News Roundup
‘Life has never been easy for just-hatched Magellanic penguins, but climate change is making it worse, according to a decades-long study of the largest breeding colony of the birds.’
via For Already Vulnerable Penguins, Study Finds Climate Change Is Another Danger – NYTimes.com.
‘President Obama said the debate over climate change is settled during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday evening.’
“In 2007, Pete Seeger performed in Beacon, N.Y. and spoke with The Times’s Andrew C. Revkin about climate change. Mr. Seeger died on Monday at age 94.”
via Pete Seeger, Songwriter and Champion of Folk Music, Dies at 94 – NYTimes.com.
‘(Reuters) – Beijing’s mayor pledged on Thursday to cut coal use by 2.6 million tonnes and set aside 15 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) to improve air quality this year as part of the city’s “all-out effort” to tackle air pollution, state news agency Xinhua said.’
via Beijing’s mayor urges all-out effort to curb air pollution | Reuters.
‘WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will lay out an agenda on jobs and the economy during his State of the Union speech – but he’s unlikely to mention the politically charged Keystone XL oil pipeline.’
via Business & Financial News, Breaking US & International News | Reuters.com.
‘Pay now to reduce carbon emissions and make the transition to clean energy or pay much more dearly later. That’s the message from a draft United Nations report on climate change issued last month. It’s a message the European Commission, which is debating whether to temper its clean energy goals, would do well to heed.’
‘Today, after a decade of increasing damage to Coke’s balance sheet as global droughts dried up the water needed to produce its soda, the company has embraced the idea of climate change as an economically disruptive force.’
via Industry Awakens to Threat of Climate Change – NYTimes.com.
‘Nations have so dragged their feet in battling climate change that the situation has grown critical and the risk of severe economic disruption is rising, according to a draft United Nations report. Another 15 years of failure to limit carbon emissions could make the problem virtually impossible to solve with current technologies, experts found.’
via U.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly – NYTimes.com.
‘The number of Americans who believe global warming isn’t happening has risen to 23 percent, up 7 percentage points since April 2013.’
‘The hands of the infamous “Doomsday Clock” will remain firmly in their place at five minutes to midnight — symbolizing humans’ destruction — for the year 2013, scientists announced Monday.’
via The end is nigh? Doomsday clock holds at 5 to midnight | Fox News.