Climate Change

Obama highlights links between climate change and public health

~ admin

President Barack Obama, at at Howard University, participated in a roundtable discussion examining the impacts of climate change on human health.  The group explored the role of increased airborne particulates,shifts in insect-borne diseases and heat waves on respiratory distress, illness and heat stroke in Americans.

The administration also released an array of data that details links between climate change and public health. Google and Microsoft are now using that data to help inform communities about imminent climate-related threats.

In addition, the inter-agency U.S. Global Change Research Program is also drafting a Climate and Health Assessment report to describe human health impacts emerging from changes in extreme weather events, air quality and insect-borne diseases.

EPA announces new limits on greenhouse gas emissions

~ admin

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new regulations designed to reduce CO2 emissions from power plants by 30% by the year 2030. The Clean Power Plan, expected to be enacted by 2015 is an effort to curtail power plant emissions, which account for 40% of total US emissions.

The new regulations follow on the heels of the EPA’s report, Climate Change Indicators in the United States that documents increased sea level rise, tropical storms and large wildfires.

Over at FiveThirtyEight, an analysis of approaches is summarized in their article, The Cap Matters Most in Cap-And-Trade Markets.

The federal plan is also hoped to motivate countries such as China and India to enact similar regulations. Whereas US power plant emissions have been in decline, China’s emission have risen 52% since 2005. Today’s announcement may be part of negotiations to occur at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, slated to meet in Paris in 2015.