Global Warming or Climate Change

Our leaders thought fracking would save our climate. They were wrong. Very wrong. By  Bill McKibben MARCH 23, 2016 Facebook Twitter Email Print A fracking well in the Eagle Ford Shale region, near Karnes City, Texas.  (AP Photo / Aaron M. Sprecher)   G lobal warming is, in the end, not about the noisy political battles here on the planet’s surface. It actually happens in constant, silent interactions in the atmosphere, where the molecular structure of certain gases traps heat that would otherwise radiate back out to space. If you get the chemistry wrong, it doesn’t matter how many landmark climate agreements you sign or how many speeches you give. And it appears the United States may have gotten the chemistry wrong. Really wrong. There’s one greenhouse gas everyone knows about: carbon dioxide, which is what you get when you burn fossil fuels. We talk about a “price on carbon” or argue about a carbon tax; our leaders boast about modest “carbon...

New polling data shows that public concern about climate change is at a new high, as the US emerges from its warmest-ever winter A man at at a New York rally calling for action on climate change, a day before the start of the historic COP21 conference in Paris. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images A record number of Americans believe global warming will pose a threat to their way of life, new polling data shows, amid strengthening public acceptance that rising temperatures are being driven by human activity. February breaks global temperature records by 'shocking' amount Read more “I think a shift in public opinion and consciousness has been underway for several years now,” Michael Mann , a prominent climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University, told the Guardian. A spokesman for 350 Action, the political arm of climate activist group 350.org, said meanwhile that politicians who cast doubt on climate science would soon have to take such polling into account. Republ...

Trilobites By  TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG   MARCH 16, 2016 Continue reading the main story Share This Page Share Tweet Email More Save Photo Trees in temperate forests, like these redwoods in Northern California, may adapt to climate change by releasing less carbon dioxide than previously predicted by scientists.   Credit Getty Images The bend-don’t-break adaptability of trees extends to handling climate change, according to  a new study  that says forests may be able to deal with hotter temperatures and contribute less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than scientists previously thought. In addition to taking in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, plants also release it through a process called  respiration . Globally, plant respiration contributes six times as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as fossil fuel emissions, much of which is reabsorbed by plants, the oceans and other elements of nature. Until now, most scientists ha...