Welcome ! As a young French Marketing professional with a Master's in International Management I have been selecting since January 2007 the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change, cleantech and the world energy sector. Sounds great ? Don't hesitate to subscribe now !
This is getting truly worrying. To TreeHugger : “The first week of the new year has seen temperatures that are in some parts of the nation nearly 40 degrees (Fahrenheit) higher than average. Which is crazy. “
The situation on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean is similar as The Guardian notes : “The first signs of spring are emerging weeks early in the countryside and in gardens as a result of the mild winter, experts said on Sunday. “
So, a year without winter ? I haven’t seen snow this year and it seems I won’t see any. After a year 2011 that was really records-setting, it seems 2012 will break even more records of heat…
Here is a rundown of all the extreme weather we witnessed in the past few months around the world and the numerous calamities that struck all continents without exception…
To The Guardian : ” The year 2011 was another ecologically tumultuous year with greenhouse gases rise to record levels, Arctic sea ice nearly equalling 2007′s record melt, and temperatures the 11th highest ever recorded. “
” It was marked on the ground by unparalleled extremes of heat and cold in the US, droughts and heatwaves in Europe and Africa and record numbers of weather-related natural disasters. “
I have previously written that the link between extreme weather events and climate change wasn’t clear. It isn’t the case anymore as the latest research from the IPCC proves. As Cleantechies notes :
” A new report says that an increase in heat waves is “virtually certain” as a result of global warming and that extreme weather events — including hurricanes, floods, and droughts — will likely become more intense in the next century. “
” The IPCC’s “special report on extreme weather,” (…) urges governments worldwide to draft plans to minimize the likely human and economic costs of these events. “
The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which is starting today in Durban, South Africa is THE event to follow during the next two weeks.
According to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri ” Global climate talks need to focus on the growing threat from extreme weather and shift away from political squabbles that hobble progress toward a tougher pact to rein in greenhouse gas emissions. “
Indeed, time is almost up if we want to have a chance to fix the various problems we are facing, and fixing them relatively without too much problems.
To TreeHugger : ” Leave it to the nation’s premier fake newspaper to pen the best real article on climate change I’ve read in weeks.”. Similar opinions have come from Andrew Revkin in the New York Times and Grist.
Having read the full article, I can say it is indeed a fantastic reflection showing that unless we REALLY start thinking about climate and energy in our daily lives and we REALLY demand CHANGE from our governments, NOTHING will be done.
America is both on fire and under water at the same time, other dramatic and extreme weather events have been witnessed this year and last one. Peak oil and coal are looming. When will we heed the calls ?
To ABC News : ” It’s time to clean up Irene. The hurricane’s destructive path through 10 East Coast states left an estimated $7 billion to $13 billion of damage in its wake — without even accounting for economic losses.”
Estimates could climb to $20 billion (14 billion euros) if economic lost were taken into account… And this was by all standards a small hurricane. It wasn’t even one, but just a tropical storm when it reached most of the United States.
Climate change is making these phenomena worse. (cf. below) What are we waiting for slashing our emissions and thus, the risk of increased hurricanes and floods ? Continue »
I believe it is getting harder and harder for deniers to keep pretending climate change is a hoax (or a conspiracy…). Here are three articles that got my attention last week : First, Arctic Sea ice melt on track to set new record low in 2011.
The second was about the heat wave scorching the US Midwest. To CBS : ” Across the country, this month’s summer’s searing heat has tied or broken high temperature records nearly 900 times. “
But the most potent stuff I wrote on climate change was on the Huffington Post : “It’s hotter than it used to be; It’s not as hot as it’s going to be”. Isn’t it past high time to act ? It’s not as if we lacked options…
To the Independent : ” Climate researchers from Britain, the US (…) have formed a new alliance that aims to investigate exceptional weather events to see whether they can be attributable to global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. ”
” They intend to assess each unusual event in terms of the probability that it has been exacerbated or even caused by the global temperature increase seen over the past century. “ We can wish them luck in this endeavor.
I am no climate scientist, but when I gather the facts about the many extreme weather events of the past two years, I don’t think it’s a coincidence… Our atmosphere is warming, and weirding…
I have been committed since January 2007 to bring you each month a selection of the latest headlines and best researches on sustainable development, climate change and the world energy sector.
However, I don’t blog as much as I would like to and generally write around 25 posts per month. But many more news are worth reading. This is why I use Twitter to share more news that are worth your time.
I believe it offers a good complement to this website. So if you are on Twitter and like this selection, don’t hesitate to start following me. Continue »
To Climate Progress : ” Is the “Global Weirding” of 2010 and 2011 the new normal? (…) Any one of the extreme weather events of 2010 or 2011 could have occurred naturally sometime during the past 1,000 years. “
” But it is highly improbable that the remarkable extreme weather events of 2010 and 2011 could have all happened in such a short period of time without some powerful climate-altering force at work.”
And as the English version of Al Jazeera notes : ” Severe weather events are wracking the planet, and experts warn of even greater consequences to come. ” (See the full article as it sums up the situation well.)
