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Our Editorial and News Affiliates
Global Warming is Real
Resources for the Concerned Citizen
Environmental writer Tom Schueneman, a contributor to numerous environmental and sustainability-focused blogs and websites, publishes his flagship blog GlobalWarmingisReal as a resource of news, commentary, and information on climate change, energy, and sustainability. \
Climate change and sustainability are the issues of our generation. Meeting the challenge is a three-legged stool requiring action from individuals, business, and government. GlobalWarmingisReal addresses those three aspects of change (or lack thereof) through essays, research, and news reporting. Our aim is to help the concerned citizen understand the importance and urgency of the issues we face in the 21st century.
Website: http://www.globalwarmingisreal.com/blog/
Contact:
Tom Schueneman
tschueneman@gmail.com
Arctic Sea Ice Continues its Summer Retreat
July 7, 2012 08:28 AM - THOMAS SCHUENEMAN, Global Warming is Real
A rapid decline for Arctic sea ice extent briefly hit daily record lows in June, led by extensive ice loss in the Bering, Kara, and Beaufort Seas, as well as Hudson and Baffin Bay. Snow extent was unusually low for both May and June, reinforcing the continuing pattern of rapid spring snow melt of the past six years. Average Arctic sea ice extent for June was 4.24 million square miles (10.97 million square kilometers), 456,000 square miles below the 1970-2000 average sea ice extent. Sea ice extent for June 2010, 2011, and 2012 has been the lowest in the satellite record.
Findings and Solutions in the Living Planet Report 2012
June 18, 2012 08:26 AM - Richard Matthews, Global Warming is Real
The WWF's Living Planet Report (LPR) is the world's leading science-based analysis on the health of the Earth and the impact of human activity. The ninth biennial publication released in May, reviews the cumulative pressures humans are putting on the planet and the consequent decline in the health of the forests, rivers and oceans. Its key finding is that humanity's demands are exceeding the planet's capacity to sustain us.
40 Eco-Apps that Put Technology to Work for the Environment
June 8, 2012 10:41 AM - Richard Matthews, Global Warming is Real
Technology may not be a panacea to solve the climate crisis, but green applications (eco-apps) are helping to drive awareness and foster responsible action. There was a time when eco-apps did little more than provide lists of so-called "green" products and services. Now green-themed apps have turned mobile devices into portals for environmental education and sustainable action. The smartphone market share is now estimated to be more than 40 percent in the U.S. Around the world, smartphones are proliferating and green apps are growing along with them. Eco-apps can help people be more efficient and reduce their energy consumption. There are a wide variety of energy apps including those that monitor efficiency and consumption. Apps help with things like recycling and other aspects of green living. Mobile and tablet based smart energy applications help consumers to optimize their energy and water consumption, monitor their appliances, water heater and other electronics. These apps can also monitor and operate HVAC, grey water (from rain), automated windows (shutters and blinds) and lighting systems. They can even provide information about renewable energy conversion and variable price grid management.
Arctic Monitoring Stations Report CO2 Levels of 400 parts per million
June 2, 2012 09:10 AM - Thomas Schueneman, Global Warming is Real
The Arctic region continues to serve as the global climate "canary in a coal" mine. Now, as with average temperature rise, the region is leading into a new troubling milestone as monitoring stations near a remote outpost near Barrow, Alaska are among several such stations to report that average concentrations of CO2 have reached an average of 400 parts per million (PPM) this spring. "The northern sites in our monitoring network tell us what is coming soon to the globe as a whole," reports atmospheric scientist Pieter Tans with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). "We will likely see global average CO2 concentrations reach 400 ppm about 2016."
Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Wine
May 29, 2012 07:21 AM - Guest Post, Global Warming is Real
Do you love wine, but are also concerned about its carbon footprint? The carbon footprint of wine includes production, packaging, and transportation. Wine is grown using energy intensive petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, processed through heavy machinery and packaged using glass, corks, glue and labels. That heavy bottle then needs to travel thousands of miles before it ends up in your glass. Best case scenario, you recycle the bottle again, and it is melted down and reused through another round of energy intensive production and transportation. Although some experts argue that grapes do not require extensive amounts of fertilizer like many other crops, the amount involved in wine production is definitely not negligible given the size of the industry. Increasingly, wine producers understand these negative effects and are choosing organic methods for their wine production.
Solar Paint Technology May Revolutionize the Renewable Energy Industry
May 17, 2012 08:10 AM - Matthew Speer, Global Warming is Real
Lowering your carbon footprint and reducing greenhouse gasses may become as simple as painting your home or office, thanks to breakthrough research from the University of Notre Dame. The researchers, led by Professor Prashant Kamat, have created a new solar paint dubbed Sun-believable, which is laced with power producing nanoparticles capable of producing electricity. With the ability to generate renewable energy from this new, less invasive method, bulky solar panels as we know them today may soon become relics destined for the museum.
Wind, Solar...Coconuts: Small Island Developing States Commit to Renewable, Sustainable Energy for All
May 15, 2012 03:20 PM - Andrew Burger, Global Warming is Real
Typically heavily reliant on the cost of high and volatile diesel and fossil fuel imports, small island developing states are also on the front line when it comes to having to cope with climate change. Now they're realizing there's a lot in the way of cleaner, more efficient and less costly power and fuel resources right at home. They're increasingly, if belatedly, establishing ambitious renewable energy programs and setting aggressive targets to employ local renewable energy resources to reduce CO2 and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, working with a range of international development agencies, public and private sector partners domestic and foreign, in doing so.
Expect the Unexpected to happen with Climate Change
May 15, 2012 06:37 AM - Guest Post, Global Warming is Real
An increasingly common fallback position once climate change "skeptics" accept that the planet is warming and humans are the dominant cause is the myth that climate change won't be bad. In fact, this particular myth comes in at #3 on our list of most used climate myths. It's an ideal fallback position because it allows those who reject the body of scientific evidence to believe that if they are wrong on the science, it's okay, because the consequences won't be dire anyway. One of my colleagues, Molly Henderson recently completed a Masters Degree program class on scientific research which focused on climate change, which she aced (way to go, Molly!). For her final research paper, she examined the consequences of climate change on the prevalence of water-borne diseases in the US Great Lakes region.
Global Warming in a Nutshell
April 23, 2012 08:23 AM - LarryM, Global Warming is Real
Occasionally it's good to step back from the details of global warming science and offer non-technical visitors a "Global Warming 101" perspective, sort of like The Big Picture, but starting from the very beginning and touching on many aspects of this broad topic.
Forests and the Health of the Planet
April 13, 2012 08:24 AM - Richard Matthews, Global Warming is Real
The health of our forests directly impacts the health of the planet. The importance of forests to the Earth’s ecosystems cannot be overstated. Research shows that forest die-offs are on the increase and this troubling trend is being linked to global warming. Heat and water stress associated with climate change are making forests vulnerable to insect attacks, fires and other problems. As reported in an October 2011 New York Times article, millions of acres of forests in the northern and central Rockies are dying. In Colorado, at least 15 percent of that state’s aspen forests are suffering due to a lack of water. The U.S. is not the only country where forests are succumbing to the effects of a warming climate, trees are also being impacted by climate change all around the globe. The evidence for global warming continues to mount with March 2012 being the warmest in recorded history in the U.S. and January to March 2012 being the warmest first quarter on record in the lower 48 states. This is but the most recent data corroborating an increasingly irrefutable body of evidence.