Insurers and re-insurers have been warning about the potential consequences of climate change for years. Munich Re has calculated that by 2050, climate change could cost up to $300 billion annually in weather-related damages, industrial and agricultural losses, and other associated expenses. A Ceres report “From Risk to Opportunity 2007: Insurer Responses to Climate Change” …
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Category:Climate Change
Oceans’ CO2 absorption halved
New research shows that the amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed by the world’s oceans has significantly reduced. University of East Anglia researchers gauged CO2 absorption through more than 90,000 measurements from merchant ships equipped with automatic instruments during a 10-year study in the North Atlantic. The data shows CO2 uptake halved between the mid-90s …
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Humans causing wetter climate too
New research, reported in the journal Nature, confirms the global increase in humidity found in previous studies and that humidity is increasing in a pattern consistent with man-made climate change. The research shows that the pattern of humidity increases in various parts of the world resembles that projected by computer models of man-made global warming. …
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Raise efficiency or lower consumption: the best ways to tackle climate change, again
Energy efficiency is the most effective company-wide first steps CEOs can take to launch a climate change program, according to a team of environmental scientists and climate researchers. The panel, which includes 54 fellows of the Switzer Foundation, an environmental non-profit, participated in a survey titled, “What the Scientists Know: How Business Leadership can Help …
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Nine inconvenient errors …
As Al Gore receives a Nobel for his climate change work, a UK court has ruled that schools may only show his film An Inconvenient Truth accompanied by qualification of a number of inconclusive facts. While the parent who brought the case may feel vindicated, the ruling will have the benefit of demanding more thought …
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Consumer goods giants to analyse supply footprint. Fuel for carbon rating products?
Wal-Mart announced that it will parter with the Carbon Disclosure Project to measure the energy use and emissions of the entire supply chain of seven product categories, and find ways to increase their energy efficiency. And in the UK several global companies are calling on their supply chain partners in the UK to measure and …
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Ice shelf disintegration signals faster melting
The giant Ayles Ice Island drifting off Canada’s northern shores has broken in two – far earlier than expected. The original Manhattan-sized berg (16km by 5 km) broke off the Ayles Ice Shelf in 2005. A team which landed on the Ayles ice block in May found it to have an average thickness of 42-45m …
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A quick solution to climate change from the US: stop fighting
This linked article by Daniel Kammen at GreenBiz offers simple options to change the US energy consumption profile. His six point plan is: A national commitment to saving money and energy through energy efficiency measures at every step of the economic value chain (some states, including California are fully 40 percent more efficient than the …
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Radical ocean solution for climate change
Writing in the journal Nature, Science Museum head Chris Rapley and Gaia theorist James Lovelock have suggested boosting ocean take-up of CO2 using huge flotillas of vertical pipes in tropical seas, a technology already being investigated by a US firm, Atmocean. The pipes use convection currents to bring cold water nearer the surface. The colder …
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The world is waking up to the reality of climate change
A BBC World Service poll, published a day after 150 countries met at the United Nations to discuss climate change, suggests most people believe human activity is causing global warming and major action is needed to deal with the problem. More than 22,000 people were surveyed in 21 countries. An average of 79% of respondents …
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