We already know that we should eat less meat for the sake of the planet – the United Nations has said reduced meat consumption would help curb greenhouse emissions. While many ardent environmentalists are vegetarian, initiatives like Meatless Monday are trying to encourage all of us to do our part, as well.

So meat production helps cause global warming. But did you know that climate change might also affect the quality of meat? According to New Scientist: “Pork chops will become …

Tags: climate , climate change , food , food production and global warming , global warming effects , meat , meat eating , vegetarian

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I’m sure you’ve heard of the Heinz food company. It’s been around since 1869, providing generation after generation with ketchup, baked beans and hundreds of other food products.

But have you heard of the annual Heinz Awards?

Set up in 1993 by the Heinz Family Philanthropies to honor the memory of US Senator John Heinz, these awards celebrate and acknowledge the achievements of extraordinary individuals in the five areas: Arts and Humanities,  Economy and Employment, the Human Condition, Public Policy, and Technology, and the Environment.

This year’s Heinz Awards, however, are all about …

Tags: climate change , environmental leaders , global warming , heinz award

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Anyone wanting to know how global warming will affect their community in the future now has a new interactive tool, The Climate Wizard, at her fingertips.

Developed by The Nature Conservancy, the University of Washington and the University of Southern Mississippi, the Climate Wizard provides visitors with quick and easy access to information that usually would take hours if not days for them to research for themselves.

Using the Climate Wizard’s interactive map, visitors can access climate change data from the past and explore future predictions. Zoom …

Tags: climate change , global warming , mapping climate change , the climate wizard , the nature conservancy

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In the buildup to the December summit in Copenhagen when the international community hopes to negotiate new emissions goals and implement a new climate treaty, there is debate raging on exactly how much adapting to climate change is going to cost. The UN climate change secretariat, UNFCCC, estimates that the global cost of adapting to the effects of climate change at around $40 billion to $170 billion a year until 2030.

But a report released last week by the International Institute for Environment and Development and the Grantham Institute for …

Tags: adapting to climate change , climate change , Grantham Institute for Climate Change , International Institute for Environment and Development , the cost of climate change , UNFCCC

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It’s one thing to read about how some of the most amazing natural treasures in the world are endangered due to environmental degradation, or learn specifically about the dangers global warming poses to our national parks. It’s another thing to see it firsthand.

I was hiking in the Rockies earlier this month and saw for myself large swaths of dead, rust-colored Lodgepole pine trees throughout the forest (see gallery below).  Witnessing the actual damage done by human folly is heart wrenching …

Tags: climate change , deforestation , evidence , global warming , global warming effects , hiking , impacts , national parks , solutions

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Australian citizens might not be shrinking but its birds sure are. That’s the word from an Australian National University and CSIRO study which measured eight bird species found in Australia’s southeast and compared them to the size of museum specimens from a century ago. Their findings show that each bird species measured had shrunk between 2 and 4 percent in the last 100 years.

During this time Australia’s daily temperature has risen 1.3 degrees F (0.7 degrees C).

Based on this information, the study concluded that the …

Tags: australia's birds are shrinking , climate change , climate change and shrinking birds , global warming , shrinking birds

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Every 10 years, the United States Global Change Research Program is required to report on how climate change is affecting the United States.

The latest Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States report, released this week, is a comprehensive 188-page document written with the assistance of 13 federal agencies and John Holdren, President Obama’s science advisor.

Dealing only in cold, hard facts, the report outlines the many detrimental effects that global warming is already having on activities, industries, wildlife, the landscape and even health around the country.

This latest …

Tags: climate change , climate change effects on industry , global climate change impacts in the United States , global warming , maple syrup

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In the future, rising sea levels are going to drive people out of their low-lying communities and up to higher ground. But you might not know it’s going on right now.

As Luanne reported recently, the government of the Maldives is facing the prospect of inundation with admirable foresight by moving to a carbon zero economy by the end of the next decade and adding a splash of green to its luxury status.

The country is also going to use future profits to fund a wholesale relocation of the population …

Tags: climate change , environment , marine conservation , oceans

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Ever want to just pack up and move…your country?

If you haven’t heard by now, President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives insists buying a new homeland may be the only option for the 300,000 islanders who selected him last year as the country’s first democratically-elected leader.

That’s because nightmarish climate change could drown the emerald chain of 1,200 islands and 26 coral atolls that make up the territory located 435 miles southwest of Sri Lanka in the Laccadine Sea of the Indian Ocean.

Location, location, location.

Yes, that’s the draw to this …

Tags: battery banks , carbon neutral , Chris Goodall , climate change , global warming , india , President Mohammed Nasheed , solar panels , the Maldives , Tom Cruise , wind turbines

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