Climate 'vice' constricts bumblebees' natural ranges - researchers
News
Analysis: The climate change papers most featuredin the media
The latest in Carbon Brief’s series about influentialclimate papers, this time looking at what impact new papers have inthe wider world. With the help of Altmetric, Carbon Brief looksinto which research articles have made the biggest splash in thenews and on social media.
A Carbon Brief guide to the Our Common Futureconference in Paris
Carbon Brief’s coverage of the biggest gathering ofscientists ahead of COP21 in December. Highlights from Thursdayincluded a summary by Fatih Birol of what the energy sector needsfrom COP21, and a session with Pete Smith on the limits ofdifferent carbon-negative technologies.
Climate and energy news
Climate ‘vice’ constricts bumblebees’ naturalranges – researchers
Climate change is threatening the survival of bumblebees,researchers say, significantly reducing the habitats in which theycan survive. The natural ranges of these key pollinators are beingcompressed in both Europe and North America, and the analysisindicates that warming is having a greater impact than pesticidesor land use change. The study used records from 1901 to 2010 totrack 67 bumblebee species, Reuters reports. “This paper isimportant because it reinforces our understanding that species willnot all be able to shift their ranges in order to adapt to achanging climate,” an associate editor for Science, who publishedthe study, told Time. Humans may have to help move themto cooler areas, the researchers suggest. But this idea of”assisted migration” is treating the symptom rather than the cause,says an editorial in the Independent. The Independent, the Guardianand Naturealso carried the story.
Seas could rise 6 meters even if governments curbwarming: study
Sea levels could rise by at least six meters in the longterm, even if governments achieve their goals for curbing globalwarming, according to a study published yesterday. Tracts of ice inGreenland and Antarctica melted when temperatures were around orslightly higher than today in ancient thaws in the past threemillion years, the researchers wrote in the journal Science. Such athaw would threaten cities from Beijing to London, and swamplow-lying tropical island states. The Daily Mailand the Washington Postalso featuredthe story.
Crazy eco rules that are turning modern homes intoovens: Experts warn drive for ‘green’ homes poses a potentiallylethal risk
Eco houses cut help to carbon emissions and reduce winterheating bills, but in summer can pose a health risk which worsensdue to climate change, the Daily Mail writes. There’s concern thatstandards for thermal insulation have led to overheating in thesummer, something the National House-Building Council firsthighlighted in a 2012 study. It’s feared heat-related deaths “willtriple to 7,000 a year by the 2050s”, the Mail says.
Green Climate Fund partners with Deutsche Bank togreen fury
A UN piggy bank to help poor countries deal with climatechange partnered with a leading coal funder on Thursday, sparkingan “outcry” from green groups, RTCC reports. Germany’s leadinginvestment bank is the world’s tenth largest backer of coal,prompting environmentalists to question UN fund’s integrity, whoargue that Deutsche Bank’s support for coal is at odds with thegreen fund’s carbon-cutting objectives.
Fossil fuel firms risk wasting billions byignoring climate change, saysIEA
Energy companies are making a ‘strategic mistake’ and couldwaste billions of dollars of investment by thinking they are immuneto climate policy, according to the IEA chief economist FatihBirol. Birol, speaking at a major climate science conference inParis ahead of a crunch UN summit in the city in December, alsowarned that companies making this mistake would miss out oninvestment opportunities in clean energy. “If they think that theirbusinesses are immune to the impacts of climate policy, they aremaking a strategic mistake”, he said.
How Can We Make People Care About ClimateChange?
In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Norwegianpsychologist Per Espen Stoknes talks about he talks about thepsychological barriers to public action on climate and how toovercome them. “We need a new kind of stories,” he says, “storiesthat tell us that nature is resilient and can rebound and get backto a healthier state, if we give it a chance to do so.”
Climate and energy comment
The burning question of global carbonreduction
Governments cannot simply sit back and wait for cheap greenenergy, according to an editorial in the Financial Times. A bindingglobal climate deal will avail the world little unless backed up bystates setting tough emissions targets and giving hard commitmentsto meet them. While costs may be falling, that still meanskick-starting huge investments in global urban infrastructure, theFT writes.
The blacklash against green energy is bad forBritain
Liberal Democrat excesses in promoting renewable energy havegiven George Osborne a reason to attack it. In the long run, that’sunwise, says Geoffrey Lean. It’s easy to feel uncomfortable at theidea of subsidies, but in fact every form of energy benefits fromthem, and they are much more justifiable when used to get newtechnologies off the ground. Nuclear power has absorbed far greaterlevels of support for decades without ever reaching anything likeits potential, and the “feather-bedding” of fossil fuel companiesis “little less than scandalous.”
George Osborne is saving green pennies, butspending nuclear pounds
Renewables are “still reeling” from the shock removal of theclimate change levy exemption, made to to stop “taxpayer moneybenefiting electricity generation abroad” according to GeorgeOsbourne. But if cost is the worry, the chancellor ought to look toHinkley Point argues Nils Pratley, the £24bn nuclear power stationplanned for Somerset that continues to escape the Treasury’sscrutiny.
Is it ok for scientists to weep over climatechange?
The devastating impact CO2 emissions are having on oceansrecently brought one professor to tears during a radio interview.But does such passion validate or weaken science in the audience’seyes, asks Roger Harrabin. Some may be moved to pay more attentionthan otherwise because the professor revealed an emotionalcommitment to her science, while others may conclude that tears cancloud judgement. But judgments about the prospects for the longterm future of humanity are unlikely to be influenced by logicalone, he says.
New climate science
Sea-level rise due to polar ice-sheet mass lossduring past warm periods
Over the past three million years, global sea levels havebeen at least six meters higher than present on several occasions,a new review study shows. Model analysis and observations from thegeologic record show that these high sea levels occurred whenglobal temperatures were 1-3 degrees warmer than pre-industriallevels, the study says. Melting ice sheets in Greenland andAntarctica were the main contributors, the researchers say.
Climate change impacts on bumblebees convergeacross continents
Climate change is causing a squeeze in the habitat range forbumblebees, resulting in a significant reduction in their numbers,a new study warns. Using 110 years of observed data across Europeand North America, the researchers identified climatechange-related range shifts in bumblebee species. The study showsthat bumblebees are losing large amounts of the southern portion oftheir ranges, but they are not heading north to compensate as theclimate warms.
Recent hiatus caused by decadal shift inIndo-Pacific heating
Over the last decade, heat from the top 100m of the PacificOcean has been redistributed to the 100-300m layer of the WesternPacific Ocean and Indian Ocean, new research suggests. Researchersanalysed ocean observational data and model simulations for thelast two decades. The researchers conclude that the recent slowdownin global surface temperature rise is a result of thisredistribution of heat, rather than a change in the warming rate ofthe Earth.
Other stories
- We can make a greener, more liveable London andexpand Heathrow (Guardian Sustainable Business Blog)
- Fossil fuels: University of Warwick’s staff andstudents celebrate as leaders divest from coal, oil andgas (The Independent)
- Nasa warns global warming scale is hidden as heathas been buried by the sea (Mail Online)
- Can fiction make people care about climate? PaoloBacigalupi thinks so (Grist)
- Budget hints at Treasury defiance over Green DealVAT ruling (BusinessGreen)
- Paris climate talks need business to move beyondgreenwash and empty promises (Guardian Sustainable Business Blog)