Across two decades and thousands of pages of reports, the world’s most authoritative voice on climate science has consistently understated the rate and intensity of climate change and the danger those impacts represent, say a growing number of studies on the topic. [Climate Central]
A growing number of public health experts are recognizing the need to integrate information about climate change into their disaster preparedness and response mechanisms. [New York Times]
The booby prize this year for Dirtiest City in America goes to Fresno, California. [Forbes]
Fourth- and eighth-grade students in the United States continue to lag behind students in several East Asian countries and some European nations in math and science. [New York Times]
A US intelligence portrait of the world in 2030 predicts that China will be the largest economic power, climate change will create instability by contributing to water and food shortages, and there will be a “tectonic shift” with the rise of a global middle class. [Guardian]
The United States could see its standing as a superpower eroded and Asian economies will outstrip those of North America and Europe combined by 2030, according to the best guess of the U.S. intelligence community in its latest forecast. [Associated Press]
California is poised to meet its renewable energy target in the next eight years with a “comfortable margin” to spare as regulators work to promote projects that also help increase “green” jobs in the state. [Ventura County Star]
In an unexpected bonus, the very presence of the U.N. climate talks in energy-rich Qatar introduced the big-spending Gulf public to the issue of climate change close up for the first time. [Associated Press]
The operator of Japan’s Tsuruga nuclear power plant may be ordered to decommission the facility after seismologists confirmed that it sits directly atop an active fault line. [The Telegraph]
Wheat prices may climb 20 percent in the year through June as drought threatens crops from the U.S. to Russia, boosting global supply concerns, said last year’s second-biggest exporter. [Bloomberg]