The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration has released its annual Arctic Report Card, assessing the state of the climate above 60º north, and region’s grades are not good: higher temperatures, lower snow and ice cover, and alarming biological activity marred the report’s findings.
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In what seems to be an encore to last winter’s disturbing display, temperatures in the Arctic have once again risen above the freezing mark. According to The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the average temperature for the Arctic winter is -40ºF (-40ºC), but instead is currently hovering around 32ºF (0ºC).
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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, along with a host of other investment partners, is starting a $1 billion investment group, called the Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund, aimed at fighting climate change through investing in the business of clean energy production. The BEV fund, intended to run for 20 years, will be focusing on investing in companies that are developing new technologies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the areas of agriculture, electricity generation and storage, transportation, industrial processes, and energy-system efficiency.
“Anything that leads to cheap, clean, reliable energy we’re open-minded to,” explains Gates, acting as BEV’s chairman.
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In light of the possibility that the incoming Trump administration may suppress or destroy climate research data, environmental researchers have begun to safeguard decades of accumulated digital information, to prevent the potential loss of that knowledge.
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