Global Warming or Climate Change

tudy finds climate change beliefs in the U.S. linked with personal weather experiences Staff Report Meteorologists, climate scientists and journalists have apparently failed to convey the message that global climate change and local day-to-day weather conditions are two separate things. A study published this week suggests that Americans’ beliefs about global warming are based on how often they personally experience weather-related events. One of the paper’s co-authors explained the findings in a press release. “One of the greatest challenges to communicating scientific findings about climate change is the cognitive disconnect between local and global events,” said Michael Mann, associate professor of geography at George Washington University. “It is easy to assume that what you experience at home must be happening elsewhere.” The study found that Americans who experience more record highs than lows in temperature are more likely to believe the earth is warming. Con...

http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/world/midway-plastic-island/ How our throwaway culture is turning paradise into a graveyard By Nick Paton Walsh, Ingrid Formanek, Jackson Loo and Mark Phillips     Midway Atoll, North Pacific Ocean (CNN) -- The distance from humanity yawns out in front of you when you stand on the pale sands of this tiny Pacific island. Midway Atoll is just about the furthest piece of land from civilization and its constant engine whir, data and jostle. Standing on the island's remote shoreline brings a calm and humility -- until you look down at your feet. On the beach lies a motorcycle helmet, a mannequin's head, an umbrella handle, and a flip-flop. They didn't fall from a plane or off a ship, and there aren't any civilians living here who could have left them behind. They were washed in with the tide, most likely from China or the US, thousands of miles away -- part of an enormous plastic garbage patch, sp...

I n July,  UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon highlighted  the role of hydropower in boosting the use of renewable energy globally, when he visited a nonprofit institute in China that helps emerging nations develop and build hydropower plants. Many countries consider hydroelectricity a clean source of power because it doesn’t involve burning dirty fossil fuels. But that’s far from true. Hydropower is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions: a new study shows that the world’s hydroelectric dams are responsible for as much methane emissions as Canada. Hoover Dam near Las Vegas. Hydroelectric dams are a rich source of greenhouse gas emissions, but the emissions aren’t part of global greenhouse gas inventories. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo The  study  from Washington State University finds that methane, which is  at least 34 times more potent  than another greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, makes up 80% of the emissions from water storage reservoirs cr...