New data highlights hidden impact of changing climate and erratic rainfalls. Repeated droughts around the world have shockingly large and often hidden consequences, destroying enough farm produce to feed 81 million people every day for a year, damaging forests, and threatening to trap generations of children in poverty, according to a new report from the…
• Air pollution is the biggest contributor, linked to 6.5 million deaths in 2015, while water pollution (1.8 million deaths) and workplace-related pollution (0.8 million deaths) pose the next largest risks. • Almost all pollution-related deaths (92%) occur in low- and middle-income countries, and in rapidly industrializing countries (such as India, Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Madagascar…
Industrial food and farming systems are making people sick in a variety of ways, and are generating staggering human and economic costs – according to a major new report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). Decisive action can be taken on the basis of what we know, the Panel found,…
New solar PV capacity grew by 50% last year, with China accounting for almost half of the global expansion, according to the International Energy Agency’s latest renewables market analysis and forecast. For the first time, solar PV additions rose faster than any other fuel, surpassing the net growth in coal. Boosted by a strong solar…
Dear EarthTalk: Is it really true that our dogs and cats are major contributors to climate change, and if so what can we do about it? — Carmen Santiago, Newark, NJ Unfortunately, our beloved dogs and cats do produce shockingly high amounts of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. According to a recent study…
Innovative study finds a well-intentioned home heating policy contributed to higher pollution in Northern China, shaving years off hundreds of millions of lives. There are currently an estimated 4.5 billion people around the world exposed to levels of particulate air pollution that are at least twice what the World Health Organization (WHO) considers safe. Yet,…
Dear EarthTalk: Was Hurricane Harvey caused by global warming? – Tom Dell, Bern, NC The short answer is no. No single hurricane or weather event can be directly linked to the general phenomena known as climate change. “Climate change does not cause things, because climate change is not a causal agent,” writes David Roberts on…
Dear EarthTalk: Could global warming really already be a factor in the evolution of wildlife species? — Vince Dominick, Camden, NJ No doubt the quickly changing climate is already triggering various evolutionary shifts in a wide range of species. And while we can’t be sure just how different wildlife species will adapt (or not),…
Author: Richard Nunno Editor: Brian La Shier The United States Climate Alliance is a bipartisan group of U.S. states that have pledged to uphold the 2016 Paris Agreement on climate change within their borders. The goal of the Alliance is to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions 26-28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025 and…
The 27th annual State of the Climate report has confirmed that 2016 topped 2015 as the warmest year in 137 years of record keeping. The report found that most indicators of climate change continued to follow trends of a warming world, and several, including land and ocean temperatures, sea level and greenhouse gas concentrations in…