Take a look at this graph: Global air travel increased 8 fold in 4 decades – and it’s an accelerating trend. Yes we have a problem

Over the last 40 years global air travel has almost increased eight fold: In 1974 air planes carried 421 million people globally. In 2014 this number has increased to 3,21 billion passengers – that’s a billion more in just five years time.

But please don’t be mistaken to think that means half the world population can be found in an air plane every year. We count ‘passenger flights’ here, not people – it’s still a small portion of the human population that needs to fly every year to survive. Let’s imagine where this trend would go if we kept ignoring this issue:Global air travel increase - click for larger pop up
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Holiday plans – Plane or Train? Planes are about 20 times as bad for the climate – per kilometre

Yes. We don’t like to talk about it – but it’s high time we did: CO2 emissions of air travel are 20.5 times higher than train, per kilometer*, per passenger, according to the European Environmental Agency. Cars are somewhere in between – see infographic below:

CO2 emissions for planes, trains and cars, per kilometre
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A quarter of all European bumblebee species threatened with extinction

Europe is still home to 68 different bumblebee species – of which according to IUCN 24 percent are now directly threatened with extinction and about half have clearly declining populations. The reasons: Habitat loss, agricultural pollution, climate change, and general biodiversity decline. The solution: Reversing all above-mentioned trends.

Bombus cullumanus - a critically endangered European bumblebee
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Hurry up if you still want to see Aurora Borealis – current solar cycle declining, new maximum not until >2023

It’s been a while since we last paid attention to the forecasts of Sunspot Cycle 24. So here’s an update – based on NASA Marshall Space Flight Center observations and forecasts. Cause there is news!

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Graph of the Day: World has warmest winter on record

[Not just the Arctic experiences the warmest winter on record – this goes for the entire globe, new NASA data show. We now have the hottest winter on record straight after the hottest summer on record.]

Just when you thought positive global monthly average temperature deviations can’t get any larger (December 2015, +1,11C) positive global monthly average temperature deviations do indeed grow larger still (January 2016, +1,13C) – as newly released NASA data show.

January 2016 is the fourth month in a row that saw world average temperatures of more than +1 degree Celsius – starting from October 2015. And just to be clear, this is not +1 since pre-industrial times, but +1 since 1951-1980 climate average – so a 1 degree temperature rise over ~50 years:

World's warmest winter graph | Datagraver.com/NASA GISS
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Graph of the day: Arctic has warmest winter on record

Usually winter climate news from the Arctic comes somewhere in March, at the turning point of seasons, when we can precisely compare the annual sea ice maximum to that of other years. But this year we know it’s gonna be bad, in advance – with record-high temperatures both in December and January, continuing and at the onset of the third proper winter month, February.

Shown below is the declining sea ice trend for the month of January since satellite measurements began, in 1979.

Arctic sea ice trend for January - record low for 2016
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Dear Media, there is just ONE THING World Leaders Need To Do this December: Unite On Climate

We – the one million silenced voices, the one million people who this December were planning to march on Paris to call for climate justice – have a request, to the world media. For once. Just for once. For this last portion of 2015. For these two December weeks…

Kindly, just for once, try to zoom all your cameras out from the Middle East and the wider world’s involvement with that region – and finally take, for all of us to see, a good shot of our whole, shared perspective: muslims, christians, atheists, jews, buddhists, quakers, bakers, candlestick makers, dolphins, butterflies, spiders, tadpoles, plants and grass and rocks. Earth.

Dear media, please show Earth's perspective

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Graph of the day illustrates countries should sacrifice ‘growth’ during COP21, the Paris climate summit

World atmospheric CO2 concentration rise, 2015
This CO2 concentration graph was released today in a report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) – let’s say the folks that really know about the atmosphere – at the eve of ‘COP21’, the UN climate conference that will be held in Paris in December. Their report contains a very unmasked political message we should all take at heart in this important climate year.

When WMO Secretary General Michel Jarraud adds the below three quotes to its release – you get a feel that even the top scientists with high-ranking positions in society are as worried as we are:

“Every year we report a new record in greenhouse gas concentrations. Every year we say that time is running out – we have to act NOW to slash greenhouse gas emissions if we are to have a chance to keep the increase in temperatures to manageable levels.”

“We can’t see CO2. It is an invisible threat, but a very real one. It means hotter global temperatures, more extreme weather events like heatwaves and floods, melting ice, rising sea levels and increased acidity of the oceans. This is happening now and we are moving into unchartered territory at a frightening speed.”

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Breaking Science Flash: Mexico’s Cyclone Patricia could become STRONGEST HURRICANE ever measured – ‘Category 6’

[Edit: Hurricane behaviour is notoriously hard to predict. After reaching extreme wind speeds above the Pacific, hurricane Patricia quickly disintegrated above land. The main damage might now be in extreme rainfall, flooding and possible mudslides – no longer direct wind damage. The Pacific Ocean is breaking several cyclone records this year. Meanwhile Atlantic hurricanes are rather silent. Read more in our special article about the influence of El Niño on Atlantic hurricanes.]

Cyclone Patricia: Strongest Pacific hurricane - yet another 2015 climate record
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Climate graph of the day shows both global temperature trend and dramatic extent of unfolding 2015 global heat record

Today’s Graph of the Day shows that all those climate deniers that spoke of ‘the global temperature plateau‘ (as some weird ‘evidence’ that climate change would not be real, busted on numerous occasions) should openly admit they were wrong – as real climate scientists have explained all along. (Same goes for all the media that helped spread the deniers doubt!) Hats off to New York Times for setting a higher climate-reporting standard and creating this very illustrative graph:

Climate graph of global temperature trend and 2015 heat record
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