Supreme Court’s Blow to Emissions Efforts May Imperil Paris Climate Accord
The Supreme Court’s surprise decision Tuesday to halt President Obama’s climate change regulation could weaken or even imperil the international global warming accord reached with great ceremony in Paris less than two months ago.
World’s largest concentrated solar plant switches on in the Sahara
Morocco has switched on what will be the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant. The new site near the city of Ourrzazate, could produce enough energy to power over one million homes by 2018 and reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 760,000 tons per year.
Rapid, affordable energy transformation possible
The US could slash greenhouse gas emissions from power production by up to 78 percent below 1990 levels within 15 years while meeting increased demand, according to a new study, using a sophisticated mathematical model to evaluate future cost, demand, generation and transmission scenarios.
Climate change: Ocean warming underestimated
To date, research on the effects of climate change has underestimated the contribution of seawater expansion to sea level rise due to warming of the oceans. A team of researchers has now investigated, using satellite data, that this effect was almost twice as large over the past twelve years than previously assumed. That may result in, for example, significantly increased risks of storm surges.
East coast braces for severe flooding as weekend snowstorm approaches
The winter storm that caused damage during the night along the Gulf Coast has deepened and has started to spread heavy rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow northward into the Mid-Atlantic region. A coastal flood warning has been issued for Delaware, New Jersey and the southern coast of Long Island.
Ocean species mix as sea ice melts, with unknown consequences
Melting Arctic ice is opening up new passage ways for birds and marine species traveling to uncharted waters. A marine biologist with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, and his colleagues compiled a list of the marine birds and mammals that have been spotted in the wrong ocean.
2015 is Earth’s warmest year by widest margin on record
The globally averaged temperature over land and ocean surfaces for 2015 was the highest among all years since record keeping began in 1880. During the final month, the December combined global land and ocean average surface temperature was the highest on record for any month in the 136-year record.
Ocean warming doubles in recent decades
The amount of heat soaked up by the oceans has surged in the past two decades in a sign of worsening global warming despite a slowdown in temperature rises at the Earth’s surface, a study showed on Monday.
Satellite launched to monitor sea level, global warming
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket thundered away from a foggy California coast Sunday and boosted a $364 million science satellite into orbit, the latest in a series of spacecraft designed to precisely measure sea levels around the world, a key indicator of global warming, and to monitor ocean conditions responsible for extreme weather.