Fossil Fuel Subsidies Dampen Shift Towards Renewables

Despite evolving public awareness and alarm over climate change, subsidies for the production and consumption of fossil fuels remain a stubborn impediment to shifting the world’s energy matrix towards renewable sources.

2013 Among Top Ten Warmest on Record

The year 2013 was among the top ten warmest years since modern records began in 1850, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

Winter Heat Swamps Alaska

While much of the continental United States endured several cold snaps in January 2014, record-breaking warmth gripped Alaska. Spring-like conditions set rivers rising and avalanches tumbling. A persistent ridge of high pressure off the Pacific Coast fueled the warm spell, shunting warm air and rainstorms to Alaska instead of California, where they normally end up.

Greenland’s Fastest Glacier Reaches Record Speeds

Jakobshavn Isbræ (Jakobshavn Glacier) is moving ice from the Greenland ice sheet into the ocean at a speed that appears to be the fastest ever recorded. Researchers measured the dramatic speeds of the fast-flowing glacier in 2012 and 2013.

Climate-Induced Migration Creates Perils, Possibilities

For Pacific islands like Tuvalu and Kiribati, the implications of climate change are clear, and devastating. Already, these governments have begun to plan for a future in which entire populations have to relocate as their islands vanish under the rising sea. But climate change also threatens ways of life in subtler ways, leaving families around the world to work out for themselves how to cope.