Global Warming or Climate Change

Aspen trees, a hallmark of the West, near Brian Head, Utah. Scientists warned of the effects should greenhouse-gas emissions continue apace. CreditSean Gallup/Getty Images The beloved aspen forests that shimmer across mountainsides of the American West could be doomed if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at a high level, scientists warned on Monday. That finding adds to a growing body of work suggesting forests worldwide may be imperiled by climate change . The new paper analyzed the drought and heat that killed millions of aspens in Colorado and nearby states a decade ago. Such conditions could become routine across much of the West by the 2050s unless global emissions are brought under control, the study found. “I think of aspens as a good canary-in-the-coal-mine tree,” said William R. L. Anderegg, the Princeton University researcher who led the new study, released online Monday by the journal Nature Geoscience. “They’re a wet-loving tree in a dry landscape. They may be showi...

Barack Obama aims for reduction of a quarter or more by 2025, while Xi Jinping sets goal for emissions to fall after 2030 • Reaction to the emissions deal – live • Interactive guide: How the world uses coal US President Barack Obama looks on as Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a joint press conference in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing Photograph: Greg Baker/AFP/Getty Images The United States and China have unveiled a secretly negotiated deal to reduce their greenhouse gas output, with China agreeing to cap emissions for the first time and the US committing to deep reductions by 2025. The pledges in an agreement struck between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping, provide an important boost to international efforts to reach a global deal on reducing emissions beyond 2020 at a United Nations meeting in Paris next year. China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, has agreed to cap its output by 2030 or earlier if po...

UPDATED: Washington primed to outline scale of carbon cuts but other major economies stay silent (Pic: UN Photo/Joao Araujo Pinto) By  Ed King Developed countries have less than 48 hours to meet a deadline to reveal what levels of greenhouse gas reductions they would be willing to accept under a UN deal. The submissions are seen as a critical step on the path towards a universal carbon cutting treaty, due to be signed off in Paris this December. So far only the EU’s 28 member states, Switzerland,  Mexico  and Norway have released their figures, which account for around 13% of annual emissions. The US will “definitely” deliver its goal on Monday or Tuesday, Jake Schmidt at the Washington DC-based National Defense Resources Council told RTCC. It is likely to confirm its intention to slash emissions 26-28% on 2005 levels by 2025, as revealed in the  US-China climate announcement  last November. Together with the existing pledges, that will cover...

Stopping global warming at two degrees would create nearly half a million jobs in Europe and save over a million lives in China, analysis of emissions pledges says   A commitment by China to limit a rise to 2C would create 2m jobs, the analysis says. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters Major economies would boost their prosperity, employment levels and health prospects if they took actions that limited global warming to 2c, according to the first analysis of emissions pledges made before the UN climate summit in Paris later this year. Europe has promised a 40% emissions cut by 2030, compared to 1990 levels – and the report says this will bring real benefits, including 70,000 full-time jobs, the prevention of around 6,000 pollution-related deaths, and a €33bn cut in fossil fuel imports. The argument for divesting from fossil fuels is becoming overwhelming   Read more But if emissions were slashed by around 55% – the study’s proposed ro...

To slow global warming, we could blight every landscape with biofuel crops and wind turbines. But what about wildlife today?CREDITILLUSTRATION BY OLIVER MUNDAY Last September, as someone who cares more about birds than the next man, I was following the story of the new stadium that the Twin Cities are building for their football Vikings. The stadium’s glass walls were expected to kill thousands of birds every year, and local bird-lovers had asked its sponsors to use a specially patterned glass to reduce collisions; the glass would have raised the stadium’s cost by one tenth of one per cent, and the sponsors had balked. Around the same time, the National Audubon Society issued a press release declaring climate change “the greatest threat” to American birds and warning that “nearly half ” of North America’s bird species were at risk of losing their habitats by 2080. Audubon’s announcement was credulously retransmitted by national and local media, including the MinneapolisStar...