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Global warming
Posted inNews & Opinion
Is a natural gas-fueled industrial boom good for the planet?
It seems that any effort to address climate change is plagued by criticism that it’ll cripple economic growth. As long as fossil fuels are cheap and abundant, not just in the United States but across the globe, that dynamic will probably continue. For an idea why, consider the story published yesterday by the Washington Post, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
New York, New York
Each day brings more news of the pain lingering in the Greater New York area: more than 100 dead, countless homes and businesses destroyed, tens of thousands of people displaced. Scientists have been careful about linking the storm itself to global warming; an individual storm can’t be linked to long-term climate changes. But scientists haven’t […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Hurricane Sandy and climate change: It’s complicated
The entire northeast is preparing for the onset of the Hurricane Sandy. Or more specifically, people in the northeast are preparing for the Frankenstorm: Hurricane Sandy mixed with a winter storm coming from the north. That combination of a hurricane and a nor’easter is weird. And it’s the latest example of weird or abnormally severe […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Leading scientist says he underestimated climate change
This is not the kind of headline that inspires confidence or optimism: “Climate change is here — and worse than we thought.” The accompanying op-ed was written by James Hansen, a top scientist at NASA and a leading climate-change researcher. And in the second paragraph, he says his earlier projections for what climate change will […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NEWS BLOG: On climate change, media needs to connect the dots
The news stories about drought, record temperatures, wilting crops, and freak storms – seriously, who ever heard of a derecho before the past few weeks – are piling up. The stories raise, or should raise, questions about how these events tie in with climate change, yet many of them don’t. I’m beginning to share the […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
NEWS BLOG: Not much good news on climate lately
The past couple of weeks have brought troubling climate news. An article published in the journal Nature said that climate change is reaching a tipping point, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. If that point is reached, it’ll mean rapid and irreversible damage to the global environment. The report joins scores of others highlighting the effect […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The hots, for you
The planet is warming up. What does that mean for Rochester? The short answer is that nobody really knows. A climate is a complex thing. Change one little part of it and you may change the whole thing — and in unpredictable ways. Still, that doesn’t mean scientists can’t make some sound educated guesses about […]
