Seals help show how melting ice shelves in East Antarctica affect deep ocean

Bottom water is formed when seas around Antarctica freeze over in winter causing salt to leach out of the sea ice. This process forms dense surface water that eventually sinks to form cold dense water that sits in the abyssal zone 4,000 metres to 6,000 metres below the surface.


In the long term, changes to bottom water would not only affect the circulation of water around the globe but have an impact on sea life that relies on the dense water to provide nutrients and gasses such as oxygen.  http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-08-24/seals-reveal-how-antarctica's-ice-shelves-affect-deep-ocean/7773362
Article courtesy of ABC Science By Genelle Weule

Chefs get creative about restaurant food waste.

The numbers are big. $218 billion of food is wasted every year in the United States—1.3 percent of national GDP, or $1,500 a year for a family of four. In a country with 48 million food-insecure people, this represents 1,250 calories per person, every day.
For restaurants and chefs, reducing food waste is becoming business as usual. Not only does it help the bottom line – a potential savings of $1.6 billion a year in an industry with tight margins—it saves resources all along the food supply chain. http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/2016/aug/chef-food-waste
Article courtesy of Environment Health New by Kara West

Scotland just produced enough wind energy to power it for an entire day.

For the first time on record, wind turbines have generated more electricity than was used in the whole of Scotland on a single day.
An analysis by conservation group WWF Scotland found unseasonably stormy weather saw turbines create about 106 per cent of the total amount of electricity used by every home and business in the country on 7 August.  http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/scotland-wind-energy-renewable-power-electricity-wwf-scotland-a7183006.html
Article courtesy of The Independent by Ian Johnston

Dairy groups blast methane reductions: ‘Cows expel gas so they don’t explode’

California’s attempt to curb emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is facing vocal opposition from a dairy industry that fears government meddling in the flatulence of its cows.
The California Air Resources Board (ARB) has set a goal of slashing methane emissions by 40% by 2030, from 2013 levels, and has targeted the belching and farting – known as “enteric fermentation” – of California’s 5.5 million beef and dairy cows, as well as the manure they create.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/10/cow-methane-reduction-california-dairy-industry
Article courtesy of The Guardian by Oliver Milman

Michigan scientists see urgency for negative emissions.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — When Sarang Supekar describes how he thinks global warming will have to be stabilized, he talks in terms of sucking a lot of carbon dioxide out of the air and in a very short timeframe.
Supekar, a systems engineer at the University of Michigan, is part of a team developing a computer model that estimates how countries can stay within their carbon budgets, limiting their greenhouse gases so that the earth does not warm beyond the 2°C (3.6°F) threshold.  http://www.climatecentral.org/news/scientists-see-urgency-for-negative-emissions-20588
Article courtesy of Climate Central by Bobby Macgill

This SoCal beach town could be driving a renewables revolution

DEL MAR, Calif. —The city has pledged to switch to 100 percent renewable power by 2035, a goal approved by the City Council as part of a climate action plan (CAP). Del Mar is the second regionally to adopt a CAP with that ambitious renewables goal. San Diego did it late last year (ClimateWire, April 8).  http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060041291
Article courtesy of E & E Publishing by Anne C Mulkern

In California Clean Air Fight, Environmental Justice Takes a Leading Role

Now that agency, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, is at the center of a political power struggle. A new industry-friendly Republican majority has worked to roll back the district's innovative policies that led to cleaner air. That prompted concern among clean-air advocates and the poor and minority communities disproportionately affected by the region's dirty air that the board would continue to erode pollution controls. So they are fighting back.  https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04082016/los-angeles-california-clean-air-pollution-quality-fight-environmental-justice-oil-refineries
Article courtesy of Inside Climate News

Mysterious, ice-buried Cold War military base may be unearthed by climate change.

In 1959, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the subterranean city under the guise of conducting polar research—and scientists there did drill the first ice core ever used to study climate. But deep inside the frozen tunnels, the corps also explored the feasibility of Project Iceworm, a plan to store and launch hundreds of ballistic missiles from inside the ice  http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/mysterious-ice-buried-cold-war-military-base-may-be-unearthed-climate-change
Article courtesy of Science magazine by Julia Rosen

Environmental records shattered as climate change 'plays out before us'

The “state of the climate” report, led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) with input from hundreds of scientists from 62 countries, confirmed there was a “toppling of several symbolic mileposts” in heat, sea level rise and extreme weather in 2015.  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/02/environment-climate-change-records-broken-international-report
Article courtesy of the Guardian by Oliver Milman

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: How car charging is going the way of Airbnb

With his all-electric Nissan Leaf fast losing battery power and no places to plug in along the highway from Fresno, Calif., to San Francisco, Thompson turned to his iPhone. He pulled up an application called PlugShare that maps charging stations for electric vehicle drivers. A resident in nearby Madera had advertised his home charging station, so Thomson called in a panic. http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060041063
Article courtesy of  E&E Publishing by Camille von Kaenel

Massachusetts' Ambitious Clean Energy Bill Jolts Offshore Wind Prospects

The bill, approved in the final hours of the legislative session Sunday night, would require local utilities to get 1,600 megawatts of their combined electricity from wind farms far offshore—roughly equivalent to three average-sized coal-fired power plants. The law requires the utilities to line up contracts for that energy by 2027. They also would have to arrange for even more clean energy from other sources, including hydropower, by 2022. Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, is expected to sign it.  https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02082016/massachusetts-ambitious-clean-energy-bill-jolts-offshore-wind-prospects
Article courtesy of by Zahra Hirji

From now on, every government agency will have to consider climate change

In the past several weeks alone, the Obama administration has made multiple new moves to fight climate change. The administration announced new steps to help fill U.S. roadways with electric vehicles. It ruled that greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft endanger human health and welfare. And on the international stage, it moved the world closer to a deal to phase out super-polluting HFCs, chemicals in refrigerants and other industrial substances that warm the climate.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/02/from-now-on-every-government-agency-will-have-to-consider-climate-change/?utm_term=.9d1dddbeca45
Article courtesy of The Washington Post by Chris Mooney