climate matters21
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Report: State of Climate Prediction
The U.S. National Research Council recently published a report on the state of medium-term climate prediction and predictability. IRI’s Lisa Goddard, who was a member of the panel that wrote the report, elaborates on some of its key points and recommendations.
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Climate News Roundup – Week of 9/13
Germany Extends Nuclear Plants’ Life, NY Times, Sept. 13 Germany has signaled its intent to extend the life span of the country’s 17 nuclear power plants. The decision, which stands in contrast to the country’s historic resistance to nuclear power, comes as Merkel’s government pushes for more renewable energy sources in Germany’s energy mix. US…
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Climate News Roundup – Week of 8/30 and 9/6
Talks at Geneva Dialogue on Climate Finance constructive, BAFU The Swiss Environment Minister, together with the Mexican Foreign Secretary, concluded an informal 2-day meeting of 46 countries and the EU on the future of climate change finance. The dialogue aimed to discuss the problems surrounding the challenge of raising and distributing $100 billion annually, as…
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Climate News Roundup – Week of 8/23
Last week: the Obama administration sides with utilities in a case about climate change, a climate change education center is set to be opened in New Orleans, New England trees are under attack by an invasive caterpillar, and under political pressure BP withdraws its application permits for drilling off of the coast of Greenland.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Climate Models
Climate models are an important tool for scientists to understand the complexities of Earth’s climate. These computer simulations incorporate both theory and direct observations of the past and present in order to project climate into the future. Because of this synthesizing role, and because their output takes the recognizable shape of maps, these models lay…
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Is There an Ethics of Climate Change? Missing Conversations, New Challenges
(A link to an MP3 audio recording of this event is located towards the middle of the article.) Last spring, the Columbia Climate Center and the M.A. in Climate and Society program co-hosted a discussion panel on climate change and ethics. Ethics is a field of philosophy that can help to resolve contradictory interests, and…
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Climate News Roundup – Week of 8/16
Last week: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is suing the EPA, massive coral bleaching is recorded off the coast of Indonesia, the range of blue mussels is being limited by rising sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic, and scientists explore the possibility that the Pakistan floods are related to climate change.
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The Policy Buffet (Part 5): How the Oil Spill Killed the Climate Bill — and Why the Economy Didn’t Help, Either
The climate bill has come and gone. Just two months ago, it seemed as though the bill stood a fighting chance, given the buffet of options available to policymakers.
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The Policy Buffet (Part 4): Eulogizing the Climate Bill that Wasn’t
On July 22, just days before the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared that the last decade was the warmest on record, the United States Senate abandoned its effort to put a price on carbon. Comprehensive climate and energy legislation was on life-support for weeks until Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) announced that…