EartherClimate Change

The Arctic Could Still Warm Over 15 Degrees This Century Even If We Meet the Paris Agreement Pledges [Updated]

A new report from the United Nations shows that it’s basically game over for the Arctic as we know it. According to the UN, meeting the existing Paris Agreement pledges—which do not get us to the two degree warming goal—would lead up to 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) of winter warming over the Arctic … Continued

EartherClimate Change

In Rare Move, Oil Giants Ask Trump to Regulate a Greenhouse Gas

Fossil fuel giants Shell and Exxon are far from perfect, but they are taking a stand against the Trump administration’s attempt to kill regulations on a potent greenhouse gas. This week, both companies criticized President Donald Trump’s deregulatory actions against methane, a potent greenhouse gas that can leak during oil and gas operations. Shell told … Continued

EartherClimate Change

You Can Eat a Burger and Still Fight For the Planet

I eat meat. Not every day but most days. I also eat out at least twice a week. That means take-out containers and plastic. I ride the New York City subway just about every day, and I try to avoid cabs. However, I also plan to own a car one day, and I fly for … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Scientists: Maybe If We Only Dim the Sun a Little It Won’t Backfire Horribly

When it comes to geoengineering the planet to cool the climate, there’s rightfully a lot of hesitation. Blocking incoming sunlight might seem like a quick fix to rising temperatures, but doing so could quickly tie up humanity in a decades-long project with alarming side effects like shifting precipitation patterns and changes in hurricane season. Which … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Bill Nye Turned Up at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Talk at SXSW and Dug Into Climate Change

When attendees packed into a ballroom at the Austin Convention Center during SXSW to see a featured speaker event with Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Intercept’s Senior Politics Editor Briahna Gray, surely they could not have anticipated that one of the night’s standout moments would come courtesy of Bill Nye (the Science Guy). In a … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Author of 1983 EPA Report on Global Warming Explains Why He’s Still Hopeful After 36 Years of Being Ignored

In 1983, the Environmental Protection Agency published a report titled “Can We Delay A Greenhouse Warming?” It ran through the latest predictions on climate change, and analyzed the feasibility of several policy options, from taxes to fossil fuel bans, that could slow the coming catastrophe. It is one of the earliest EPA reports dedicated to … Continued

EartherClimate Change

58 National Security Experts Denounce Trump’s Latest Plan to Dispute Climate Science

Top U.S. military and national security leaders have some Thoughts about President Donald Trump’s proposed Presidential Committee on Climate Security. The president is reportedly planning to inject some climate denial into the national security world with the panel whose existence first came to light last month, and 58 senior leaders with actual experience in this … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Days After Announcing Presidential Bid, Jay Inslee Stresses the ‘Enormous Costs’ of Climate Change

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee announced he’s running for president mere days ago, and he’s already going hard on the primary focus of his campaign: climate change. Speaking with George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Inslee addressed the “huge cost to our economy, to our health, to our national security” if we as … Continued

EartherClimate Change

How My Month-Long Diet to Save the Planet Collapsed Under a Mountain of Donuts and Pizza

I’ve now spent four weeks eating a diet that scientists crafted to demonstrate how all of humanity could eat sustainably in 2050. And over the past two days, things went off the rails. Sorry, Earth (also sorry, body). The EAT-Lancet Commission put out a report in January outlining what a daily diet—dubbed the planetary health … Continued

EartherClimate Change

A Future of Heavier Rainstorms Could Be a Death Sentence For Corals

Corals have it rough. From warming oceans to sunscreen, threats are everywhere. Now, add freshwater to the list. A study out last week in in the journal BMC Genomics documents how low levels of salinity can stress out corals. The research highlights yet another environmental problem that may become more frequent in a warming world, … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Jay Inslee Enters 2020 Presidential Race, and Climate Change Is His Top Priority

The presidential candidate running in the name of climate change has arrived, and his name is Jay Inslee. The public’s been expecting the Washington state governor to announce his candidacy, so this comes as no surprise. Inslee finally shot his shot Friday morning when he released a video on Twitter that highlighted the governor’s long … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Australia Just Sweated Through Its Hottest Summer Ever

In case you haven’t heard, it’s been hot in Australia. So it comes as no great shock that the Australian government has officially declared the summer of 2018-19 the country’s hottest on record. “It won’t come as a surprise to many that this summer will be our warmest on record,” Andrew Watkins, manager of long-range … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Evidence For Global Warming Passes Physics’ Gold Standard Threshold

You and I, we know climate change is definitely real. But physicists have a gold standard for the burden of proof known as five sigma. A new analysis shows that even the most conservative climate data have passed this point. Scientists released the analysis of satellite temperature data in Nature Climate Change to mark 40 … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Northern Hemisphere Just Experienced Its First-Ever Category 5 Cyclone in February

We’ve seen a lot of weird-ass tropical cyclones in recent years. This week, we can add another one to the list. Typhoon Wutip formed and brushed Guam late last week. That alone made it an oddity in terms of timing and location. But rather than weakening as forecast, the storm blew up into a Category … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Four Things That Could Kill Us Before the Cloud Apocalypse Does

If you read the news on Monday, you may have heard people freaking out about how climate change is finally coming for the clouds. A study released in Nature Geoscience chronicles how stratocumulus clouds, those low hanging clouds that lend themselves well to daydreaming, could one day disappear if we keep emitting carbon. Their disappearance … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Costa Rica Lays Out Plan to Zero Out Carbon Emissions by 2050

Time to pack my bags and move to Costa Rica. The tiny Central American country is setting an example with a plan to fully decarbonize by 2050. President Carlos Alvarado officially signed the decree to decarbonize by mid-century on Sunday. On Monday, he followed it up by announcing that the country would extend its moratorium … Continued

EartherClimate Change

It Takes Just a Few Years For Extreme Weather to Start Seeming Normal, Study Finds

Our response to climate change is often compared to the hypothetical boiling frog scenario, where a frog sits in a pot of water as the heat is slowly turned up until it’s boiled to death. Unfortunately, while frogs really don’t like being boiled at all, a new study on responses to extreme weather suggests the … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Dozens of Youth Activists Arrested After Green New Deal Protest in Mitch McConnell’s Office

On Monday, youth activists occupied Mitch McConnell’s office bearing banners calling on him to look them in the eyes and explain why he doesn’t support a Green New Deal. They were eventually expelled, and 42 were arrested by Capitol Police for unlawfully demonstrating, the law enforcement agency told Earther. The move marks the latest escalation … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Marshall Islands Plans to Raise Its Land to Survive Rising Sea Levels

The Republic of the Marshall Islands isn’t going to allow the rising seas to wipe it off the map. Instead, the islands will attempt to rise above. Literally. President Hilda Heine announced a plan to elevate the country’s islands in an interview with the Marshall Islands Journal Friday, reports RNZ Pacific. Sea level rise and … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Eating to Save the Planet Isn’t Just About What I Eat—It’s About What I Don’t

In three weeks of eating a diet that was devised by scientists to sustain a planet with 10 billion humans, I’ve learned about my own relationship with food and the ups and downs of eating in 2050. This week, I looked in my fridge and realized there’s one thing I’ve really been struggling with. Pushing … Continued