United States: More Republicans believe in demonic possession than climate change
“Starting with the number of people who believe in climate change, we can note that Canadians are pretty on-the-ball when it comes to this: 98% of them accept the overwhelming evidence. The percentage of Americans who do is 70, while only 48% of Republicans attach any weight to the problem. On the other hand, Republicans accept demonic possession at a rate of 68%. Apparently evidence means nothing to some people.”
— AddictingInfo.org, December 22
Four trillion tonnes of ide lost in 20 years
“More than 4 trillon tonnes of ice from Greenland and Antarctica has melted in the past 20 years and flowed into the oceans, pushing up sea levels, according to a study that provides the best measure to date of the effect climate change is having on the earth's biggest ice sheets ...
“The study shows the melting of the two giant ice sheets has caused the seas to rise by more than 11mm in 20 years. It also found Greenland is losing ice mass at five times the rate of the early 1990s.”
— The Guardian, November 29
US oil output to hit 26-year high
US oil production will jump 23 percent over the next two years to a quarter-century high by 2014, reducing demand for foreign supplies from the world's largest oil importer, according to a new official forecast.
Production last year already gained 780,000 barrels a day from 2011 thanks to surging production from fracking operations tapping shale resources in the North Dakota region, the EIA said in the report released Tuesday.
The continuing rise will by 2014 push US production to its highest level since 1988, closing in on the world's leading producer Saudi Arabia ...”
— AFP, January 9.