The Economist (December 5)
“Europe and America have shown that King Coal can be dethroned.” Next Asia must step up to “topple coal.” Fortunately, this “is overwhelmingly in Asia’s interest to do so. Its people, infrastructure and agriculture are dangerously exposed to the droughts, flooding, storms and rising sea levels caused by climate change….. Coal’s days are numbered. The sooner it is consigned to museums and history books, the better.”
Tags: Agriculture, Asia, Coal, Dethroned, Droughts, Europe, Exposed, Flooding, Infrastructure, Sea levels, Storms, Topple, U.S.
Los Angeles Times (June 25)
“Billions of dollars of property damage along the Eastern Seaboard. Sharply reduced yields of corn, wheat and soy at Midwestern farms. Rising sea levels threatening military installations in Southern California.” A bipartisan report entitled Risky Business quantifies these and other climate change risks in an attempt “to push what has been a highly politicized issue into corporate boardrooms for serious consideration.” Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg were just two of the prominent leaders backing the report.
Tags: Bipartisan, Bloomberg, Climate change, Corn, Hank Paulson, Property damage, Risks, Risky Business, Sea levels, Soy, U.S., Wheat, Yields
Washington Post (May 13)
“The collapse of the giant West Antarctica ice sheet is underway.” It will be massive, but it won’t be rapid. The apparently “unstoppable” melt could raise sea levels “up to 12 feet,” but it will take anywhere from two centuries to a millennium to fully transpire.
New York Times (September 23)
The U.S. “has made commendable progress in reducing its emissions, and is halfway toward meeting Mr. Obama’s pledge at the Copenhagen climate summit meeting in 2009 to reduce its emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.” Globally, however, progress is not being made. “Steadily increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, rising sea levels, more violent weather events, persistent droughts…. The burden on the United States to set a positive example is as heavy as ever.”
