Global Climate Change Action

UNLV researcher finds stalagmites may reveal clues to climate change
Las Vegas Review - Journal
Now a UNLV researcher is using a stalagmite built by those droplets to chart 2500 years of rainfall and draw new links between human history and climate change. The findings by professor Matthew Lachniet and his research team could help shed light on ...

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DAWN.com
Island nations want climate change in world court
DAWN.com
AP The small island nations who are highly vulnerable due to climate change are seeking to take the issue before International Court of Justice. – File Photo UNITED NATIONS: Small island nations, whose very existence is threatened by the rising sea ...
United Kingdom to Develop Climate Change Plan for Overseas TerritoriesCaribbean Journal

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Mirror.co.uk
Professor slammed after flying 20000 miles to Tahiti for climate change lecture
Mirror.co.uk
It is not the first time the scientist has felt the heat over his climate change crusade. Prof Jones, 59, stood down as head of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in 2009 after it was claimed leaked emails suggested that he knew ...

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Zee News
World at risk without climate justice
The Asian Age
Praful Bidwai's book The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future is written at a time of deep diplomatic despondency. It is brutally honest about what is at risk if no action is taken at the national and international ...
Climate change: India for roping in rich to shoulder burdenHindu Business Line
`Want India to have green development`Zee News
Equity is bottom line on climate change negotiations: IndiaEconomic Times
Caribbean Journal -Bloomberg
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Caribbean Journal
United Kingdom to Develop Climate Change Plan for Overseas Territories
Caribbean Journal
By the Caribbean Journal staff Four agencies of the United Kingdom plan to develop a Climate Change Programme specifically targeted for the UK overseas territories. The programme will fill a perceived gap identified in recent reviews of current climate ...
Island nations want climate change in world courtInquirer.net

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Responding to Climate Change (press release) (blog)
World at risk without climate justice
Deccan Chronicle
By Vandana Shiva by Praful Bidwai Praful Bidwai's book The Politics of Climate Change and the Global Crisis: Mortgaging Our Future is written at a time of deep diplomatic despondency. It is brutally honest about what is at risk if no action is taken at ...
`Want India to have green development`Zee News
Climate change: India for roping in rich to shoulder burdenHindu Business Line
Equity is bottom line on climate change negotiations: IndiaEconomic Times
Caribbean Journal -Bloomberg -Responding to Climate Change (press release) (blog)
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Bay Area Indymedia
Climate change predicted to escalate Tropical Cyclone damage costs for US and ...
Bay Area Indymedia
by Takver - Climate IMC A new study looking at the economic costs of tropical cyclone damage taking into account climate change, forecasts that tropical cyclones will cause $109 billion in damages by 2100. Increased vulnerability of populations and ...
US set to be hit hardest by tropical cyclonesTG Daily

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Hindustan Times
Want a film on climate change: Abhishek Bachchan
Hindustan Times
Actor Abhishek Bachchan is honoured with the Green Globe Award for outstanding contribution by a celebrity to fight climate change, during the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. After being part of entertaining films, Abhishek Bachchan is keen now ...
Abhishek wants to work in film on climate changeTimes of India

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Guest Commentary by Eugenie Scott, National Center for Science Education

Imagine you’re a middle-school science teacher, and you get to the section of the course where you’re to talk about climate change. You mention the “C” words, and two students walk out of the class.

Or you mention global warming and a hand shoots up.

“Mrs. Brown! My dad says global warming is a hoax!”

Or you come to school one morning and the principal wants to see you because a parent of one of your students has accused you of political bias because you taught what scientists agree about: that the Earth is getting warmer, and human actions have had an important role in this warming.

Or you pick up the newspaper and see that your state legislature is considering a bill that declares that accepted sciences like global warming (and evolution, of course) are “controversial issues” that require “alternatives” to be taught.

Incidents like these have happened in one or more states, and they are likely to continue to happen. Teachers are encountering pushback from many directions as they try to teach global warming and other climate science topics.

The importance of climate change education is, to the RealClimate community, a no-brainer. Numerous professional science organizations, from the American Chemical Society to the American Geophysical Union to the Geological Society of America have stressed the imperative of climate science being an integral part of science education.

So What’s a Teacher to Do?

Long a defender of the teaching of evolution, the National Center for Science Education has recently launched an initiative to support and defend the teaching of climate change science.

The “support” part has challenges all its own. Unlike evolution, which easily fits into biology and other life science courses, climate science spans multiple disciplines and can fall through disciplinary cracks in biology, chemistry and physics, or appear briefly in more specialized disciplines like ecology or Earth sciences. Moreover, climate science is complex and often non-intuitive, and students (and all too often teachers) stumble over misinformation and misconceptions that are hard to overcome. Many educational institutions are wrestling with how to support climate science in the K-12 curriculum.

But the “defend” part is where NCSE will make a unique contribution. Our experience over the decades helping teachers and school boards resolve the problems that have arisen over the teaching of evolution should stand us in good stead in helping them deal with this newer “controversial science”. Of course, there are many perspectives affecting the objections to climate science education, and each requires its own response.

Some of the denial is literal (It’s not happening! The science is bad!), some of it may be interpretive (it’s maybe happening but people aren’t to blame), and some of it stems more from the implications of climate change (it’s happening and maybe humans are responsible, but someone else is to blame and/or there’s nothing I can do about it). We’re going to help teachers understand where pressure against climate science education comes from, as the first step in helping them construct a response. From the evolution education controversy we learned long ago that one does not solve these problems merely by piling on more or better science: the underlying, motivating issues must be addressed. The science is essential, but not sufficient.

Climate change education should be an integral part of science education. Students should graduate from high school and certainly college with at least a basic understanding of the foundational concepts of climate science so they can understand human activities and how they are impacting climate and other aspects of the earth system.

This is no small task, and obviously NCSE as a relatively small non-profit can only do so much. We need your help.

We have been successful because we marshal allies, like scientists, teachers, parents, and other citizens, at the grassroots. NCSE’s success over recent decades in defending the teaching of evolution has been due in large measure to scientists and others who are willing to support good science education locally and at the state level. We also need scientists to provide us with their scientific expertise.

If you are a climate scientist, please give us your contact information so we can consult with you. Also, your contact information will be helpful to us if something occurs in your region or state where we need a scientist to write a letter, testify before a committee, support a teacher, or help in some other way.

Of course, an obvious way you can help is to join NCSE, but even if you don’t, your expertise will be helpful to us.

Visit our website, and contact our new Programs and Policy Director, Mark McCaffrey, who will be helping spearhead the new initiative, to let us know you support our effort. Teachers will thank you.

International Business Times
DNA holds clues to climate change adaptation
Jerusalem Post
These 'epigenetic' changes can occur rapidly between generations – without requiring the time for standard evolutionary processes. Such epigenetic modifications could explain how animal species are able to respond to rapid climate change.
Primeval Bison Bones Unravel Mystery of Climate Change AdaptationInternational Business Times
Yukon Bison Bone Discovery In Permafrost Sheds Light On Animal Adaptation To ...Huffington Post

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EU an ocean apart from U.S. on climate change
San Francisco Chronicle
A year later, and that experience with the car dealer is just one of myriad examples when I don't just feel European, I feel like I have just landed from a different planet - especially when the conversation turns to climate change.
Fight against climate change is uphill rideJewish Chronicle
What carbon price is right to bite into, not bark at, climate change?On Line opinion

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Sequencing a patient's entire genome to discover the source of his or her disease is not routine, but geneticists are getting close. A case report shows how researchers can combine a simple blood test with an "executive summary" scan of the genome to diagnose a severe glycosylation disorder.

One of the big mysteries in biology is why cells age. Now scientists report that they have discovered a weakness in a component of brain cells that may explain how the aging process occurs in the brain.

Newly divorced middle aged women are more vulnerable to contract HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, according to new research, because they tend to let their guard down with new sexual partners and avoid using protection since they are not afraid of getting pregnant.

Sky Bingo Help Tackle Climate Change With Their Latest Promotion
Sacramento Bee
Sky Bingo think this is an important cause to support and if you want to help tackle climate change with a simple click of a button, head over to the Sky Bingo Facebook page and become a fan. The online bingo company will donate 25p to the campaign for ...

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Could the use of vitamin and mineral supplements in a regular diet help to reduce the risk of colon cancer and protect against carcinogens? A study published in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology found that rats given regular multivitamin and mineral supplements showed a significantly lower risk of developing colon cancer when they were exposed to carcinogens.

People who suffer a traumatic experience often don't talk about it, and many forget it over time. But not talking about something doesn't always mean you'll forget it; if you try to force yourself not to think about white bears, soon you'll be imagining polar bears doing the polka. A group of psychological scientists explore the relationship between silence and memories.

Refugee children have scant access to medical care and are particularly vulnerable to disease. Fresh research results show that just a few hours of schooling a week may have a pronounced positive impact on their health not only in childhood but later in life when they achieve adulthood.

Placebos reduce pain by creating an expectation of relief. Distraction -- say, doing a puzzle -- relieves it by keeping the brain busy. But do they use the same brain processes? Neuromaging suggests they do. When applying a placebo, scientists see activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. That's the part of the brain that controls high-level cognitive functions like working memory and attention -- which is what you use to do that distracting puzzle.