The (USA) House Science Committee May Soon Become... Pro-Science

"For the past eight years, climate science has been under a sort of spell in the House of Representatives. Instead of trying to understand it better or even acknowledging some of the field’s current uncertainties, House Science Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) used his position to harass federal climate scientists with subpoenas while holding hearings on “Making the EPA Great Again” or whether “global warming theories are alarmist” and researchers are pursuing a “personal agenda.”

But Smith retired this year and Democrats won control of the House on Tuesday. Now some on Capitol Hill say that the anti-climate science spell may be broken."

Read complete WIRED article

See also

• Our Climate Is Headed for Disaster, But Voters Still Shrug

  
  

 

IEEFA predicted coal demand will be revised down again

THE NSW Minerals Council’s forecast of a bright future for Australian coal exports is based on shaky foundations, including a restricted interpretation of International Energy Agency predictions, said energy analysts criticised as “anti-coal” by Minerals Council chief executive Stephen Galilee.

Farmers in Queensland are calling for a future beyond coal in Queensland.

Info Farmers for Climate Action

Published on Oct 30, 2018

Burning coal causes climate change, which makes droughts worse. We must get this message out to ensure farmers will be able to continue producing fresh, healthy food for Australia into the future. 

If you have any questions about the ad campaign or about donating, please email us at info@farmersforclimateaction.org.au. If you’d prefer to send a cheque, the best address is: “Farmers for Climate Action, Progress Central coworking space, Level 3, 673 Bourke St, Melbourne 3000”.

Mother Jones: Even the Trump Administration Acknowledges That Global Temperatures Are Rising to Catastrophic Levels

"Predictions of climate change’s devastating impact—coastal flooding, demonstrable sea level rise, and more extreme weather events, to name a few—are so ubiquitous it becomes nearly impossible to fully understand their potentially catastrophic implications. But an acknowledgement last week that global temperatures may rise by a shocking 7 degrees by 2100 was startling for many reasons, especially because the Trump administration was the source of the estimate."

Dan Spinelli October 1, 2018 12:58 PM

Read original Mother Jones article 

Union of Concerned Scientists: Why is ExxonMobil Still Funding Climate Science Denier Groups?- Allegations

"A decade after pledging to end its support for climate science deniers, ExxonMobil gave $1.5 million last year to 11 think tanks and lobby groups that reject established climate science and openly oppose the oil and gas giant’s professed climate policy preferences, according to the company’s annual charitable giving report released this week."

"ExxonMobil’s history of deceit

There is ample evidence that Exxon was fully aware of the danger its products pose to the planet since the 1980s and likely even earlier. Nonetheless, the company helped initiate a fossil fuel industry-backed climate disinformation campaign in 1998, a year before it merged with Mobil."

Elliott Negin, senior writer | August 31, 2018, 12:42 pm EST 

Read original Union of Concerned Scientists article

Science News article: Earth's oceans have absorbed 60 percent more heat than previously thought

Date:

October 31, 2018

Source:

Princeton University

Summary:

Since 1991, the world's oceans have absorbed an amount of heat energy each year that is 150 times the energy humans produce as electricity annually, according to a new study. The strong ocean warming the researchers found suggests that Earth is more sensitive to fossil-fuel emissions than previously thought.

Excerpts: 

"Climate sensitivity is used to evaluate allowable emissions for mitigation strategies. Most climate scientists have agreed in the past decade that if global average temperatures exceed pre-industrial levels by 2? (3.6?), it is all but certain that society will face widespread and dangerous consequences of climate change.

The researchers' findings suggest that if society is to prevent temperatures from rising above that mark, emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas produced by human activities, must be reduced by 25 percent compared to what was previously estimated, Resplandy said.

Read the full original Science News article  

FP article: The Hope at the Heart of the Apocalyptic Climate Change Report

Along with their latest dire predictions, the world’s leading climate scientists offered a new path forward—but will anyone take it?

 

"When the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a new special report last week, it came with both good news and bad.