Climate244
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A typical day in the high Andes
Each morning starts the same in the Andes: the frost is heavy on the insides of our tents and falls with the slightest movement, while the realization that it´s going to be a freezing exit from the sleeping bag is tempered by gratitude that the thirteen hour night is over. Yes, sunrise in the Andes…
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Climate News Roundup: Week of 6/26
Prodigal Plankton Returns to the Atlantic, Discovery News, Jun 26 According to researchers with the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science, a species of plankton called Neodenticula seminae is an Atlantic resident again, 800,000 years after it became extinct in the ocean. The microscopic plant has been documented with sufficient frequency over the last…
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Climate Forecasting: Oceans, Droughts, Climate Change and Other Tools of the Trade
At the International Research Institute for Climate and Society’s monthly climate briefing, talk often focuses on the role that El Niño or La Niña play in driving global climate. With the collapse of La Niña last month, though, IRI’s forecasters now have to rely on different tools to offer forecasts for the coming year. That’s…
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Yes, We Can Afford to Remove Carbon from Air
Recently, the American Physical Society (APS) released a report on the direct capture of carbon dioxide from air. The report concludes that air capture could be a powerful tool for mopping up carbon dioxide emissions that otherwise would escape to the air, for providing carbon dioxide for synthetic liquid fuels in the transportation sector, and…
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Understanding the Mind as the Temperature Climbs
Warnings of potentially cataclysmic climate change have reached nearly every newspaper front page and legislative chamber around the globe since the 1990s. So why has the human response been so limited?
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Foreigners in a Strange Land
After a very cold morning in Crucero, the sun burned off the clouds to reveal the black peaks of the Cordillera Carabaya to the east. There´s not so much snow left on the hills these days, just a few glacier patches clinging to the south faces of the highest summits.
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Ocean Currents Speed Melting of Antarctic Ice
A Major Glacier is Undermined From Below
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Climate News Roundup: Week of 6/19
Climate Change Lawsuit Against Utilities Rejected by U.S. Supreme Court, Bloomberg, June 20 States can’t invoke federal law to force utilities to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, shutting off one avenue for groups that advocate bolder steps against climate change. The unanimous ruling is a victory for five companies — American Electric…
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Into Thin(ner) Air – On Route to the Cordillera Carabaya
This morning we left Arequipa and the comforts of the tourist trail, driving east across the puna towards the Andes proper. Our route took us along the newly constructed Caraterra Interoceanica – a highway linking the Pacific coast of Peru to ports in Brazil – and up to elevations of 4700 m. Along the way…

By studying thousands of buildings and analyzing their electricity use, Columbia Climate School Dean Alexis Abramson has been able to uncover ways to significantly cut energy consumption and emissions. Watch the Video: “Engineering a Cooler Future Through Smarter Buildings“
