Could Earth’s Reversing Magnetic Poles Accelerate Climate Change?

A team of researchers from Sydney’s University of New South Wales and the South Australian Museum have investigated how the reversal of Earth’s magnetic pole about 42,000 years could have changed earth’s atmosphere. CNN reports: “Using the ancient trees we could measure, and date, the spike in atmospheric radiocarbon levels caused by the collapse of Earth’s magnetic field,” Chris Turney, a…

Upheaval and extinctions linked to magnetic reversal 42,000 years ago

42,000 years ago, a breakdown in Earth’s magnetic field led to environmental catastrophes and mass extinctions. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/magnetic-field-reversal-42000-years-ago-neanderthal-extinction…

How Bill Gates Is Funding the Fight Against Climate Change

Bill Gates was interviewed tonight on the CBS News show 60 Minutes about his efforts to combat climate change: The good news is Gates believes it’s possible to prevent a catastrophic rise in temperatures. The bad news? He says in the next 30 years we need scientific breakthroughs, technological innovations and global cooperation on a scale the world has never seen….

Bill Gates took private jet to Paris climate summit, his book reveals

Bill Gates has admitted to flying on a private jet to the Paris climate change summit in 2015. Green campaigners say the revelation, made in his new book on reducing carbon emissions, undermines the billionaire philanthropist’s message Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267538-bill-gates-took-private-jet-to-paris-climate-summit-his-book-reveals/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Electric Cars Would Save America Huge Amounts of Energy

An anonymous reader shares an opinion piece from Bloomberg, written by Liam Denning and Elaine He: Electrifying U.S. vehicles wipes out the equivalent of our entire current power demand. The U.S. consumes a lot of energy; last year, about 100 quadrillion BTUs (equivalent to 17 billion barrels of oil; which, we’ll admit, is only marginally less abstract). But only about a…

Are We Slowing Global Warming?

This week New York Magazine featured a new article by journalist David Wallace-Wells about the state of the fight against global warming. He warns that “Already, the planet is warmer, at just 1.2 degrees, than it has ever been…” But there’s also some good news:
Just a half-decade ago, it was widely believed that a “business as usual” emissions path would bring…

Global Sales of Electric Cars Accelerate Fast In 2020 Despite Pandemic

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Global sales of electric cars accelerated fast in 2020, rising by 43% to more than 3 million, despite overall car sales slumping by a fifth during the coronavirus pandemic. Tesla was the brand selling the most electric cars, delivering almost 500,000, followed by Volkswagen. Sales of electric cars more than doubled in…

Japan To Phase Out Gasoline-Powered Cars, Bucking Toyota Chief

Japan said it planned to stop the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by the mid-2030s, bucking criticism by Toyota’s chief that a hasty shift to electric vehicles could cripple the car industry. From a report: The plan released Friday followed similar moves by the state of California and major European nations, but it has faced resistance from car executives in a…

Record CO2 emissions drop in 2020 won’t do much to halt climate change

A record 7 per cent drop in global carbon emissions this year will make no difference to long-term climate change, say researchers Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2262513-record-co2-emissions-drop-in-2020-wont-do-much-to-halt-climate-change/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

1% of People Cause Half of Global Aviation Emissions, Study Says

Frequent-flying “super emitters” who represent just 1% of the world’s population caused half of aviation’s carbon emissions in 2018, according to a study. From a report: Airlines produced a billion tonnes of CO2 and benefited from a $100bn subsidy by not paying for the climate damage they caused, the researchers estimated. The analysis draws together data to give the clearest global…