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Climate Change Working Group

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The mission of this working group is to explore the evidence regarding points of leverage assisting human groups in coping with or reducing the risk of global climate change.

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This working group is focused on issues of Global Climate Change.
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admin Albert Gomez Amanda Cole Anthony ChrisAllen david hastings
fosternt Kathy Gilbeaux Maeryn Obley mashalshah mdmcdonald MDMcDonald_me_com
Nguyen Ninh StarDart

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Climate Mission Impossible: Scientists Say Fossil Fuels Must Go Untapped

The UCL study used an economic model to determine what percentage of each region's fossil fuel reserves should be left untouched in order to meet climate goals. Reserves are defined as fuels that could be developed given current technology and economic conditions.
EMILY M. ENG, NG STAFF. SOURCE: C. MCGLADE AND P. EKINS. NATURE

New study says vast amounts of coal, oil, and gas must be left untouched to limit global warming.

CLICK HERE - STUDY - NATURE
The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to
2 °C

Nature 517, 187–190 (08 January 2015) doi:10.1038/nature14016

nationalgeographic.com - January 7, 2015
by Christina Nunez

Canada's tar sands need to stay in the ground, the oil beneath the Arctic has to remain under the sea, and most of the world's coal must be left untouched in order to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2°C, a study released Wednesday says.

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David Attenborough: Leaders are in denial about climate change

David Attenborough

Image: David Attenborough

independent.co.uk - January 1st 2015 - Tom Bawden

Sir David Attenborough is calling on global leaders to step-up their actions to curb climate change, saying that they are in denial about the dangers it poses despite the overwhelming evidence about its risks.

The TV naturalist said those who wield power need to use it: “Wherever you look there are huge risks. The awful thing is that people in authority and power deny that, when the evidence is overwhelming and they deny it because it’s easier to deny it – much easier to deny it’s a problem and say ‘we don’t care’,” Sir David said.

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What killed the Maya? 'Blue Hole' offers clues

Sediment analysis of Belize's Blue Hole indicates that a first-millennium drought may have led to Mayan decline.

Image: Sediment analysis of Belize's Blue Hole indicates that a first-millennium drought may have led to Mayan decline.

edition.cnn.com - January 2nd 2015 - Todd Leopold

To scuba divers and tourists, Belize's famous "Blue Hole" underwater cave is a wonder, one of the "10 most amazing places on Earth," according to the Discovery Channel.

To scientists, it's something more: evidence of the drought that is suspected to have led to the demise of the Mayan civilization.

New research reinforces that theory, Rice University Earth scientist Andre Droxler told LiveScience.

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Pope Francis to Catholics: It’s Time to Take Action on Global Warming

Pope Francis gestures as he speaks during an audience with families at the Paul VI hall at the Vatican on December 28, 2014. AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLIALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images

Pontiff hopes to inspire action at next year’s UN meeting in Paris in December after visits to Philippines and New York

theguardian.com - by John Vidal - December 27, 2014

In 2015, the pope will issue a lengthy message on climate change to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, give an address to the UN general assembly and call a summit of the world’s main religions.

The reason for such frenetic activity, says Bishop Marcelo Sorondo, chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences, is the pope’s wish to directly influence next year’s crucial UN climate meeting in Paris, when countries will try to conclude 20 years of fraught negotiations with a universal commitment to reduce emissions.

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The Last Time the Arctic Was Ice-Free in the Summer, Modern Humans Didn’t Exist

A picture of people on ice and snow. Caption reads: Enjoy it while you can. Image: Thomas A. Brown and Simon T. BeltImage: A picture of people on ice and snow. Caption reads: Enjoy it while you can. Image: Thomas A. Brown and Simon T. Belt

slate.com - December 12th, 2014 - Eric Holthaus

Ice has been a relatively constant feature of the Arctic for most of the past 36 million years, but there have been some gaps. Scientists aren’t exactly sure what happened during the most recent major ice-free period, but it’s often considered an analog to our future, warmer Earth. The only difference is, the gap in Arctic sea ice that scientists believe will happen by midcentury is being caused by us.*

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2014 on Track to be Hottest Year on Record

 

 

The temperatures so far in 2014 compared to the top 5 warmest years on record.
Click image to enlarge. Credit: NOAA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Even Climate Change Experts and Activists are in Denial About Climate Change

      

Fires burn in the Amazon basin in Brazil. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

washingtonpost.com - by Aanka Batta and Steffen Böhm - December 4, 2014

Another month, another important U.N. climate change conference. The latest is in Lima, the capital of Peru. Thousands of experts from the world of politics, business, academia and civil society – and Leonardo DiCaprio – have flown around the world to urge us all to curb our carbon emissions.

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US, China Set Carbon Pollution Goals

Image: President Obama meets with President Xi Jinping. Photo Credit: Pete Souza/White HouseImage: President Obama meets with President Xi Jinping. Photo Credit: Pete Souza/White House

environmentalleader.com - November 13th, 2014

The US and China set ambitious climate change goals on Wednesday, with President Obama pledging to cut US greenhouse gas emissions 26 percent to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025.

Chinese president Xi Jinping announced targets to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 or sooner and to increase China’s non-fossil fuel share of energy to around 20 percent by 2030.

The announcement was met with praise from environmentalists and business groups.

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Fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 says IPCC

A photo of smokestacks. The IPCC says fossil fuels without carbon capture should be "phased out" by 2100

Image: A photo of smokestacks. The IPCC says fossil fuels without carbon capture should be "phased out" by 2100

bbc.com - November 2nd 2014 -  Matt McGrath

The unrestricted use of fossil fuels should be phased out by 2100 if the world is to avoid dangerous climate change, a UN-backed expert panel says.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says in a stark report that most of the world's electricity can - and must - be produced from low-carbon sources by 2050.

If not, the world faces "severe, pervasive and irreversible" damage.

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Ban Ki-moon: 'World living in an era of unprecedented level of crises'

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon with actor Leonardo DiCaprio during his designation ceremony as the UN Messenger of Peace. Photograph: EPA

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon with actor Leonardo DiCaprio during his designation ceremony as the UN Messenger of Peace. Photograph: EPA

Julian Borger - New York The Guardian
21 Sep 2014 16.55 BST

More than 140 heads of state and government fly in to New York this week for the United Nations general assembly amid apprehension that international order is unraveling at an accelerating pace, while the world's leaders seem ever less willing or able to deal with the proliferating threats.

The UN's humanitarian agencies are in danger of being completely overwhelmed by the multiple crises. Ebola is spreading rapidly across West Africa, swamping rickety national health systems and a thus-far underfunded UN effort to stop its advance. The spread of Islamic State (Isis) extremists in the Middle East, feeding on the destruction of the Syrian civil war and exposing the weakness of the Iraqi state, has similarly outpaced patchy international efforts at containment.

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