melting glaciers methane

Reeling Arctic glaciers leave bubbling methane

Scientists working in one of the world’s fastest-warming places found that rapidly retreating glaciers are triggering the release into the atmosphere of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that causes global temperatures to rise.

The releases are triggered as glaciers across the archipelago of Svalbard, Norway, rapidly retreat and leave behind newly exposed land […]

Monday was the Earth’s hottest day in at least 125,000 years.  Tuesday was hotter.

Monday was the Earth’s hottest day in at least 125,000 years. Tuesday was hotter.

A remarkable spate of historic heat is hitting the planet, raising alarm over looming extreme weather dangers — and an increasing likelihood that this year will be Earth’s warmest on record.

New precedents have been set in recent weeks and months, surprising some scientists with their swift evolution: historically warm oceans, with North Atlantic temperatures already nearing their typical annual peak; unparalleled low sea ice levels […]

World shipping body votes on ‘historic’ emissions cuts to curb warming

World shipping body votes on ‘historic’ emissions cuts to curb warming

LONDON — The International Maritime Organization, the obscure United Nations group that oversees the global shipping industry, agreed Friday to slash its greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades in an attempt to limit future global warming.
The landmark deak includes a standout pledge to reduce its emissions to net-zero “by or about 2050.” Previously, the IMO pledged to reduce its emissions by half by 2050,

Guess Who’s Been Paying to Block Green Energy. You Have.

Guess Who’s Been Paying to Block Green Energy. You Have.

To avoid climate change, we have to do two things: generate all of our electricity from clean sources, and retool nearly everything else that burns oil and gas — like cars, buses and furnaces. […] But utility companies are using their outsize political power to slow down the clean energy transition, and using your money to do it.

No Human Has Ever Seen it Hotter

No Human Has Ever Seen it Hotter

(from Bill McKibbin’s The Crucial Years substack.)
(See also, companion article in Las Vegas Sun)

Monday July 3 was the hottest day anyone had ever  measured on planet earth.

True, our system for measuring the global average temperature—a network of weather stations, ocean buoys, and satellites—only dates back to 1979, but that means that at a bare minimum it was the hottest day a large majority of the earth’s population had ever been alive to witness. And in truth, we […]

Global shipping industry faces head winds over going green

Global shipping industry faces head winds over going green

LONDON — A rather obscure United Nations group is gathering this week to make a momentous decision that will influence whether the world can limit perilous global warming. Ocean transport contributes about 3 percent of humankind’s greenhouse gas emissions. (If the shipping sector were a country, it would be Germany — and among the top 10 polluters.)

Reno and Las Vegas Named Among Hottest Cities

Reno and Las Vegas Named Among Hottest Cities

A particularly deadly “heat dome” phenomenon was linked to dozens of deaths across the Pacific Northwest back in 2021, lending fresh urgency to the problem of rising city temperatures.

Zoom in: Average temperature increases from 1970 to 2022 were highest in Reno, Nevada (+11.1°F); Boise, Idaho (+5.8°F); Las Vegas (+5.8°F); Salt Lake City (+5.5°F); and El Paso, Texas (+5.3°F).