed by the...

Rise in Violence “Linked to Climate Change”

Rebecca Morelle August 5, 2013
Shifts in temperature or rainfall are correlated with a rise in assaults, rapes, murders and events of conflict or war, suggests researcher Marshall Burke of the University of California, Berkeley, in a study published in Science. Rebecca Morelle, BBC News, reports that the researchers reviewed 60 studies with data spanning hundreds of years: “Their examples include an increase in domestic...

Greening Financial Reform

Simon Zadek August 2, 2013
Government budgets already must tackle flooding, wildfires, rising seas, eroding coastlines and other effects of climate change and should prepare to invest even more. “Trillions of dollars in ‘green finance’ – that is, low-carbon, resource-efficient investment – are needed annually to prevent climate change and natural constraints from stalling the global economy and threatening the livelihoods...

Climate Will Alter the Soil That Feeds Us

Tim Radford July 15, 2013
Global warming and climate change are about much more than temperatures – and can affect the planet and its life at microscopic levels. Researchers in US and Spain are suggesting that one species of cyanobacteria, common in the soil, could displace another cold-loving form. “The real hazard, for humans and other creatures that depend on cyanobacteria – and that adds up to all life on Earth – is...

UN: Unprecedented Climate Extremes Marked Last Decade

Alex Kirby July 3, 2013
The decade 2001 to 2010 was the warmest on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization, with more temperature records broken and sea levels rising twice as fast than the previous century. The WMO report, “The Global Climate 2001-2010, A Decade of Climate Extremes,“ analyzed temperature levels, precipitation and extreme weather events worldwide to reach its conclusions. Correlating...

Climate Change and Financial Instability Seen as Top Global Threats

June 28, 2013
The Pew Research Center survey assessed global attitudes in 39 nations and identified climate change seen as a threat by 54 percent, financial stability by 52 percent, Islamic extremism by 49 percent and nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran by less than 40 percent of more than 37,000 respondents. Concern about climate change was highest in Latin America at 65 percent. Top concerns of...

The Quest for Green Jobs

Doaa Abdel Motaal June 27, 2013
The goal of sustainability is a clean environment for some, good jobs for others. Confusion is particularly acute in the area of renewable energy as countries accuse one another about unfair competition in solar panels, explains Doaa Abdel Motaal, deputy chief of staff for the World Trade Organization. “Much of the competition over green jobs ignores the fact that, in today's world,...