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Promoting integrity in the use of climate science in government |
Climate Science Watch is a nonprofit public interest education and advocacy project dedicated to holding public officials accountable for the integrity and effectiveness with which they use climate science and related research in government policymaking, toward the goal of enabling society to respond effectively to the challenges posed by global warming and climate change. See Details |
Global Climate Disruption
6,000 square mile Wilkins Ice Shelf on Antarctic Peninsula “hangs by a thread”
Posted on Tuesday, March 25, 2008
On March 25 the British Antarctic Survey reported that the Wilkins Ice Shelf, which covered an area of 16,000 km2 (larger than the state of Connecticut), appears to be on the verge of breaking away from the Antarctic Peninsula. The BAS says this is the largest ice shelf on the peninsula yet to be threatened, “another identifiable impact of climate change on the Antarctic environment.” Satellite images processed at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center reveal a disintegration “pattern that has become characteristic of climate-caused ice shelf retreats.”
“The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast.”
Posted on Saturday, March 22, 2008
"The fingerprints of human-driven climate change are evident in seasonal timing changes for thousands of species on Earth, according to dozens of studies and last year’s authoritative report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. More than 30 scientists told [science writer Seth Borenstein] of the Associated Press how global warming is affecting plants and animals at springtime across the country, in nearly every state....’It’s an early warning sign in that it’s an additional onslaught that a lot of our threatened species can’t handle,’ said Notre Dame biology professor Jessica Hellmann....’The alarm clock that all the plants and animals are listening to is running too fast.’ Stanford University biologist Terry Root said.” (See article here, and archived.)
Environmental groups sue Bush administration to force polar bear protection
Posted on Monday, March 10, 2008
Today the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) sued the Bush administration for missing its legal deadline for issuing a final decision on whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming. Faced with overwhelming scientific evidence, the Bush administration continues illegally to delay listing.
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Harvard Prof. John Holdren on “Global Climate Disruption: What do we know, what should we do?"”
Posted on Sunday, February 24, 2008
"Global warming is a misnomer. It implies something gradual, uniform, and benign. What we’re experiencing is none of these,” says Prof. John Holdren, recently president and board chairman of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “We are already experiencing ‘dangerous anthropogenic interference’ with the climate system,” Holdren said. “The question we have now is whether we can avoid catastrophic interference.”
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New research finds escalating melt of Antarctic ice sheet
Posted on Monday, January 14, 2008
NASA scientist Eric Rignot, lead author of the new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience: “Without doubt, Antarctica as a whole is now losing ice yearly, and each year it’s losing more....We believe it is related to global climate forcing.” “The new findings come as the Arctic is losing ice at a dramatic rate and glaciers are in retreat across the planet,” the Washington Post reported on January 14.
Non-native jellyfish wipe out salmon fishery in Northern Ireland – another warning sign?
Posted on Sunday, December 02, 2007
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, a massive bloom of “mauve stinger” jellyfish, in a dense pack covering 10 square miles 35 feet deep, thousands of miles north of their preferred ocean habitat, feasted on about a half a million pounds of gourmet, organic salmon being raised in pens off the coast of northern Ireland and slated for market during the upcoming holiday season. All indications are that climate change played a key role in the fatal intrusion. The incident raises important questions for the US climate science programs and our overall level of climate change preparedness.
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White House science director Marburger says Earth may become “unlivable” without CO2 emissions cut
Posted on Monday, September 17, 2007
In an interview with BBC, Office of Science and Technology Policy director John Marburger made some welcome straightforward statements, for a change, based on scientific assessment of the danger of unchecked climate change. But when it came to linking harmful climate change impacts to the need for a strong policy response, he didn’t stray from the White House political line.
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