Group items tagged

Treasury's just-released Climate Action Plan establishes five priority actions to strengthen and build upon Treasury's climate resilience and adaptive capabilities: (1) rebuilding programs and capabilities that may have atrophied or stagnated in recent years; (2) addressing climate change impacts and vulnerabilities across the range of Departmental operations, including administrative, manufacturing, and law enforcement activities; (3) ensuring a climate-focused approach to managing Treasury's real property portfolio footprint; (4) enabling procurement management to fully consider climate change realities; and (5) providing, measuring, and accounting for a financial investment approach appropriate to the Department's climate objectives.

Article about the less fortunate suffering at the hands of big business as climate crisis severly impacts the environments where people live. It talks about basic life support needs that are more difficult to come by as a result of climate change.

A majority of Americans continue to say they see the effects of climate change in their own communities and believe that the federal government falls short in its efforts to reduce the impacts of climate change. At a time when partisanship colors most views of policy, broad majorities of the public - including more than half of Republicans and overwhelming shares of Democrats - say they would favor a range of initiatives to reduce the impacts of climate change

More on the impact of climate change and sea ports and the cascading effect on the economy. Nature of ports makes them more susceptible to environment changes as a result of climate change--increased intense events and rising sea levels. Author calls for change now .

Article talks about the rate of climate change and the fact that nations are not doing enough to slow the effects. Right now, nations need to cut back 7x their current emissions to limit anticipated effects from happening sooner than later.

Article about the Colorado river and the dependence on it for water. 4 nearby states are feeling the effects of less water/falling water levels in the river as a result of climate change. If the decline continues, a remedy is necessary to sustain the people of this area.

It is often implied that the young are more concerned about the environment than older adults, but this study suggests that is not the case. "Older people are just as likely as younger people to recognize the need for action on climate change and to say they're willing to make big sacrifices to protect the environment, suggesting claims of a generational divide over the future of the planet may be exaggerated." The polling included Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, with the results reflecting very similar beliefs about the significance of the issues and the need for action. If politicians knew this, would they behave differently, and take bolder steps to mitigate climate change?

Super interesting, great find!

A bit of a summary of possible climate change effects. The only certainty seems to be that there will be change, but the severity is still unclear. Work being done today to reduce emissions should help, but to what extent is not necessarily clear. It notes concern for the potential collapse of teh Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which could change things quickly. Still, the uncertainty is what's most concerning, and people need to be ready for different possible outcomes

Interesting perspective on climate change in regard to insurance companies and insurance premiums. People often rely on the insurance to compensate for their losses. Insurance companies approach now has to change, as severe weather events become more frequent. Many will be priced out of areas due to higher costs. All industries will be required to pay higher premiums, subsequently raising product costs to consumers

"The administration's multitrillion-dollar social spending package, widely considered the most comprehensive climate legislation ever put forward in the US, must survive razor-thin Democratic majorities in Congress...The bill includes a program of payments and penalties to ensure utilities phase out fossil fuels from America's electricity supply, a huge expansion in tax credits for clean energy and new restrictions on methane, a potent greenhouse gas that is emitted from oil and gas drilling."

DRIVER-INFRASTRUCTURE-SCARCITY-POLITICS By 2071, nearly half of the 204 freshwater basins in the United States may not be able to meet the monthly water demand. These model projections, recently published in the journal Earth's Future, are just one preliminary component of the upcoming Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment expected to be published next year. In 1974, congress required that this assessment of US renewable resources be published every 10 years. Conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, the research describes two causes for the projected shortages. The first is that the U.S. will simply have more people. Despite that the average American is using less water, population growth is still expected to increase water demand across most of the country. Second, the water supply itself is expected to decrease. Projected climate change affects both rain patterns and temperatures. While rainfall is expected to increase in some parts of the US, the southern Great Plains and parts of the South won't be so lucky. The water basins rely on rainfall to feed the rivers and tributaries that flow into them. Separately, more water will evaporate from reservoirs and streams as the climate gets warmer, further chipping away at the water supply. Around 50 years from now, many U.S. regions may see water supplies reduced by a third of their current size, while demand continues to increase.

Most of what we hear about greenhouse gases is associated with carbon dioxide. This research focused on removal of methane, which would have a higher payback if a deployable solution can be identified. "...removing about three years-worth of human-caused emissions of the potent greenhouse gas would reduce global surface temperatures by approximately 0.21 degrees Celsius while reducing ozone levels enough to prevent roughly 50,000 premature deaths annually." The case for funding this technology is strong - "Removing methane from the atmosphere could reduce temperatures even faster than carbon dioxide removal alone because methane is 81 times more potent in terms of warming the climate over the first 20 years after its release, and about 27 times more potent over a century. Methane removal also improves air quality by decreasing the concentration of tropospheric ozone, exposure to which causes an estimated one million premature deaths annually worldwide due to respiratory illnesses."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday finalized a rule that will slash the use of a potent climate-warming gas commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners by 85% over the next 15 years, a move that will help halve greenhouse gas emissions this decade. he EPA and White House also announced on Thursday that the administration will take an interagency approach to prevent the illegal trade, production, use, and sale of HFCs and prepare for enforcement actions to punish violations of the law.

The thirteen chapters of the Working Group I report provide an assessment of the current evidence on the physical science of climate change, knowledge evaluation gained from observations, reanalyses, paleoclimate archives and climate model simulations, as well as physical, chemical and biological climate processes. (1300 pages?)

Using the chemical signatures found in marine microorganisms, the researchers found that the Arctic Ocean began warming rapidly at the beginning of the last century as warmer and saltier waters flowed in from the Atlantic - a phenomenon called Atlantification - and that this change likely preceded the warming documented by modern instrumental measurements. Since 1900, the ocean temperature has risen by approximately 2 degrees Celsius, while sea ice has retreated and salinity has increased. A number of factors, perhaps some that we still do not understand, make up our complex ecosystem. While climate scientists have made some predictions about what we must do to protect the ecosystem, it is highly likely that we do not understand all of the factors involved, resulting in the recommendations being either too aggressive or too understated.

Talks about rising sea levels, specific east coast and the effect it will have on life as we know it today

Have a look at the tags on this one..."Climate Change" should be one tag...

Interesting thesis about climate change and ports. The paper discusses the importance of ports to world trade and national security (specificallyf or the US). The US military has recently become more of an expeditionary force rather than occupational, subsequently ports are becoming more important. However, impending climate change threatens the port operations and infrastructure that need to be understood.

THis is an extensive look at seaports and anticipated changes in coming years leading up to 2050. One big factor it mentions is that existing ports will need more space due to increased volumes and climate change factors. More space has to be considered in planning. With more space for the ports to operate, more is likely displaced and that will have an effect on surrounding communities.

'Practically all types of plastic' can be recycled. Currently, the facility can manage four plastic types, but that number will increase to twelve different types. No packaging is incinerated at Site Zero. The facility is operated with renewable energy. There are also plans to cover the building's large flat roof with solar panels.