The first quarter of 2016 has seen climate records smashed, with the northern hemisphere briefly tipping over the two degrees of warming danger level. Climate scientists have already warned us that polar and glacial ice is melting faster than IPCC models anticipated. The resulting sea level rise is now expected …
Read More »Electric car sales are up… but don’t get too excited
UK car sales increased by 5.3 percent last month according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, who were keen to highlight the increase in alternative fuel vehicles (AFV): “Demand for alternative fuel vehicles showed a notable increase of 21.5% in the month, as consumers continued to favour lower …
Read More »Now the Antarctic ice is melting faster
If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at their present rate, then, in Antarctica alone, enough ice will have run into the sea by the end of the century to raise the high tide mark worldwide by a metre according to Tim Radford at Climate News Network. Until now, most …
Read More »Bitcoin may not be the positive force we wanted
Electronic cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin were supposed to provide us with the means to destroy our corrupt banking and finance system without destroying the essential payments system that the global economy depends upon. Bitcoin has the potential to take down the current system in two ways. First, the blockchain technology that …
Read More »Are we too focused on carbon emissions?
For most people, climate change is about the fossil fuels we burn to generate electricity, heat our buildings and fuel our transport. But these activities are not the only ones that contribute to climate change. Nor is the carbon dioxide that they produce the only greenhouse gas we need to …
Read More »The NHS is unprepared for climate change
In an open letter to Jeremy Hunt, The UK Health Alliance on Climate Change warns that the NHS is unprepared for the impact of climate change, and that the government needs to act now rather than follow the usual practice of waiting until disaster strikes. The Alliance says that the …
Read More »2016 Arctic sea ice maximum was the lowest on record
The amount of Arctic ice at its annual high point – the “maximum” – was 5.607 million square miles this year; the lowest on record according to NASA. With 13 of the smallest maximums recorded in the last 13 years, Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space …
Read More »Let’s do away with Westminster for good
It is time to face up to what should have become obvious by now… Westminster has had it day. The time has come to see it as the folly it always was, and bring it to an end. No, this is not a call to grab your pitchforks and burning …
Read More »Benefits of climate change… an epitaph for human stupidity?
If we could stop climate change where it is now, UK citizens would enjoy several benefits according to the mainstream media this week. First, there is the story that we have been enjoying highly favourable wine producing conditions. As Time magazine (among many others) observes: “If you find yourself a little …
Read More »The global carbonisation experiment gathers pace
For all of the talk about emissions reduction, we are now adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere ten times faster than at any time in at least 66 million years according to new research in the journal Nature Geoscience: “Given currently available palaeorecords, we conclude that the present anthropogenic carbon …
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