[GWSG] 1/2 natural; Stanford divests; new index; 2/3 environmentalists; Lloyd's on climate; plants & CO2; kids sue

[Tilley, Al]

1.   A U WA study in Nature attributes up to half of Greenland’s melt to natural variation and the balance to anthropogenic warming.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140507132657.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28Latest+Science+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

2.  Urged by students, Stanford is divesting holdings in companies which mine coal.  http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0507-hance-stanford-divestment.html
Christiana Figueres urges religious leaders to divest from fossil fuels.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/07/fossil-fuels-un-climate-chief

3.  The NRDC and the FTSE Group are developing a stock index free of fossil fuel holdings—including natural gas.   http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-02/green-stock-index-rejects-natural-gas-along-with-oil-and-coal.html

4. 64% of Chinese identify themselves as environmentalists, more than double the proportion of people in the US or Europe.  Chinese environmentalists tend to be pro-business social conservatives devoted to family and tradition.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/07/more-chinese-than-europeans-identify-themselves-as-environmentalists

5.  Lloyd’s of London has called on insurers to take climate disruption into account or risk being blindsided by weather-related losses.  Lloyd’s asks that insurers take longer horizons than the usual year and hold more cash in reserves.  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/may/08/lloyds-insurer-account-climate-change-extreme-weather-losses

6.  Rising CO2 will render many basic crops less nutritious.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/may/07/climate-change-food-crops-nutrition

7.  Rising CO2 promotes plant growth, thus sequestering carbon in plants and soil.  Unfortunately, carbon emissions from soil also increase, offsetting the sequestration.  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2014/may/09/cant-count-on-plants-slowing-global-warming

8.  A suit has been brought on the part of young people in California to force the government to regulate climate so as to preserve a future for them.  The public trust doctrine on which it is based derives from the Code of Justinian.  Thanks to Tom Larson for the item.  http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/28/young-people-are-taking-the-government-to-court-over-its-failure-to-address-climate-change/
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