Global Warming: Who Wins?

Country could be world's leader in clean energy by 2020

(NEWSER) - China is on course to obtain 20% of its energy from wind and solar sources by 2020—a transformation that would make the country the world leader in renewables. Beijing is ramping up its targets for clean energy, helped by the $590 billion stimulus package passed last year, a senior government official told the Guardian. "Due to the impact of global financial crisis, people are all talking about green and sustainable development," he said. More»

We need real green solutions, not just 'feel-good' movements: Bjorn Lomborg

(NEWSER) - This Saturday night, environmental activists are calling on the world to dim the lights for “Earth Hour”—a nice idea, but one that may actually be counterproductive. Look at it this way: "If everyone in the world participated in this year's Earth Hour, the result would be the same as turning off China's carbon emissions for roughly 45 seconds,” writes author and activist Bjorn Lomborg in USA Today . It’s “symptomatic of an environmental movement that has become too focused on hollow, feel-good actions that at best only inch us in the right direction." More»

Ice sheets could send sea level up 6 inches by 2050

(NEWSER) - The ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are melting significantly faster than previously estimated, according to a new international report led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Unless the trend is reversed, the melting ice sheets will push global sea levels up six inches by 2050, the scientists found. More»

Country grapples with drought, wildfires, and heat

(NEWSER) - Pummeled by drought, wildfires, and heat, Australia may be offering the world a preview of what’s to come as the planet warms, experts say. “Australia is the harbinger of change,” says a paleontologist. Many say climate change has already taken a human toll in the 173 killed by wildfires and 200 who died in a heat wave—to say nothing of a string of suicides among struggling farmers. The Los Angeles Times reports from a continent in transition. More»

(NEWSER) - Top climate scientists say sea levels are rising faster than expected, the Times of London reports. The world's oceans will rise about 3 feet by the end of the century, double the amount predicted in a 2007 estimate by the UN. The new figure, blamed on melting ice sheets, could prove catastrophic for the hundreds of millions of people who live in the world's low-lying areas, the scientists say. More»