Tag Archives: global warming

Warming Hurts Ski Industry

What is it going to take for businesses to realize global warming is real?  What about a loss in profits? Americans love to ski and play in the snow.  And, it’s big business, bringing in an estimated $1.4 billion in state and local taxes and $1.7 billion in federal taxes alone.  But, lack of snow fall, perhaps due to global warming, has slowed the industry. A report done by two University of New Hampshire researchers for Protect Our Winters and the Natural Resources Defense Council shows that global warming is hurting ski resorts.  The study estimates the ski industry has … Continue reading →

Disappearing Islands: The Maldives

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Tuvalu isn’t the only small island on the verge of disappearing due to the climate change. The Maldives is a chain of 1,192 islets (small islands, of which 200 are inhabited) in the Indian Ocean south of India. Like Tuvalu, the Maldives are in desperate need of a solution to the rising sea levels. The Maldives are the lowest country in the world, only 2.3 meters above sea level at its highest point. The average point is 1.5 meters. The sea level has risen 20 centimeters in the last hundred years. That doesn’t sound that bad – 20 centimeters in … Continue reading →

San Diego Zoo Renovates Polar Bear Exhibit to Teach About Global Warming

The San Diego Zoo has an incredible polar bear exhibit, but it has just been renovated with education in mind. The climate changes have been hard on polar bears in the wild. Their natural habitats are dwindling and their food supplies are disappearing. The world famous San Diego Zoo’s Polar Bear Plunge exhibit hopes to educate visitors about the effect of global warming. There are three bears at the Polar Bear Plunge exhibit – 15-year-old Chinook and her nine-year-old brother Kalluk and sister Tatqiq. The $1 million renovation features “the world’s first moveable experience wall.” This wall will be removed … Continue reading →

More Snow Coming?

No, I have not given up my job as a blogger to turn meteorologist. In case you haven’t noticed lately, and I am sure you have, there seems to have been a lot of snow this winter. Even normally mild coastal North Carolina was graced with six inches of the white stuff recently. This has caused a lot of people to mock both Al Gore and global warming in general. I’ve read comments on Facebook like “Someone come and help me shovel all this global warming off my sidewalk.” There is even a “12 inches of global warming” video on … Continue reading →

Treaty Signed in Copenhagen

The UN Climate Control Conference in Copenhagen has wrapped up with a treaty being signed by most of the countries in attendance. The Copenhagen Accord, which consisted of 12 paragraphs, was a statement of intent that was signed, but it is not a binding pledge. The pact was shaped primarily by five nations – the United States, Brazil, South Africa, India, and China. Of course, not everyone is happy. Debates were heated, with the Sudanese delegate likened the treaty to a holocaust which would be a sentence of genocide for the people of his country and all of Africa. In … Continue reading →

More News from Copenhagen

The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) is winding down in Copenhagen, but that doesn’t mean things are calming down. Former Vice President Al Gore caused a bit of a ruckus when he misquoted a scientist. Gore told the Copenhagen crowd that Dr. Wieslaw Maslowski of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School claimed that in five to seven years, the polar ice cap would have no summer ice. The only problem was that Maslowski told the Times of London that he never said such a thing. He said that he would “never try to estimate [the] likelihood at anything as exact … Continue reading →

Tuvalu Walks Out of COP15

The other day, I blogged about the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, also known as COP15. One thing I didn’t mention was the tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu. Officials from Tuvalu showed up at the conference along with other officials of the Association of Small Island States (including the Cook Islands, Fiji, and Sierra Leone) to plead for a change. In case you haven’t heard about Tuvalu, it is a country that is about to disappear, literally. Tuvalu is only 4.5 meters above sea level at its highest. With the changes brought about by global warming, Tuvalu is getting … Continue reading →

United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009

On December 7th, almost 200 nations sent delegates to Copenhagen, Denmark for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP15. By holding this conference, the U.N. was hoping to get countries to develop new treaties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Several countries attending COP15, including the U.S., China, Brazil, and India, have already pledged climate goals before the conference. President Obama has set new goals at a 30 percent reduction of emissions by 2025 and an 80 percent reduction of emissions by 2050. What gave him a boost in doing this was the fact that just this week, … Continue reading →

Iceberg Headed Towards Australia

We hear a lot about global warming and the affects it may be having on our planet. I read today that an iceberg is headed towards Australia, but this isn’t any ordinary iceberg, if there is such a thing. The massive iceberg, named B17B, is more than twice as big as Manhattan! Officials believe that an iceberg this large has not been spotted in this area since the 19th century. B17B is 54 square miles and broke off an ice shelf about 10 years ago. It had been floating near Antarctica, but now is headed north. Glaciologist Neal Young of … Continue reading →

Hackers Hope to Disclaim Global Warming

Hackers have broken into a server of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit and posted private emails and documents on the Internet in hopes of showing that scientists have exaggerated global warming concerns. The Climatic Research Unit, a leader in global climate change research, said that about 1,000 emails and 3,000 documents were posted on web sites after the hackers broke in and stole the information. It is not known as to whether all the emails and documents are authentic. As with most issues, there is a debate over whether global warming is really occurring due to man-made … Continue reading →