State of the Climate Report Confirms Planet Has Entered 'New Neighborhood' of Global Temperatures

EcoWatch

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released the results of what it calls the "annual checkup for the planet" Wednesday, and the patient is not doing well. More here.

Unsurvivable heatwaves could strike heart of China by end of century

The Guardian

The most populous region of the biggest polluter on Earth – China’s northern plain – will become uninhabitable in places if climate change is not curbed. Story here.

Extreme global weather is 'the face of climate change' says leading scientist

The

Guardian

A farm family is isolated by widespread flooding in Saskatchewan, Canada. Circa 2005. PinP photo.

Prof Michael Mann declares the impacts of global warming are now ‘playing out in real-time.’  Story here.

How TransAlta used a university-sanctioned research project to lobby for the coal industry

CBC news

Energy giant TransAlta paid the University of Alberta $54,000 to hand-pick one of its researchers to produce a study and other materials it used to lobby the provincial government to try to protect the coal industry, documents obtained by CBC News reveal. Story here.

‘Powerful Evidence’ of Global Warming’s Effect on Seasons Found in Troposphere

EcoWatch

Scientists studying the troposphere—the lowest level of the atmosphere—have found "powerful evidence" that climate change is altering seasonal temperatures. More here.

Is B.C. headed for another devastating summer of wildfires?

Canada’s

National

Observer

Ashcroft Reserve wildfire as seen across Loon Lake, BC. July 2017 Photo by Shawn Cahill.

With warm weather, a high snowpack and floodwaters rising throughout the province, it may seem like B.C. is set to repeat last year’s weather patterns, which led to a catastrophic summer of fires. But it’s still too early to reliably predict…. More here.

Anti-pipeline activists are fighting to stop Line 3 on the US-Canada border. Will they succeed?

Bill McKibben for The Guardian.

Pipe loaded on a train in Manitoba, destined for God-knows-where. A PinP photo.

The oil industry is building yet another pipeline - but Native American groups and progressive activists are fighting back. More here.

Ex-Nasa scientist: 30 years on, world is failing 'miserably’ to address climate change

The Guardian

James Hansen, who gave a climate warning in 1988 Senate testimony, says real hoax is by leaders claiming to take action. More here.

Pikas in Peril

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Photo by Rémi Bigonneau

UBC scientists say mammal threatened by climate change. More here.

The Natural Gas Industry Has a Leak Problem

The New York Times

Fracking in the Bakken formation of North Dakota. Photo by Joshua Doubek

The American oil and gas industry is leaking more methane than the government thinks — much more, a new study says. Since methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, that is bad news for climate change. More here.

Climate change is wiping out the baobab, Africa’s ‘tree of life’

Ameenah Gurib-Fakim - the Guardian

The trees are a scientific wonder, once capable of living for thousands of years, but now becoming endangered species. Story here.

Boab trees. photo by ChatDaniels

Three trillion tonnes of ice lost from Antarctica since 1992

Nature Research Press

Antarctic ice. Photo by Greenpeace

The Antarctic Ice Sheet lost about 3 trillion tonnes of ice between 1992 and 2017. This figure corresponds to a mean sea-level rise of about 8 millimetres. While it could take a thousand years for a total "meltdown," all of Antarctica’s ice sheets, contain enough water to raise global sea level by 58 metres. So they're a key indicator of climate change and driver of sea-level rise. See video, below.


RELATED: Antarctic ice melting faster than thought, studies show.

Climate change on track to cause major insect wipeout, scientists warn

TheGuardian

A PinP photo.

Insects are vital to ecosystems but will lose almost half their habitat under current climate projections. Story here.

Climate change puts city's ash trees at greater risk from killer insect, researchers say

Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg's ash tree canopy may be in more imminent danger than anticipated from an invasion of destructive insects because of significant changes to the city's climate. More here.

Trees in Pennsylvania killed by the emerald ash borer. Steven Katovich, USDA Forest Service

Scientists struggle to explain a worrying rise in atmospheric methane

The Economist

A PinP photo.

In the past decade methane levels have shot up, to the extent that the atmosphere contains two-and-a-half times as much of the gas as it did before the Industrial Revolution. More here.

The race to save Arctic cities (in Canada & elsewhere) as permafrost melts

NATIONAL OBSERVER

In Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut, a good home is hard to find. More here.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The walls of this immense Siberian crater are more than 85 meters tall in places. Batagaika Crater has formed as rising temperatures have thawed the permafrost in Siberia. Warmer summers and shorter winters are causing the frozen layer cake of ice and soil to collapse (or “slump”) and erode away in much of the Arctic. 

Alien Waters: Neighbouring Seas Are Flowing into a Warming Arctic Ocean

Yale Environment 360

Drift ice in the archipelago of Svalbard. Photo by AWeith 

The “Atlantification” and “Pacification” of the Arctic has begun. As warmer waters stream into an increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean, new species — from phytoplankton to whales — have the potential to upend this sensitive polar environment. More here.

Satellite Reveals Troubling Retreat of Patagonian Glaciers (Video)

EcoWatch

Diseases spread by ticks, mosquitoes and fleas more than tripled in the U.S. since 2004

The Washington Post

A wood tic - Manitoba, CA. PinP photo.

The warmer weather of spring and summer means the start of tick and mosquito season and the diseases they transmit, including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, West Nile and Zika. More here.

In worst case scenario, the trees in big parts of Canada's boreal forest 'will probably die,' says federal scientist

National

Observer

A devastating wildfire near Fort MacMurray, Alberta, Photo by DarrenRD

Large portions of Canada’s vast boreal forest could be at risk of dying off by the end of the century, as climate change will dramatically aggravate the risk of wildfires, drought and insect infestations, say government scientists in a groundbreaking new study. More here.

RELATED: Only “Heroic Efforts” Will Spare Earth’s Mighty Boreal Forest From the Worst Ravages of Climate Change - Experts.