Tag: climate change

Republicans Want to Plant Trees to Combat Climate Change

Buck Banks

1 trillion

Associated Press: “The idea — simple yet massively ambitious — revealed recent Republican thinking on how to address climate change. The party is no longer denying that global warming exists, yet is searching for a response to sweltering summers, weather disasters and rising sea levels that doesn’t involve abandoning their enthusiastic support for American-produced energy from burning oil, coal and gas.”

The Sargassum Arrives!

Buck Banks

15 million tons/5 miles wide

Mh2>A 15 million-ton, 5,000-mile-wide patch of seaweed known as the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt is making landfall throughout the southern Atlantic and Caribbean coasts, disrupting vacations and marine activities as it collects and rots along the shore. An annual open-sea phenomenon, this year’s crop is the largest on record (see map) and is expected to inundate shorelines for months.

‘Doomsday Clock’ Now 100 Seconds to Midnight

Buck Banks

100 seconds

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the “Doomsday Clock” to 100 seconds before midnight, the closest it’s ever been to the metaphorical point of the Earth’s destruction. From the statement: “Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change—that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode.”

Most Americans Back Action on Climate Change

Buck Banks

70%

A new CBS News poll finds a majority of Americans think action needs to be taken right now to address climate change. “Most consider it at least to be a serious problem — including more than a quarter who say it is a crisis. Seven in 10 think human activity contributes a lot or some to climate change, and most feel they have a personal responsibility to do something about it, although many say they cannot afford to.”

Bloomberg Pledges $500 Million to End Coal

Buck Banks

$500 million

Michael Bloomberg “will donate $500 million to a new campaign to close every coal-fired power plant in the United States and halt the growth of natural gas,” the New York Times reports. “The new campaign, called Beyond Carbon, is designed to help eliminate coal by focusing on state and local governments. The effort will bypass Washington, where Mr. Bloomberg has said national action appears unlikely because of a divided Congress and a president who denies the established science of climate change.”

A Million Species Face Extinction — Thanks, Humans!

Buck Banks

1 million

Washington Post: “Up to 1 million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with devastating implications for human survival, according to a United Nations report released Monday. … The report’s findings underscore the conclusions of numerous scientific studies that say human activity is wreaking havoc on the wild kingdom, threatening the existence of everything from giant whales to small flowers and insects that are almost impossible to see with the naked eye.”