EartherClimate Change

Report: EPA Investigates EPA Head Scott Pruitt For His Climate-Denying Bullshit 

We all hoped EPA head, Scott Pruitt, would eventually face consequences when he falsely claimed that there was “tremendous disagreement” about whether human activity cause global warming. The time may have finally arrived. Reuters reports that EPA’s internal watchdog, the Scientific Integrity Office, is reviewing Pruitt’s patently false statements. In early March, Pruitt said that … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Today’s Congressional Hearing on Climate Change Was a Colossal Train Wreck

In the midst of today’s highly-anticipated House Science Committee hearing on climate science and the scientific method, right around the time that Congressman Dana Rohrabacher thundered that certain witnesses (the one mainstream climate scientist in the room, specifically) should be ashamed of themselves for daring to criticize the committee’s chairman, the livestream gave out. Part … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Rising Sea Levels Could Decimate Southern California Beaches by 2100

Using a new computer model, scientists predict that upwards of 67 percent of Southern California beaches could be severely damaged by rising sea levels in the next 80 years. A new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research warns that 31 to 67 percent of Southern California beaches are at risk of complete erosion … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Google Says Its Job Is to Promote Climate Change Conspiracy Theories

Yesterday, I wrote a short post about Google’s Top Stories module. If you googled “great barrier reef” on Wednesday, you’d be presented with a Breitbart article filled with insane ravings about how climate change isn’t real, featured at the very top in the site’s highlighted “Top Stories” box. When I went to the company’s press … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Last Scrap of the North American Ice Sheet Is Melting

The planet is warming and Arctic ice is melting. These facts are hardly news. But it’s not just habitat for polar bears that’s being lost—a piece of Earth’s history is disappearing, too. You’ve probably never heard of the Barnes Ice Cap, a Delaware-sized glacier located on a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, and you … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Wildfires Have Already Toasted a Staggering Amount of Land in the US This Year

The 2017 US wildfire season is off to alarming start, with thousands of individual fires having scorched through 2 million acres since the start of the year. That’s nearly 10 times more land burned than what’s typically seen at this stage of the season—and a troubling sign of things to come. According to data presented … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Paris Climate Agreement Could Bring a Huge Economic Boom

In the lead up to talks between the G20 nations that will take place over the next few months, Germany has commissioned an independent study to analyze the potential impacts of the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. The report found that the investments in renewable energy could add $19 trillion to the world’s economy. … Continued

EartherClimate Change

America’s Doctors: Climate Change is Making People Sick

In the debate over Earth and its changing climate, rhetoric frequently suggests that we are destroying the planet. The truth, though, is that this hunk of floating space rock we call home will live on long after humanity. The real losers of climate change will be us. On Wednesday, more than half of America’s physicians … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Oceans Are Getting Warmer Faster Than Anyone Realized

Great news, everyone! We’re getting better at measuring the changing temperature of the ocean. Unfortunately, the data shows that they are warming more rapidly than researchers thought. A new study published in Scientific Advances has pulled together the data we have for ocean heating from 1960-2015. It provides what is believed to be the most … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Great Barrier Reef Is Suffering Yet Another Mass Bleaching [Update: It Gets Worse]

The past few months have brought another rough summer for the Great Barrier Reef, which is suffering a major bleaching event for the second year in a row. Australian coral reef experts made that conclusion after flying over the Great Barrier Reef for six hours yesterday, according to a press release issued by the Australian … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Trump’s New EPA Head Wants to Debate Global Warming as the World Burns

Environmental Protection Agency head and fossil fuel shill Scott Pruitt is a simple man. He likes denying climate change, obscuring the thousands in campaign funds he’s received from the fossil fuel industry, and denying climate change some more. Bloomberg reported Thursday morning that Pruitt is now saying he doesn’t believe the overwhelming scientific consensus that … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Humans Can’t Stop Breaking Carbon Emissions Records

The climate is changing, driven in part by humans spewing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. An overwhelming majority of climate scientists agrees with this statement. They agree with this statement because they look at long-term climate models, look at carbon emissions, run lots of tests, and see that one drives the other. I do not like … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Antarctica Had a Terrifying, Pleasant Day [Corrected]

Here in New York City, it was a beautiful spring day with temperatures hitting 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Life was good, and it almost made you forget all the troubles the world faces at the moment. Then, you find out that it was basically the same frickin’ temperature in Antarctica this time in 2015 and the … Continued

EartherClimate Change

A War Is On to Destroy the Fall Armyworm in Africa

A coalition of officials met in Zimbabwe this month to discuss a little pest that has become a big problem. The fall armyworm has spread through Africa over the course of the last year and it has had devastating effects on crops. Experts fear that globalization and climate change are setting the caterpillar up to … Continued

EartherClimate Change

An Alarmingly Early Spring is Sweeping Across the Southern United States

Spring is well ahead of schedule across much of the southern United States, in some cases by at least two to three weeks. An early spring may sound nice, but it comes with serious consequences—both to human health and the environment. A new set of maps produced by the USGS-led US National Phenology Network (US-NPN) … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Amount of Oxygen in the Ocean Has Dropped Thanks to Humans

You are probably aware that global temperatures are rising thanks to human-made greenhouse gases emissions. You might not be aware of some of the many associated side effects, for instance, the fact that our oceans have been losing oxygen over the past few decades. Past studies have observed or modeled this effect, but a new … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Arctic Is in Such Bad Shape That Scientists Propose Refreezing It Ourselves

We all know the Earth is warming because humans are emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. We’ve also heard that the Arctic is doing horribly, hitting record sea ice lows for several of the past few months, thanks to recent hot weather that’s connected to a longer-term warming trend. The polar bear populations are projected … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Gigantic Bats Are Dying Upside Down, Making Australia’s Heatwave Look Like a Horror Movie

If you’ve ever seen Australia’s grey-headed flying fox, you know that they’re absolutely terrifying. With an average wingspan of over 3 feet, these threatened animals are sometimes called megabats. But you haven’t really seen terrifying until you’ve seen the flying fox dying by the hundreds, which is precisely what’s happening Down Under right now. Most … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Australia Is Hot as Balls Right Now 

Parts of eastern and central Australia are in the midst of a horrific heatwave, with temperatures reaching as high as 116 degrees F (46 degrees C). Alarmingly, the record-setting conditions are expected to worsen over the coming weekend. While it’s always hard to tie individual meteorological events to climate change, one can’t help but consider … Continued

EartherClimate Change

America Is Surging Ahead of the Climate Goals Trump’s EPA Pick Is Suing to Kill

In 2016, a coalition of 28 states sued the Environmental Protection Agency alleging that a new federal plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions called the “Clean Power Plan” was illegal, unfairly penalized coal-dependent states, and would cause massive layoffs in the energy sector. But according to a new report released Wednesday, the US isn’t just … Continued