Author: Tom Wright
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US Electricity: Natural Gas & Coal Fall, While Renewables Continue to Rise
Electricity generation from both natural gas and coal fell in 2017. At the same time, renewables – especially hydropower, wind, and solar – continued to rise according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/us-electricity-natural-gas-coal-fall-while-renewables-continue-to-rise/
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The ‘nightmare’ California flood more dangerous than a huge earthquake
California’s drought-to-deluge cycle can mask the dangers Mother Nature can have in store. During one of the driest March-through-February time periods ever recorded in Southern California, an intense storm dumped so much rain on Montecito in January that mudflows slammed into entire rows of homes. Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and at least…
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Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions Continue Dangerous Decline, Scientists Warn
Biodiversity and Nature’s Contributions Continue Dangerous Decline, Scientists Warn Human well-being at risk. Landmark reports highlight options to protect and restore nature and its vital contributions to people Biodiversity – the essential variety of life forms on Earth – continues to decline in every region of the world, significantly reducing nature’s capacity to contribute to…
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‘Dead zone’ in Gulf of Mexico will take decades to recover from farm pollution
A new study says that even in the ‘unrealistic’ event of a total halt to the flow of agricultural chemicals the damage will persist for 30 years. The enormous “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico will take decades to recover even if the flow of farming chemicals that is causing the damage is completely…
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‘Great Pacific garbage patch’ sprawling with far more debris than thought
The patch of detritus is more than twice the size of France and is up to 16 times larger than previously estimated. An enormous area of rubbish floating in the Pacific Ocean is teeming with far more debris than previously thought, heightening alarm that the world’s oceans are being increasingly choked by trillions of pieces…
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Buried, altered, silenced: 4 ways government climate information has changed since Trump took office
After Donald Trump won the presidential election, hundreds of volunteers around the U.S. came together to “rescue” federal data on climate change, thought to be at risk under the new administration. “Guerilla archivists,” including ourselves, gathered to archive federal websites and preserve scientific data. But what has happened since? Did the data vanish? As of one…
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How Do Big Oil Companies Talk about Climate Science? Four Takeaways from a Day in Court
In front of a standing room only courtroom audience, the case of The People of California vs. B.P. P.L.C. et al. took an important step forward yesterday. In this case, the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, CA, are aiming to hold five major fossil fuel companies responsible for climate damages, particularly with respect to sea level rise.…
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73% of Deep-Sea Fish Have Ingested Plastic
Microplastics can really be found everywhere, even in the stomachs of creatures living deep underwater. Marine scientists from the National University of Ireland (NUI) in Galway found the plastic bits in 73 percent of 233 deep-sea fish collected from the Northwest Atlantic Ocean—one of the highest microplastic frequencies in fish ever recorded worldwide. https://www.ecowatch.com/plastics-deep-sea-fish-2536726086.html
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In Blow to Monsanto, Arkansas Ban on Controversial Herbicide to Remain
Monsanto lost its bid to overturn Arkansas’ ban on dicamba, a controversial weedkiller linked to extensive damage to famers’ crops in the state as well as several other states. The agribusiness giant makes a version of the herbicide called XtendiMax that’s paired with its seeds that are genetically engineered to resist the product. DuPont Co. and BASF SE also sell their own…
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How to Escape Reality in 10 Simple Steps
Both climate science denying scientists and regular scientists are sensitive to bias, everyone is. Because of this, scientific protocol has scrutiny built-in and it’s called peer-review. It isn’t bullet-proof, but scientists publishing peer reviewed work do have more bias checks in place than consultants who use their own blog posts as references, like Curry. From…