Climate News Roundup

Florida to introduce tough greenhouse gas targets – Reuters. “The rules would establish targets for Florida to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2017, to 1990 levels by 2025 and by 80 percent of 1990 levels by 2050.”

China Falls Short on Energy-Saving Goals - ABC News/AP. “China launched a five-year effort in 2006 to cut energy use per unit of economic output by 20 percent…. But last year’s reduction was only 1.33 percent, well below the 4 percent annual target.” This is a key reason Chinese and world carbon dioxide emissions are soaring.

Study Paints Dire Picture of Warmer Northeast – New York Times. “By the end of this century, 100-year floods could hit New York City every 10 years … there could be droughts every summer in the Catskill Mountains, which supply drinking water for 9 million New Yorkers. The study is available here.

The study notes, “The very character of the Northeast is at stake.” Sort of like what’s happening in the Northwest, where temperatures are shattering records set decades ago, threatening the region’s beloved summer weather – highs in the 80s with no humidity. Thursday,

Meteorologists with Seattle’s bureau of the National Weather Service said the temperature as of about 3:45 p.m. had broken the previous record for the date — 95 degrees, set in 1951. By 4 p.m., the heat unofficially reached 101 degrees around Husky Stadium and the athletic fields.