Posts Tagged ‘ carbon emissions ’

The World Can’t Afford to Shrug Off the Methane Threat

Jul 22nd, 2020 | By
[Image from public domain images website, www.public-domain-image.com. ]

By Suzanne York. This past June saw an unprecedented heat wave in the Arctic, and in Siberia in particular, driven by climate change.  That alone should spur people to take real action on curbing the severe effects of our changing climate.  But COVID-19 is distracting us and turning our lives upside down, and worse.  Even
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The Methane Gun – The Threat to a Habitable Earth

Nov 11th, 2019 | By
[photo credit: Wikimedia, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Permafrost_in_Herschel_Island_016.jpg]

By Julian Cribb, guest writer [i] In all the sound and fury over climate change, too little public and media attention has been devoted to the ‘methane gun’ [1] – and yet this terrifying phenomenon could usher humans unceremoniously off Earth’s stage for good. Like CO2, methane (CH4) is a greenhouse gas that helps trap the
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A Second Chance to Get Paper Products Right

Nov 29th, 2017 | By
[photo: FAO]

By Candela Vázquez Asenjo, youth blogger, Transition Earth. What would happen if one day we did not have any more paper? Would technology be the only alternative and solution to this and other pressing problems? We live in a time where the Earth’s forest mass is fast disappearing due to the massive deforestation caused by human
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UN Climate Talks: Just a Lot of Hot Air in Lima?

Dec 5th, 2014 | By
Is there too much hot air at international climate negotiations?  
[photo credit:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Balloon_Classic]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Perhaps it’s telling that the UN climate meeting (officially known as COP 20) is being held in Lima, Peru.  It is an arid city of more than 8 million people and growing that receives less than an inch of rain annually.  With droughts increasing here and in many cities and regions
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Carbon Emissions Just Keep Going Up, Up, Up

Jul 8th, 2014 | By
Tar sands, Canada.  [photo credit: extremeenergy.org]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org In 2013, the amount of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere passed 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in modern human history. And now, in 2014, carbon levels have remained above 400 ppm for three months in a row.  This makes the past three months the first period of
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Americans are Using Less Energy: Is Change Around the Corner?

Oct 22nd, 2013 | By
[photo credit: www.makeyourbuildingswork.com]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The U.S. Energy Information Administration just released a report showing that the carbon dioxide pollution emitted by Americans dropped 3.8 percent in 2012. Though U.S. CO2 emissions in 2012 amounted to 368,000 pounds of pollution per second, this is the lowest level since 1994. Ryan Koronowski of Climate Progress wrote that
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A World of Waste: Hunger, Carbon and Consumption

Sep 13th, 2013 | By
[photo credit: www.unep.org]

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org If you want to have an impact on reducing carbon emissions and the effects of climate change, look no further than your kitchen. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year the world wastes a third of all food for human consumption – nearly 1.3 billion tons – equal
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400 Parts Per What? and Why You Should Care

May 2nd, 2013 | By
Tracking carbon emissions: the Keeling Curve

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org At some point in early May, the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is expected to hit 400 parts per million (ppm).  It will fluctuate throughout the rest of the year, and for the next several years.  It is predicted to stabilize at the 400ppm mark by 2017, and
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Attention Doha: Connect Population and Women to the Global Climate Talks

Dec 5th, 2012 | By
Pakistani women fetching water from an artesian well. (photo credit: Caroline Suzman / World Bank)

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Mainstream news coverage of the ongoing climate talks barely exists, and any real progress from Doha would be an unexpected and pleasant surprise, as even its participants would agree (perhaps that was why Qatar, the heart of the fossil fuel industry, was chosen as the venue). This despite some increase in
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Water, Food and 1.2 Billion People

Nov 16th, 2012 | By
India & water

By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Mention India and many contradictory images are often conjured up – poverty and Rajput castles, rich and exotic foods and begging mothers and children, the Himalayan mountains and Rajasthani deserts. But there is no contradiction on the importance of the Indian monsoon. Indian agriculture and much of Indian culture are intertwined
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