To nobody’s great surprise, a month ago, Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement. While some current and former coal miners celebrated, this act of environmental vandalism not only won’t see a return of jobs to an industry where strip-mining requires few workers but it also – paradoxically – has reignited the […] … learn more→
Tag Archives: carbon emissions
As well as researching the impact of carbon emissions, we need to reduce our own
Fossil fuel use pushes Carbon Dioxide emissions into dangerous territory
Increasing global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), a heat-trapping gas, are pushing the world into dangerous territory, closing the window of time to avert the worst consequences of higher temperatures, such as melting ice and rising seas. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have grown exponentially. Despite wide […] … learn more→
On Arctic Sea ice melt and coal mine canaries
Despite peak global temperatures in 2005 and 2010 (unprecedented in the instrumental record), a recent sharp plunge in volume of the Arctic Sea ice and a spate of extreme weather events, coal mining, coal exports and carbon emissions continue to grow, overwhelming any mitigation attempted by schemes such as the Australian carbon price. And although […] … learn more→
Global emissions surge back after GFC
A recent spike in worldwide carbon emissions growth was caused by the rebound from the global financial crisis (GFC) and is likely to be a one-off, according to a new study from The Australian National University. The study found that global carbon emissions remain on a relentless upward trend, though efforts to shift to low-carbon […] … learn more→
2011: A year of weather extremes, with more to come
The global average temperature in 2011 was 14.52 degrees Celsius (58.14 degrees Fahrenheit). According to NASA scientists, this was the ninth warmest year in 132 years of recordkeeping, despite the cooling influence of the La Niña atmospheric and oceanic circulation pattern and relatively low solar irradiance. Since the 1970s, each subsequent decade has gotten hotter […] … learn more→
U.S. Carbon emissions down 7 percent in four years: Even bigger drops are coming
Between 2007 and 2011, carbon emissions from coal use in the United States dropped 10 percent. During the same period, emissions from oil use dropped 11 percent. In contrast, carbon emissions from natural gas use increased by 6 percent. The net effect of these trends was that U.S. carbon emissions dropped 7 percent in four […] … learn more→
The ethical dimension of tackling climate change
The global challenge of climate change poses a perfect moral storm — by failing to take action to rein in carbon emissions, the current generation is spreading the costs of its behavior far into the future. Why should people in the future pay to clean up our mess? Sometimes the best way to make progress […] … learn more→
