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Japanese architects including Sou Fujimoto, Atelier Bow-Wow, Kengo Kuma and Shigeru Ban have all designed houses of the future for a Tokyo exhibition (+ movie).

House Vision 2016 includes 12 housing prototypes by notable Japanese architects and designers, as well as think tanks for construction and technology companies. All the designers teamed up with big brands to make their vision a reality.

Atelier Bow-Wow worked with Japanese design brand Muji to create Tanada Terrace Office, a prototype for paddy field housing.

The stilted timber structure is designed as a workspace for digital nomads. It is intended to encourage city dwellers to support Japan's ageing agricultural communities, by working remotely and helping out during rice harvesting season.

Sou Fujimoto used cubes of timber to create a housing model with a pixelated appearance for the Tokyo real estate company Daito Trust Construction. Named Rental Space Tower, the structure is a prototype for shared living space.

The project aims to redefine the typical rental home by introducing large shared living spaces in lieu of smaller private ones - in line with the current trend for co-living developments.

Kengo Kuma, who also undertook the venue design, created a series of tents titled Grand Third Living Room.

Based on Toyota's electric vehicles, the tents are pre-charged with solar power. They are intended for remote areas without energy infrastructure.

A network of latticed timber walkways by Kuma connect the exhibits, which also includes the Checkerboard Water Garden by the architect.

The water garden is made using cedar wood from Sumitomo Forestry and planted with maple trees supplied by "plant hunter" Seijun Nishihata. It is intended as a model for public space during the Olympics, which will be held in the city in four years' time.

Shigeru Ban's contribution to the exhibition is Open House with Condensed Core. The housing model designed for the building material manufacturer LIXIL proposes plumbing water and waste removal into the ceiling rather than the floor to allow for more flexible layouts.

The house also features floor-to-ceiling glazing that open outwards at 90 degrees to save space, and sheet materials that are zipped together.

A long cedar shingled volume commissioned by Airbnb is designed to host a community centre on its ground floor and traveller accommodation in its gabled roof.

The Yoshino-Sugi Cedar House, designed by Go Hasegawa, will be relocated to the town Yoshino after the exhibition. The rooms in its upper storey will then be listed on Airbnb.

Architect Jun Igarashi teamed up with furniture designer Taiji Fujimori to create Inside-Out/Furniture-Room. Designed for toilet manufacturer Toto and window company YKK AP, it features rooms with built-in furniture that branch out from a central hub.

A fridge is located on the outer wall of the house by product designer Fumie Shibata.

Designed for express delivery company Yamato Holdings, House with Refrigerator Access shows how cooled or frozen goods could be delivered even when no one is at home.

Suppose Design Office founders Makoto Tanijiri and Ai Yoshida anticipate a move from permanent to temporary residences with their design, called Nomad House.

Japanese architects have rejected the starchitect system says MoMA curator

Designed as a crash pad for workers with a nomadic lifestyle, the structure was created for department store Isetan Mitsukoshi.

Films and websites are displayed on a spiralling screen that forms the curving walls of Hiragana-no Spiral House.

Yuko Nagayama designed the residence, which is topped by a cat-shaped weathervane, to operate as a giant device for the electronic company Panasonic.

Think tank Hara Design Institute has used printed construction materials by Toppan Printing to create Woodgrain House, a residence shaped like a giant cedar cube.

VR headsets allow visitors to One Family Under a Wireless Roof to see how digital devices are helping families living apart to communicate.

Designed by Hara Design Institute as promotion for Culture Convenience Club's newly-launched Tone service for smartphones, the experience shows how family members can monitor each other's activities, even when they are physically apart.

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Japanese architects propose homes of the future in House Vision exhibition

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Japanese architects including Sou Fujimoto, Atelier Bow-Wow, Kengo Kuma and Shigeru Ban have all designed houses of the future for a Tokyo exhibition (+ movie). House Vision 2016 includes 12 housing prototypes by notable Japanese architects and designers, as well as think tanks for construction and technology companies.

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Developing countries have the highest demand for steel-reinforced concrete, but often do not have the means to produce the steel to meet that demand. Rather than put themselves at the mercy of a global market dominated by developed countries, Singapore's Future Cities Laboratory suggests an alternative to this manufactured rarity: bamboo. Abundant, sustainable, and extremely resilient, bamboo has potential in the future to become an ideal replacement in places where steel cannot easily be produced.

In trials of tensile strength, bamboo outperforms most other materials, reinforcement steel included. It achieves this strength through its hollow, tubular structure, evolved over millennia to resist wind forces in its natural habitat. This lightweight structure also makes it easy to harvest and transport. Due to its incredibly rapid growth cycle and the variety of areas in which it is able to grow, bamboo is also extremely cheap. Such rapid growth plant growth requires the grass to absorb large quantities of CO2, meaning that its cultivation as a building material would help reduce the rate of climate change. These factors alone are incentive for investment in developing bamboo as reinforcement.

Indeed, despite these benefits, there is still work to do in overcoming bamboo's limitations. Contraction and expansion is one such limitation, caused by both temperature changes and water absorption. The grass is also susceptible to structural weakness caused by fungus and simple biodegradation. Ironically, many of the countries that would benefit from bamboo reinforcement also lack the resources to develop it as a viable alternative to the steel on which they currently rely.

The Future Cities Laboratory is currently conducting research to determine the full gamut of applications that bamboo has as a construction material. Their experimentation in this field has earned them a Zumtobel Group Award. See more of their work here.
Reference: Future Cities Lab

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Bamboo: A Viable Alternative to Steel Reinforcement?

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Developing countries have the highest demand for steel-reinforced concrete, but often do not have the means to produce the steel to meet that demand. Rather than put themselves at the mercy of a global market dominated by developed countries, Singapore's Future Cities Laboratory suggests an alternative to this manufactured rarity: bamboo.

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If the term 'wooden architecture' calls to mind rustic cabins, think again. Wood is experiencing an architectural renaissance, gaining recognition as the world's foremost sustainable building material. Renewable, strong and beautiful, wood is now the main material being used for incredible cutting-edge buildings. No architect shows off its amazing capabilities quite like Japanese icon Kengo Kuma, who uses it in the most unexpected ways, showing us that we just need to start thinking outside the wooden box.
Sunny Hills Dessert Shop, Tokyo, Japan
Where else have you ever seen a shop facade that resembles a giant bird's nest? Kengo Kuma wrapped the Sunny Hills Japan dessert shop in a faceted wooden covering using an ancient technique called jiigokugumi, which joins each wooden piece together without the need for glue or nails. This interwoven wooden construction is continued throughout the interior, shading it from the sun and adding visual interest.
Daiwa Computing Research Building, Tokyo, Japan
Most architects designing a computing research center for a university might go out of their way to create an effect that's cold and futuristic, but Kuma gives the building a contemporary yet warm and welcoming feel with a facade of slatted wood. The layered slats on the Daiwa building at the University of Tokyo give the building a sheltered, shade-dappled feel, as if it were covered in leaving leaves and branches.
Starbucks, Japan
It might seem like there's a Starbucks on every corner, but none of them are quite like the one adjacent to the Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine in Japan. Paying tribute to the unique location, which is the site of many traditional Japanese structures, the coffeehouse features an interwoven installation of 2,000 wooden poles.
GC Prostho Museum and Research Center, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
This gorgeous, incredibly serene structure was inspired by the system of Cidori, an old Japanese toy that uses wood sticks assembled via unusually shaped joints that can be extended by twisting the sticks. Structural engineers confirmed that this building method could be expanded for use in actual architecture and not just toys, making the latticed research center possible.
Hoshakuji Station, Takanezawa, Japan
Preserving an abandoned rice storage house constructed of a diagonal stone and metal frame system, Kuma continued the visual theme into the interior with a plywood ceiling. Envisioned as a porous connection to the paddy fields and wooden houses of the town, this undulating timber soffit changes the shape of the room as it extends from one end to the other.
Iiyama Plaza Cultural Complex, Hokuriku, Japan
Who says timber siding has to consist of narrow horizontal slats? Kuma gives the exterior of the Iyama Plaza Cultural Complex a faceted appearance with wood cladding applied at various diagonals for a dynamic effect. The architect's signature criss-crossed timber installations can be seen in the interior, including an intimate performance space.

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The Future of Wood: 12 Sustainable Buildings by Kengo Kuma - WebEcoist

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If the term 'wooden architecture' calls to mind rustic cabins, think again. Wood is experiencing an architectural renaissance, gaining recognition as the world's foremost sustainable building material. Renewable, strong and beautiful, wood is now the main material being used for incredible cutting-edge buildings.

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Providing external wall insulation and crack resisting render for homes and business. Quality assured delivery.

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New sunlight-activated plastic lawn furniture keeps itself clean and white after two years of sitting outdoors, new research finds. The same ingredient that kills bacteria and fungi in that plastic could one day go into paint for antibacterial walls and a coating for smudge-resistant touchscreens, the researchers say.

Scientists have long studied how titanium dioxide, a chemical commonly found in paint, sunscreens and cosmetics, destroys microbes and the stubborn layer of slime they create when they colonize a surface. When titanium dioxide molecules are exposed to sunlight, it kicks off a chemical reaction that creates free radicals, which penetrate the cell walls of bacteria and fungi and damage their DNA.

To test how that reaction works outside of lab, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Germany coated the armrests of some plastic lawn chairs with titanium dioxide and left other chairs untouched. They then sprayed a mixture of bacteria, moss, algae and fungi onto both sets of chairs and left the chairs outdoors. After two years, the untreated armrests gathered a layer of grime that was difficult to clean, while the titanium dioxide-treated armrests appeared clean and white, according to Fraunhofer.

In another Fraunhofer lab, engineers are working on titanium dioxide paints for outdoor walls and on titanium dioxide coatings for glass that could go into touchscreen devices. "If you apply a thin coating of titanium dioxide to a glass surface such as a smartphone screen, the skin oils and fingerprints gradually disappear from the display by themselves," Michael Vergöhl, who is leading the sun-activated surfaces research, said in a statement.

The glass coating needs an hour of sunlight to work - an improvement over the three days' worth of sun needed by previous self-cleaning screens - but the process is still fairly inconvenient, as most people don't like to leave their electronics in direct sunlight. The next step is to develop antibacterial surfaces that are able to be get activated by indoor lights, according to Fraunhofer.
Follow InnovationNewsDaily on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.

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New sunlight-activated plastic lawn furniture keeps itself clean and white after two years of sitting outdoors, new research finds. The same ingredient that kills bacteria and fungi in that plastic could one day go into paint for antibacterial walls and a coating for smudge-resistant touch screens, theresearchers say.

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Self-cleaning Walls and Windows | Sci-tech | Trends in Japan | Web Japan

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Researchers in Japan have developed a method for keeping walls and windows clean without human intervention. The key to these self-cleaning surfaces are photocatalysts, substances that mediate chemical reactions and are activated by light energy.

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Harvesting Hong Kong's Rain

Highlights
-AECOM & the HK Housing Authority are working on applying water sensitive urban design (WSUD) to local housing
-Harvesting rainwater reduces a development's dependence on the municipal water supply and alleviates the burden of stormwater drainage
In Hong Kong, water is taken for granted because it's readily available, of good quality, and very cheap. We turn on the tap and it's always there. In reality, Hong Kong is in a vulnerable position as it relies on mainland China for 70-80% of its water and Hong Kong's water is only guaranteed to 2014. In 2011, Hong Kong renewed its water supply contract with Guangdong for another three years. Hong Kong's water from China comes from the Dongjiang River, a major tributary to the Pearl River, 83 km north of Hong Kong. The Dongjiang also serves as a major supplier of fresh water to seven other cities including the heavy industrial and commercial centers of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan. Given that Guangdong province is water stressed, plans to harvest Hong Kong's rainwater may have to be one of the solutions for sustainable water use in the future. Angel Wong from AECOM explains how the city can be used as catchment below...
While population increase raises the demand for water, climate change makes water supplies from natural sources more unpredictable. Rainwater harvesting, an ancient method, now poses a modern solution in urban development. Harvesting rainwater on site provides a sustainable source of water, reduces a development's dependence on the municipal water supply and alleviates the burden of stormwater drainage.

AECOM has been working with the Hong Kong Housing Authority to incorporate rainwater harvesting into a local housing development plan, an application of water sensitive urban design (WSUD) techniques pioneered mostly in Australia to a new metropolitan context. It's an example of a global best practice that AECOM experts have promulgated across the U.S. and Europe and are now applying in China.

WSUD integrates stormwater treatment measures into landscape to achieve both water sustainability and aesthetic amenity. WSUD can be applied to harvest rainwater for reuse in urban environments as well as to reduce flooding risks and improve the quality of runoff entering the ecosystem. WSUD measures provide a higher degree of treatment from multiple pollutant removal mechanisms, including filtration, adsorption to soil particles and plant roots and biological degradation by plants.

WSUD often incorporates vegetation elements, with common features including bioretention ponds (also called rain gardens) and bioswales (a similar measure in linear shape). Selecting the appropriate design application depends on the overall project objectives and specific project and site constraints.

Bioretention can provide physical (sedimentation and filtration) and biological (pollutant degradation) treatment, while being largely self-sufficient and requiring low maintenance. When rainwater enters the bioretention basin, it gradually percolates down through the different layers. As the inflow exceeds the infiltration rate, or when the basin begins to fill up, the detention space above the filter begins to be filled. Once the detention space is full, the high-flow bypass will begin to work. Treated water is drained to the storage tank via the perforated pipe. During heavy rainstorms, when rainfall exceeds the treatment capacity, excess water overflows to the manhole, which acts as a high-flow bypass without any treatment and is carried away to the stormwater drainage network.

In the Hong Kong Housing Authority project, AECOM conducted a feasibility study and detailed design of the rainwater harvesting system. The rainwater is collected from rooftops of buildings, green roofs, roofs of covered walkway and planted slopes. The water treated by the bioretention will first be stored in the storage tank. Ultraviolet disinfection is selected as the post-treatment before usage, mostly for irrigation, to safeguard the bacteria level in the rainwater discharged from the water tanks.

Before commencing the detailed design, AECOM applied geographic information system (GIS) analysis and model for urban stormwater improvement conceptualization (MUSIC) for evaluating the feasibility and the performance of the system respectively. Site analysis is one of the key aspects of feasibility study. The physical constraints of the site (slope, soils, groundwater, land use) were analyzed using GIS prior to the conceptual plan and proceeding into the detailed design of the rainwater harvesting system.

The topography study helps identify the flow path of the water and ideal locations of the treatment and storage units. Topography can also be a constraint to the location of WSUD measures: in this instance the steeply sloping terrain of the development site was a major issue. Many WSUD treatment devices will not work effectively on steep slopes, and are best located in the flatter areas of the landscape. Bioretention systems can be located in steeper sites, but a local flat area should be formed for the bioretention basin. The best strategy for low carbon and economical design is to collect rainwater for reuse from the highest elevation, treat and store rainwater at lower elevation and reuse at the lowest elevation.

The analysis of rock level is primarily for constructability considerations. If bioretention or a water tank is to be located at ground level, it can be installed at the sand layer so as to reduce the cost of excavating rock. By integrating the analysis of finished ground level, groundwater level and rock level with the masterplan, the optimal locations for constructing bioretention were proposed in the case of the Hong Kong project.

Developed by Australia Cooperative Research Centre, MUSIC is gaining popularity among government, academy and engineering consultancies for conceptual planning of stormwater management. Melbourne Water uses MUSIC for urban planning and stormwater treatment measure design for instance. AECOM applied MUSIC in this study to evaluate the performance of the bioretention both with respect to the quantity of water provided and the quality that could be expected.

MUSIC can simulate the removal of some key pollutants, namely total suspended solids (TSS), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP). The model results indicated that annual TSS removal could reach 70 percent and 40 to 60 percent respectively for TP and TN annual removal.

Chlorination is applied to minimize the health impact brought by pathogens and provide residue disinfection effect along the distribution pipes. Since MUSIC is only used for conceptual planning, in order to safeguard the rainwater quality, water samples must be collected on-site during testing and commissioning stage and on a regular basis during the maintenance period.

Besides the evaluation of water quality, MUSIC can also estimate the amount of water that will be available in the water storage tanks. The size of water tanks is adjusted based on the modeling results to optimize the storage of water while balancing the site conditions and the available area for catchment, bioretention and tanks. The model results showed these water tanks would be 50 percent full for over 100 days in a year. Supplementary water is required during the dry days.

With the incorporation of civil, plumbing, geotechnical, electrical and mechanical engineering design as well as the landscape and architectural design, the detailed design of the bioretention and the whole rainwater harvesting system were developed.

The project incorporates educational elements to introduce this natural treatment system to the general public and promote sustainable urban ecosystem development and water conservation. This project has been showcased at industry conferences and has led to ongoing cooperation between AECOM and the government of Hong Kong.

About Angel Wong

Angel Wong is a Chartered Environmentalist with an academic and research background in civil and environmental engineering. Based in Hong Kong, Angel is engaged in numerous projects across Asia, providing sustainable water and environmental management solutions for the public and private sector. Angel is an Associate and Senior Environmental Planner with AECOM; a global provider of professional technical and management support services.

Read more from Angel Wong →

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Harvesting Hong Kong's Rain | China Water Risk

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Highlights -AECOM & the HK Housing Authority are working on applying water sensitive urban design (WSUD) to local housing-Harvesting rainwater reduces a development's dependence on the municipal water supply and alleviates the burden of stormwater drainage In Hong Kong, water is taken for granted because it's readily available, of good quality, and very cheap.

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CHICAGO GREEN ROOFS - Contemporary Green Roof: Old Town - Shawn M Weidner

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CHICAGO GREEN ROOFS - Contemporary Green Roof: Old Town - Shawn M Weidner

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Shawn has always been enamored with his exterior environment. Painting landscapes with his grandmother, tending flower beds with his grandfather, and the fruits and veggies that grew from his parents garden in the small backyard near their carport all sparked Shawns lifelong interest in gardening.

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Green Roof and Rainwater Harvesting - - 2489030

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We generated a 42&quote;x84&quote; diagram showing the clients green roof and stormwater management devices, materials, elements, etc that they provide. Role: Director of Design Company: Ecogardens, LLC

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Past By L45 and saw this beautiful house there. Stopped by to check out this place and came to realize this community library + student hos...

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Analyzing and theorizing architecture, L45

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An analysis of L45, a community library in Bangsar through several Rob Krier's urban theory and my own interpretation.

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Note: Kurau Community Library is now closed. All raw cement and steel, the Kurau Community Library is a space designed by Ng Seksan where kids and college stud

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If you are finding a small, badass and naughty design that challenges the typology of the community library and student housing from both physical and social typology, here it is. L45. Situated in the heart of Bangsar, the corner house at Lorong Kurau offers many variations to the conventional design language of public. Ask anyone on the possibility of overlapping 2 functional spaces, a library and a student house, into a single space, one certainly couldn't process the fine spatial line between the two spaces. According to online sources, the name is conceptualise as, L can stand for library, lot or lorong while 45 is the house number.

I have to admit that my first impression of looking at the facade was some maximum security prison or bird nest farm! hah! Well, I blame the stereotype of bare-faced concrete that is being used for low cost or low maintenance construction buildings. But indeed, the design intention was delivered, a clean and minimal design that does not try to shout its presence yet respects the surrounding building masses. Eventually, one can expect the surrounding trees and climbers to grow and engulf the building beautifully.

There's limited online architectural review of this project so far, am sure that many architectural professionals or students are yearnings for some floor plan or section drawings that best describe the genius space arrangement that engages personal and public spaces yet respecting both boundaries. From my personal discovery, this is carefully played by minimising the building forms and colours and allow occupants to directly interact and appreciate the very vivid planned allowance of view in and out, or through the building.

Designed by a collaborative effort between Wong Wei Ping and Ong Shien Chii of Tetawowe Atelier, the 50 percent of the initial 2,400 square feet corner house was torn down and built upon to increase the floor space to 3,066 square feet. As it is intended to have 2 different spaces to coexist in the same place but yet, the independent function of each other, the building has 2 different entrances. The entrance for the students is located at the narrow lane adjacent to the neighbouring house, while the public entrances to the community library are the barely finished metal grill gates along the perimeter that is easily accessed by the public. Both of these 2 zones are separated by a secured door that can only be accessed by the students who have the card access.

The kitchen and common table below are both accessible by public and students. There are basic, necessary kitchen appliances as well as coffee machine with an LED tv in this common area. Note below that you see sliding glass door and the foldable metal grill doors, these can be fully unfolded and hence extending the interior space to communicate with the external lawn space. The other perspective below shows the view towards the library. Celebrated by natural daylight coming down from the skylight opening, the randomized void between the books slotted on the metal grill mesh allows transparency in acoustic and sight, this effectively communicates 2 different spaces in the public zone.

It is said that the community library can house up to 35,000 books. Well, not too sure how was it counted, but it is certain this is quite a sizable community library for the surrounding neighbourhood area. The vertical void library concept has 3 flights of stairs, effectively leading to 4 different platforms that have varieties of spatial and volume feel. Though, I am not sure how are the books arranged.

There is also a small table by the library entrance with the similar foldable glass door and metal grill door previously. Thus you can imagine during the public event, the enclosed space can be maximised by combining with the outdoor lawn space. There are also CCTV located in the public transition space.
The picture below shows the student corridor towards their respective room entrances, which are adjacent to the community library zone. The metal grill has not only allowed transparency to encourage communication between the public and private space but has also allowed daylight to lit up the corridor spaces. One can notice the clean and minimalist design of the corridor allows the metal grill elements to stand out from the rest. As much as i adore the brilliant design work in social sustainability aspect to challenge the typology of spatial design, there is great concern in terms of thermal comfort. Noting that the entire building skin is built with concrete and with a large skylight opening, one will feel the greenhouse effect. The massive heat capacity of the concrete skin also means that the stored heat is discharged throughout the night. This made me curious on the energy cost of the AC as I recalled that the highest platform is significantly hot, even with the AC switched on lowest 16 degrees with full blast.

Another noted improvement i can think of is, as much as the metal grill concept has celebrated natural daylight and openness across the community library, the platform is really not comfortable to stand on! Too poky i suppose! Only if they allow people to wear shoes in the library or add on some walking deck perhaps?

As a green building consultant, though with much respect on the social sustainability aspect of the design, the house is nowhere near to the holistic approach of a tropical home. The lack of sufficient sun shading device does not only allow more heat beaming through the glazing but it also means rain driven by horizontal winds are most likely to be hitting the louvred windows then. This is what i observed on a visit during heavy rain, where water is leaking in from the louvred windows as there is no external shading on it. Definitely not a good idea to have water dripping into a library with 35,000 books!

Just more pictures below....

Close up shot on the metal grill doors that can be unfolded for unobstructed access for public. Too bad I didn't take the interesting detail shot of the hatch!

The public entrance to the community library via the main route, well shaded by trees, can expect a decent shading after a few years later. Below, the waste disposal corner behind the building.

Nevertheless another interesting aspect of the student housing are the rooms. These are not your ordinary four walled student hostel, but each room has different configuration of the spatial design. Coupled with high ceiling allowance, some spaces are designed to have multiple functions that save space. Ever thought of having your shower area beneath your bed? I do not have the access to all 8 different rooms with different floor space configuration (and of course I am very curious like you may be on each different configuration), but from below, we can see that the access to the top bed is carefully played to function as a worktop as well. This really stands out from the conventional bedroom design, let student housing alone.

Another perspective shot from the top.

And if you are curious with the internal space of the shower area, they are quite generous actually with a decent window for ventilation and lighting. I did not take many pictures here, but i suppose you can guess where is the built in wardrobe located from the pictures. What i have written above is merely a personal point of view in terms of architectural design. But let's go back to the saying that it's not about the building, it's about the function of the building. While one might label a community library similarly to the public library we have, L45 boasts a very direct approach to its followers in promoting various interesting books from time to time. Check out their Facebook Page here. IF you are a kindle or ebook person, somehow holding an interesting book that was contributed anonymously might make you start reading from the paper again. It's always the wonder of putting yourself in thousands of books ranging from hundreds of topics instead of just downloading your choice of topics.

Information about L45

The L45 library is open to the public from Tues-Sun 3pm-7pm (Closed Mondays)

L45 provides 8 individual lofted rooms with ensuite bathrooms. Amenities include a shared common kitchen, laundry (washer/dryer), Wifi internet. The Bangsar LRT Station is a 20 min walk; limited street parking is available. If you are currently enrolled as a full time student and are interested in renting a room at L45, please forward all inquires to juita@gdparchitects.com

You can read more, or refer to more pictures by this write up in MalayMailOnline or Poskod

And of course, a lot of pictures by just simply finding #tetawowe HERE

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Public-Student Social Experiment: L45 Lorong Kurau - JAPHETH LIM.COM

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If you are finding a small, badass and naughty design that challenges the typology of the community library and student housing from both physical and social typology, here it is. L45. Situated in the heart of Bangsar, the corner house at Lorong Kurau offers many variations to the conventional design language of public.

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KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 - From the outside it looks like a modernist house with its clean lines and minimalistic touches. The home of someone who is a fan of Corbusier furniture perhaps?

But this is not a private residence. This is actually a community library but it is also home to some students. The two co-exist in the same building, but are independent of each other.

The students have a separate entrance to their rooms while the library, which is open to the public, is on the other side of the building, separated by a secured door.

This one-of-a-kind space named L45 - L can stand for library, lot or lorong while 45 is the house number - is the brainchild of one man who bought the house and funded its construction but wishes to remain anonymous.

However, the running of the place is by committee. Two members of that committee are design consultants Wong Wei Ping and Ong Shien Chii of Tetawowe Atelier who were involved right from the start.

Wong said about 50 per cent of the 2,400 square feet corner house was torn down and built upon to increase the floor space to 3,066 square feet.

"The idea is to mix two entities into one; I think the owner always wanted to make it very, very simple. Something that does not shout, something very minimal, subtle and functional," he said noting that there had been many changes since they received the first brief about a year ago.

The house is specifically designed to function on its own, without overlapping, Wong explained.

Ong said there is not one building in the country which is built in such a way where public and private space is combined, adding that this project is being referenced as a case study among the architecture community.

The person who "takes care" of L45 which is situated along Lorong Kurau in the quieter part of Bangsar known as Taman Weng Lock is Juita Jalaluddin. She does communication work at an architecture firm during the day and drops by L45 on Friday evenings, and/or whenever a problem crops up.

"We are starting this as an experiment and as we go along, we will tweak it," she said. Juita, who joined L45 last September, does this on a purely voluntary basis.
The library
The space is run by Khal, and can house up to 35,000 books. So far, the library has 50 per cent of that number.

The library is open to the public from 3pm to 7pm every day except on Mondays. This is because Khal, who is also a volunteer, has four other jobs.

"I always wanted to be a librarian in school but never got the chance. This is my opportunity," he said with a grin.

He joined the group last December and has been running the library since January.

The enthusiastic young man said he has many plans for the library such as setting up a book club, organising poetry writing and free tuition classes. He is even thinking of buying books based on special requests.

The space, which is mostly lit with natural light, can sit about 18 people comfortably at one go but on a day with good weather, more people can sit on the benches all around the compound.

At this point in time, the books are not yet sorted and can only be read on the premises. He said hopefully within the next three months, a system will be in place so that readers can start borrowing the books home.

"We would like to keep this place sustainable as well. There will be a donation box for anyone who comes in and they can just contribute as well as provide feedback about the library," he said.

The books available range from fiction to non-fiction, school and college textbooks, fantasy, comics and there will be one section dedicated to books written by Malaysians, he said.

He is also looking for any ideas that can benefit the community and if you do, just put it in L45's Facebook page. "We want to promote books and fight illiteracy," he said.
Student housing

Wong said the owner wanted to replicate his experience as a student in London many years ago and encourage a sense of community among students from different backgrounds.

There are now eight Malaysian students in residence; they are mostly from out of town and studying psychology, actuarial science, design, and one is getting his Masters in architecture.

Juita said the requirement is that they be at least in their second year of college, do not drive a car as there is no parking space on the premises and that they have to rent the space for at least one year.

The students each have their own room and pay between RM500 to RM700 a month, depending on the size of their rooms. The payment goes back to the maintenance of the house.

All the units are fully furnished including queen-sized beds, a work space and en suite bathrooms. The water and Internet bills are included in the rent while tenants have to bear the electricity bill which is calculated based on each room's usage.

"People are just intrigued to see what this is all about. There has been a lot of interest but we are now full.

"I had to turn away some people," Juita said, adding that the first time the community found out about this space was on January 9 when they had an open house to introduce L45 to the community.

Most of the students started moving in by February 14.
Adding public spaces to create a sense of community
Wong said there is a lack of space for communities to come together in Malaysia.

"If you want to go to a library, you need to go all the way to the national or state library," he said, adding that there should be one in most, if not every, neighbourhood.

He said setting up such a space, even though small, would be one step towards building the community.

"If we can do something small, like plant a tree in a neighbourhood... we are actually enriching the community. In a way, this encourages a new way of thinking, or energy, or idea, that Malaysia can be beautiful," he said.

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Blurring the lines between public and private space, a social experiment in Bangsar | Malay Mail

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KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 - From the outside it looks like a modernist house with its clean lines and minimalistic touches. The home of someone who is a fan of Corbusier furniture perhaps? But this is not a private residence. This is actually a community library but it is also home to some...

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It is virtually certain that 2015 will be the warmest year on record, with one of the strongest El Niños ever recorded combining with manmade warming to send global temperatures soaring. But which of these is more responsible for the record heat this year?

Global warming fueled by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere is the overwhelming contributor, according to a new analysis by scientists involved with Climate Central's World Weather Attribution program and at the University of Reading.

The gray line on this graph shows observed surface temperatures from 1880 to 2015. The red line shows the effective temperature forcing of greenhouse gases and aerosols (converted to CO2), and the blue line shows the forcing from both those manmade sources and natural factors, like solar radiation. Early on in the temperature record, the red and blue lines diverge because natural factors meant the full impact of greenhouse gases on temperatures wasn't being felt, but in recent years, the two lines match closely, showing how much greenhouse gases are dominating global temperatures. 2015 is slightly above the red line because of a small push from El Niño as well as even smaller contributions from solar radiation and random weather variations.
Click image to enlarge.

That analysis, which broke down the effects of a number of different possible influences on the global temperature, found that El Niño provided only a relatively small, though still noticeable, assist. And with 2015 not even officially yet in the record books, 2016 could see even more of a warming boost from El Niño, thanks to the delayed effect it has on temperatures.

"2015 is a climate milestone in several ways. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has now passed 400 [parts per million] for the foreseeable future. It will also be the warmest year on record, primarily because of anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, with CO2 being the main culprit," Ed Hawkins, a climate scientist at the University of Reading, said in an email.

The average global temperature for 2015 is well ahead of last year, the current titleholder of warmest year. October provided a particularly large boost, with a temperature that was above average by more than any other single month in the past 135 years. By NASA's reckoning, October was more than a full degree Celsius (nearly 2°F) above the average from 1951-1980, the first month that has ever happened.

The new analysis underscores what climate scientists have long been saying: The unabated accumulation of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is steadily raising the planet's temperature. The CO2 levels that are currently rising above 400 parts per million are unlikely to drop below that mark for the foreseeable future - a stark difference from the 280 ppm that prevailed before the Industrial Revolution.

But despite that steady climb, not every year is warmer than the one before it, thanks to the vagaries of weather, the influence of natural climate cycles, and the effects of events like volcanic eruptions. (The 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines depressed global temperatures by nearly 1°F, or 0.5°C, for a couple years afterward.)

To figure out the relative contributions from all these potential factors, the WWA program team did a simple analysis that matched up surface temperature measurements going back to 1880 with two other sets of data. One just included the effective influence on temperatures from manmade forces (including greenhouse gases and aerosols, which tend to have a cooling effect), while the second included both manmade and natural ones (including volcanic activity and solar radiation).

To come up with a final temperature for this year, the analysis assumed that November and December would differ about as much from average as August and September did (given that October had a boost from particular weather patterns). With that assumption, the year would finish out 1.05°C (1.89°F) above the average from pre-industrial times, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has defined as 1850-1900.

Click image to enlarge. How temperatures across the globe ranked for January - October 2015.

The analysis showed that of that temperature difference, about 1°C (1.8°F) was due to human-caused warming. The remainder was predominantly the influence of El Niño with some smaller contribution from random weather fluctuations and slightly elevated solar radiation. (There was no significant volcanic activity.)

Negotiators are meeting in Paris next week to try to hammer out an international agreement to limit warming to no more than 2°C (3.6°F) from pre-industrial times, a mark the analysis makes clear the world is already halfway toward reaching.

The contribution from El Niño depended on how long the delay in its effects on temperature was determined to be. The analysis calculated a delay of about five months, which resulted in El Niño contributing about 0.05°C (0.09°F) to 2015's elevated temperature. Shorter delays, as others have calculated, raise that contribution up to about 0.1°C (0.18°F).

The delayed effects of El Niño mean it is likely to have a larger impact on 2016's temperature than it did this year. This also happened during the major El Niño of 1997-1998, which had its biggest temperature impacts on that second year.

Of course, how 2016 will ultimately rank is impossible to say at the moment, given other factors that could come into play and can't yet be predicted, but, as this analysis makes clear, the heat steadily building in the atmosphere is the major force pushing Earth's temperature ever higher.

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Global Warming Key Driver of 2015's Record Heat

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It is virtually certain that 2015 will be the warmest year on record, with one of the strongest El Niños ever recorded combining with manmade warming to send global temperatures soaring. But which of these is more responsible for the record heat this year?

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national aeronautics and space administration

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Interactives - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

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The world's countries emit vastly different amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The table below shows data compiled by the International Energy Agency, which estimates carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of coal, natural gas, oil and other fuels, including industrial waste and non-renewable municipal waste.

Here we list the 20 countries that emitted the most carbon dioxide in 2015 (the most recent available data).

2015 total emissions country rank

Country

2015 total carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion (million metric tons)

2015 per capita carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion (metric tons)

The picture that emerges from these figures is one where-in general-developed countries and major emerging economy nations lead in total carbon dioxide emissions. Developed nations typically have high carbon dioxide emissions per capita, while some developing countries lead in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions. Obviously, these uneven contributions to the climate problem are at the core of the challenges the world community faces in finding effective and equitable solutions.

We Need Your Support
to Make Change Happen

We can reduce global warming emissions and ensure communities have the resources they need to withstand the effects of climate change-but not without you. Your generous support helps develop science-based solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.

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The world's countries emit vastly different amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The table below shows data compiled by the International Energy Agency, which estimates carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of coal, natural gas, oil and other fuels, including industrial waste and non-renewable municipal waste.

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Global temperatures could rise by 1.4-3.0C (2.5-5.4F) above levels for late last century by 2050, a computer simulation has suggested.

Almost 10,000 climate simulations were run on volunteers' home computers.

The projections, published in Nature Geoscience, are somewhat higher than those from other models.

The researchers aimed to explore a wider range of possible futures, which they say helps "get a handle" on the uncertainties of the climate system.

People planning for the impacts of climate change need to consider the possibility of warming of up to 3C by 2050, even on a mid-range emission scenario, the researchers say.

The study - run through climateprediction.net with the BBC Climate Change Experiment - ran simulations using a complex atmosphere-ocean climate model.

The representations of physical parameters were varied between runs of the model, reflecting uncertainties about precisely how the climate system works.

And the forecast range was derived from models that accurately reproduced observed temperature changes over the last 50 years.

The low end of their range is similar to that of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its 2007 report, but the high end is somewhat above the range their analysis produced.

'Innovative' ensemble

Myles Allen of the School of Geography and Environment and Department of Physics, Oxford University, principal investigator of climateprediction.net, said other climate modelling groups' data did not "set out to explore the full range of uncertainty, which is why studies like ours are needed."

The research was described as "an important step toward estimating uncertainty more comprehensively," by Gabi Hegerl, professor of climate system science at the University of Edinburgh.

The results were also described as "very promising" by Prof Corinne Le Quere, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia.

"Better constrained climate projections are needed to help plan a wide range of adaptation measures, from sea defences to water storage capacity and biodiversity conservation areas," she added.

However, the research was questioned by Julian Hunt, emeritus professor of climate modelling at University College London.

He said: "I have reservations about relying on a model that combines land temperatures - which are clearly rising - with sea temperatures which can be subject to big decadal fluctuations."

He said the higher range of the prediction was looking "increasingly likely", but for three particular reasons:

release of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, from seabed and land

"massive changes" in reflection of light at some places on the Earth's surface

reducing air pollution in Asia that will reflect less solar energy back into space.

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Global temperatures could rise by 1.4-3.0C (2.5-5.4F) above levels for late last century by 2050, a computer simulation has suggested. Almost 10,000 climate simulations were run on volunteers' home computers. The projections, published in Nature Geoscience, are somewhat higher than those from other models.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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This graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures. Seventeen of the 18 warmest years in the 136-year record all have occurred since 2001, with the exception of 1998. The year 2016 ranks as the warmest on record. (Source: NASA/GISS). This research is broadly consistent with similar constructions prepared by the Climatic Research Unit and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The time series below shows the five-year average variation of global surface temperatures. Dark blue indicates areas cooler than average. Dark red indicates areas warmer than average.

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Global surface temperature | NASA Global Climate Change

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This graph illustrates the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures. Seventeen of the 18 warmest years in the 136-year record all have occurred since 2001, with the exception of 1998. The year 2016 ranks as the warmest on record. (Source: NASA/GISS).

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Every mom needs to see this #MoreFirsts video

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Donate now to help us give #MoreFirsts to moms around the world. Because a baby's first touch, first step, first birthday, could also be their last when they don't have safe water to drink.

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By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions.
Source

780 million people live without clean drinking water.
Source

More than one-third of Africa's population lacks access to safe drinking water.
Source

Compared to today, five times as much land is likely to be under "extreme drought" by 2050.
Source

Unless measures are taken, California will demand three times more groundwater than can be supplied over the next 100 years.
Source

More than two billion people worldwide rely on wells for their water.
Source

25-33% of Chinese do not have access to safe drinking water.
Source

There will be about 1 billion more mouths to feed worldwide by 2025 and global agriculture alone will require another 1 trillion cubic meters of water per year (equal to the annual flow of 20 Niles or 100 Colorado Rivers).
Source

By 2035, the world's energy consumption will increase by 35 percent, which in turn will increase water use by 15 percent according to the International Energy Agency.
Source

In 2050 increased population will result in a 19% increase in agricultural water consumption.
Source

Water demand is projected to grow by 55 percent by 2050 (including a 400-percent rise in manufacturing water demand).
Source

46% of the globe's (terrestrial) surface is covered by transboundary river basins which can lead to future conflicts over water.
Source

Agriculture accounts for ~70% of global freshwater withdrawals and up to 90% in some fast-growing economies.
Source

According to satellite images, the Colorado River Basin has lost about 65 cubic kilometers (15.6 cubic miles) of water from 2004 to 2013. This is twice the amount stored in Lake Mead.
Source

In the US, thermoelectric power plants account for nearly 50% of all freshwater withdrawals.
Source

For decades the Ogallala Aquifer in the United States, one of the world's largest aquifers, has tapped at rates thousands of times greater than it is being restored.
Source

About 4.5 billion people globally - already live within 50km of an "impaired" water resource - one that is running dry, or polluted.
Source

Over the past 40 years the world's population has doubled and use of water has quadrupled.
Source

Sub-Saharan Africa has the largest number of water-stressed countries of any region.
Source

While it takes about 12 gallons per day to sustain a human the average American uses about 158 gallons.
Source

According to the U.S. Intelligence Community Assessment of Global Water Security, by 2030 humanity's "annual global water requirements" will exceed "current sustainable water supplies" by 40%.
Source

The global middle class will surge from 1.8 to 4.9 billion by 2030, which will result in a significant increase in freshwater consumption.
Source

By 2050, 1 in 5 developing countries will face water shortages (UN's Food and Agriculture Organization).
Source

Half of the global population lives in countries where water tables are rapidly falling.
Source

By the year 2040 there will not be enough water in the world to quench the thirst of the world population and keep the current energy and power solutions going if we continue doing what we are doing today.
Source

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25 Facts You Should Know About the Global Water Crisis

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By 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions. Source 780 million people live without clean drinking water. Source More than one-third of Africa's [...]

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Ten Clear Indicators Our Climate is Changing

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How do we know our climate is changing permanently, rather than just going through a normal period of flux? Let’s look at 10 major changes scientists have seen in our climate system to help set the record straight.

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The big picture: Our brains love images. They're just hard-wired that way. Some numbers to make the point concrete:

Almost 50 percent of your brain is involved in visual processing. Looks aren't everything of course - but they're a lot.

Seventy percent of all sensory receptors are in your eyes.

One-tenth of a second is all it takes to understand a visual scene.

The big idea: Climate change. It can be overwhelming and complex. And with a place that's as crowded with information as the Internet, it's easy to get lost in the endless stream of new articles, blogs, and feeds vying for your attention.

The (pretty) big solution: Infographics. Infographics can take a lot of different forms, but at the core, they take a message and play to the visual parts of our brains by illustrating the message in a way that makes it more accessible, persuasive, and engaging than text alone. So for the sake of your brain, we wracked ours for some of the best infographics we've seen on climate change.

Before you accuse us of being too conceited, this is actually an adaptation of a great infographic by NOAA (hey, we believe in giving credit where it's due). This one is also a natural place to start if you're trying to understand climate change from the bottom up. It's simple: the climate is already changing and this is how we can tell. We recently published a blog on the subject that goes into greater detail, but the visual is a great crash course

Now, we know that climate change is already happening. But what's going to happen if we don't act? A good infographic, like a good story, has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This visual by the World Bank sets the scene by breaking down the global effects of climate change if humans fail to take action: rising global sea levels, declining drinking water, and increasing global temperatures. Then, it gets into the meat of things: a few case studies on the impact of climate change in specific regions over time.

But everyone loves a happy ending. We're not doomed yet! The story concludes on a note of climate hope: we can avoid the worst impacts of climate change by putting a price on carbon pollution, ending fossil fuel subsidies, and building resilient cities.

When it comes to climate change, the devil is in the details. It can be hard to strike the right balance between too much and not enough information in an infographic. Too much, people lose interest. Not enough, it fails to inform. This infographic achieves the impossible by being at once succinct and detailed. On the outside, it may seem pretty straightforward in illustrating the links between climate change and our everyday lives: where we live, how we eat, and what weather we experience. Click on the tiles, though, and CGIAR gets down to the nitty-gritty: a list of additional facts, further reading, and sources.

The first three infographics on this list show that climate change is happening and how. So what have world leaders been doing about it? And what do all those acronyms in international climate politics actually stand for?

Climate Reality Australia distills 25 years of some of the most noteworthy UN climate summits - each one formally known as a "Conference of the Parties" or "COP" - into a clear timeline that tells the story of global efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. It's a story worth knowing because, as the line goes, "Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it." It may not be the Cadillac of all infographics, but sometimes simple just works best.

Alright, we've covered the past - let's move on to the future. We're cheating a little here because The Solutions Project has actually put together 50 top-notch infographics on what might seem impossible: how all 50 of the United States can be 100-percent powered by renewables by 2050. Each state's infographic has a story that's easy to follow, starting with an envisioned 2050 energy mix free of fossil fuels. What's really compelling, though, is how The Solutions Project succinctly breaks down the benefits of moving to an economy without GHG emissions: greater energy efficiency, avoided mortality and illness, and money in your pocket. It's hard to argue with climate solutions when someone hands you a blueprint on how to make it happen - and a long list of benefits to boot.

Here at Climate Reality, we're big fans of wind energy. But when we saw this infographic, it really blew us away. The only animated entry on this list, it goes behind the scenes of wind energy generation to break down the job of each piece of a turbine (from the blades to the yaw drive). Then Save on Energy steps back to look at the big picture, laying out the history of wind turbines, wind employment, and the process of wind farming.

Climate Reality: Water-Energy Nexus

Most people know that using fossil fuels drive climate change, which could have serious consequences for our water supply. But not everyone knows that using fossil fuels also impacts our water supply much more directly. Namely, by using exponentially more water to generate electricity than many renewables do. This is another good example of an infographic that takes a big, wonky idea like the "water-energy nexus" and makes it immediately accessible and easy to understand.

"The next time you hear someone dispute that human activity is destabilizing our climate, remember this pie chart." All of these infographics together tell one story: climate change is real, it's happening, and we can create a better future with clean energy. But this representation of a survey of over 2,200 peer-reviewed scientific articles on climate change published from November 12, 2012 through December 31, 2013 - which originally ran in Desmog Blog - adds another dimension, exposing the myth of scientific debate on the issue with a single (almost entirely) blue dot.

With this study showing about 99.9% of scientific articles agreeing that climate change is real and caused by human activity, it might be time for the famous "97 percent study" to move over.

Thanks to the Paris Agreement, world leaders are honoring their commitments to climate action and working together to solve the climate crisis. Take the pledge and show them your support!

To see more great graphics and other creative ways to tell and share the story of climate change, "Like" us on Facebook and follow Climate Reality on Twitter. Then, sign up for our email activist list and we'll keep you up to date on what's happening and how you can get involved in the movement for climate solutions

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Telling the Story: Eight Great Infographics on Climate Change

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The big picture: Our brains love images. They're just hard-wired that way. Some numbers to make the point concrete: Almost 50 percent of your brain is involved in visual processing. Looks aren't everything of course - but they're a lot. Seventy percent of all sensory receptors are in your eyes.

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Check out this infographic highlighting the importance of successfully tackling climate change.

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Can we stop climate change? Infographic claims to reveal the four scenarios awaiting humanity - and NONE of them are great

The infographic was created by the World Resources Institute based on data from this year's IPCC report

It shows what the future might hold in terms of temperature rises, rainfall changes and ecosystem damage

Each of the four pathways also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining carbon budget

The worst case scenario suggests annual carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise through 2100

If this happens, the WRI infographic suggests that the world's carbon budget will be exhausted by 2045

It's not just polar bears years from now that will be affected by climate change, the dangers of a warming Earth are immediate and very human.

This is according the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which said this year that the impact of climate change is 'widespread and consequential.'

Yet the impact seen in the future still largely depends on the actions countries take to reduce their emissions today, the report said.

Now, the World Resources Institute has created an infographic, based on IPCC data, that depicts the likely consequences of various emissions pathways.

Alongside each pathway, it shows what the future might hold in terms of climate impacts - ranging from temperature increases to precipitation changes to ecosystem degradation.

Each pathway also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining carbon budget.

This is the amount of carbon the planet can emit before locking itself into warming of greater than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

HOW WILL CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT YOUR AREA?

In the low emissions pathway, carbon dioxide output will peak by 2020 and then drop 66 per cent below 2010 levels by 2020.

The world will still face some challenging consequences from climate change. For instance, around 24 per cent more of the projected global population will face reduced renewable water resources by the 2080s compared to the 1980s.

In the 2080s around four times as many people will be exposed to flood water compared with the 1980s.

The medium emissions scenario suggests that carbon dioxide emissions will peak by 2040, but still rise 19 per cent above 2010 levels.

This means roughly two-thirds of the world's coral reefs will experience long-term damage over the next few decades.

In this scenario, the world's carbon budget will be exhausted is 2056, compared to 2057 under a high emissions scenario.

With temperature increases of three to four degrees, food security could have an impact so widespread that humans will not be able to adapt.

The worst case scenario suggests annual carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise through 2100, rising 108 per cent above 2010 levels by 2050.

If this happens, the WRI believes the carbon budget will be exhausted by 2045.

Overall, the IPCC warns that violent conflicts, food shortages and serious infrastructure damage will affect the world if global warming continues at its current pace.

It argues that rising temperatures will exacerbate poverty and damage land and marine species.

It also claims that the world is in 'an era of man-made climate change' and has already seen impacts of global warming on every continent and across the oceans.

In Europe, there will be increased economic losses and more people affected by flooding in river basins and coasts, in the face of rising sea levels and heavy rainstorms.

Most of the flood damage can be avoided by measures such as flood defences, but the costs of increasing protection will be high.

There will also be a reduction in water availability from rivers and groundwater, while increased heat waves will damage human health and quality of life, crop production, increase air pollution and the risk of wildfires in southern Europe and parts of Russia.

Professor Corinne Le Quere, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at University of East Anglia said: 'We need rapid and substantial cuts in carbon emissions and a move away from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change below two degrees and mitigate these impacts.'

'The bottom line is that it's still possible to limit global temperature rise to 2°C, preventing some of the more disastrous consequences of climate change,' said the WRI.

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Infographic reveals four scenarios awaiting humanity

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The infographic was created by the World Resources Institute based on data from this year's IPCC report It shows what the future might hold in terms of temperature rises, rainfall changes and ecosystem damage Each of the four pathways also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining

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national oceanic and atmospheric administration

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How does climate change affect coral reefs?

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Natural disasters such as hurricanes, tropical storms, tsunamis, and landslides have the potential to be the source of a tremendous amount of marine debris. High winds, heavy rain, storm surge, and flooding associated with these disasters can pull large structures, household products, and outdoor items into surrounding waters.

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Which countries are responsible for climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions to date? In light of the release of the working group I (WGI) contribution for the IPCC fifth assessment for climate change, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's September 20th announcement of new limits to carbon emissions from coal and gas power plants (details here), this post aims to put into perspective the cumulative carbon emissions emitted to date by the U.S. and other countries.

More than 200 lead authors and 600 contributing authors from all over the world prepared the WGI contribution, and reported " it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century". Particularly, anthropogenic CO ₂ emissions that have concentrated in the atmosphere are the largest contributor to total radiative forcing, which is leading to surface warming. Cumulative CO2 has increased by 40% since pre-industrial times -reaching unprecedented levels in at least the last 800,000 years, and the ocean has absorbed 30% of all emitted anthropogenic CO ₂, causing ocean acidification. Given the climate dynamics and the persistent effects of past emissions in the atmosphere, limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of green house gases.
How responsible is the U.S. for climate change? The infographic above, which I've produced using data from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, sheds light on the cumulative emissions to date from major emitters.
In 1960 the U.S. had been the biggest contributor to the cumulative amount of carbon emitted globally, representing almost 40% of the world cumulative carbon emissions from fossil fuels and cement production. The second largest contributor by 1960 was the U.K., which had emitted approximately 15%, followed by Germany and France, with 11% and 5% of the total cumulative world carbon emissions, respectively.

Today, total global cumulative carbon emissions have quadrupled from 1960's levels to about 335 billion metric tons. The U.S. has slightly reduced its global share, but is still the largest contributor of cumulative emissions (by 2010), accounting for a not-so-modest 27% of the total. Moreover, it is still the second largest contributor of annual global emissions. In fact, the reduction in its global share is due to the changes in the global scenario, as big developing economies emerge. Today's Russia's share in cumulative emissions is 11%, followed by China with 10%. The next largest contributors are the U.K. and France, each representing about 6%, and Germany with 5%.

Recently, some developing countries are beginning to contribute annually as much as developed countries. In 2010, of the roughly 8.6 billion tons emitted globally (Gt), the top annual emitters included China, India and Russia. Specifically, the largest contributors were China (26%), U.S. (17%), India (6%), Russia (6%) and Japan (4%). These five countries account together for 60% of all annual global emissions. U.S. and Japan annual emissions represent a third of the emissions of this group, while the developing economies of China, Russia and India represent two thirds.

On the other hand, while the U.S. has almost doubled its annual emissions since 1960, other developed economies have made more progress in limiting their emissions. For example, the U.K. is the only country that has decreased its annual emissions since 1960, from 159 to 135 million tons in 2010, and Germany presents a modest increase, from 148 to 203 million.
Power plant emissions standards are a step toward taking responsibility.
The U.S. has made efforts to reduce its carbon emissions, including higher fuel economy standards, regional carbon emissions regulations and state-level renewable energy targets.

EPA's proposed regulations would now limit emissions from coal and natural gas-fired power plants to 1,100 pounds and 1,000 pounds of CO2 per MWh -about 0.14 and 0.12 tons of carbon per MWh. The new rules are another strategic part of President's Obama Climate Action Plan, which "aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions levels in the range of 17 percent below 2005 levels if all other major economies agreed to limit their emissions as well" ( Editor's note: check out this video for the ins and outs of Obama's climate plan).

Since power plants are the largest concentrated source of emissions in the United States, this first federal standard for carbon emissions for new power plants is a powerful step in achieving Obama's goal. Americans should be proud of U.S. efforts to take responsibility for its past and to begin cleaning up the future.
These figures show cumulative carbon emissions up to 1960 and up to 2010 from 18 representative countries spanning all continents and income levels. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory data are cumulatives since: Afghanistan (1949), Bolivia (1928), Brazil (1901), China (1899), Colombia (1901), Egypt (1911), France (1802), Germany (1972), India (1858), Indonesia (1889), Japan (1950), Mali (1959), Mexico (1891), Philippines (1907), Russia (1830), Senegal (1958), South Africa (1884), UK (1751), U.S. (1800). China does not include Hong Kong. Other useful infographics related to carbon emissions can be found here and here.

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Who is Most Responsible for Climate Change? [INFOGRAPHIC]

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Which countries are responsible for climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions to date? In light of the release of the working group I (WGI) contribution for the IPCC fifth assessment for climate change, and the U.S.

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Updates to this animation are now available

The animated spiral presents global temperature change in a visually appealing and straightforward way. The pace of change is immediately obvious, especially over the past few decades. The relationship between current global temperatures and the internationally discussed target limits are also clear without much complex interpretation needed.
Data: HadCRUT4.4 from January 1850 - March 2016, relative to the mean of 1850-1900, available here
FAQ:
1. Features you can see:
1877-78: strong El Nino event warms global temperatures
1880s-1910: small cooling, partially due to volcanic eruptions
1910-1940s: warming, partially due to recovery from volcanic eruptions, small increase in solar output and natural variability
1950s-1970s: fairly flat temperatures as cooling sulphate aerosols mask the greenhouse gas warming
1980-now: strong warming, with temperatures pushed higher in 1998 and 2016 due to strong El Nino events

2. Why start in 1850? Because that is when the HadCRUT4 dataset starts, as we don't have enough temperature data before then to reliably construct global average temperature

3. Are temperatures 'spiralling out of control'? No. Humans are largely responsible for past warming so we have control over what happens next.

4. What do the colours mean? The colours represent time. Purple for early years, through blue, green to yellow for most recent years. The colour scale used is called 'viridis' and the graphics were made in MATLAB.

[Thanks to Jan Fuglestvedt for the idea to make a spiral.]

temperature, visualisation

About Ed Hawkins

Climate scientist in the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) at the University of Reading. IPCC AR5 Contributing Author. Can be found on twitter too: @ed_hawkins View all posts by Ed Hawkins

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Updates to this animation are now available The animated spiral presents global temperature change in a visually appealing and straightforward way. The pace of change is immediately obvious, especially over the past few decades. The relationship between current global temperatures and the internationally discussed target limits are also clear without much complex interpretation needed.

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climate: 15 scary facts about rising seas (opinion) - cnn

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Climate: 15 scary facts about rising seas (Opinion) - CNN

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I'm recently back from the Marshall Islands -- one of the low-lying Pacific island nations that literally could be wiped off the map by climate change.

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This year may be only half over, but 2016 is already on track to be the hottest year ever on record, with each of the first six months, from January to June, setting new temperature records, NASA officials announced this week.

For the first time, NASA shared a midyear climate analysis, doing so because temperature averages this year have been so in excess of previous data, agency officials said. NASA's data showed that each month in 2016 was the warmest respective month globally in the modern temperature record, which dates to 1880. This trend suggests 2016 will surpass 2015 as the hottest year on record, NASA said.

"2016 has really blown that out of the water," said Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. [ Record-Breaking Temperatures Again in First Half of 2016 | Video]

According to Schmidt's calculations, there is a 99 percent probability that 2016, on average, will be hotter than 2015.

So far this year, the planet's average temperature has been 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than the late 19th century. In 2009, international climate negotiators agreed in the Copenhagen Accord that warming should not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century. The Accord's temperature threshold was put in place to hopefully avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

A strong El Niño this past year did contribute to these temperatures, but Schmidt said the continued warming trend is mostly due to the effects of greenhouse gases.

While the impacts of El Niño will dissipate by 2017, leaving temperatures slightly lower than this year, Schmidt said 2017 will still average to 1 degree C (1.8 degrees F) above the pre-industrial average.

Each of the first six months of 2016 set a record as the warmest respective month globally.

Credit: NASA/GISS

These record-breaking temperatures have taken a toll on the Arctic, which has seen thinning and melting ice for more than a decade. Five of the first six months of 2016 set records for lowest respective levels of monthly Arctic sea-ice extent (the area of ocean covered by the ice). By late September, Arctic sea ice could reach its lowest extent since satellite record-keeping began, NASA said.

Walt Meier, a sea ice scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said the low sea-ice extent seen in the first half of 2016 follows the continuing trend and is "not at all surprising given the warm air temperatures.

"We're seeing the surface begin melting as much as two months ahead of schedule," he said.

At the peak of summer, the Arctic sea-ice extent now covers 40 percent less area than it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s, NASA said.

Sustained above-average temperatures, as the planet has seen so far this century, can affect the ice sheet, global sea levels, ecosystems and more, according to Schmidt. [ Earth in the Balance: 7 Crucial Tipping Points]

One of the very visible effects of the warming climate is the greening of the Arctic. What was once a frozen tundra landscape has practically become a new ecosystem, said Charles Miller, deputy science lead for the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"Because of longer, warmer growing seasons coupled with shorter, less brutally cold winters, we've had a significant change in the vegetation structure ... really changing the landscape," Miller said.

Increasing temperatures and a warmer Arctic have global implications, Meier said. The jet stream and weather patterns could shift as the Arctic ice cover continues to diminish, he said.

Original article on Live Science.

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Hottest Year Ever? 2016 Burns Through Heat Records, NASA Says

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This year may be only half over, but 2016 is already on track to be the hottest year ever on record, with each of the first six months, from January to June, setting new temperature records, NASA officials announced this week.

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The IPCC's 2013 report presents the strongest case yet that humans are responsible for the changes in the Earth's environment.

Credit: by Ross Toro, Infographics Artist

Observed changes in climate and greenhouse gases could be accounted for by human activity, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Observations of the climate system are based on direct measurements and remote sensing from satellites and other platforms.

IPCC's 2007 report compared with 2013's:

2007: 1995-2006 rank among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature (since 1850).

2013: Each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface than any preceding decade since 1850.

2007: Global average sea level has risen since 1961 at an average rate of 1.8 millimeters/yr and since 1993 at 3.1mm/yr.

2013: The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the mean rate during the previous two millennia.

2007: Observed decreases in snow and ice extent are also consistent with warming.

2013: Over the last two decades, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass and glaciers have continued to shrink almost worldwide.

2007: Average Northern Hemisphere temperatures during the second half of the 20th century were very likely higher than during any other 50-year period in the last 500 years and likely the highest in at least the past 1,300 years.

2013: In the Northern Hemisphere, 1983-2012 was likely the warmest 30-year period of the last 1,400 years (medium confidence). Northern Hemisphere spring snow covers have continued to decrease.

2007: Observational evidence from all continents and most oceans shows that many natural systems are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increases.

2013: The global ocean will continue to warm during the 21st century. Heat will penetrate from the surface to the deep ocean and affect ocean circulation.

2007: In terrestrial ecosystems, earlier timing of spring events and poleward and upward shifts in plant and animal ranges are with very high confidence linked to recent warming.

2013: Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system.

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Global Warming Evidence: 2007 Report Compared to 2013 (Infographic)

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Observed changes in climate and greenhouse gases could be accounted for by human activity, according to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Observations of the climate system are based on direct measurements and remote sensing from satellites and other platforms. IPCC's 2007 report compared with 2013's: 2007: 1995-2006 rank among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature (since 1850).

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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national aeronautics and space administration

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Images-of-change - Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

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Greenhouse gases have risen sharply since 1958, primarily due to the Industrial Revolution.

Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, humans have increasingly been contributing unnatural sources of greenhouse gases into the system, causing the system to become unbalanced.

The Earth maintains a habitable temperature due to the Greenhouse Effect, which allows heat from the sun to penetrate our atmosphere, where it is absorbed by the Earth's surface or radiated out and reflected back to Earth by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Without it, the Earth would be a cold and hostile planet, and would most likely be uninhabitable.

However, maintaining the natural balance necessary to keep the Earth's temperature within a range that is viable for life as we know it is a very fine line that can easily be crossed.

Greenhouse gases are naturally occurring gases that pose no harm when they are in balance. However, when they are present in excess, the system becomes unbalanced and things start to go awry.

Anthropogenic Causes of Global Warming

The most important greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and water vapor. While all these gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, emissions from human sources has caused their levels to rise to a point that is no longer sustainable.

Lets take a look at the major human causes of global warming.

Carbon Dioxide

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by more than 40% since scientists first started recording these levels, from 280 parts per million (ppm) in 1958 to over 400ppm today.

According to NOAA, over the past 800,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have fluctuated between 180 ppm during ice ages to 280 ppm during warm interglacial periods.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are not only higher than they have been in over 800,000 years, the current increase that we are seeing today is more than 100 times faster than that experienced at the end of the last ice age. This is largely due to human activities; primarily the burning of fossil fuels, but also due to deforestation as a result of logging for timber and clearing for agriculture and development.

Human sources of carbon dioxide

Human sources of carbon dioxide include:

Burning Fossil Fuels: burning coal to generate electricity, burning oil to power vehicles and aircraft (vehicle emissions), or burning wood in fires used for cooking or to provide heat, etc. changes the state of stored organic carbon from a liquid (e.g. oil) or solid (e.g. coal/wood) into a gas (carbon dioxide) which is released into the atmosphere.

Deforestation: vegetation absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the process of photosynthesis, converting this to carbon which is stored within all plants (i.e it is a carbon sink). When vegetation is burned, this organic carbon is released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide, and in so doing becomes a carbon source rather than a carbon sink.

Although methane has a shorter lifespan, and consequently, is not as abundant in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, in terms of it effect as a greenhouse gas, it is much more potent. Methane is produced when organic matter breaks down and also when ruminants digest their food.

Human sources of methane

Human sources of methane include:

Decomposing organic matter: landfills, animal waste, sewerage and dams are all human sources of methane. For example, organic matter is trapped behind dam walls where it sinks to the bottom of the dam and decomposes. Bacteria produce methane in the decomposition process, which slowly escapes to the surface and is released into the atmosphere. Landfill gas operations and biodigesters provide a method of mitigation, and not only harness methane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, but also provide an alternative source of fuel.

Natural gas extraction: methane escapes during oil and gas extraction (e.g. fracking) operations and is released into the atmosphere.

Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that is released primarily by fertilizers used in agriculture and landscaping, but also during the burning of fossil fuels and other organic matter. Atmospheric nitrous oxide levels have risen by roughly 18% since the Industrial Revolution, spiking rapidly towards the end of the 1900's.

Water Vapor

Water is essential for life, and as it is constantly cycling from one state to another, it is not surprising that it is the most abundant of all the greenhouse gases. However, water vapor not only acts as a greenhouse gas, it also increases as the atmosphere gets warmer and provides climate feedbacks. While humans do not play a large direct role in producing water vapor, other human emissions promote atmospheric warming, which in turn promote evaporation that results in more water vapor in the atmosphere.

Chlorofluorocarbons

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are long-lasting greenhouse gases that also destroy the ozone layer. CFCs do not occur naturally in the atmosphere - they are synthetic compounds that only originate from human sources, including: aerosols, foaming agents, refrigerants, and other industrial applications.

Evidence That Humans are Causing Global Warming

Both natural and human factors contribute to global warming, however, evidence has shown that the warming we are currently witnessing is largely as a result of human forcing. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, there are several indications that provide evidence that humans are the cause of global warming rather than it being due to natural variability - these indicators include:

Oceans have absorbed 20 times more heat than the atmosphere resulting in warmer oceans,. The recorded increases in ocean temperatures extend well beyond that of natural climate variation.

Atmosphere Boundary Shifts

The boundary of the lower atmosphere (troposphere) that contains our weather has risen by more than 900 feet over a twenty year period between 1979-1999, according to a study conducted in 2003. To gain a better understanding of why this is happening, scientists modeled both natural and human drivers of climate change (volcanic aerosols and solar changes for the former; and greenhouse gas emissions, aerosol pollutants, and ozone depletion for the latter). They determined that solar changes during the 1900s have caused both the stratosphere and troposphere to warm up.

But this has been exacerbated by human activities which have led to: 1) an increase in greenhouse gas emissions that causes heat to remain trapped within the troposphere, and 2) a decrease in ozone in the stratosphere, causing less sunlight to be absorbed by the ozone layer, resulting in a cooling of the stratosphere. The combined effects of these two phenomena is responsible for more than 80% of the troposphere's boundary (known as the tropopause) shift upward.

Rising Surface Temperatures

Average global temperatures have increased by 1.4°F over the last century, with the most significant increases occurring in the last 30 years.

Scientists have modeled the Earth's temperature with both natural and human drivers of climate change and the results show that greenhouse gas emissions are causing the Earth to warm up three times as fast now than in 1950,.

Taking a closer look at where exactly this warming is occurring, scientists have identified that natural climate drivers are short-lived events, and that human emissions are primarily responsible for the rapid rise in temperatures that we have seen over the latter part of last century and what we are witnessing today.

References and Image Credits

Image Credit: "Greenhouse Gas by Sector" by Robert A. Rohde - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: "Where is global warming going" by Skeptical Science (https://www.skepticalscience.com/graphics.php?g=12) CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Causes of Global Warming: the Human Impact

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Greenhouse gases have risen sharply since 1958, primarily due to the Industrial Revolution. Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, humans have increasingly been contributing unnatural sources of greenhouse gases into the system, causing the system to become unbalanced.

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Can we stop climate change? Infographic claims to reveal the four scenarios awaiting humanity - and NONE of them are great

The infographic was created by the World Resources Institute based on data from this year's IPCC report

It shows what the future might hold in terms of temperature rises, rainfall changes and ecosystem damage

Each of the four pathways also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining carbon budget

The worst case scenario suggests annual carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise through 2100

If this happens, the WRI infographic suggests that the world's carbon budget will be exhausted by 2045

It's not just polar bears years from now that will be affected by climate change, the dangers of a warming Earth are immediate and very human.

This is according the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which said this year that the impact of climate change is 'widespread and consequential.'

Yet the impact seen in the future still largely depends on the actions countries take to reduce their emissions today, the report said.

Now, the World Resources Institute has created an infographic, based on IPCC data, that depicts the likely consequences of various emissions pathways.

Alongside each pathway, it shows what the future might hold in terms of climate impacts - ranging from temperature increases to precipitation changes to ecosystem degradation.

Each pathway also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining carbon budget.

This is the amount of carbon the planet can emit before locking itself into warming of greater than 2°C above pre-industrial levels.

HOW WILL CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECT YOUR AREA?

In the low emissions pathway, carbon dioxide output will peak by 2020 and then drop 66 per cent below 2010 levels by 2020.

The world will still face some challenging consequences from climate change. For instance, around 24 per cent more of the projected global population will face reduced renewable water resources by the 2080s compared to the 1980s.

In the 2080s around four times as many people will be exposed to flood water compared with the 1980s.

The medium emissions scenario suggests that carbon dioxide emissions will peak by 2040, but still rise 19 per cent above 2010 levels.

This means roughly two-thirds of the world's coral reefs will experience long-term damage over the next few decades.

In this scenario, the world's carbon budget will be exhausted is 2056, compared to 2057 under a high emissions scenario.

With temperature increases of three to four degrees, food security could have an impact so widespread that humans will not be able to adapt.

The worst case scenario suggests annual carbon dioxide emissions will continue to rise through 2100, rising 108 per cent above 2010 levels by 2050.

If this happens, the WRI believes the carbon budget will be exhausted by 2045.

Overall, the IPCC warns that violent conflicts, food shortages and serious infrastructure damage will affect the world if global warming continues at its current pace.

It argues that rising temperatures will exacerbate poverty and damage land and marine species.

It also claims that the world is in 'an era of man-made climate change' and has already seen impacts of global warming on every continent and across the oceans.

In Europe, there will be increased economic losses and more people affected by flooding in river basins and coasts, in the face of rising sea levels and heavy rainstorms.

Most of the flood damage can be avoided by measures such as flood defences, but the costs of increasing protection will be high.

There will also be a reduction in water availability from rivers and groundwater, while increased heat waves will damage human health and quality of life, crop production, increase air pollution and the risk of wildfires in southern Europe and parts of Russia.

Professor Corinne Le Quere, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at University of East Anglia said: 'We need rapid and substantial cuts in carbon emissions and a move away from burning fossil fuels if we are to limit global climate change below two degrees and mitigate these impacts.'

'The bottom line is that it's still possible to limit global temperature rise to 2°C, preventing some of the more disastrous consequences of climate change,' said the WRI.

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Infographic reveals four scenarios awaiting humanity

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The infographic was created by the World Resources Institute based on data from this year's IPCC report It shows what the future might hold in terms of temperature rises, rainfall changes and ecosystem damage Each of the four pathways also notes the year the world will likely exhaust the remaining

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40 countries face food shortages worldwide

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The world's countries emit vastly different amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The table below shows data compiled by the International Energy Agency, which estimates carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of coal, natural gas, oil and other fuels, including industrial waste and non-renewable municipal waste.

Here we list the 20 countries that emitted the most carbon dioxide in 2015 (the most recent available data).

2015 total emissions country rank

Country

2015 total carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion (million metric tons)

2015 per capita carbon dioxide emissions from fuel combustion (metric tons)

The picture that emerges from these figures is one where-in general-developed countries and major emerging economy nations lead in total carbon dioxide emissions. Developed nations typically have high carbon dioxide emissions per capita, while some developing countries lead in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions. Obviously, these uneven contributions to the climate problem are at the core of the challenges the world community faces in finding effective and equitable solutions.

We Need Your Support
to Make Change Happen

We can reduce global warming emissions and ensure communities have the resources they need to withstand the effects of climate change-but not without you. Your generous support helps develop science-based solutions for a healthy, safe, and sustainable future.

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The world's countries emit vastly different amounts of heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. The table below shows data compiled by the International Energy Agency, which estimates carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of coal, natural gas, oil and other fuels, including industrial waste and non-renewable municipal waste.

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http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-top-ten/countries-with-highest-deforestation-map.html