by Kiley Kroh and Michael Conathan

Analysts at one of the world’s largest insurance markets are warning that offshore drilling in the Arctic would “constitute a unique and hard-to-manage risk” and urged companies to “think carefully about the consequences of action” before exploring for oil in the region.

Lloyd’s of London, a large UK-based insurance pool, issued a report today outlining the severe environmental and economic risk of oil and gas drilling in Arctic waters. The stunning report comes as Royal Dutch Shell prepares for exploratory drilling operations in the Arctic – even while leading experts warn that there’s virtually no infrastructure in place to clean up an oil spill in the fragile region.

Joe Romm writes: For newcomers, this is intended as an introduction to Climate Progress.

Regular readers will find links to some of our best content on climate and clean energy, continually updated (and always accessible by clicking on the “Newcomers, start here” link atop the right hand bar). Please post in the comments any suggestions you have for what you would like to see on this page.

Joe Romm writes: I know you’ve heard the established wisdom: The climate bill failed in large part because it lacked public support.

That was never true, as over a dozen polls we reported on in the last 3 years make clear (seethem here and below). But that myth became popular because it suited the narrative of both the deniers and do-little centrist crowd and their enablers in the media.

Joe Romm writes: A new journal article finds that methane leakage greatly undercuts or eliminates entirely the climate benefit of a switch to natural gas. The authors of “Greater Focus Needed on Methane Leakage from Natural Gas Infrastructure“ conclude that “it appears that current leakage rates are higher than previously thought” and “Reductions in CH4 Leakage Are Needed to Maximize the Climate Benefits of Natural Gas.”

Natural gas is mostly methane – a very potent greenhouse gas, though with a much shorter lifetime in the atmosphere than CO2, which is emitted by burning fossil fuels like natural gas. Recent studies suggest a very high global warming potential (GWP) for CH4 vs CO2, particularly over a 20-year time frame.

Climate Crocks about the recent nature study, which again showed that global temperature, lags Co2 atmospheric concentration amounts. There is a lot of warming in the pipe - incoming.
Jeremy Shakun is lead author of the new study in Nature this week, confirming from multiple proxy records that “temperature is correlated with and generally lags CO2 during the last (that is, the most recent) deglaciation.”

He was interviewed for Nature.com by Paige Brown. (for voice interview, and “plain speech”, see the podcast audio above).