Global Warming or Climate Change

At our weatherboard infants’ school in the bush, the memorably severe Miss Cashman had to get us to safety when the bushfire came   Photograph: Keith Pakenham/AFP/Getty Images Clive James Saturday 27 February 2016 01.00 EST Our poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, writes poems that must be blessings for schoolteachers, because almost every line has a splinter of brilliance in it, and even the most resistant pupil would notice a fragment of language jumping into life. Her poem called Mrs Midas evokes the difficulties for a wife whose husband turns things to gold when he touches them. They can’t sleep together, so she puts him in the spare room, which he turns into “the tomb of Tutankhamun”. What young mind would not be captured by an idea as dazzling as that? I know, the young mind of the boy at the back of the class who has just set fire to his desk. He’s a kind of Midas himself, but whatever he touches turns to chaos. It’s always rude to be optimistic on behalf of other people, and t...

Reddit Credit: Paolo Bona | Shutterstock.com View full size image Bill Gates just released a climate science equation that explains how the world can lower carbon dioxide emissions "down to zero," according to the 2016 edition the annual letter he and his wife, Melinda, published. This letter went online on Monday (Feb. 22). Problem is, the equation isn't exactly new. It's widely known in the climate science community as the Kaya identity, and was reviewed in the scientific literature in 2002 in the  journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . But instead of grilling Gates about the origins of the formula, climate scientists are glad he's talking about it, said Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University. [ The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted ] "My guess is that he had seen this somewhere in the past, and sort of forgot where it came from," Mann said. "A...

Just 38% of US schoolchildren were taught that climate change is linked to fossil fuels, with many teachers spending less than an hour a year on the subject   The findings suggest that the generation most affected by climate change is not getting the education they deserve, say the report’s authors. Photograph: Jonathan Hayward/AP Suzanne Goldenberg @suzyji Thursday 11 February 2016 14.00 ESTLast modified on Friday 12 February 201608.56 EST Nearly two-thirds of schoolchildren in the US are taught lessons on climate change that do not rise to the level of a sound science education, according to new research on Thursday. The finding provide new evidence on the source of the confusion and denial surrounding global warming in American public life. In the first national survey of classroom science teachers, researchers found there was short shrift given to the teaching of climate change in public middle and high schools in all 50 states. California public school textbooks mislead stud...

The infamous Heartland Institute has distributed to elected officials a nonsense, non-science report full of denial   The Heartland Institute has received funding from ExxonMobil, the Koch Brothers, Donors Trust, the American Petroleum Institute, and other fossil fuel sources. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images John Abraham Monday 22 February 2016 06.00 ESTLast modified on Monday 22 February 201610.43 EST We all know about the various organizations that fund or support the climate-change denial industry. Perhaps the best known is the Heartland Institute , which actually puts on climate “conferences” and publishes materials that appear at first glance to be scientifically sound. We who work and follow the climate change science and public discussions know enough to be skeptical about anything produced by groups like the Heartland Institute – their veneer of scientific credibility is very thin. On the other hand, perhaps the intended audience isn’t scientists are even people wh...

A major new study includes some scary implications about how rapidly humans are changing the Earth’s climate   A parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of Superstorm Sandy in Hoboken, NJ. So far we’re already committed to about 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) of eventual sea level rise. Photograph: Charles Sykes/AP Dana Nuccitelli Wednesday 24 February 2016 11.00 ESTLast modified on Wednesday 24 February 201611.03 EST Recently, The Guardian reported on a significant new study published in Nature Climate Change , finding that even if we meet our carbon reduction targets and stay below the 2°C global warming threshold , sea level rise will eventually inundate many major coastal cities around the world. 20% of the world’s population will eventually have to migrate away from coasts swamped by rising oceans. Cities including New York, London, Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Calcutta, Jakarta and Shanghai would all be submerged. The authors looked at past climate change events and model ...

By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent 5 February 2016   From the section Science & Environment Image copyright Spl Image caption The replacement of broad leaf species like oak with conifers has increased warming say researchers The assumption that planting new forests helps limit climate change has been challenged by a new study. Researchers found that in Europe, trees grown since 1750 have actually increased global warming. The scientists believe that replacing broadleaved species with conifers is a key reason for the negative climate impact. Conifers like pines and spruce are generally darker and absorb more heat than species such as oak and birch. The authors believe the work has implications for current efforts to limit rising temperatures through mass tree planting. Management issues Europe's green canopy was dramatically thinned between 1750 and 1850, when the forested area diminished by 190,000 sq km. Ironically the greater use of fossil fu...

 With greater melting of the sea ice, polar bears (above, off northern Alaska in 2007) find hunting for prey hard. Photograph: Dan Crosbie/PA Kate Ravilious @katerav Wednesday 10 February 2016  16.30 EST Last modified on Friday 12 February 2016 06.46 EST Share on Pinterest Share on LinkedIn Share on Google+ Shares 4,661 Comments 61   Save for later L ess than 2C of global warming for the Earth, the target agreed by leaders at the COP21 climate conference in Paris last November, doesn’t really sound too ambitious. In fact, many of us would welcome an extra couple of degrees warmth. So what is all the fuss about? Unfortunately the warming would not occur evenly around the world. A study published recently in  Nature  shows what 2C of warming – a rise, of this level, above the pre-industrial global mean surface temperature – might really feel like and which regions may be hit hardest. Sea-level rise 'could...