| Climate Change in the Spotlight at the Debate: Though moderator Lester Holt did not ask a specific question on climate change during the first presidential debate, it became the “most important exchange of the night.” While speaking on clean energy jobs, Hillary Clinton said Donald Trump believes climate change is “a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.” He hurriedly interrupted to reject that claim, but fact checkers pointed out that Trump has called climate change a hoax numerous times since 2012. Trump also made an oblique reference to Solyndra’s bankruptcy, while Clinton touted her renewable energy ambitions, including plans to deploy half a billion solar panels. (News: Huffington Post, Climate Home, LA Times $, Washington Post $, AP, New York Times $ , The Verge, CNN, Fortune, Esquire, Global News, Mic, Vox, Mother Jones, Wall Street Journal $, The Hill, Politico Pro $, ThinkProgress, Mashable, E&E News $. Commentary: Rolling Stone, Tom Dickinson column; Grist, Rebecca Leber column)
Study: US Needs Clean Power Plan, More Initiatives to Meet Goals: Even as the Clean Power Plan gets its day in the court today, a new study shows that the US needs not only CPP but also more ambitious initiatives to meet its pledge to cut emissions 26-28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. According to researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, current and proposed initiatives around the country will avoid 1,330 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions — leaving a significant gap of 330 million tons that also needs to be accounted for. (Washington Post $, AP, Guardian, Science, Pacific Standard, New Scientist, InsideClimate News, Climate Central, USA Today, TIME, Newsweek)
Scientists Say Doomsday Warming Study Deeply Flawed: A heavily criticized new study’s claim that the Earth is already locked into 3-7°C of warming over the next millennia has met significant objections because it conflates climate changes due to natural cycles with those forced by carbon dioxide. The study used sediment cores to create a record of the planet’s average surface temperature over the past two million years, a notable advance for temperature reconstructions. But the conclusion that this is relevant to the climate challenge is “based on a fundamental mistake,” Jeffrey Severinghaus, a paleoclimatologist at Scripps Institution for Oceanography, said. This sentiment was shared by NASA’s Gavin Schmidt, who lauded the reconstruction but saidthe conclusion was “simply wrong.” (Mashable, National Geographic, Gizmodo, Climate Central, Sydney Morning Herald $, Mic, ABC Australia, Ars Technica) |
