Impact of Climate Change:
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Over 800 colleges and universities, K-12 schools, civic organizations and religious groups are participating in Focus the Nation, potentially the largest simultaneous teach-in in history. (READ MORE) |
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Consensus as strong as the one that has developed around
this topic is rare in science.
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[Donald
Kennedy, Editor in chief, Science magazine] |
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| 10 Most Common Misconceptions About Global Warming |
| Al Gore (Climate Crisis,
Melcher Media, 2006) |
- Scientists disagree about whether humans are causing the
Earth’s climate to change.
- Lots of things can impact climate – so there’s
no reason we should single out CO2 to worry about.
- Climate naturally varies over time, so any change we’re
seeing now is just part of a natural cycle.
- The hole in the ozone layer causes global warming.
- There is nothing we can do about climate change. It’s
already too late.
- Antarctica’s ice sheets are growing, so it must not
be true that global warming is causing glaciers and sea ice
to melt.
- Global warming is a good thing, because it will rid us of
frigid winters and make plants grow more quickly.
- The warming scientists are recording is just the effect of
cities trapping heat, rather than anything to do with greenhouse
gases.
- Global warming is the result of a meteor that crashed in
Siberia in the early 20th century.
- Temperatures in some areas aren’t increasing, so global
warming is a myth.
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| Climate 411: Bloging the Science and Policy of Global
Warming |
| http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/climate411/ |
| Climate 411 is the voice
of the experts at Environmental Defense, providing plain-English
explanations of climate change science, technology, policy, and
news. |
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| USA Today: "Science
V. Bush: A heated collision" |
| The Associated Press (August 16, 2004) |
Last November, President
Bush gave physicist Richard Garwin a medal for his "valuable
scientific advice on important questions of national security." Just
three months later, Garwin signed a statement condemning the
Bush administration for misusing, suppressing and distorting
scientific advice.
(Update July, 2007: So far more than
11,000 scientists, including 48 Nobel prize winners, have
put their names to the declaration.) |
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| Statement: "Restoring
Scientific Integrity in Policymaking" |
| On February 18, 2004, over
60 leading scientists–Nobel laureates, leading medical
experts, former federal agency directors, and university chairs
and presidents–signed the statement below, voicing their
concern over the misuse of science by the Bush administration. UCS
is seeking the signatures of thousands of additional U.S. scientists
in support of this effort. |
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| News: "Bush
Aide Softened Greenhouse Gas Links to Global Warming" |
By Andrew C. Revkin, The
New York Times (June 8, 2005)
A White House official who once led the oil industry's fight
against limits on greenhouse gases has repeatedly edited government
climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions
and global warming, according to internal documents. In handwritten
notes on drafts of several reports issued in 2002 and 2003, the
official, Philip A. Cooney, removed or adjusted descriptions
of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors,
including some senior Bush administration officials, had already
approved. In many cases, the changes appeared in the final reports. |
| Article: “Kyoto Protocol Said to Harm
Effort to Stop Global Warming--But There Is Something Better” |
| http://www.isop.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=1900 |
| Marco Verweij, senior research
fellow at the Max Planck Project Group on Common Goods, Bonn,
urges abandonment of the Kyoto project and its replacement with
a crash program to develop cheap renewable energy technologies. |
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| Article: “The denial industry” |
| http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1875760,00.html |
The Guardian (September
19, 2006)
For years, a network of fake citizens' groups and bogus scientific
bodies has been claiming that science of global warming is inconclusive.
They set back action on climate change by a decade. But who funded
them? Exxon's involvement is well known, but not the strange
role of Big Tobacco. In the first of three extracts from his
new book, George Monbiot tells a bizarre and shocking new story. |
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| Article: "Beyond The Ivory Tower: The
Scientific Consensus on Climate Change" |
| http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686/ |
By Naomi Oreskes Science (3
December 2004): Vol. 306. no. 5702, p. 1686
Policy-makers and the media, particularly in the United States,
frequently assert that climate science is highly uncertain. Some
have used this as an argument against adopting strong measures
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For example, while discussing
a major U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report on the risks
of climate change, then-EPA administrator Christine Whitman argued, "As
[the report] went through review, there was less consensus on
the science and conclusions on climate change" . Some corporations
whose revenues might be adversely affected by controls on carbon
dioxide emissions have also alleged major uncertainties in the
science. Such statements suggest that there might be substantive
disagreement in the scientific community about the reality of
anthropogenic climate change. This is not the case. |
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| ABC News: "NASA Administrator Michael Griffin Questions
Need to Combat Warming" |
| http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3229696&page=1 |
by Clayton Sandell and
Bill Blakemore (May 31, 2007)
NASA administrator Michael Griffin is drawing the ire of his
agency's preeminent climate scientists after apparently downplaying
the need to combat global warming. |
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| Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) |
| http://www.ipcc.ch/ |
Recognizing the problem of potential global climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. It is open to all members of the UN and WMO.
The role of the IPCC is to assess on a comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis the scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. The IPCC does not carry out research nor does it monitor climate related data or other relevant parameters. It bases its assessment mainly on peer reviewed and published scientific/technical literature. |
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| Union of Concerned Scientists |
| http://www.ucsusa.org |
| The Union of Concerned
Scientists is the leading science-based nonprofit working for
a healthy environment and a safer world. UCS combines independent
scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative,
practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government
policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices. What began
as a collaboration between students and faculty members at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 is now an alliance
of more than 200,000 citizens and scientists. UCS members are
people from all walks of life: parents and businesspeople, biologists
and physicists, teachers and students.
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| E&E Special Reports: Climate Change |
| http://www.eenews.net/special_reports/climate_change/ |
| Environment & Energy
Publishing is the leading source for comprehensive, daily coverage
of environmental and energy politics and policy. Every day, E&E's
hard-hitting, original reporting plugs subscribers into the issues
facing the White House, Congress, the courts, federal agencies
and the states. |
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| The Climate Institute |
| http://www.climate.org |
| Based on Washington DC,
the Climate Institute has been in a unique position to inform
key decision-makers, heighten international awareness of climate
change, and identify practical ways of achieving significant
emissions reductions. This has been done through several different
media including symposia, conferences, roundtables, and special
briefings. These have been carried out not only in the U.S.,
Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe but also in as many as 30
developing countries providing expert advice at ministerial and
heads of state briefings and at sessions with business executives
and private citizens. (Website description)
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| World Climate Report |
| http://www.worldclimatereport.com |
World Climate Report, a concise,
hard-hitting and scientifically correct response to the global change reports which gain attention in the literature and
popular press. As the nation’s leading publication in this realm, World Climate
Report is exhaustively researched, impeccably referenced, and always timely.
This popular web log points out the weaknesses and outright fallacies in
the science that is being touted as “proof” of disastrous warming. It’s the
perfect antidote against those who argue for proposed changes to the Rio
Climate Treaty, such as the Kyoto Protocol, which are aimed at limiting carbon
emissions from the United States.
Acclaimed by those on both sides of the global
warming debate, World Climate Report has
become the definitive and unimpeachable source for what Nature now
calls the “mainstream skeptic” point of view, which is that climate change
is a largely overblown issue and that the best expectation is modest change
over the next 100 years. WCR is often cited by prominent scientists
and lawmakers and is a surprisingly enjoyable read—which may account for
its broad appeal. (Web site description) |
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| Global Warming Basics: Pew Center on Global Climate Change |
| http://www.pewclimate.org/global-warming-basics/ |
| The
Pew
Center on Global Climate Change brings together business leaders, policy
makers, scientists, and other experts to bring a new approach to a complex
and often controversial issue. Our approach is based on sound science, straight
talk, and a belief that we can work together to protect the climate while
sustaining economic growth. (web description) |
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Films |
| Global Warming: What's Up with the Weather? (2000) |
| Explore one of the most controversial and pressing issues
of the 21st century with this compelling documentary produced
jointly by PBS's "Nova" and
"Frontline" series. While most reputable scientists
agree that global warming is a problem, controversy still surrounds
its causes and solutions, and the issue is hotly debated in political
and business arenas. This program examines the science and politics
surrounding modern weather patterns. |
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| Global Warming: The Signs and the Science (2005) |
| Despite what you may hear from political pundits, the threat
of global warming is very much in evidence, and climate change
is already a part of our world. By talking to a variety of people
-- including farmers, doctors, schoolchildren, teens, police
officers, bicycle couriers and a cadre of respected researchers
-- this PBS program explains the signs and science behind the
phenomenon. Singer>Alanis Morissette narrates. |
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| Global Warming: Solutions (2006) |
| Explore the science of global warming and learn about possible
solutions with this informative program. Outlining the drastic
impact that industrialization, agriculture and urbanization have
had upon the planet's surface and atmosphere, this presentation
-- shot in high definition -- looks at solutions that would wean
us from dependence on fossil fuels and reverse the potentially
devastating atmospheric change. |
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| The Great Warming |
| http://www.thegreatwarming.com/ |
Review: “A
Straightforward Look at Our Changing World” By
Laura Kern
, The
New York Times (November 3, 2006)
The Great Warming, a straightforward, quietly persuasive
primer on the climate-change crisis, provides both an abridged
history and science lesson (delivered through the narration of
Keanu Reeves and Alanis Morissette and some clunky computer graphics)
and a vital briefing on where we stand today. |
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Solutions |
| The Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI) |
| http://www.princeton.edu/~cmi/ |
| The Carbon Mitigation Initiative,
a part of the Princeton Environmental Institute, is a joint project
of Princeton University, BP and the Ford Motor Company to
find solutions to the greenhouse and global warming problem. Together,
our researchers are developing strategies to reduce global carbon
dioxide emissions that will be safe, effective, and affordable. (web
description) |
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| National Renewable Energy Laboratory |
| http://www.nrel.gov/ |
The National Renewable
Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the nation's primary laboratory for
renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development.
NREL's mission and strategy are focused on advancing the U.S.
Department of Energy's and our nation's energy goals. The laboratory's
scientists and researchers support critical market objectives
to accelerate research from scientific innovations to market-viable
alternative energy solutions. (Web description)
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