%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fjake-schmidt%2Fparis-agreement-very-like_b_11015562.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Paris Agreement Very Likely to Enter into Force this Year  

In order for the Paris Agreement to "Enter into Force" and become international law 55 countries that account for 55 percent of the world's emissions will need to ratify the agreement through their domestic processes. Recent developments in Brazil and Ukraine highlight that both countries are on the cusp of formally joining this year. It is now looking very likely that the Paris Agreement will reach the entry-into-force threshold this year based upon publicly announced intentions from countries.

Earlier this week, Brazil's House of Representatives unanimously approved a legislative decree to ratify the Paris Agreement. The bill now moves to the Senate. Brazilian observers are confident that the Senate will pass a similar bill, possibly in the coming days or weeks. It would then be sent to Acting President Temer for his approval in order to make it domestic law. Each of these steps is very likely to happen this year. Brazil accounts for 2.5 percent of emissions towards the threshold.

The Ukraine government moved even closer to formally joining the Paris Agreement as its Parliament voted to ratify the agreement. The Ukrainian Government will now need to take the final step and formally notify the U.N. that they have ratified the agreement. Ukraine accounts for one percent of emissions towards the threshold.

Eighteen countries have formally notified the U.N. of their ratification and 29 (including Brazil and Ukraine) have already announced their intent to join this year. The emissions from these 47 countries account for 54.08 percent of the world's emissions. With India, who signaled with President Obama their intent to join this year and have started their domestic process, we would be at over 58 percent of emissions. With Japan, who hasn't said anything publicly but could easily do it this year, we would be at about 62 percent of emissions (see figure and table). And reaching the 55 country threshold should be easily within reach as a number of small emitting countries are likely to join but haven't yet said anything publicly.

It now looks very likely that the Paris Agreement will enter-into-force this year. This continues the huge momentum for stronger climate action that has occurred since the agreement was finalized and signifies that countries are formally committed to delivering stronger climate action in the years to come.

---

NRDC has been tracking the countries that have publicly announced that they will ratify the Paris Agreement this year. The table below is based upon those public announcements. Other countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Russia, have sent some public signals that they will ratify this year but since these aren't formal announcements we haven't included them at this stage.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
gaia  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2016%2F07%2F160715113602.htm&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Genetic roots of insect's waterproof coating could lead to innovative pest control  
Scientists may have discovered a new and effective way to control insect pests that are a threat to agriculture and humans. Researchers have identified a gene in vinegar flies responsible for the insect's waterproof coating, which provides them protection from microbes and environmental stress. They nicknamed the gene spidey.  
gaia  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2016%2F07%2F160715113558.htm&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Soot may have killed off the dinosaurs and ammonites  
A new hypothesis on the extinction of dinosaurs and ammonites at the end of the Cretaceous Period has been proposed by a research team.  
gaia  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fmichael-e-mann%2Fanatomy-of-a-smear-or-how-the-right-wing-denial-machine_b_10997280.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
'Anatomy of a Smear' or 'How the Right Wing Denial Machine Distorts The Climate Change Discourse'  
Several weeks ago, on June 17, I provided testimony about the threat of human-caused climate change to the Democratic Party Platform drafting committee in Phoenix Arizona. Fittingly, my testimony was just one day before record heat struck Phoenix.

At the beginning of my testimony, I made the point, using slightly lofty language appropriate for the occasion, that the impacts of climate change are now so profound that we no longer need sophisticated signal-detection machinery to see them:

I am a climate scientist, and have spent much of my career with my head buried in climate model output and observational climate data, trying to tease out the signal of human-caused climate change.

What is disconcerting to me and so many of my colleagues is that these tools that we've spent years developing increasingly are unnecessary because we can see the impacts of climate change playing out in real time on our television screens in the 24 hour news cycle.

Regardless of how you measure the impacts of climate change -- whether it be food, water, health, national security, our economy -- climate change is already taking a great toll. And we see that tool in the damage done by more extreme floods, like the floods we've seen over the past year in Texas and in South Carolina. We see it in the devastating combination of sea level rise and more destructive hurricanes which has led to calamities like "Superstorm" Sandy and what is now the perennial flooding of Miami beach. We see it in the unprecedented drought, like that which continues to afflict California, a doubling in the area of wildfire, fire burning in the western U.S., and indeed, in the record heat we may see this weekend in phoenix.

The signal of climate change is no longer subtle. It is obvious.

My point--that we don't need sophisticated techniques to identify the human fingerprint present in e.g. the doubling of extreme heat or the tripling (in fact) of western wildfire that we have seen in the U.S. in recent decades, ought to be clear to any honest observer.

It would be absurd to conclude that I was arguing that climate models and climate data are no longer necessary in climate science, especially given that they continue to form the bread and butter of my own scientific research (I've published over a dozen scientific articles using climate models and climate data during the past year alone).

So you can imagine my shock--yes, shock--that climate change deniers and conservative media outlets that serve as mouthpieces for them, would seek to convince their readers of just that.

It is an instructive ontological exercise to follow this particular affair--from its inception through the latest developments, sort of like observing a deviant version of the game "telephone" (or "Chinese whispers" for British readers) wherein the participants are actually trying to distort the message as it is passed along from one person to the next.

It all started on Monday June 27th with Steven J. Milloy and his outlandishly untruthful claim "Michael Mann says there is no need for statistics."

Milloy, who actually calls himself the "junk man" with no apparent sense of irony, is a denier-for-hire who happily takes money from tobacco interests, chemical interests, and of course fossil fuel interests to do their dirty work, attacking seemingly any scientist whose findings threaten their financial bottom line.

Milloy frequently publishes columns in the notorious Washington Times. Which brings us to the next stage of the affair...

Later that same day, the Washington Times--a paper founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church, ran a piece by one Valerie Richardson entitled "Michael Mann, scientist: Data 'increasingly unnecessary' because 'we can see climate change'".

Somehow 'tools' have become 'data'. It almost seems like they're going out of their way to misrepresent my statements, doesn't it?

Almost as if to demonstrate that they too have absolutely no sense of irony, the Washington Times referred to me in the piece as a "Leading climate doomsayer" (the Unification Church, you see, is often considered a doomsday cult). The Washington Times also happens to be closely tied to ALEC--a Koch Brothers-funded organization that promotes climate change denialism and subverts efforts to incentivize renewable energy.

Next up at bat, Tucker Carlson's The Daily Caller, which later that day pushed the egregiously false headline "Famed Climate Scientist Claims Data Now 'Unnecessary' To Measure Global Warming".

Understand that we have now gone all the way from what I actually said (that climate change impacts have become so profound now that we often don't need fancy techniques to see them) to something so patently absurd I couldn't possibly have said it (that we don't need data to measure global warming).

The Daily Caller, incidentally, is so fully immersed in Koch cash that is is listed as a "partner organization" of the Charles Koch Institute.

Witness now, after a two week hiatus, the hand-off from the Koch Brothers to the Scaife Foundations, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, to be specific, which was founded by the now-deceased Richard Mellon Scaife. On July 13, the Tribune-Review perpetuated the smear with a climate change-denying editorial containing the farcical howler "[Mann] says facts no longer are necessary to substantiate the climate change story line." Just when you thought the distortion couldn't get more egregious...

One day later, on July 14, the execrable Tribune op-ed was republished on the right wing website GOPUSA, a website connected to--you guessed it--Richard Mellon Scaife (though a bit of detective work is required to connect the dots).

Oil baron Richard Mellon Scaife and his empire were behind what Hillary Clinton famously referred to as the "vast right-wing conspiracy" to take down her husband, President Bill Clinton (for the record, she was correct).

Certainly, you're thinking, it must be a coincidence that nearly every player in this latest episode seems to be tied in some way to either the Koch Brothers or Scaife Foundations.

Or maybe not so much...

Richard Mellon Scaife and the Scaife Family Foundations are, along with the Koch Brothers, the greatest private funders of climate change denialism, having stepped up their funding in recent years as fossil fuel corporations like ExxonMobil have come under increased scrutiny for their funding of climate change denial.

As I discuss in my book The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars about the attacks against me by climate change deniers looking to discredit the iconic "Hockey Stick" graph my co-authors and I published in the late 1990s (p. 64):

Wealthy privately held corporations and foundations with close interests in, or ties to, the fossil fuel industry, such as Koch Industries and the Scaife Foundations, have become increasingly active funders of the climate change denial campaign in recent years. Unlike publicly traded companies such as ExxonMobil, these private outfits can hide their finances from public view, and they remain largely invulnerable to outside pressure. In recent years, as ExxonMobil has been pressured by politicians on both sides of the aisle to withdraw from funding the climate change denial movement, Koch and Scaife have stepped up, contributing millions of dollars to the effort.

Koch funding played a major role in the faux scandal known as 'climategate' which involved the misrepresentation of scientists based on out-of-context quotes (sound familiar?) taken from emails of theirs that had been stolen off a university computer server in the UK (p. 220):

One report showed that twenty or so organizations funded at least in part by Koch Industries had "repeatedly rebroadcast, referenced and appeared as media spokespeople" in stories about climategate.

Meanwhile, the Scaifes funded many of the personal attacks intended to discredit me and the "Hockey Stick" (p. 228):

In mid-January 2010, a group known as the National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), which receives funding from the Scaife Foundations, led a campaign to have my NSF grants revoked. The perverse premise was that I was somehow pocketing millions of dollars of "Obama" stimulus money simply because I was a coinvestigator on several recently funded NSF grants. These absurd distortions were--no surprise--promoted by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and others of similar persuasion.

and (p. 229):

Two Scaife-funded groups.. the Southeastern Legal Foundation and the Landmark Legal Foundation, had swung into action. The latter had already sued the University of Massachusetts and University of Arizona to obtain copies of my personal e-mails with my two hockey stick coauthors, while in May 2010 the former demanded extensive information from the NSF regarding grants that had been made to me as well as to several of my colleagues at Penn State, the University of Chicago, the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, and Columbia University.

It began to strike me as curious that so many of the demands that I be investigated could be traced back to organizations with ties to the Scaife Foundations. The Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania organization that is the recipient of considerable Scaife largess, for example, had been pressuring Penn State University to fi e me since climategate broke in late November 2009. It managed to get the sympathetic Republican chair of the Pennsylvania state senate education committee to threaten to hold Penn State's funding hostage until "appropriate action is taken by the university against associate [sic] professor Michael Mann." Indeed, it was the Commonwealth Foundation attacks that essentially forced Penn State to launch its initial inquiry into the various allegations against me in December 2009 (similar inquiries and investigations of CRU scientists were initiated in the United Kingdom). The Commonwealth Foundation kept the pressure on for months through a barrage of press conferences and press releases attacking me personally and criticizing Penn State for its supposed "whitewash" treatment of any number of supposed offenses. It also ran daily attack ads against me in our university newspaper The Collegian for an entire week in January and helped organize a protest rally against me on campus. It is likely that these attacks forced Penn State's hand yet again, leading it, following the completion of the initial inquiry in February 2010, to move to a formal investigation, despite having found no evidence of misconduct in the initial inquiry phase.

As we head into the 2016 presidential election, this is a reminder that polluting interest are mobilized, and in addition. They don't have the facts on their side, so they resort to distorting what scientists say (often based on a single word in a scientific paper) in the hope that their followers will believe their twisted version of reality.

Vote climate.


__________

Michael Mann is Distinguished Professor of Meteorology at Pennsylvania State University and author of The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars and the recently updated and expanded Dire Predictions: Understanding Climate Change. His latest book The Madhouse Effect, with Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles, is due out in early September.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
gaia  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2097653-first-evidence-that-gm-mosquitoes-reduce-disease%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
First evidence that GM mosquitoes reduce disease  
A trial in Brazil suggests that the approach not only reduces the number of mosquitoes, it also reduces the number of people who get dengue  
gaia  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fedward-flattau%2Fwest-virginias-choice_b_11016550.html&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Edward Flattau: West Virginia's Choice  
In this month marked by political conventions, West Virginia has one of its own. Unfortunately, relatively little attention will be paid to the Mounta...

Read more: West Virginia, Environmentalism, Environment, Bernie Sanders, Politics News

 
gaia  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2Fclimate_stillz%2F28292888796%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Morning Breakthrough  

Climate_Stillz posted a photo:

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fdailyoverview.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147451734004&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The events that occurred in the beautiful city of Nice, France...  

The events that occurred in the beautiful city of Nice, France yesterday have become all too regular on our planet. For today's post I'd like to share the words of a friend that I came across this morning: “Each morning I brace myself before I turn my phone on. I find that I need to ready myself before the news alerts start peppering my phone with the tragedies we've inflicted on each other and the world in the past eight hours /// I know many of you are also coping with this daily. I know many of you are consciously choosing to remain loving and courageous in the face of these horrors. It's not easy. I know because I feel the emotional weight of it too. /// Thank you for charging on and doing the best you can every day while carrying your grieving and embattled hearts. It takes something not to give up and not to shut down. Please know that you are not alone in this. We will figure this out. I believe in us.” /// May everyone have a safe and happy weekend, wherever you are in the world. /// Words by @ialhusseini, source imagery from @digitalglobe (at Nice, France)

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.buzzfeed.com%2Ftasneemnashrulla%2Fheres-what-we-know-about-the-suspect-in-the-nice-attack&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Here's What We Know About The Suspect In The Attack On Nice  
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel was identified by French officials as the truck driver who plowed through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, killing at least 84 people.  
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F100162031%40N03%2F28044021780%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Covent Garden  

Kieran Williams Photography posted a photo:

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seattletimes.com%2Fnation-world%2Fphotos-of-the-day-july-15-2016%2F%3Futm_source%3DRSS%26utm_medium%3DReferral%26utm_campaign%3DRSS_photos-of-the-day&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Photos of the Day: July 15, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2Ftheatlantic%2Finfocus%2F%7E3%2FDU8seNZs8w8%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Photos of the Week 7/9 - 7/15 (35 photos)  

Black Lives Matter in Baton Rouge, a dog surfs in Croatia, a hot air balloon glides over Australia, Serena Williams triumphs, a deadly truck attack in Nice, a new view of Jupiter, and much more.

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F142291034%40N07%2F28219058242%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
London  

JasonthePhotog posted a photo:

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Flindahall.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F147453668286&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
John Fowler - Scientist of the DaySir John Fowler, an English...  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway#/media/File:Metropolitan_Underground_Railway_stations.jpg


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Constructing_the_Metropolitan_Railway.png


http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/polopoly_fs/1.1798711!/image/901103939.jpg


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Forthbridge_feb_2013.jpg


http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw42078/

John Fowler - Scientist of the Day

Sir John Fowler, an English civil engineer, was born July 15, 1817.

read more…

 
science  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Finternational%2Fworld%2Fspiegel-interview-a-1103192.html%23ref%3Drss&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Trump Foreign Policy Advisor: 'Americans Are Fed Up With the Bullshit'  
In an interview with SPIEGEL, Donald Trump advisor Mike Flynn explains why the presumptive Republican Party presidential candidate admires authoritarian leaders and considers the US foreign policy of recent years to be a disaster.  
general  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Finternational%2Feurope%2Ftheresa-may-must-use-post-brexit-opportunity-opinion-a-1103229.html%23ref%3Drss&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
A New Beginning: Theresa May's Opportunity to Reinvent Britain  
Britain's new prime minister, Theresa May, faces a difficult task. She must reconcile the country and improve the lives of those who feel left behind.  
general  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Finternational%2Fbusiness%2Fcommission-has-long-known-of-diesel-emissions-manipulation-a-1103249.html%23ref%3Drss&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Diesel Emissions: EU Commission Has Known for Years about Manipluation  
The European Commission insists that it knew nothing about diesel emissions manipulations perpetrated by Volkswagen and other automobile manufacturers. Documents obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE show otherwise.  
general  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2Fphotos%2F142291034%40N07%2F27706827233%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
London  

JasonthePhotog posted a photo:

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F163128451%2Fmount-rinjani-indonesia-from-the-summit-at-3729m-by-chris570&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Mount rinjani, Indonesia from the summit at 3729m by chris570  

Mount rinjani, Indonesia from the summit at 3729m by chris570

chris570: Photos

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F163117507%2Fmorning-sunshine-by-martin-podt&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Morning Sunshine by Martin Podt  

Morning Sunshine by Martin Podt

Morning Sunshine, the Netherlands. Facebook | Instagram | Fine Art America

Martin Podt: Photos

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F163058665%2Fsnow-by-nikolay-tikhomirov&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Snow by Nikolay Tikhomirov  

Snow by Nikolay Tikhomirov

https://www.instagram.com/artinsideyou/

Nikolay Tikhomirov: Photos

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F163043787%2Froad-trip-after-the-rain-by-thomas-vanoost&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Road Trip - after the rain by Thomas Vanoost  

Road Trip - after the rain by Thomas Vanoost

Multiple exposure from a window above the highway, just after the rain.

Thomas Vanoost: Photos

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F163022747%2F-stilwerk-d%25C3%25BCsseldorf-by-herbert-a-franke&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
"Stilwerk" Düsseldorf by Herbert A. Franke  

"Stilwerk" Düsseldorf by Herbert A. Franke

Stilwerk, that is a large shopping mall in the downtown from Dusseldorf

Herbert A. Franke: Photos

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F163021505%2Fthe-soul-s-descent-by-hugo-s%25C3%25B3&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The Soul's Descent by Hugo Só  

The Soul's Descent by Hugo Só

Roma, Italy -- www.hugosophotography.com https://www.facebook.com/Hugo.So.Photography

Hugo Só: Photos

 
images  

%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2F500px.com%2Fphoto%2F163012221%2Fquinomosles-by-roman-gutikov&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
quinomosles by Roman Gutikov  

quinomosles by Roman Gutikov

inspired by beauty. Educate photography, processing, retouch. vkontakte | flickr | facebook | instagram

Roman Gutikov: Photos

 
images