Climate Change This Week: Coral Collapse Presages Our Own, Fascinating Facts, and More!

Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded.

And the chances of Donald Trump s family and fortune surviving climate change are small, dwindling daily and irreversibly.

Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this Hickory Horned Devil that occurs in US Forests, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests. Source www.buzzle.com

Forests: the cheapest way to store carbon

An Increasing Rarity Beautiful Southern Forests Source mybeautifuladventures.com

OO Aggressive Forest Protection Needed To Meet US Climate Goals Takeaways:

• critical to meet climate goals, US forest protection is not a US climate priority;
• some government and forestry industry actors even promote increased logging as a climate change solution;
• Forest disturbance from logging in the Southern U.S. occurs at four times the rate that it does in the rainforests of South America,
• reducing the ability of US forests to act as carbon sinks by at least 35 %.

When we harm forests, we harm ourselves.

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REQUIEM FOR A REEF

@@ Climate Change Is Killing The Great Barrier Reef - Takeaways:

Coral reefs are bleaching and dying worldwide due to warming oceans:

• 90% of coral nutrition comes from algae living within them;
• As corals heat, the algae photosynthesize faster,
• And produce a toxin, ultimately forcing corals to expel them.
• Deprived of colorful algae, corals turn white and starts starving.
• Once dead, corals are rapidly covered with brown algae.

Seascapes of Bleached Coral are spectres of mass starvation.

• Under current conditions, these undersea rainforests will disappear forever within 10-30 years.
• Once these reefs are gone, we lose permanently an important source of:
• Food for over half a billion people,
• coastal protection from storms and erosion,
• and biodiversity.

We know human activities are fueling global warming, but are failing to act.

Ultimately, this story is our failure of intelligence and morality. Like bacteria, we are:

• Reproducing without recognizing our resource constraints,
• Using those resources wantonly,
• And in doing so, ensuring the collapse of our populations
• - as surely as bacterial populations collapse in a lab dish.

A Slice of Incredible Coral Reef Life is revealed under ultraviolet lighting, exposing the truly wild colors of corals just the tip of the beautiful berg of life we are losing as coral reefs are destroyed by climate change. Credit Jourday at reefbuilders.com

OO Scientists Race Desperately To Prevent Wipeout Of World's Corals,

Shocked By Humanitys Stupidity Takeaways:

• About 50% of the worlds corals have already died.
• Scientists are trying to breed some heat resistant corals,
• And recondition corals to tolerate new levels of heat.
• Even so, scientists expect 90+% of the world corals to die by 2050,
• With little hope of saving more than a small fraction of them.

"You couldn't be more dumb ... to erode the very thing that life depends on the ecosystem and hope that you'll get away with it,"-- Biologist and Global Change Institute Director, University of Queensland Ove Hoegh-Guldberg.

Colorful Soft Corals Also Are Part of Reefs this is likely a Caribbean reef. Probable Credit: Mika Specta

Coral reefs:

• Provide habitat for a quarter of all marine species;
• Form crucial coastal storm barriers;
• provide billions of dollars in revenue from tourism, fishing and other commerce,
• reef species are used to produce cures to diseases ranging from bacterial and viral to cancer.

"Whether you're living in North America or Europe or Australia, you should be concerned" added Hoegh-Guldberg.

An Acid Future For Our Oceans is developing, as more CO2 is absorbed acidifying the seawater, as the past and projected rises in acidity above show. Source Tobias Friedrich, University of Hawaii

OO Half Of World's Oceans To Face Multiple 'Climate Stressors' By 2030 study warns. Takeaways:

• Stresses will alter them in a number of ways,
• Seriously harming plants and animals, from plankton to whales.
• Oceans are vital to human existence.

A Future Without Fish Awaits Us Source www.alimorrowprojects.com

By 2050, 85+ % of the oceans will be similarly stressed:

• Vital nutrient mixing in the layers will decrease, starving food chains.
• Vital oxygen will keep decreasing, as waters warm more.
• Increasing seawater levels of CO2 will acidify waters,
• Greatly impairing shellfish and fish to build skeletons.

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WHY FACTS DONT ALWAYS MATTER

OO Fact: Humans Caused 100% Of The Past Century's Global Warming show overwhelming evidence, and supported by 97% of all scientists. Yet, only 48% of US adults believe humans cause it, while only 40% believe it will harm wildlife, weather patterns, or shorelines.

OO Why Facts Don't Change Our Minds sometimes. [MH: I change my mind with facts, and so do others.. Lets grow this revolution!] New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason. Takeaways:

• Reason developed to resolve the problems posed by living in collaborative groups.
• Confirmation Bias -- the tendency to embrace information that supports ones beliefs and reject those that do not is a serious constraint on reason.
• Even after the evidence "for their beliefs has been totally refuted, people fail to make appropriate revisions in those beliefs," the researchers noted.

Whether You Believe It Or Not, Gravity Is A Fact with consequences. So is climate change, which operates under the same set of physical laws. Source creativeenglishvocabulary.com

• The illusion of explanatory depth effect, nearly ubiquitous,
• is when people believe that they know way more than they actually do;
• enhanced by collaboration, it creates fuzzy boundaries of
• where ones own understanding ends and that of others begin.

Credit Mike Keefe at the Denver Post

• This gets us in trouble politically,
• where understanding facts is crucial to deciding large scale actions.
• Often strong feelings do not emerge from deep understanding.
• And if feelings, not understanding, bind people together,
• then tribal communities of ignorance can develop that are impervious to facts.

Thus, working through the policy implications of proposals TOGETHER is far more effective than pontificating.

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CALLING A DENIER A DENIER

OO Climate Deniers, You're Climate Deniers - Deal With It - Takeaways:

• Climate deniers fit the Freudian definition of denial perfectly:
• ignoring an unpleasant truth and replacing it with something benign and untrue,
• or shifting blame on other causes, such as sunspots.

Others fit Freuds minimalization definition:

• Humans cause climate change, but
• its too costly to address, or
• not as important as other problems.
• Climate deniers both deny the science and needed policy to address it.

Calling deniers anything less (eg, doubters) is misleading and irresponsible.

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TRUMP TRUMPED BY CLIMATE CHANGE

OO Trump's Climate Views: Combative, Conflicting And Confusing - In 2009, he co-signed a full-page NY Times advertisement calling for "meaningful and effective measures to combat climate change." Now, he refers to climate change as a hoax or a joke.

OO If We Stop Collecting Data, Will Climate Change Just Go Away? No, Virginia, it wont.

In his seventh week in office, President Trump decides we should stop measuring things.

OO Ex Koch Agents, Fossil Fuel Industry Hired Guns Now Staffing Trump's Federal Agencies climate change skeptics all.

When Words Fail, Use Exxons shows the Exxon infused Trump administration with a press release lifted verbatim from Exxons own press release. Screencapture Christopher Ingraham on twitter

OO White House Echoes Exxon Mobil Press Release - It lifted an entire paragraph verbatim from ExxonMobil's press release, minutes after it was released, to praise the oil giant.

OO The Clean Power Plan Is GoneAnd There's No 'Replace planned, says a briefed source.

Feeling safer?

OO Trump Gang Plans To Stop Energy Efficiency, Other Programs including the popular Energy Star program for companies to seek labels for energy-efficient consumer products and appliances.

OO What Slashing The EPA's Budget By One-Quarter Would Really Mean

Forget about monitoring and regulating:

• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Climate change threats to national security
• Forget about:
• Helping communities and farms adapt to climate change
• Sending out storm alerts to affected US communities

Under Trump, Droughts and Even Tornadoes Could Surprise Farmers who have relied on weather and seasonal forecasts by a NOAA agency, the National Weather Service. Source Shutterstock

OO Trump's Plan To Slash Weather Forecast Funding Is Terrible News For Farms

"There are few important decisions farmers can make without contemplating weather."

OO NOAA Cuts Will Stymie Research, Put Americans At Risk

OO NOAA Sea Grant Cut Could Slow Climate Adaptation,

Compromising Coastal American Safety and greatly upping the pricetag of adaptation if it isnt tackled now.

EPA Now Home to Climate Skeptic Clowns and dark clowns indeed, if they refuse to acknowledge the reality of climate change, which threatens the safety and security of Americans and the USA. Photo Source Business Insider

OO There Goes Reality, And Americans Safety:

EPA Head Stacks Agency With Climate Change Skeptics

OO EPA Head Scott Pruitt Has Already Broken Trust And 5 Promises To Congress now that he has the job.

The broken promises are:

1. To recognize climate reality he said that EPA's conclusion on how climate changing gases like CO2 endanger human health and welfare "needs to be enforced and respected" and is unquestionable. Now, he denies CO2 drives climate change.

2. To stand up for science he said "science must serve as 'the backbone' of EPA actions." Yet now, he directly contradicts the findings of scientists at every major American scientific organization, which are based on decades of intensive, peer-review research and data.

Credit Adam Zyglis at the Buffalo News

3. To enforce clean air and water rules - Pruitt said he wanted to "restore the EPA's essential mission of keeping our air and our water clean and safe." Now he supports a 24% cut to the Agency's budget, including clean air and water programs.

4. To be consistent on states' rights he claimed to favor greater authority for states. Now hes considering revoking California's right to have stronger clean air standards for cars.

5. To fight all forms of pollution he claimed concern about dangerous pollution like mercury, smog and methane, butt now withdrew an EPA request for information about methane pollution from oil and gas drilling. So much for concern.

This is important -- beyond our desire to have public officials with integrity, our kids health is at stake.

@@ CO2? Nah, Not a Problem, Says EPA Head Scott Pruitt countering almost all climate scientists and world leaders on climate change.

OO EPA Scott Pruitt's Office Deluged With Angry Callers After He Questions The Science Of Global Warming - The calls to Pruitt's main line, 202-564-4700, reached such a high volume that agency officials created an impromptu call center, said three agency employees.

"Countries are going to pay for climate change one way or another. -- Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (ret). Photo Credit Charlie Riedel at Associated Press

OO Business, Military, Faith Leaders & Electeds Slam Scott Pruitt's Climate Denial Takeaways a sampling:

• "Countries are going to pay for climate change one way or another. The best way to pay for it is by tackling the root causes of climate change and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. -- Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (ret), CEO of the American Security Project.
• Whether Pruitt believes CO2 drives climate change or not, by law " he is required under the Clean Air Act to promulgate policies that reduce carbon pollution to reduce the risk of serious national security consequences of climate change." -- Andrew Holland, Director of Studies, American Security Project.
• "2015's record temperatures are the result of the gradual, yet accelerating, build up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere. Scientists have been warning about it for decades and now we are experiencing it."-- NASA Chief Major General Charles Frank Bolden, Jr., (USMC-Ret.)

What Climate Change? Ignoring climate change is an invitation to experience ever more dangerous levels of it, sooner and faster.

"Pruitt is just wrong:

• Carbon dioxide emissions pose an enormous risk to human health.
• Carbon pollution is the leading contributor to greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
• Climate change is causing more heatwaves and drought, more intense extreme weather events,
• expanded range of disease-carrying ticks and mosquitoes and a host of other threats to health
• The science is clear: We need immediate action to reduce carbon emissions to protect public health."

-- Dr. Georges Benjamin, MD, Executive Director, American Public Health Association

• "Scott Pruitt's statement questioning climate science is deeply troubling. Businesses in the US and elsewhere are keenly aware that human activity is remaking the climate in ways that create disruption and business risk. his approach will undermine the conditions that businesspeople need to innovate, create jobs, and compete in the global marketplace."

-- Aron Cramer, President and CEO, Business for Social Responsibility

Resisting TRUMP

Credit Robin Loznak

OO Trump Doesnt Want This Climate Lawsuit To Go To Trial

It Could Change Everything A groundbreaking climate lawsuit, brought against the federal government by 21 children, has been hailed as a bold new strategy to press for US climate action.

OO Activists Rush To Save Government Science - Disappearing data include pie charts on a DOE website illustrating the link between coal and greenhouse gas emissions as well as the description on an Interior Department page of the potential environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing on federal land.

This points to a nonpartisan problem of digital-age government:

• Much of the scientific information so painstakingly collected over the decades,
• at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars,
• remains held only by the government,
• scattered on thousands of servers in hundreds of departments
• where it may not be backed up and could be impossible to find.

Peter Gleick: Protest Against Trump Science Policies Source The Desert Sun

OO Climatologist Urges Mass Protest Against Trump Govt Amid Global Warming Denial Peter Gleick warned US democracy is under attack from the "uninhibited use of lies, false statements and bad science.

OO California Girds To Battle Feds To Save The Environment it probably wont be easy.

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CLIMATE MYTH BUSTERS!

OO The Reality of Climate Change - below are some of the biggest climate myths currently trending, compared to the reality. A good place for more details is here where even more myths are busted!

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CLIMATE LEADERSHIP

OO Democrats Urge EPA Not To Reopen Vehicle Fuel Efficiency Rules which have shown to be attainable and in the past have signficantly upped energy efficiency, and cut usage.

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CLUELESS LEADERSHIP

Credit Mike Luckovich for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

OO Republicans Want To Undo A Rule That Protects Taxpayers And The Environment

OO GOP Owns Trump Attack On The Earth

Credit Michael Lukovich

OO Congressional Energy And Climate Committees Are Loaded With Ex-Fossil Fuel Lobbyists

OO The Coming GOP Assault On Regulations Republicans in Congress have embarked on a potentially long lasting effort to make it much harder for federal agencies to create new regulations in the future.

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HOT NEWS

OO February's Heat, Brought To You By Climate Change - A bonanza of heat records fell throughout February over most of the US, with research showing it was made possible by climate change.

This February was the second warmest on record for the US, averaging 7.3F above normal, the fifth-most anomalously warm month ever recorded

OO "Weirdly Warm" 2017: Could We Set Another Record? 2017 has been weirdly warm so far despite a lack of El Nino conditions. If Jan/Feb temps were representative it would end up surpassing 2016.

Increasing Ocean Surface Heat Is Wiping Out Coral Reefs Worldwide transforming kaleidoscopic corals to white, then brown skeletons.

OO Oceans Storing Up Staggering Amounts Of Heat:

'The Memory Of All Of The Past Climate Change - The world is getting warmer every year, thanks to climate change. Takeaways:

• most of that heat is going into the oceans especially the Atlantic and Southern oceans --
• far more than previously estimated,
• which explains why sea levels have been rising so much
• all that heat is expanding the seawater.

• Increasing heat moving into the oceans
• Could lead to ocean dead spots
• Where a hot surface layer prevents mixing with cooler lower ones.
• Mixing is essential in moving nutrients and fueling marine life.

A Prescient 2001 Cartoon Credit Tom Toles at the Washington Post

OO Earth's Oceans Are Warming 13% Faster Than Thought, And Accelerating as human activities are pumping climate changing CO2 faster and faster into the atmosphere at a rate that has increased 40+ % since 1980 says new research. We are speeding the heating of the planet, which is speeding climate change.

more:

OO Rate Of Ocean Warming Has Nearly Doubled Over Two Decades study says, and the extra heat has reached deeper waters, finds data stretching back to 1960.

Droughts and Heat Set Earth On Fire with wildfires occurring throughout the world. Source NASA

OO Great Plains Wildfires March 2017:

Record Heat, Drought And Strong Winds Produced Extreme Fire Condition

OO Oklahoma Wildfires Burn Into Kansas, Prompt Evacuations homes and cattle were lost as well.

related:

OO The Biggest, Worst Droughts Can Travel 1000s Of Kilometers From Their Origin and do so in predictable patterns, travelling across continents, shows a new study. That discovery could:

• shed light on how droughts evolve in space and time,
• provide new insights for water managers, and
• save huge numbers of lives through more effective planning.

Drought:

• affected 1+ billion people between 1994 and 2013.
• 300,000 people are estimated to have died in the 1983 Ethiopian drought,
• 3,000,000 people are estimated to have died in China's 1928 drought.

OO Heatwave Frequency Rises Twice As Fast In The Poorest Countries new research shows.

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MELTDOWN

OO Earths Thermal Shield Rapidly Disappearing:

Arctic Circle Could Be Ice-Free With Just A 2C Rise In World Temperature - for the first time in 100,000 years, scientists have warned. Keeping global heating to a 2C rise is the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Loss of Arctic sea ice:

• Could have 'catastrophic' weather effects in much of the northern hemisphere;
• Will speed up global warming:

• Arctic summer sea ice acts like a thermal shield,
• reflecting much sunlight (and the heat it represents) away from Earth;
• its loss will vastly increase the sunlight absorbed
• and then emitted as heat into the atmosphere.

OO Arctic Sea Ice May Vanish Even If World Achieves Climate Goal

• Arctic summer sea ice has been shrinking sharply and steadily,
• And has a nearly 40% chance of disappearing under a 2C rise in heat,
• But would probably survive if we keep current average temperatures.

OO Just As Earths Thermal Shield, Arctic Ice, Is Shrinking,

Trump Wants To Stop Monitoring It , A Costly Mistake by defunding the satellites that do so. But Americans will pay for it, because climate ignorance is rewarded with catastrophes.

OO Effects Of Global Warming On Display In Antarctica creating dramatic changes in its glaciers.

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GOOD CLEAN NEWS

OO Solar Power Growth Leaps By 50% Worldwide Thanks To US And China in their rush to go solar in 2016., figures show.

OO Clean Energy Is Now As Big As Pharmaceutical Manufacturing In The US

With $200 billion in revenue, its sneaking up on consumer electronics.

OO Alaska: Wind Power, The Cheapest Rural Power Source cheaper than hauling fossil fuels to supply rural power. Wind Farms are springing up in communities across the state.

OO Wind Power Blows Through Nuclear, Coal As Costs Plunge At Sea

Water and electric power plants dont mix well naturally, unless you add some wind.

OO A New World Leader Is Emerging In The Battle Against Climate Change: China its a much larger climate changing polluter than the US, but its doing far more to address the climate change it is causing, unlike the US.

OO China Is Moving Closer To A Carbon Tax For Cutting Emissions and away from the EUs emissions trading model, a senior Chinese official said.

Wikipedia

OO Harvard Disburses $1 Million For Climate Change Research to multidisciplinary research programs across five different schools at Harvard. Nice, but far outweighed by government cuts to research.

OO UK Carbon Emissions Drop To Lowest Level Since 19th Century, as coal use continues to plummet, analysis suggests.

OO Saudi Aramco's Green Energy Push Seen Widening Appeal Of Its Initial Public Offering of stock. When this, the worlds largest oil company, sells shares for its foray into renewables, it may lure investors who would otherwise be forced to stay away but some are demanding transparency .

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SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS

OO Unhealthy Environment Causes 1 In 4 Child Deaths under the age of 5, both inside and outside the home, say 2 new reports from the World Health Organization thats more than 1.7 million children dying annually.

OO World Facing Gravest Humanitarian Crisis Since 1945

Due To African Drought with 20 million people facing starvation and famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria, the UN has warned.

OO Climate Change Could Be Increasing The Footprint Of Lyme Disease as it increases the range and number of disease-carrying ticks.

OO Climate Change May Drive More Migration In Future residents in 4 European nations say.

OO Future Climate Change Will Affect Plants And Soil Differently says a new study. Takeaways:

• soil carbon loss is more sensitive to climate change compared to carbon taken up by plants.
• In drier regions, soil carbon loss decreased,
• but in wetter regions soil carbon loss increased,
• which could further up CO2 levels in the atmosphere.

OO Climate Change May Hurt US Agricultural Productivity Agriculture needs to ramp up its response to climate change, especially in the Midwest, says a new study.

OO Rising CO2 Due To Climate Change May Not Improve Agriculture model shows; indeed, quite the opposite, since the greening effect wont soak up CO2 as much as hoped.

Alaska Houses and Buildings Are Already Sinking into melting permafrost. Credit Bee Wuethrich

OO Alaskas BIG Problem: It Is Not Prepared

For Melting Permafrost Or Erosion Under Climate Change

OO Source Of Mekong, Yellow And Yangtze Rivers Drying Up as the headwaters of the Tibetan plateau are evaporating because of climate change and desertification. Creating parks that preserve watersheds could help slow the process.

OO Australia: Climate Change To Blame For Flatlining Wheat Yield Gains says the government research agency, CSIRO.

OO Australia: State Of The Environment Report Warns

Climate Change Impacts Could Be Irreversible even as it increases.

Source Wired Magazine

OO Venice Will Vanish Underwater Within A Century If Global Warming Is Not Stalled - climate change study warns.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

@@ Climate Change 101: Why Care? What You Need to Know - Bill Nye tells it all in five minutes amid graphic, dynamic, engaging, compelling imagery. Check it Out!

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GOOD IDEAS

OO How Climate Change Battles Are Increasingly Being Fought, And Won, In Court Takeaways:

• Climate change responsibility cases get climate change facts on public record.
• Successful rulings have far reaching political and social effects in other countries.

OO Taiwan: Prison Aims To Jump-Start Island's Solar Power Dream employing prisoners to install solar panels in a national program to replace nuclear with clean renewable power.

OO Norway's Wealth Fund May Blacklist Firms Over Carbon Emissions suggests the funds ethics watchdog.

OO Diet And Global Climate Change:

Changing The First, Tackles The Second says a series of studies reaching the same conclusion: our diets must change to help successfully mitigate climate change, and climate change mitigation must be included in policies to improve the food system.

Just substituting healthier sources for half the calories of a typical American diet, the study found, would:

• Reduce by 20-40% the relative risk of coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and Type 2 diabetes. Health care costs went down by $77-93 Billion annually;
• Drop direct greenhouse gas emissions by 222-826 kilograms per person per year.

OO Want To Cut Carbon Emissions?

Try Growing Cement Bricks With Bacteria A North Carolina startup grows "biocement" bricks to circumvent the hefty load of fossil fuels needed for normal cement.

OO Pressed, Not Baked: A Green Recipe For Making Tiles And Bricks by compressing the raw ingredients creates bricks stronger than concrete, with far less energy needed, show Swiss researchers.

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NATURAL REPERCUSSIONS

OO Australia: A Single Type Of Microbe Turns Lake Pink as hot weather evaporates it, making it so salty, only one type of saltwater microbe can survive and its pink, coloring a biological desert, for now, until the rains return.

But the loss of biodiversity throughout the world isnt rosy and its permanent, for the world or us.

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SPEAKING OUT

OO Chief EPA Environmental Justice Official Resigns,

Urges Protection Of Vulnerable Communities - Mustafa Ali ends a career of 24 years there, as deep cuts to program affecting the poor are prepared.

OO New Mexico Lawmakers, Residents Voice Support For Federal Methane Waste Rule

which is under attack in Congress.

OO Shell CEO Urges Switch To Clean Energy

As He Plans Hefty Renewable Spending

Just One Valiant Voice of Many Source Twitter

OO Rogue Twitter Accounts Fight To Preserve The Voice Of Government Science

OO Do Scientists Lose Credibility When They Become Political? Nope says a new study.

OO Gas From The Amazon Or Fracked In Europe? UK faces critics as it receives its first natural gas cargo from the Peruvian Amazon . Is there no better alternative?

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FOSSIL FUEL FOLLIES

OO The US Has One Inspector For Every 5,000 Miles Of Pipeline

Or Twice The Length Of The Country, Each to cover the 2.7 million miles of pipeline snaked across the US. Some of the pipes carry hazardous chemicals, others carry crude oil, and still others carry highly pressurized natural gas. Feeling safe?

OO Alaska Gas Pipeline Leaking 200,000 Cubic Feet Daily

Into Fisheries Habitat as regulators demand repair of the leak that started in December, citing public hazard.

OO Pipeline Owner Reaches Milestone In Iowa: 28 Spills Since 2000

Whatever The Price of Oil, Its Climate Costs Continue to Soar

OO Oil Price Will Soar Sharply In The Next Decade Without Investment In Capacity and this will create economic shockwaves due to our dependence on cheap oil for growth, says Daily Climate Editor Brian Bienkowski, who recommends this read .

OO Trumps Gulf Of Mexico Oil And Gas Drilling Proposal

Looks A Lot Like Obamas -opening up 73 million acres to gas and oil leasing.

OO The Shale Industry Is Scrambling To Catch Up To Its Own Boom

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FIXING CLIMATE CHANGE

@@ A Simple And Smart Way To Fix Climate Change given by Dan Miller in 2014 at a Ted talk suggests a way to profit as we tackle climate change, by finally charging those who sell and use fossil fuels and distributing the revenues back to all of us.

The strategy is sure to speed transition to clean renewable energy. Whats not to like? Check it out!

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Ggg population matters2 green

If we do not live sustainably,

Our children will die inhumanely.

@@ Myth vs Truth: The Huge Value of Contraception is an incisive, heartfelt recognition of the value of contraception by Sarah Brown, CEO, The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy

Unintended Pregnancy Costs US Taxpayers:

Unintended Pregnancies Cost US Taxypayers Nearly $11 Billion Yearlythe Guttmacher Institute

Teen Childbearing Alone Cost US Taxpayers $9+ Billion In 2010

And the costs of raising a child usually ensures decades, if not a life, of poverty for its mother.

- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Help prevent unintended pregnancies in your community:

publicize where women can access affordable contraception.

They can go here to find locations:

And there are many more actions you can do, right here .

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SOLAR KEEPS DRIVING

OO South Australia Rooftop Solar Installs Surge After Statewide Blackout

OO India: Barefoot Solar Warriors Take On Gender Injustice And Climate Change a college is training uneducated women to be solar technologists in India and developing countries worldwide via Indian subsidies. India itself is embarking on a massic transition to solar power.

Check it out here , right now!

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WHY WE SHOULD ACT NOW: RISING RISKS

Daily Climate Change: Global Map of Unusual Temperatures, Mar 23, 2017

Source cci-reanalyzer.org

How unusual has the weather been? No one event is caused by climate change, but global warming, which is predicted to increase unusual, extreme weather, is having a daily effect on weather, worldwide.

Unusually heavy rains have released California from a SURFACE water drought, but significantly depleted California aquifers keep 60+% of the state in a GROUNDWATER drought , which will likely take decades to disappear. It also means this major US agricultural region has a small safety net, when the next dry year strikes. Dance in the rain while you can!

Meanwhile, most of the US is experiencing unusually warmer temperatures.

Much of the areas surrounding the North Pole are experiencing much warmer than normal temperatures not good news for our Arctic thermal shield of ice. Hotter than usual temperatures continue to dominate human habitats.

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There is, of course, much more news on the consequences and solutions to climate change. To get it, check out this annotated resource list Ive compiled, Climate Change News Resources, at Wordpress.com here . For more information on the science of climate change, its consequences and solutions you can view my annotated list of online information resources here .

To help you understand just what science does and does NOT do, check this out!

Every day is Earth Day, folks, as I was reminded by this wild flower I photographed one spring. Making the U.S. a global clean energy leader will ensure a heck of a lot more jobs, and a clean, safe future. If you'd like to join the increasing numbers of people who want to TELL Congress that they will vote for clean energy candidates you can do so here . It's our way of letting Congress know there's a strong clean energy voting bloc out there.