A newly-discovered public information film unseen for years reveals oil company Shell warned the public of the catastrophic risks of climate change a full 26 years ago. The 28-minute film made in 1991, called Climate of Concern, was shown in schools and universities and warned of extreme weather and climate refugees as fossil fuel burning caused temperatures to rise, and also championed commercial-scale solar and wind power that already existed in 1991. The climate warning was “endorsed by a uniquely broad consensus of scientists in their report to the United Nations at the end of 1990,” the film noted, adding that to “wait for final proof would be irresponsible. Action now is seen as the only safe insurance.” Clearly identifying Shell as one of the first major oil companies to accept the reality and dangers of climate change, the film has led to accusations that the company has not acted responsibly since, with continuing investment in heavily in highly polluting tar sand operations and Arctic exploration. Prof Tom Wigley, head of the Climate Research Unit at time and who helped Shell with the 1991 film told the Guardian that Shell’s actions since 1991 had “absolutely not” been consistent with the film’s warning. A separate article with graphics and quotes from the film and a short video explainer accompany the Guardian news story.

The transition team for the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPS) included members whose identities have not been officially disclosed, according to reports. In an email exchange yesterday with E&E News, Myron Ebell, who headed the transition effort, said the individuals were not listed among the nine official “landing team” because they were part of the broader “action team”, whose identities need not be disclosed unless they choose them to be. One member, Steve Malloy, an attorney and fierce critic of mainstream climate science, has since advertised his role in the process, telling a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference it was “a dream come true after fighting the EPA for 25 years.” The lack of transparency is in stark contrast to the approach taken by the incoming Obama administration eight years ago, the article notes, who revealed the names of all EPA transition members to let the public gauge whether there were any conflicts of interest.

The Trump administration plans to cut the budget for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) by $2bn, roughly a quarter of its current annual spend, according to reports. The new $6.1 billion budget for next year would see 20% of the EPA’s workforce laid off, with staff dropping from 15,000 to 12,000. A swathe of federal cuts in domestic discretionary spending are expected this week, with the funds diverted to the Defence Department. The State Department’s foreign aid budget, which Obama’s presidency used to send $500m to the UN’s Green Climate Fund, has also been identified as a target for cuts, reports ClimateHome. Meanwhile, InsideClimate News reports on ongoing efforts by the new EPA leadership to strip the agency’s website of mentions of climate change, such as changing ‘climate ready’ to ‘resilient’.

As global temperatures rise, snow will melt sooner but more slowly, according to new research by scientists at the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. The counter-intuitive finding is caused by less snow gathering in many mountainous area, with the thin layer that collects then less likely to last into the late spring and early summer. Instead, it will melt slowly throughout the winter and early spring, when night-time temperatures are lower and there is less direct sunlight. This peculiar finding might be bad news for the Western US and other regions that depend on snow for water, reports Associated Press.

China’s coal consumption fell in 2016 – the third year in a row the world’s biggest polluter has cut back its use of the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel, according to newly released government data. China’s fossil fuel emissions remained stable in 2016 and are on track to fall by roughly 1% in 2017 – that would make it the longest stretch of stable or falling emissions on record, says Enegydesk. ClimateHome also has the story.

A new study into the environmental impact of producing a loaf of bread has found that biggest single factor is the use of fertiliser to grow wheat, which accounts for 43% of greenhouse gas emissions. With growing concern over issues from pollution to packaging, consumers need to be more aware of the environmental cost of producing their food, say the researchers from the University of Sheffield. The “embodied global warming” amounts to half a kilogram of CO2 for every loaf of bread produced in the UK and equals an astonishing half a per cent of all the UK’s greenhouse emissions, says New Scientist. One of the authors has an article in The Conversation describing his research into the entire supply chain of a regular loaf “from seed to sandwich”.

Humans are responsible for triggering five out of every six wildfires in the United States and tripling the length of the wildfire season, according to research. While climate change is making the fire season longer and more intense, a study of fire data from 1992 to 2012 suggests human activities play a bigger role. The scientists found 84% of all U.S. wildfires were started by people, either by accident or on purpose, and that human activities increased the fire season from 46 days to 154 days. Of the more than 1 million human-started fires since 1992, about 29% were caused by burning rubbish, 21% from arson and 11% from from misuse of equipment, say the scientists. Associated Press, Scientific American and Climate Central all have more on the new study.

A report to Parliament says 25 million existing homes will need to be insulated between now and 2050 to meet standards required by mid-century, equivalent to more than one a minute. The report by a group of leading construction firms, the Green Building Council, says the government’s infrastructure agenda offers an unmissable opportunity after successive governments have been far too slow to impose a national programme of home renovation to help the UK meet its target of cutting carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. But the question remains as to who will pay after the government’s Green Deal scheme for owner-occupiers collapsed and has not been replaced, says the BBC.

An open letter published last week from 300 scientists calling on Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement may have sounded impressive on the face of it but is in fact “a pitiful list” of individuals who “badly lack climate expertise”, says Dr John Abraham, a professor of thermal sciences. William Happer, who is under consideration for the position of President Trump’s science adviser, appears on the list along with people whose credentials Abraham describes as “retired geologist”, “public servant”, “president of a company” and “online writer”. He adds: “It is almost as though anyone with a college degree (and there are about 21 million enrolled in higher education programs just in the USA) was qualified to sign that letter.” The list of 300 “scientists” is “the usual parade of non-experts”, says DeSmog.

As the snow atop US mountain ranges melts earlier in the year as the climate warms, a new study says the rate of melt could actually slow down. Using climate models, the researchers compared how quickly snowpacks melt in the current climate with projections for the future. The results suggest that the pace of snowpack melt could drop because the snow will start melting earlier, leaving less of the snowpack when higher temperatures – and fasting melting – hit in the summer.

When it comes to reducing carbon emissions, one of the biggest hurdles is the world’s addiction to flying, says Simon Blakey, as senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Sheffield. While climate change minister, Nick Hurd, has named transport as one of the two biggest environmental challenges, clear action on addressing CO2 from air transport has been lacking, the piece argues. Blakey’s explains his research on greener aviation fuels such as old cooking oil, which he suggests could cut not only carbon emissions but also reduce wider air pollution and improve air quality.He identifies three challenges that need to be overcome if if the role of alternative aviation fuels in tackling climate change is to be realised: safety, economics and sustainability.

Humans are responsible for starting 84% of wildfires in the US, a new study suggests. The researchers analysed more than 1.5 million government records of wildfires in the contiguous US that had to be extinguished or managed by state or federal agencies between 1992 and 2012. The results show that humans were responsible for an average of 44% of the area burned by wildfires each year. Combined with climate change bringing hotter and drier conditions for longer periods, humans are extending the length of the wildfire season, the researchers say.

Ocean acidification is spreading rapidly in the western Arctic Ocean in both area and depth, a new study finds. Between the 1990s and 2010, acidified waters expanded northward by 300 nautical miles to just below the North Pole, the study finds, and extended from 100 to 250 metres in depth. The expansion is being caused by unusual ocean circulation patterns, sea ice retreat and the uptake of human-caused CO2 emissions, the researchers say.