WASHINGTON POST: … Deke Arndt, chief of the National Climatic Data Center’s climate-monitoring branch, said the higher temperatures were “consistent with what we would expect in a warming world.” He also said that current science shows the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere leads to more frequent “big heat” and “big rain” events.
A combination of high temperatures and dry conditions last year took a serious toll on the nation’s agricultural sector…
Despite researchers’ concerns, global carbon emissions continue to rise. The International Energy Agency estimated last month that coal will come close to surpassing oil as the world’s top energy source in 2017 , when an additional 1.2 billion metric tons will be burned annually. In late November, the World Resources Institute reported there are nearly 1,200 proposed coal plants around the globe, three-quarters of which are planned for China and India… (more)
