Tag: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Humanity may not be completely doomed just yet, but is well on the way to broiling itself to a crisp, according to the world's leading climate scientists, who this week rolled out part one of their latest global climate change assessment in a Summary for Policymakers.

Authors of a new study published recently in Geophysical Research Letters found that the natural-gas industry is failing to prevent significant amounts of its product from escaping into the air every day. The leaks result in a loss of millions of dollars in potential profits and raise anew questions about the true environmental benefits that come from relying increasingly on gas as an energy source.

As the United Nations climate talks in Durban progress, they are becoming increasingly combative, offering a soft preview of the kind of political atmosphere destined to prevail in a world where agriculture in vulnerable regions of the planet begins to succumb to catastrophic drought and flooding. The United States and Canada have drawn intense criticism here during the first two days of the conference.