From Nature:

Pollution-related mortality in Europe

Red areas in this map represent large projected increases in the frequency of floods following 10 centimeters (four inches) of additional sea-level rise.

According to a study, stark increases in instances of flooding are projected for Pacific islands, parts of Southeast Asia, and coastlines along India, Africa, and South America in the years and decades ahead — before spreading to engulf nearly the entire tropical region.

Unlike vulnerable cities and towns along the East Coast of the U.S., where frequent storms and big waves lead to large variations in day-to-day water levels, tropical coastlines tend to be surrounded by waters with depths that vary less. That means many tropical coastlines were not built to withstand the kinds of routine flooding that will be caused by rising seas.

- Upton, J. (2017, May18). Rising seas are lapping at the shores of the world’s poorest countries. Grist. 

As Trump casts himself as a savior for the coal industry, the red states that voted for him are adding most of the nation’s clean energy,

From JUSTIN GILLIS and NADJA POPOVICH in the New York Times:

The five states that get the largest percentage of their power from wind turbines — Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota, Oklahoma and North Dakota — all voted for Mr. Trump. So did Texas, which produces the most wind power in absolute terms. In fact, 69 percent of the wind power produced in the country comes from states that Mr. Trump carried in November... These red states are not motivated by a sudden desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions... their leaders see tapping the wind, and to a lesser degree the sun, as an economic strategy. The clean energy push allows their utilities to lock in low power prices for decades, creates manufacturing jobs, puts steady money in the hands of farmers who host wind turbines, and lures big employers who want renewable power.

The figures from the previous post on deforestation (from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization) have a significant impact on carbon emissions and climate change. Because deforestation releases carbon stored in plants and soils, deforestation has become a major source of global carbon dioxide emissions. Countries with greater deforestation have greater emissions as a result.

Forest conversion in Brazil 1990-2010 released 25.8 billion metric tons of CO2. The next four greatest emitters from deforestation were Indonesia, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela. Combating climate change will require reigning in deforestation.

“[Electric vehicle] sales have been soaring worldwide. By 2025, more than 37 million fully electric vehicles are expected to be on the road globally, according to Navigant Research, and those EVs will be ‘cost competitive’ without subsidies.” - ThinkProgress

Effectively combating rhino poaching means dealing with both supply and demand on a global level.

The significance of the Berkley Earth Surface Temperature study is that it was performed by prominent climate change skeptic Richard Muller. Prior to this study, Dr. Muller was a leading voice of climate change skepticism, casting doubt on both the idea that the earth is warming, and that humans are the cause. The land surface temperature trend (previous graph) led Muller to conclude that the earth is warming. 

Muller then studied issues raised by skeptics, such as possible biases from urban heating, data selection, poor station quality, and data adjustment. He concluded that these do not unduly bias the results. He further concluded that many of the changes in land-surface temperature can be explained by a combination of volcanoes and a proxy for human greenhouse gas emissions. Solar variation does not seem to impact the temperature trend.  Muller demonstrated that the upward temperature trend is likely to be an indication of anthropogenic changes, namely carbon dioxide emissions.

These results led Muller to announce in a NY Times Op-Ed that his research shows the earth is warming and that "humans are almost entirely the cause", referring to himself as a converted climate change skeptic.

Even as global carbon dioxide emissions hit a record high in 2012, CO2 emissions from energy generation in the United States fell to 1994 levels. This is a 13% decrease over the past 5 years. President Barack Obama has set a climate goal of lowering greenhouse gas emissions 17% from 2005 levels over the next decade. By the end of last year, levels were down 10.7% from the 2005 baseline, meaning America is more than halfway towards that goal.

The reductions come from a variety of places. It is, in part, because of new energy-saving technologies. In part because of a weakened economy. In part because of a growing share of renewables in the energy sector. And in part because cleaner natural gas is displacing carbon-rich coal.

While this is good news, there are some important caveats. 1.) This is only the U.S. Emissions are rising rapidly in other parts of the world. 2.) This is only CO2 emissions from energy production. This is a big source of greenhouse gas emissions, but not the only one. 3.) This rate of decline is probably not fast enough to avert the worst of climate change.

Avg. daily precipitation in the U.S. over the course of a year

Source: MetricMaps