Climate 411

How much coal does the U.S. have?

By Jeffery Greenblatt / Published: July 10, 2007

The author of today’s post, Jeffery Greenblatt, Ph.D., is an expert on low-carbon energy technologies at Environmental Defense.

The U.S. may be short on oil and gas reserves, but the one energy source we thought we had in abundance was coal – enough to last 250 years at current consumption levels. Or so we thought.

A few weeks ago, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a new report saying that U.S. coal reserves may last only another 100 years, or even less. That’s a big difference. How did we get this so wrong, and what are the implications for U.S. energy policy going forward?

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Posted in Energy / Read 1 Response

Global Warming and the Ozone Hole

By Bill Chameides / Published: July 9, 2007

Many people have asked me whether global warming and the ozone hole are related. The short answer is "no". The long answer starts with "tangentially". Here’s the scoop.

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Posted in News / Read 4 Responses

Climate News: Solar Excuses, Stormy Reefs and Drying Ponds

By Lisa Moore / Published: July 6, 2007

The author of today’s post, Lisa Moore, is a scientist in the Climate and Air Program.

This week’s scientific journals brought three interesting stories about climate change. The first is a sneak peek at an upcoming paper about global warming and the Sun. The second talks about an unexpected environmental benefit of hurricanes, and the third reports that climate change is drying up important biodiversity hotspots in the Arctic.

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Posted in News / Read 5 Responses

Are you going to the LiveEarth concert?

By Sheryl Canter / Published: July 6, 2007

Tomorrow’s Live Earth concert is expected to be quite the happening. Do you think it will help the fight against climate change? Are you planning to go? If you do go, post your experiences here!

Posted in News / Read 7 Responses

Part 4 of 5: Medieval Warming Period

By Bill Chameides / Published: July 5, 2007

This is the fourth installment of a five-part series by Bill Chameides on How We Know Humans Cause Global Warming.

1. A 175-year-old Puzzle
2. What Chemistry Tells Us
3. Causes of Past Climate Change
4. The Medieval Warming Period
5. The Only Explanation Left

In my previous article in this series, I talked about climate change patterns over geologic time. I showed how today’s spike in temperature and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration breaks patterns and records going back 600,000 years.

This departure can be seen even more clearly when you look at just the last 1000 years (see graph in previous post). So what is this you hear about a Medieval Warming Period?

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Posted in Basic Science of Global Warming / Read 12 Responses

Global warming and the Fourth of July

By Sheryl Canter / Published: July 3, 2007

Today’s post is from Sam Parry, Environmental Defense’s manager of online membership.

As we prepare for July 4th festivities, I wanted to share an inspiring conversation we’ve had with our online supporters over the past several weeks. We asked the question, how do people who love this country approach the crisis of global warming? We must have struck a nerve because we got thousands of passionate responses.

We used these responses to craft a Declaration of New Patriotism. To date, almost 56,000 people have added their “John Hancock.” Last week, we delivered the message to Congress with an ad in Roll Call, one of the most widely read newspapers on Capitol Hill.

So before you head out to celebrate tomorrow, take a look at our Declaration of New Patriotism and add your signature. Happy Fourth of July!

Posted in What Others are Saying / Comments are closed