International Climate Issues
International Climate Issues Climate change is a truly global issue, and fighting climate change …
News
Scientists, Leaders Slam Scott Pruitt’s Televised Climate Denial
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in an interview with CNBC this morning that he …
Food
Soil Carbon Storage
The world’s soils hold a significant amount of carbon – more than double the …
Politics and Policy, U.S.
Social Cost of Carbon
The social cost of carbon” (SCC) estimates the monetary cost to society from the damage caused by each additional metric ton of carbon dioxide (CO2) released into the atmosphere, due to climate change impacts.
Food
Food, Agriculture and Climate Change
Crops and Climate Climate change threatens the global food supply as certain crops become …
News
Editorial and Opinion Writers Respond Positively to COP21 Outcome
From November 22 to December 17, Climate Nexus tracked domestic op-eds and editorials reacting to COP21 in Paris. Editorial boards were largely supportive of the outcome and process of the summit, with over four times more positive than negative editorials. Similarly, for op-eds, the positive outweighed the negative by a factor of three (methodology below).
International, Paris Agreement
Debunking Myths With Facts About COP21: The Paris Climate Agreement
Here are a number of resources that debunk common myths about the Paris climate agreement. For more like this, see Climate Nexus’ fact checking pieces on the top 10 climate science myths and myths about the Clean Power Plan.
The IPCC
Synthesis Report
The final installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report …
Science
Sea Level Rise
Sea levels are rising rapidly Sea levels have risen between eight to ten inches …
Archive
Ice Sheet Tipping Points
Pushing global temperatures past these thresholds can trigger irreversible changes even if we do not add any further CO2 to the atmosphere. These changes may be abrupt or may take hundreds of years, but once the threshold is passed they cannot be reversed.
Science
Ocean Acidification
Ocean acidification threatens the marine food web and coastal communities.
Health, Issue Areas
Climate Change and Sports
As the world warms, one often overlooked issue is its effects on sports and recreation. While not as life-threatening as extreme weather or as costly as droughts, climate change’s impacts on sports is something that’s becoming increasingly common.
Science
Extreme Heat
One of the clearest findings of climate science is that global warming amplifies the intensity, duration and frequency of extreme heat events.
Issue Areas
The Carbon Budget
Following the publication of the latest findings by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), some commentators zeroed in on a short paragraph in the Summary for Policymakers. This brief section lays out a “carbon budget,” defined as the precise quantity of carbon dioxide that humans can emit and still limit warming to 2ºC above pre-industrial levels.
News
China and U.S. Enter Historic Accord on Climate Change
The new leadership from China is game changing event for international climate cooperation. The …
State Impacts
Southwest
Climate Change Impacts Arizona • California • Colorado • Nevada • New Mexico • Utah The following …
Health
Climate Risk and Spread of Vector-Borne Diseases
Climate change creates new uncertainties about the spread of diseases such as the Zika virus, dengue fever, malaria, and Lyme disease. These illnesses are transmitted by insects known as vectors, including mosquitoes, ticks, and flies.
News
Climate Change in the Context of International Women’s Day 2016
International Women’s Day, which takes place annually on March 8, celebrates women for their …
Extreme Weather
Snowmageddon Redux
Six years after the Snowmageddon of 2010 buried the Washington DC area in up to 30 inches of snow, another major winter storm is poised to unload upwards of 30 inches of snow in the US capital, while threatening the Atlantic seaboard with hurricane-level storm surge.
Climate change is fueling the destructive power of this storm. Global warming increases ocean heat content, which increases the energy and moisture available to storms. It also increases the heat in the atmosphere, allowing the air to hold and dump more precipitation, and it causes sea level rise, which allows storm surge to ride on higher seas.
Extreme Weather
Climate change and El Niño fueled 2015’s record heat
2015 is the second of two back-to-back record hot years, and scientists say the record heat’s primary cause is climate change. During 2015, the average temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.62°F (0.90°C) above the 20th century average. This was the highest among all years in the 1880-2015 record, surpassing the previous record set in 2014 by 0.29°F (0.16°C). This is also the largest margin by which the annual global temperature record has been broken.