‘England’s lead scientific adviser warned recently that increased demand for water and energy, and a warmer world, may combine to create a ‘perfect storm’ of “public unrest, cross-border conflicts and mass migration by 2030″, with developing regions hardest hit: ”there’s not going to be a complete collapse, but things will start getting really worrying if we don’t tackle these problems,” he noted.’

via There’s An Inconvenient Hole in the Climate Forecasting Map.

‘The close of the international climate conference on December 11th could well be a cliffhanger. Newspaper editors may be tempted to prepare alternate front pages announcing “World Saved” or “World Doomed,” as in the 1961 science fiction film The Day the Earth Caught Fire.’

via Climate talks: Is the planet to be saved or doomed?.

‘Moving away from its earlier intention of submitting a comprehensive climate action plan ahead of the Paris climate meet, India is preparing to make a minimalist offer indicating a single target for slowing down the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions.’

via Paris Climate Meet: India’s offer to slow greenhouse gas emissions to be minimalist | The Indian Express.

‘The mighty megafauna of the last ice age, including the wooly mammoths, short-faced bears and cave lions, largely went extinct because of rapid climate-warming events, a new study finds….’

via Climate change drove woolly mammoths to extinction, say scientists – CSMonitor.com.

‘Those under the impression that climate change is advancing at a constant and predictable rate don’t understand the true dynamics of the issue. The rate of increase of the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, the main driver of climate change, went from 0.75 parts per million ppm per year in 1959 to about 1.5 ppm each year through the 1990s, to 2.1 ppm each year from 2002 to 2012, and finally to 2.9 ppm in 2013.’

via Nonlinear: New York, London, Shanghai underwater in 50 years?.

‘VATICAN CITY (AP) — At a climate summit at the Vatican, California Gov. Jerry Brown said the world may have reached a tipping point on global warming and that humanity must reverse course or face extinction.’

via Jerry Brown on climate change: ‘We are talking about extinction’ | KRON4.com.

‘A new report by top climate change scientists looks back more than 120,000 years to a previous period when the Earth warmed up, and raises the possibility of a near future where sea levels rise far faster and higher than previous projections if carbon emissions are not curtailed.’

via Oceans Could Rise Faster Than Projected, Top Climate Scientist Says – NBC News.

‘…A lengthy, ambitious, and already contested paper by longtime NASA climate scientist James Hansen and 16 colleagues appeared online Thursday in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion, an open-access journal published by the European Geosciences Union. The paper, entitled “Ice melt, sea level rise and superstorms: evidence from paleoclimate data, climate modeling, and modern observations that 2 â—¦C global warming is highly dangerous” is now open for comment — peer review in this journal happens in public.’

via James Hansen’s controversial sea level rise paper has now been published online – The Washington Post.

‘The British Academy is one of the 24 institutions and its president, the climate economist Lord Nicholas Stern, said David Cameron and the UK had a special responsibility to lead the fight against climate change. “The UK led the world with both the modern scientific revolution and the industrial revolution, and must lead again now on the creation of a safer, cleaner and more prosperous world,” Stern said.’

via Act on climate change now, top British institutions tell governments | Environment | The Guardian.

‘…Just four months ahead of a UN conference in the French capital tasked with producing a historic climate pact, US scientists this week said 2014 was a record year for sea level rise, land temperatures, and the greenhouse gases that drive dangerous global warming.’

via Ministers in Paris to boost flagging climate talks.