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Climate Geoengineering "On The Table" in Obama White House

In a stunning revelation, the White House science advisor John Holdren admitted that "tinkering with Earth's climate to chill runaway global warming...is being discussed inside the White House as a potential emergency option."  The concept, called geoengineering, would be a last resort option, but one that needs to be taken seriously considering the climatic tipping points the world is approaching.  "It's got to be looked at," said Holdren. "We don't have the luxury ... of ruling any approach off the table."  He compared our global warming track akin to being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog." Long considered a radical idea, Holdren is certainly the highest level government figure ever raising this issue.  [AP]   

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America's Most Endangered Rivers

American Rivers, a conservation group, has released a list of the ten most endangered rivers in the U.S.  Atop the list is California's Sacramento-San Joaquin River system, "which supplies water to 26 million people and faces demands for greater water withdrawals, as well as environmental harm from dams and flood control systems."  Threats from dams, development, and energy production pose the greatest risk to U.S. waterways.  [American Rivers]

Retreat of Andean Glaciers Foretells Global Water Woes

The tropical Andean glaciers in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru are fast disappearing, "not only threatening the water supplies of 77 million people in the region, but also reducing hydropower production, which accounts for roughly half of the electricity generated" in the countries.  "Bolivia, which emits 0.02 percent of global greenhouse emissions, already has annual economic losses from the impacts of climate change equivalent to four percent of [their] GDP."   [Yale Environment 360]

Pollution Linked to Birth Weight

Researchers have found that "exposure to traffic pollution could affect the development of babies in the womb."  [BBC]

SCREENING

You could find worse ways to kill eight and a half minutes than watching this NASA simulation of arctic sea ice changes: