topic: Earth Science

topic: Earth Science

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Earth on ‘devastating trajectory’ to global tipping points. But there’s hope.
- A new report on global tipping points warns of imminent serious disruptions in major Earth systems if global temperatures continue rising due to human-induced climate change.
- It suggests that current levels of warming will likely push five major Earth systems past their tipping points, and another three will follow if global temperatures exceed 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) of warming above preindustrial levels.
- However, along with these dire warnings, the report also notes the launch of positive tipping points within society, such as the rollout of renewable energy technologies.
- Other reports also describe the urgency to enact positive change as humanity continues pumping carbon into the atmosphere, wreaking havoc on the environment.

Carbon credit certifier Verra updates accounting method amid growing criticism
- The world’s largest carbon credit certifier, Verra, has overhauled its methods for calculating the climate impacts of REDD projects that aim to reduce deforestation.
- REDD stands for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
- The emissions reductions from these projects can be sold on the voluntary carbon market to individuals and companies, which proponents say provides a vital stream of funding for forest conservation.
- The update changes the process for calculating deforestation baselines, which help determine how effective a project has been at reducing forest loss and keeping the carbon those trees contain out of the atmosphere.

Ancient ocean water found in Himalayas could offer insights about evolution
- A team of researchers from India and Japan have found water droplets trapped in mineral deposits in the Kumaon mountains in the Indian state of Uttarakhand that were likely left from an ancient ocean dating back some 600 million years.
- The scientists say these droplets could aid our understanding of the Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event and the Earth processes that fostered the evolution of complex life.
- The researchers say these droplets could offer insights about the makeup of ancient oceans and the environment at the time, and they could be helpful for future climate modeling.

‘We don’t have much time’: Q&A with climate scientist Pierre Friedlingstein
- “It’s not going in the right direction yet,” Pierre Friedlingstein tells Mongabay of the effort to meet the Paris Agreement goals; a member of the IPCC and a climate professor, he says he’s mildly optimistic about the trend in global emissions.
- Friedlingstein says he’s hoping deforestation will go down in the coming years in Brazil, but he’s not sure that Indonesia, another major global carbon sink, is ready to go in the right direction at the moment.
- He says the COVID-19 pandemic showed that climate is still “not on the top of the list” of government priorities, given that all nations sought to boost economic growth after lockdowns, despite the carbon emissions they incurred.

U.N. ‘stocktake’ calls for fossil fuel phaseout to minimize temperature rise
- The U.N. climate change agency published a new report Sept. 8 confirming that while there has been progress on climate change mitigation since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015, more needs to be done to limit the global rise in temperatures at 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels.
- The report is an element of the global stocktake, a Paris Agreement-prescribed inventory of progress toward climate-related goals.
- The authors of the report called for phasing out fossil fuels and ramping up renewable energy.
- The global stocktake process will conclude at the U.N. climate conference (COP28) beginning Nov. 30 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Sensing tech used in oil pipelines can also track Arctic sea ice, study shows
- Scientists have used undersea fiber-optic cables in the Arctic to remotely track the presence and extent of sea ice.
- Sea ice is usually monitored with the help of satellites; however, the lack of high-resolution images and the low frequency of data collection makes it difficult to do in-depth analysis.
- Using a method commonly employed to monitor oil pipelines and highways, the scientists looked for changes in signals sent down a fiber-optic cable in the Beaufort Sea that would indicate the presence of sea ice.
- While promising, the method can’t yet be used to measure the thickness of sea ice or to determine how far the ice extends to either side of the cable.

U.N. climate chief calls for end to fossil fuels as talks head to Dubai
- International climate talks began in Bonn, Germany, on June 5.
- A key part of the discussion will be the global stocktake, assessing progress toward the emissions cuts pledged by nations as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
- Discussions will work to provide the technical details of the stocktake, but the consensus is that the world is not on track to cut emissions by 50% by 2030, which scientists say is key to keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5°C (2.7°F) over pre-industrial levels.
- The talks are a precursor to COP28, the annual U.N. climate conference, scheduled to begin Nov. 30 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which is a major oil- and gas-producing nation.

IPCC warns of ‘last chance’ to limit climate change via drastic emissions cuts
- The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its sixth “synthesis” report March 20, after its approval by world leaders at a weeklong meeting in Switzerland.
- The report’s authors conclude that immediate reductions in carbon emissions are necessary to limit the rise in the global temperature to 1.5° Celsius (2.7° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
- Scientists, activists and observers are calling for an end to fossil fuel use.

Amazon deforestation linked to reduced Tibetan snows, Antarctic ice loss: Study
- Earth’s climate is controlled by a complex network of interactions between the atmosphere, oceans, lands, ice and biosphere. Many elements in this system are now being pushed toward tipping points, beyond which changes become self-sustaining, with the whole Earth system potentially shifting to a new steady state.
- A recent study analyzed 40 years of air temperature measurements at more than 65,000 locations to investigate how changes in one region rippled through the climate system to affect temperatures in other parts of the globe. Computer models then simulated how these links may be affected by future climate change.
- Researchers identified a strong correlation between high temperatures in the Amazon Rainforest and on the Tibetan Plateau. They found a similar relationship between temperatures in the Amazon and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
- Deforestation in the Amazon likely influences the Tibetan Plateau via a convoluted 20,000-kilometer (12,400-mile) pathway driven by atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns. The study suggests that a healthy, functioning Amazon is crucial not only for the regional climate in Brazil, but for the whole Earth system.

Forest modeling misses the water for the carbon: Q&A with Antonio Nobre & Anastassia Makarieva
- An expanded understanding of forests’ role in moisture transport and heat regulation raises the stakes on the health of the Amazon Rainforest and the need to stop cutting trees.
- The biotic pump theory, conceived by scientists Anastassia Makarieva and the late Victor Gorshkov, suggests that forests’ impact on hydrology and cooling exceeds the role of carbon embodied in trees.
- In an interview with Mongabay, Makarieva and Brazilian scientist Antonio Nobre explain how the theory makes the case for a more urgent approach by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to protect the Amazon.

Warming has set off ‘dangerous’ tipping points. More will fall with the heat
- A new study warns that multiple tipping points will be triggered if global warming exceeds 1.5°C (2.7°F) above pre-industrial levels.
- The researchers say humanity is already at risk of passing five tipping points, including the melting of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets and the mass die-off of coral reefs, at the current levels of warming, and that the risk will increase with each 0.1°C (0.18°F) of warming.
- While many nations have committed to the 2015 Paris Agreement, which stipulates that warming should be limited to 1.5°C, it’s unclear whether this goal will be achieved.

Lack of timely rains, fertilizer hits rice farmers in Nepal’s granary
- The annual monsoon rains have failed to arrive in Nepal as anticipated ahead of the rice-planting season, leaving farmers facing another season of loss and the country bracing for a food shortage.
- A senior government meteorologist says it’s still too early to link the lateness of the monsoon to climate change, but what’s certain is that climate change is already wreaking havoc with rainfall patterns in Nepal.
- Last year, a prolonged monsoon brought unexpected flash floods that cost farmers $93 million in damages.
- A decline in rice production this year could put Nepal’s already strained finances under even more pressure by forcing the country to import rice.

We’ve crossed the land use change planetary boundary, but solutions await
- According to experts, we have passed the planetary boundary for land systems change — the human-caused loss of forest — and risk destabilizing Earth’s operating systems.
- Scientists calculate we must retain 85% of tropical and boreal forests, and 50% of temperate forests, to stay within Earth’s “safe operating” bounds, but the number of trees worldwide has fallen by nearly 50% since the dawn of agriculture.
- From 2001 to 2021, forest area roughly half the size of China was lost or destroyed across the planet; in 2021, tropical forests disappeared at a rate of about 10 football fields per minute.
- Despite these losses, solutions abound: Some of the actions that could bring us back into the safe operating space are securing Indigenous land rights, reforestation and landscape restoration, establishing new protected areas, redesigning food systems, and using finance as a tool

In Congo, a carbon sink like no other risks being carved up for oil
- New research has revealed that the peatlands of the Congo Basin are 15% larger than originally thought.
- This area of swampy forest holds an estimated 29 billion metric tons of carbon, which is the amount emitted globally through the burning of fossil fuels in three years.
- Beginning July 28, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where two-thirds of these peatlands lie, will auction off the rights to explore for oil in 27 blocks across the country.
- Scientists and conservationists have criticized the move, which the government says is necessary to fund its operations. Opponents say the blocks overlap with parts of the peatlands, mature rainforest, protected areas, and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Beyond boundaries: Earth’s water cycle is being bent to breaking point
- The hydrological cycle is a fundamental natural process for keeping Earth’s operating system intact. Humanity and civilization are intimately dependent on the water cycle, but we have manipulated it vastly and destructively, to suit our needs.
- We don’t yet know the full global implications of human modifications to the water cycle. We do know such changes could lead to huge shifts in Earth systems, threatening life as it exists. Researchers are asking where and how they can measure change to determine if the water cycle is being pushed to the breaking point.
- Recent research has indicated that modifications to aspects of the water cycle are now causing Earth system destabilization at a scale that modern civilization might not have ever faced. That is already playing out in extreme weather events and long-term slow-onset climate alterations, with repercussions we don’t yet understand.
- There are no easy or simple solutions. To increase our chances of remaining in a “safe living space,” we need to reverse damage to the global hydrological cycle with large-scale interventions, including reductions in water use, and reversals of deforestation, land degradation, soil erosion, air pollution and climate change.

Caribbean incursion into Amazon sparked a flurry of life, with lessons for the future
- The vast wetland that used to sit in the heart of where the Amazon lies today received a more recent pulse of seawater than previously thought, a new study confirms — a phenomenon that contributed to the region’s species richness, including its iconic river dolphins.
- The study also says the likeliest source of these marine incursions, some 23 million to 8.8 million years ago, was the Caribbean Sea, with the water surging inland down what is today the Orinoco River Basin in Venezuela.
- Researchers say investigating the distant past of the Amazon can yield clues about its near future, given that the late Miocene was a period of global warming, with temperatures far higher than the 2°C (3.6°F) rise that the Paris Agreement is trying to prevent.
- But the current rate of global warming is taking place on an exponentially shorter time scale, and combined with record rates of fires and deforestation, it gives animal and plant species no time to adapt, scientists say.

Geoengineering Earth’s climate future: Straight talk with Wake Smith
- A new book, “Pandora’s Toolbox: The Hopes and Hazards of Climate Intervention,” explores a number of ideas for pulling carbon out of the atmosphere or artificially cooling the planet, known collectively as geoengineering.
- The book argues that such dire actions may need to be taken by future generations to combat climate change, and if so, those generations deserve to inherit research done now to understand the potential impacts and feasibility of geoengineering.
- One tool whose implementation is likely inevitable, according to the book, is pulling carbon from smokestacks and the air and then sequestering it deep in the Earth, a technology currently happening at a very small scale. Another approach, far more controversial, would be to inject aerosols into the stratosphere to cool the Earth.
- None of these methods precludes the need to decarbonize now and fast. But given the dangerous trajectory of climate change, author Wake Smith argues that suffering future generations may decide to pull the geoengineering trigger.

Robot revolution: A new real-time accounting system for ocean carbon
- Oceans are key to understanding climate change, seeing as they take up and store 25% of the carbon that human activities add to Earth’s atmosphere. But there are big gaps in our knowledge regarding ocean carbon storage and release, and how it is evolving as climate change unfolds, a problem scientists are now addressing.
- An international deployment of thousands of robotic floats, fitted with sophisticated biogeochemical sensors, is underway and already providing real-time data that scientists can integrate into ocean carbon budgets and climate models. Many more floats are coming, with the capacity to operate in remote regions.
- One such place is the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, which accounts for almost half of the worldwide oceanic carbon sink. Windier conditions there, caused by climate change, are churning up more carbon-rich waters from the depths, releasing stored carbon and introducing unforeseen variability into ocean carbon emission estimates.
- Robots are starting to monitor these emissions in real time. More accurate ocean carbon budgets will improve accounting of land-based carbon dioxide emissions, help create more accurate assessments of how well global carbon agreements such as the Paris Agreement are meeting goals, and will help assess ocean carbon dioxide removal plans.

Efforts to dim Sun and cool Earth must be blocked, say scientists
- Scientists are calling on political institutions to place limits on solar geoengineering research so that it cannot be deployed unilaterally by countries, companies or individuals.
- Long-term planetary-level geoengineering interventions of this kind are unprecedented and extremely dangerous, say the academics behind the letter, and should not therefore be experimented with outdoors, receive patents, public funds or international support.
- Solar geoengineering’s leading proposal — injecting billions of aerosol particles into the Earth’s stratosphere — could have severe, unintended and unforeseen consequences. Modelling suggests that it may cause drying in the Amazon rainforest
- In addition, if solar geoengineering were deployed, it would need to be maintained for decades. Sudden discontinuance would result in Earth facing what scientists call termination shock, with a sudden temperature rise due to existing atmospheric carbon emissions which would have been masked by cooling stratospheric aerosols.

The past, present and future of the Congo peatlands: 10 takeaways from our series

This is the wrap-up article for our four-part series “The Congo Basin peatlands.” Read Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four. In the first half of December, Mongabay published a four-part series on the peatlands of the Congo Basin. Only in 2017 did a team of Congolese and British scientists discover that a […]
Carbon and communities: The future of the Congo Basin peatlands
- Scientific mapping in 2017 revealed that the peatlands of the Cuvette Centrale in the Congo Basin are the largest and most intact in the world’s tropics.
- That initial work, first published in the journal Nature, was just the first step, scientists say, as work continues to understand how the peatlands formed, what threats they face from the climate and industrial uses like agriculture and logging, and how the communities of the region appear to be coexisting sustainably.
- Researchers say investing in studying and protecting the peatlands will benefit the global community as well as people living in the region because the Cuvette Centrale holds a vast repository of carbon.
- Congolese researchers and leaders say they are eager to safeguard the peatlands for the benefit of everyone, but they also say they need support from abroad to do so.

Holding agriculture and logging at bay in the Congo peatlands
- The peatlands of the Congo Basin are perhaps the most intact in the tropics, but threats from logging, agriculture and extractive industries could cause their rapid degradation, scientists say.
- In 2021, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) announced that it was planning to end a moratorium on the issuance of logging concessions that had been in place for nearly two decades.
- The move raised concerns among conservation groups, who say the moratorium should remain in place to protect the DRC’s portion of the world’s second-largest rainforest.
- Today, timber concession boundaries overlap with the peatlands, and though some companies say they won’t cut trees growing on peat, environmental advocates say that any further issuance of logging concessions in the DRC would be irresponsible.

Layers of carbon: The Congo Basin peatlands and oil
- The peatlands of the Congo Basin may be sitting on top of a pool of oil, though exploration has yet to confirm just how big it may be.
- Conservationists and scientists argue that the carbon contained in this England-size area of peat, the largest in the tropics, makes keeping them intact more valuable, not to mention the habitat and resources they provide for the region’s wildlife and people.
- Researchers calculate that the peatlands contain 30 billion metric tons of carbon, or about the amount humans produce in three years.
- As the governments of the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo work to develop their economies, they, along with many policymakers worldwide, argue that the global community has a responsibility to help fund the protection of the peatlands to keep that climate-warming carbon locked away.

The ‘idea’: Uncovering the peatlands of the Congo Basin
- In 2017, a team of scientists from the U.K. and the Republic of Congo announced the discovery of a massive peatland the size of England in the Congo Basin.
- Sometimes called the Cuvette Centrale, this peatland covers 145,529 square kilometers (56,189 square miles) in the northern Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and holds about 20 times as much carbon as the U.S. releases from burning fossil fuels in a year.
- Today, the Congo Basin peatlands are relatively intact while supporting nearby human communities and a variety of wildlife species, but threats in the form of agriculture, oil and gas exploration and logging loom on the horizon.
- That has led scientists, conservationists and governments to look for ways to protect and better understand the peatlands for the benefit of the people and animals they support and the future of the global climate.

“Earthshine” from the Moon shows our planet is dimming, intensifying global warming
- Earth’s brightness, as seen from space, has dropped significantly over the past two decades.
- When the planet reflects less light, more sunlight reaches the ground and the sea, warming the atmosphere.
- A natural rise in Pacific Ocean temperatures in 2015-2017 made Earth even dimmer by reducing bright clouds over the western Americas, a new study concludes.

COP26: As carbon emissions rise unabated, scientists eye a methane removal fix
- The COP26 climate summit has moved into its second week, with no major climate change breakthroughs in sight. Just as alarming is a new investigation released today by The Washington Post showing that the world’s nations are hugely underreporting carbon emissions, making the race to truly curb carbon emissions even more urgent.
- As a result, COP26 negotiators and scientists are shifting their immediate attention from not only cutting CO2 emissions, but also slashing methane (CH4) emissions from fossil fuel, agricultural, and landfill sources. A hundred nations last week pledged to reduce methane emissions by 30% by 2030.
- Some scientists think they know the answer, suggesting a variety of engineering solutions to achieve rapid methane removal from the atmosphere — solutions which have been successful in the lab but remain untested in nature. COP26 attendees are said to be showing significant interest in this potential technology fix.
- However, there are numerous concerns, including the possible unforeseen public health and environmental impacts of methane removal technology, the challenge of upscaling and implementing the various proposed methods, and finding funding for the work. Perhaps the biggest hurdle is time, as climate change escalates apace.

Humans’ role in climate warming ‘unequivocal,’ IPCC report shows
- The greenhouse gases humans have released into the atmosphere over the past 100 to 150 years has led to a 1.1°C (2°F) rise in global temperatures, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC.
- The authors of the IPCC’s latest report use the strongest language yet to connect human activity to climate change, calling the link “unequivocal.”
- The report draws on the findings of thousands of studies, pointing to the need to cut CO2 emissions immediately while also suggesting that many of the impacts of climate change are irreversible.
- This report focuses on the science behind climate change and will be combined with two subsequent reports on the adaptation and vulnerability to the impacts of climate change and ways to mitigate its effects to produce the IPCC’s sixth assessment, scheduled for publication in September 2022.

Scientists call for solving climate and biodiversity crises together
- A new report from United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) highlights the importance of confronting climate change and biodiversity loss together.
- Global climate change and the unprecedented loss of species currently underway result from a similar suite of human-driven causes, the report’s authors write.
- As a result, solutions that take both issues into account have the best chance of success, they conclude.

On the Mongolian steppe, conservation science meets traditional knowledge
- Rangelands and the pastoralists who rely on them are an overlooked and understudied part of global conservation.
- Tunga Ulambayar, country director for the Zoological Society of London’s Mongolia office, says she wants to change this by complementing the scientific understanding with pastoralists’ traditional knowledge of nature.
- “There is no university teaching that kind of traditional knowledge, but if we really aim to care about these regions and their resources, even from an economic perspective, we need this knowledge,” she says.
- Ulambayar also notes that pastoralism, widely practiced in less industrialized countries, is increasingly recognized as an efficient system of resource management and a resilient culture.

Ever-evolving Montreal Protocol a model for environmental treaties
- Since the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, countries have been phasing out most ozone-damaging chemicals, helping protect the Earth’s protective shield. In this exclusive Mongabay interview, Megumi Seki, Acting Executive Secretary of the UN Environment Programme’s Ozone Secretariat, reviews the history and future of the landmark treaty.
- The Montreal Protocol phase-down has also helped prevent further climate warming. But the HFCs — replacement gases employed by industry as refrigerants and for other uses — while not harmful to the ozone layer, have been found to be powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
- In 2016, national delegates agreed on the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which calls for cutting the production and use of HFCs by 80–85% by the late 2040s. The amendment entered into force at the start of 2019, with the goal of avoiding additional warming by up to 0.4°C (0.72 °F) by the end of the century.
- The early steps of the Montreal Protocol, and its ongoing adjustments including the Kigali Amendment, provide vital clues as to how to effectively negotiate, implement, update, and succeed in moving forward with other future environmental treaties.

The HFC challenge: Can the Montreal Protocol continue its winning streak?
- Since the Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987, countries have phased out most of the ozone-damaging gases, but their replacements, the HFCs, are powerful greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.
- In 2016, national delegates agreed on the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which calls for cutting the production and use of HFCs by 80–85% by the late 2040s. The amendment entered into force at the start of 2019, with the goal of avoiding additional warming by up to 0.4°C (0.72 °F) by the end of the century.
- The future success of the Kigali Amendment faces several challenges, including countries inaccurately estimating their emissions of HFCs, the need for affordable alternatives, and the fact that the major producers of HFCs (China, the United States and India) have not yet signed the treaty.
- Scientists and policymakers continue to address these challenges, with the U.S. and China having recently announced their intent to ratify the treaty. Also, the U.S. this week signaled its commitment to aggressively cutting the use and production of HFCs via a new, proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule.

‘Profound ignorance’: Microbes, a missing piece in the biodiversity puzzle
- Researchers are certain that human activity has resulted in a decline in plant and animal species. But a huge unknown remains: what impacts have human actions —ranging from climate change, to ocean acidification, deforestation and land use change, nitrogen pollution, and more — had on the Earth’s microbes?
- A new paper poses this significant question, and offers a troubling answer: Science suffers from “profound ignorance” about the ways in which microbial biodiversity is being influenced by rapid environmental changes now happening on our planet.
- Researchers are supremely challenged by the microbial biodiversity question, finding it difficult to even define what a microbe species is, and uncertain how to effectively identify, analyze and track the behaviors of microbes on Earth —microorganisms estimated to be more numerous than stars in the known universe.
- We do know microbes play crucial roles — helping grow our food, aiding in the sequestering and release of soil carbon, curing and causing disease, and more. One thing researchers do agree on: knowing how human activities are influencing the microbial world could be very important to the future of humanity and our planet.

Humanity’s dysfunctional relationship with Earth can still be fixed, report says
- A new report released in the leadup to the “Our Planet, Our Future” Nobel Prize Summit, provides an overview of the numerous challenges facing our planet due to human pressures, including the transgression of several planetary boundaries that help regulate and stabilize the Earth.
- However, it also considers ways in which global sustainability can be achieved through transformative change.
- The authors say that emerging technologies, social innovations, shifts in cultural repertoires, and different approaches to biosphere stewardship can all play a part in paving the way for a more sustainable future.
- The Nobel Prize Summit, which will be the first of its kind, will take place between April 26 and 28, and will discuss what can be learned from the global pandemic we’re currently experiencing, and the changes that can be made in this decade to help achieve global sustainability.

Podcast: Though humanity exceeds key ‘planetary boundaries’ there are many solutions
- On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with two recent contributors to our “Covering the Commons” special reporting project who wrote pieces that deal with the concept of Planetary Boundaries and how we can build a more sustainable future.
- Claire Asher tells us about her recent article detailing the nine Planetary Boundaries, the four environmental limits we’ve already exceeded, and the chances 2021 offers us to make transformative change.
- Andrew Willner discusses his recent article on how a “New Age of Sail” might soon transform the international shipping industry, the sixth-largest source of carbon emissions in the world.

The nine boundaries humanity must respect to keep the planet habitable
- All life on Earth, and human civilization, are sustained by vital biogeochemical systems, which are in delicate balance. However, our species — due largely to rapid population growth and explosive consumption — is destabilizing these Earth processes, endangering the stability of the “safe operating space for humanity.”
- Scientists note nine planetary boundaries beyond which we can’t push Earth Systems without putting our societies at risk: climate change, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, atmospheric aerosol pollution, freshwater use, biogeochemical flows of nitrogen and phosphorus, land-system change, and release of novel chemicals.
- Humanity is already existing outside the safe operating space for at least four of the nine boundaries: climate change, biodiversity, land-system change, and biogeochemical flows (nitrogen and phosphorus imbalance). The best way to prevent overshoot, researchers say, is to revamp our energy and food systems.
- In 2021, three meetings offer chances to avoid planetary boundary overshoot: the Convention on Biological Diversity meeting in Kunming, China; the U.N. Climate Summit (COP26) in Glasgow, U.K.; and the U.N. Food Systems Summit in Rome. Agreements with measurable, implementable, verifiable, timely and binding targets are vital, say advocates.

U.N. report lays out blueprint to end ‘suicidal war on nature’
- According to a new report from the United Nations Environmental Programme, the world faces three environmental “emergencies”: climate change, biodiversity loss, and air and water pollution.
- U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said we should view nature as “an ally,” not a foe, in the quest for sustainable human development.
- The report draws on assessments that quantify carbon emissions, species loss and pollutant flows to produce what the authors call concrete actions by governments, private companies and individuals that will help address these issues.

IPBES report details path to exit current ‘pandemic era’
- A new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) calls for a “transformative change” in addressing the causes of virus outbreaks to prevent future pandemics and their devastating consequences.
- Human-driven climate change, the wildlife trade, and conversion of natural ecosystems all increase the potential for the spillover of viruses that infect animals to people.
- The current COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cost the global economy trillions of dollars, yet preventive measures that include identification of the hundreds of thousands of unknown viruses that are thought to exist would cost only a fraction of that total.

The Amazon savanna? Rainforest teeters on the brink as climate heats up
- A new study has found that 40% of the Amazon is at risk of turning into savanna due to decreases in rainfall.
- The paper’s authors used satellite data, climate simulations and hydrological models to better understand the dynamics of rainfall across the tropics and their impacts on the stability of tropical forest ecosystems.
- The team’s simulations suggest that sustained high greenhouse gas emissions through the end of the century could shrink the minimum size of the Amazon by 66%.

Scientists launch ambitious conservation project to save the Amazon
- The Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA), an ambitious cooperative project to bring together the existing scientific research on the Amazon biome, has been launched with the support of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
- Modeled on the authoritative UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports, the first Amazon report is planned for release in April 2021; that report will include an extensive section on Amazon conservation solutions and policy suggestions backed up by research findings.
- The Science Panel for the Amazon consists of 150 experts — including climate, ecological, and social scientists; economists; indigenous leaders and political strategists — primarily from the Amazon countries
- According to Carlos Nobre, one of the leading scientists on the project, the SPA’s reports will aim not only to curb deforestation, but to propose an ongoing economically feasible program to conserve the forest while advancing human development goals for the region, working in tandem with, and in support of, ecological systems.

Climate conundrum: Could COVID-19 be linked to early Arctic ice melt?
- The COVID-19 pandemic has yielded unexpected environmental benefits, as wildlife explore urban streets and 2020 carbon emissions drop by the largest amount since World War II. But now researchers are wondering if a record hot and sunny start to the Arctic sea ice melt season could be linked to the Coronavirus lockdown.
- The possible cause: a reduction in atmospheric sulphate aerosol pollutants emitted by factories, ships and other sources. Sulphate aerosols increase the amount of clouds and brighten the atmosphere, reflecting more solar heat, thus masking global warming intensity — and making the Arctic cloudier and colder.
- Scientists are working to determine if, and by how much, sulphate aerosols have declined due to the industrial slowdown brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
- These figures could help them more precisely determine how aerosols have been inhibiting atmospheric heating around the world, especially in the Arctic. One study found that sulphate aerosol-seeded clouds could be masking about a third of all warming from greenhouse gases. However, the question is far from settled.

Game changer? Antarctic ice melt related to tropical weather shifts: Study
- Scientists predominantly believe that the tropics have the largest influence on global weather. Now, new research suggests that the melting of Antarctic sea ice could impact places as far away as the equator.
- In one of the first studies to look at the link between Antarctic sea ice and tropical weather patterns, researchers found that melting sea ice in Antarctica is likely warming ocean surface temperatures, delivering more rain, and potentially creating El Niño-like effects in the equatorial Pacific.
- Earlier this year, another study found that accelerating sea ice melt in the Arctic could be linked to the intensification of Central Pacific trade winds, the emergence of El Niño events, and the weakening of the North Pacific-Aleutian Low Circulation. So it may be that Arctic and Antarctic changes are synergistically impacting the tropics.
- It’s expected that ice loss at both poles will combine to warm the equatorial Pacific surface ocean by 0.5℃ (0.9℉) and increase rain by more than 0.3 millimeters (0.01 inches) of rain per day in the region.

Melting Arctic sea ice may be altering winds, weather at equator: study
- Scientists predominantly believe that the tropics have the largest influence on global weather, but new research suggests that climate change-driven Arctic heating and rapid melting of Arctic sea ice could impact places as far away as the equator.
- A new study, published today, found that accelerating ice melt in recent decades could be linked to Central Pacific trade wind intensification, the emergence of El Niño events, and a weakening of the North Pacific Aleutian Low Circulation — a semi-permanent low pressure system that drives post-tropical cyclones and generates strong storms.
- A 2019 study likewise revealed a close connection between winter Arctic ice concentration over the Greenland-Barents Seas and the El-Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the following winter. Another study out this month found that in prehistoric times, periods of major permafrost thawing were tied to an absence of Arctic summer sea ice.
- Other research has drawn connections between rising Arctic temperatures and changes in the jet stream — a fast-moving river of air that circles the northern polar region. A slowing of the jet stream, and its looping far to the south, is thought to be stalling temperate weather patterns, worsening droughts, storms and other extreme weather.

10 noteworthy books on conservation and the environment from 2019
- 2019 produced a number of notable books on the environment, ranging from the memoirs of researchers and journalists to how-to guides and prescient novels.
- Here’s a sample of what was published in the past year.
- They cut across a variety of environment-related themes, though climate change is a common point of meditation for many of the authors on the list.
- Inclusion on this list does not imply Mongabay’s endorsement of a book’s content; the views in the books are those of the authors and not necessarily Mongabay.

Fires and greenhouse gases fuel drying of the Amazon
- New research reveals that fires in the Amazon rainforest, used primarily to clear land for agriculture and ranching, are contributing to drier conditions caused by the emissions of climate-warming gases into the atmosphere.
- Fires release “black carbon,” which absorbs energy and causes temperatures to rise, as well as blocking the formation of clouds, creating drier conditions.
- The researchers caution that the rising demand for water combined with scarcer supplies could threaten the forest’s survival.

What’s at stake after Chile cancels its hosting of COP25?
- Massive protests triggered by social unrest over economic, justice and environmental issues have forced Chile to cancel its hosting of this year’s U.N. climate change summit in December.
- As the organizer of the 25th Conference of Parties, Chile was to have led the effort to bolster ambitions in the fight against climate change aimed at ensuring that global temperatures don’t increase by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
- On Oct. 31, a day after Chile’s president announced the cancellation, Spain offered to hold the conference on the scheduled dates, Dec. 2-13, in Madrid.

Research outlines ‘roadmap’ for land use to slow climate change
- A new study finds that the land sector could account for nearly one-third of the climate mitigation necessary to keep global temperatures below a 1.5-degree-Celsius (2.7-degree-Fahrenheit) rise over pre-industrial levels as referenced in the 2015 Paris climate accords.
- The research, drawing on other studies looking at the potential for various reforms, puts forth a roadmap for carbon neutrality in the land sector by 2040.
- In addition to measures such as forest protection and restoration, the paper’s authors also call for human behavior change and investment in carbon capture technologies.

Call for scientists to engage in environmental movements strikes chord
- Scientists have a “moral duty” to partake in environmental movements such as the Extinction Rebellion and the Global Climate Strike, a pair of ecologists argues.
- The engagement of scientists could spark a deeper interest in — and action to address — these issues, they write.
- The participation of scientists will also lend credibility to the urgency of such movements, the scientists say.

The Arctic and climate change (1979 – 2019): What the ice record tells us
- This story has been updated: 2019’s Arctic ice melt season started out with record heat and rapid ice loss. Though cooler weather prevailed in August, stalling the fall, by mid-September ice extent was dropping dramatically once again. Then this week, 2019 raced from fourth to second place — now behind only 2012, the record minimum.
- With 2019 providing no reversal over past years, scientists continue to document and view the Arctic Death Spiral with increasing alarm. This story reviews the 40-year satellite record, along with some of the recent findings as to how Arctic ice declines are impacting the global climate.
- Researchers are increasingly certain that melting ice and a warming Arctic are prime factors altering the northern jet stream, a river of air that circles the Arctic. A more erratic jet stream — with increased waviness and prone to stalling — is now thought to be driving the increasingly dire, extreme global weather seen in recent years.
- The 40-year satellite record of rapidly vanishing Arctic ice — as seen in a new NASA video embedded within this article — is one of the most visible indicators of the intensifying climate crisis, and a loud warning to world leaders meeting at the UN in New York next week, of the urgent need to drastically cut carbon emissions.

2019 in line for second lowest Arctic sea ice extent record
- 2019 has seen constant heat and melt conditioning of the Arctic sea ice, resulting in record, and near record, daily and monthly extent and volume stats over much of the melt season. The average volume for July, for example, fell to 8,800 cubic kilometers (2,111 cubic miles), a new record low.
- Whether 2019 will set a new all-time extent or volume record at the September sea ice minimum remains to be seen, with ice extent shrinking less quickly since mid-August, possibly putting this year in second place, though certainly among the top five record lowest minimums.
- The big news this year was the relentless heat in the Arctic, with record heat waves over Alaska, Scandinavia and Greenland, resulting in massive glacial runoff into the sea. Wildfires were rampant, with reindeer and fish including salmon possibly adversely impacted by very hot air and water temperatures.
- Whether or not 2019 sets a new sea ice extent or volume low record this September is incidental. What this year dramatically showed is that the climate crisis has anchored itself firmly in the Arctic, and shows no signs of easing over the long-haul.

Forests and forest communities critical to climate change solutions
- A new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights the importance of land use in addressing climate change.
- The restoration and protection of forests could be a critical component in strategies to mitigate climate change, say experts, but governments must halt deforestation and forest degradation to make way for farms and ranches.
- The IPCC report also acknowledges the role that indigenous communities could play.
- The forests under indigenous management often have lower deforestation and emit less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Venezuelan crisis: Caring for priceless botanical treasures in a failed state
- Venezuela’s Botanical Garden of Caracas was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. Its 70-hectare (173-acre) garden, National Herbarium and Henri Pittier Library are considered a national, and international treasure, and a vital repository of Latin American and global natural history utilized frequently by researchers.
- But a devastating drought that started two years ago, plus massive thefts of equipment (ranging from air conditioners to computers, plumbing and even electrical wiring), plus a failed electrical and public water supply, have all combined to threaten the Garden’s priceless collections.
- The annual botanical garden budget has been slashed to a mere $500 per year, which has forced staff to rely on innovative conservation solutions which include crowd funding to pay for rainwater cisterns, as well as volunteer programs in which participants contribute not only labor, but irrigation water they bring from home.
- As Venezuela’s government grows increasingly corrupt and incompetent, and as the national economy spirals out of control with hyperinflation topping 1.7 million percent in 2018, the botanical garden’s curators have no ready answers as to how to go about preserving the rare plants they tend on into the future.

Arctic in free fall: 2019 sea ice volume sinks to near record for June
- High temperatures and relentless sun caused Arctic sea ice volume and extent to plummet this June.
- The June 2019 monthly average for Arctic sea ice volume was 15,900 cubic kilometers (3,814 cubic miles), just short of the monthly average record set in 2017. But by the end of the month this year, a new daily record occurred as volume loss advanced rapidly, leaving just 12,047 cubic kilometers (2,890 cubic square miles) of sea ice on June 30 — that’s 106 cubic kilometers (25 cubic miles) lower than the previous record for this time of year.
- On July 10, Arctic sea ice extent for 2019 fell to 8.338 million square kilometers (3.219 million square miles), surpassing 2012’s record low of 8.359 million square kilometers (3.227 million square miles) for this time of year.
- While changing weather always dictates sea ice minimum extent and volume in September, scientists say that if conditions remain favorable for melt and ice export to the North Atlantic, then 2019 could beat all records. And because what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay there, that could mean trouble for the world’s weather.

Arctic sea ice extent just hit a record low for early June; worse may come
- The lowest Arctic sea ice extent in the 40-year satellite record for this time of year was set on June 10 with just 10.901 million square kilometers of ice remaining, dipping just below the previous record set in 2016 of 10.919 million square kilometers. This year’s record is likely to deepen at least for the coming days.
- Some scientists theorize that declining Arctic summer sea ice extent, which has fallen by roughly half since 1979, could be generating a cascade of harmful effects: as the Arctic melts, the heat differential between the Far North and temperate zone lessens, causing the jet stream (high altitude Northern Hemisphere winds), to falter.
- As the polar jet stream loses energy, it can fail to hug the Arctic Circle. Instead it starts to dip deeply into the temperate zone forming great waves which can block and stall weather patterns there, bringing long punishing bouts of rain and floods like those seen in the Midwest this spring, or extended heatwaves and drought.
- Arctic weather variations are too complex to predict in advance, but 2019 has made a strong start toward possibly beating 2012 for the lowest annual ice extent record. Records aside, the Arctic sea ice death spiral and the extreme weather it can trigger are adversely impacting agriculture, infrastructure, economics and human lives.

Deforestation diminishes access to clean water, study finds
- A recent study compared deforestation data and information on household access to clean water in Malawi.
- The scientists found that the country lost 14 percent of its forest between 2000 and 2010, which had the same effect on access to safe drinking water as a 9 percent decrease in rainfall.
- With higher rainfall variability expected in today’s changing climate, the authors suggest that a larger area of forest in countries like Malawi could be a buffer against the impacts of climate change.

Arctic in trouble: Sea ice melt falls to record lows for early April
- As of April 9, the Arctic had around 13.6 million square kilometers (5.3 million square miles) of ice cover, putting it firmly below any other year on record for the same time of year, and nearly two weeks ahead of previous early April records set in 2017 and 2018.
- The implications of such low sea ice extent for this time of year is concerning to scientists. However, predicting seasonal ice melt is very difficult, and changes in Arctic weather could cause the early melt to stall, or even reverse to some degree.
- Two new Arctic studies are also troubling. Researchers have found that between 1998 and 2017, seventeen percent less ice exited shallow continental shelf seas — nurseries for sea ice — to reach the Central Arctic Ocean and Fram Strait. This loss in ice being transported could have serious implications for Arctic sea ice melt and impact biodiversity as well.
- A second study found that rising Arctic air temperatures are driving change across the entire ecosystem. Hotter temperatures are impacting forest and tundra growing seasons, increasing wildfires, boosting rain and snowfall, and melting ice — shifting the region from its 20th century condition into an unprecedented state.

Malaysian state chief: Highway construction must not destroy forest
- The chief minister of Sabah, one of two Malaysian states on the island of Borneo, said that the Pan Borneo Highway project should expand existing roads where possible to minimize environmental impact.
- A coalition of local NGOs and scientific organizations applauded the announcement, saying that it could usher in a new era of collaboration between the government and civil society to look out for Sabah’s people and forests.
- These groups have raised concerns about the impacts on wildlife and communities of the proposed path of the highway, which will cover some 5,300 kilometers (3,300 miles) in the states of Sabah and Sarawak.

Tapirs could be key in helping degraded rainforests bounce back
- A new study has found that lowland tapirs spend more time in degraded forests than in pristine Amazon rainforest.
- They also defecate and deposit three times more seeds in these degraded areas.
- The results indicate that tapirs may help human-affected forests recover and grow back.

New maps show where humans are pushing species closer to extinction
- A new study maps out how disruptive human changes to the environment affect the individual ranges of more than 5,400 mammal, bird and amphibian species around the world.
- Almost a quarter of the species are threatened by human impacts in more than 90 percent of their range, and at least one human impact occurred in an average of 38 percent of the range of a given species.
- The study also identified “cool” spots, where concentrations of species aren’t negatively impacted by humans.
- The researchers say these “refugia” are good targets for conservation efforts.

Antarctica now shedding ice six times faster than in 1979
- Antarctica’s ice is melting about six times faster than it was in the late 1970s.
- Between 1979 and 2017, melting ice caused the global sea level to rise by around 14 millimeters (0.55 inches).
- The pace at which ice is melting is also increasing: Through 1990, the continent lost 40 billion metric tons (44 billion tons) per year; between 2009 and 2017, that figure jumped to 252 billion metric tons (278 tons) annually.

A Brazilian mourns what was lost in the National Museum fire
- Last Sunday, the Brazilian National Museum burned, with an estimated 90 percent of its priceless collection destroyed. In this story, co-published by ((O))eco and Mongabay, noted Brazilian science writer and journalist Peter Moon enumerates those losses and what they mean to Brazil and the world.
- The museum’s Paleontology collection housed practically all fossils of plants and animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, discovered in Brazil from 1800 into the 20th century. The fire consumed the accumulated fossil record of tens of millions of years of evolution in Brazil and South America.
- The Anthropology collection was also burned, a heartbreaking, irreplaceable loss of Brazil’s indigenous legacy. Gone is the entire Ethnology collection, which kept masks, weapons, utensils and other artifacts documenting the cultures of numerous Brazilian indigenous peoples, collected over two centuries.
- Saved were the collections of vertebrates, and the botany collection, all installed 30 years ago in an annex. While the scientific value of those collections preserved is immense, Peter Moon laments the loss of the vast natural history archive: “Scientific collections, once lost, are forever.”

Maps tease apart complex relationship between agriculture and deforestation in DRC
- A team from the University of Maryland’s GLAD laboratory has analyzed satellite images of the Democratic Republic of Congo to identify different elements of the “rural complex” — where many of the DRC’s subsistence farmers live.
- Their new maps and visualizations allow scientists and land-use planners to pinpoint areas where the cycle of shifting cultivation is contained, and where it is causing new deforestation.
- The team and many experts believe that enhanced understanding of the rural complex could help establish baselines that further inform multi-pronged approaches to forest conservation and development, such as REDD+.

So long, UNESCO! What does U.S. withdrawal mean for the environment?
- Since 2011, the U.S. has refused to pay its agreed to share to UNESCO as a Member Nation who has participated in and benefited from the organization’s scientific, environmental and sustainability programs. Now, President Trump has announced U.S. withdrawal from UNESCO, effective at the end of 2018.
- Experts say the pullout won’t in fact do any major damage to the organization, with most of the harm done to UNESCO when the U.S. went into arrears starting in 2011, with unpaid dues now totaling roughly $550 million. However, America’s failure to participate could hurt millions of Americans.
- UNESCO science initiatives are international and deal multilaterally with a variety of environmental issues ranging from basic earth science, climate change, freshwater, oceans, mining, and international interrelationships between indigenous, rural and urban communities.
- Among the most famous of UNESCO science programs are the Man and the Biosphere Programme and the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, now including 669 sites in 120 countries, including the United States.

Antarctica’s Larsen C calves giant 5,800 square kilometer iceberg
- On Wednesday, a 5,800 square kilometer (2,239 square mile) section of Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice shelf, an area nearly the size of the U.S. state of Delaware, broke free and fell into the Southern Ocean.
- Scientists had been watching a lengthening and widening rift in the ice and expecting the separation since last December, though complex ice dynamics prevented them from knowing the exact day of separation.
- Researchers, including Dan McGrath, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey, have been watching the event with great interest.
- The resulting gigantic iceberg will not raise sea level, since the ice was already floating. However, researchers are concerned that the loss may weaken the remaining ice, leading to the collapse of the entire Larsen C Ice Shelf.

From cryosphere to blogosphere, sea ice enthusiasts track Arctic melt
- Arctic sea ice extent has fallen precipitously since 2007, far surpassing all 18 computer models forecasting a drastically slower decline that wasn’t supposed to pick up speed until after 2050.
- As a result of these startling annual events, a dedicated group of bloggers is trying to parse out what is really happening in the Arctic. Led by Neven Curlin (known as Neven Acropolis on the web), the Arctic Sea Ice Blog and the Forum is citizen science at its best.
- Approximately 1,250 bloggers now gather annually online to work through all the conflicting seasonal Arctic evidence to make a forecast for the fate of the ice in September — will sea ice extent fall to a new low, impacting the world’s weather?

The March for Science makes its stand: “There is no Planet B”
- On Saturday, April 22nd tens of thousands of protestors defied bone chilling rain to march on Washington D.C., while fellow marchers protested at “March for Science” events across America and around the world.
- The D.C. march, attended by prominent scientists and supporters of science, was held in opposition to the anti-science policies of Congress and the Trump administration — which has proposed draconian cuts at the Environmental Protection Agency, and a virtual shutdown of U.S. climate research.
- Michael Mann, the director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University, summed up the purpose of the march: “to insure that policy is informed by an objective assessment of scientific evidence.“
- Caroline Weinberg, co-founder of the U.S. March for Science, noted that: “Science extends our lives, protects our planet, puts food on our table [and] contributes to the economy.… [P]olicymakers threaten our present and future by ignoring scientific evidence.”

Booming populations, rising economies, threatened biodiversity: the tropics will never be the same

For those living either north or south of the tropics, images of this green ring around the Earth’s equator often include verdant rainforests, exotic animals, and unchanging weather; but they may also be of entrenched poverty, unstable governments, and appalling environmental destruction. A massive new report, The State of the Tropics, however, finds that the […]
Amazon’s flood/drought cycle becoming more extreme, less predictable

The Amazon River’s hydrological cycle has become more extreme over the past two decades with increasing seasonal precipitation across much of the basin despite drier conditions in the southern parts of Earth’s largest rainforest, finds a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. The research, led by Emanuel Gloor of the University of Leeds, analyzed […]
Mount Everest glaciers have shrunk 13% in 50 years

Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percent and the snow-line has shifted 180 meters (590 feet) higher during the past 50 years, according to a study that will be presented this week at a conference organized by the American Geophysical Union. The research, led by Sudeep Thakuri of the University of […]
Last time CO2 hit 400 ppm, temperature was 8C warmer, seas 40m higher than today

Lake sediments recorded the climate of the Arctic during the last period when CO2 levels were as high as today The future of a globally warmed world has been revealed in a remote meteorite crater in Siberia, where lake sediments recorded the strikingly balmy climate of the Arctic during the last period when greenhouse gas […]
Eruption yields bad news for iron fertilization-based geoengineering schemes
Geoengineering schemes that aim to slow global warming by seeding oceans with iron to boost carbon dioxide-absorbing phytoplankton may not lead to long-term sequestration of the important greenhouse gas, finds a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The research looked at the impact of the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which released […]
NASA says 2012 was the 9th warmest year since 1880, blames global warming

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies map representing global temperature anomalies averaged from 2008 through 2012. Visualization credit: NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio 2012 was the ninth warmest year since annual record-keeping began in 1880 say NASA scientists who cited rising greenhouse gas emissions as the chief culprit. “2012 was the ninth warmest of any […]
Soot is second biggest man-made contributor to global warming

Soot is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming, according to a comprehensive new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. The research effectively doubles the estimate of soot’s direct warming influence on climate. Soot is produced from the burning of diesel fuel, coal, charcoal, and wood. “Accounting for all of the […]
Paradigm shift needed to avert global environmental collapse, according to author of new book The Blueprint: Averting Global Collapse

Scientists and experts are increasingly concerned that we are entering an age of ecological collapse with untold impacts for future generations. In Daniel Rirdan’s new book, The Blueprint, he outlines how to avoid this fate. Author, global strategist, and speaker Daniel Rirdan set out to create a plan addressing the future of our planet. His […]
Forests worldwide near tipping-point from drought

Rainforest in Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Forests worldwide are at “equally high risk” to die-off from drought conditions, warns a new study published this week in the journal Nature. The study, conducted by an international team of scientists, assessed the specific physiological effects of drought on 226 tree species at 81 sites […]
Geology has split the Amazon into two distinct forests

Aerial photo of an Amazon rainforest tributary in Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The common view of the Amazon is that it is one massive, unbroken forest. This impression is given by maps which tend to mark the Amazon by a large glob of green or even by its single name which doesn’t account […]
The Global Carbon Cycle: a book review
The Global Carbon Cycle, by Dr. David Archer, is an excellent primer on the global carbon cycle. An easily readable format, this lightweight book is an excellent companion to those who need a quick on-the-go reference or for those who need a compendium for their office or lab. With chapters on the basic carbon cycle, […]
Google Earth enhances oceans’ layer

The Lamont Seamounts are an example of the view from the seafloor synthesized by a team of oceanographers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The seamounts are due west of El Salvador, at about 9.55 degrees N, 104 degrees W. How do you celebrate World Oceans Day? Well, if you’re Google you make the oceans of the […]
Climate change and deforestation pose risk to Amazon rainforest

Deforestation and climate change will likely decimate much of the Amazon rainforest, says a new study by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the UK’s Met Office Hadley Centre. Climate change and widespread deforestation is expected to cause warmer and drier conditions overall, reducing the resistance of the rainforest ecosystem to natural and […]
Earthquake shifted peninsula in Japan 17 feet

A Japanese home is seen adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Ships and aircraft from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group are searching for survivors in the coastal waters near Sendai, Japan. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Dylan McCord/Released) The massive March 11 Tōhoku earthquake shifted Japan’s Oshika Peninsula 5.3 meters (17 […]
Did Haiti’s deforestation, hurricane trigger deadly earthquake?
Erosion caused by hurricanes and large-scale deforestation may have contributed to last year’s devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people in Haiti, according to a geologist at the University of Miami. Analyzing stresses in Earth’s crust in the fault zone of last year’s January 12 quake, Shimon Wdowinski and colleagues suggest that redistribution of […]
2010 the second hottest year on record through May

The first five months of 2010 have been the second warmest on record, according to data released by the University of Alabama Huntsville. Scientists at the university’s Earth System Science Center report that the global composite temperature for January 1 through May 31 was 0.59 degrees Celsius (1.06 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20-year average, trailing […]
List of the strongest and deadliest earthquakes

Maule Earthquake On February 27, 2010 a magnitude 8.8 earthquake struck Maule, Chile causing widespread damage and casualties. The quake ranks as one of the ten strongest earthquakes ever recorded and was the most powerful earthquake worldwide since the 2004 Sumatran quake that triggered the massive Indian Ocean tsunami. The Maule was the strongest earthquake […]
Climate change melting southern Antarctic Peninsula ice shelves

The US Geological Survey (USGS) has found that every ice front in the southern part of the Antarctic Peninsula—the coldest part—has been retreating overall for the past sixty years with the greatest changes visible since 1990. “This research is part of a larger ongoing USGS project that is for the first time studying the entire […]
Desertification threatens 38 percent of the world

Over one third of the world’s land surface (38 percent) is threatened with desertification, according to a new study published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. The study found that eight of fifteen eco-regions are threatened by desertification, including coastal areas, the prairies, the Mediterranean region, the savannah, the temperate steppes, the temperate […]
Underwater rocks could be used for massive carbon storage on America’s East Coast
Considering it is unlikely that global carbon emissions will start dropping anytime soon, researchers are beginning to look at other methods to combat climate change. One of these is to hook polluting power plants up to massive carbon sinks where instead of the carbon going into the atmosphere it would be stored away in rocks. […]
Catastrophic sea level rise could occur with only two degrees Celsius warming

Allowing the climate to rise by just two degrees Celsius—the target most industrialized nations are currently discussing in Copenhagen—may still lead to a catastrophic sea level rise of six to nine meters, according to a new study in Nature. While this rise in sea levels would take hundreds of years to fully occur, inaction this […]
Goodbye, snows of Kilimanjaro

The most recent survey among the ice fields atop Mount Kilimanjaro found that the ice atop Africa’s most famous mountain could be gone in twenty years—and maybe even sooner. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science the study was conducted by a team of researchers who first measured the glaciers in 2000. […]
Satellite lasers show melting of Greenland, Antarctic worse than expected

Researchers examining 43 million satellite measurements of Antarctica’s thinning ice sheets and 7 million of Greenland’s, show that the ice is melting faster than expected. Published in Nature the research is the most comprehensive picture to date of the melting glaciers, allowing scientists to better predict how sea levels may rise. Researchers say that the […]
Photos of 10 strongest storms of the 2000s

Air pollution in China reduces rainfall

Record global ocean temperature in July
The world’s ocean surface temperature was the warmest on record for July, breaking the previous record set in 1998, reports NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. At 62.56°F (16.99°C), ocean temperatures were 1.06°F (0.59°C) above the 20th century average. The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for July 2009 (61.43°F – 16.37°C) ranked as […]
Large Trees Declining in Yosemite
A recent study by the U.S Geological Survey (USGS) indicates a substantial decline in the number of large-diameter trees in Yellowstone National Park. Between the 1930s and the 1990s there was a 24% decline in large diameter trees. Less large trees may cause significant changes in the habitats for many species including spotted owls, mosses, […]
Imbalance in Earth’s Biogeochemical Cycles
Scientists are currently meeting at the 94th annual Ecological Society of America (ESA) symposium in New Mexico to discuss, among other topics, the massive upset of the natural biogeochemical cycles of the Earth System. Biogeochemical cycling refers to the complex series of process by which chemical elements and compounds move between different sources and sinks. […]
Is El Niño back?

A return of El Niño could boost average global temperatures: the two warmest years on record — 1998 and 2005 — have occurred during ENSO events. Ocean temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific have shifted into El Niño conditions, increasing the likelihood of anomalously dry conditions in Southeast Asia and other unusual weather patterns, […]
Global ocean temperatures at warmest level since 1880

Global ocean temperatures rose to the warmest on record, according to data released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The combined average global land and ocean surface temperature for June was second-warmest since global recording-keeping began in 1880. NOAA reports that both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres experienced record sea surface […]
CO2 currently at highest level in 2.1 million years

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are higher than any point in the last 2.1 million years, report researchers writing in the journal Science. Analyzing the shells of single-celled plankton buried under the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa, Bärbel Hönisch, a geochemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and her colleagues dtermined that peak CO2 […]
Global warming could turn forests from sink to source of carbon emissions

Rising temperatures could reverse the role forests play in mitigating climate change, turning them into net sources of greenhouse gases, reports a new assessment by the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO). The report, titled “Adaptation of Forests and People to Climate Change – A Global Assessment” and authored by 35 forestry scientists, examined […]
How satellites are used in conservation
- In October 2008 scientists with the Royal Botanical Garden at Kew discovered a host of previously unknown species in a remote highland forest in Mozambique.
- The find was no accident: three years earlier, conservationist Julian Bayliss identified the site—Mount Mabu—using Google Earth, a tool that’s rapidly becoming a critical part of conservation efforts around the world.
- As the discovery in Mozambique suggests, remote sensing is being used for a bewildering array of applications, from monitoring sea ice to detecting deforestation to tracking wildlife.

Carbon dioxide monitoring satellite crashes immediately after launch

Burning rainforests, melting tundra could accelerate global warming well beyond current projections

Gravitational effects may boost sea level rise by 25% along U.S. coast

Global warming to strengthen Arctic storms

Glaciers decline in ice mass for 18th straight year

Iron fertilization of oceans may be ineffective in fighting global warming

Iron fertilization of oceans less effective in sequestering carbon than previously estimated
Biochar and reforestation may offer better global cooling potential than ocean fertilization

Many global warming impacts may be irreversible in next 1000 years

New global temperature record expected in the next 1-2 years

2008 was the coolest year since 2000 but still ranks in the top 10 warmest since 1880
Antarctica shows net warming over past 50 years

97% of climatologists say global warming is occurring and caused by humans

Observed sea level rise, ice melt far outpaces projections

Climate change will transform the chemical-makeup of the ocean

Climate change will transform the chemical-makeup of the ocean Climate change will transform the chemical-makeup of the ocean Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com December 11, 2008
Water vapor will amplify global warming

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Solar cells, flat-panel screens are source of potent greenhouse gas

Solar cells, flat-panel screens are source of potent greenhouse gas Solar cells, flat-panel screens are source of potent greenhouse gas mongabay.com October 23, 2008 Solar cells, flat-panel screens are source of greenhouse gas 17,000 times more potent than CO2
Arctic sea ice falls to second lowest on record

Arctic sea ice falls to second lowest on record Arctic sea ice falls to second lowest on record mongabay.com September 16, 2008 Arctic sea ice retreated to the second lowest level on record but remains about 9 percent above the low set last September, reports the NASA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center […]
Earth already committed to 2.4-degree C rise from climate change

Earth already committed to 2.4-dgree C rise from climate change Earth already committed to 2.4-dgree C rise from climate change Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com September 15, 2008 Air pollution masking full impact of global warming As of 2005 the Earth was already committed to rise of global mean temperatures by 2.4°C (4.3°F), concludes a new study […]
Study confirms strong link between CO2 and climate over 70,000 years

Study confirms strong link between CO2 and climate over 70,000 years Study confirms strong link between CO2 and climate over 70,000 years mongabay.com September 11, 2008 Analysis of ice core samples from Greenland show a strong correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and abrupt changes in climate, reports a paper published in Science. Comparing records […]
NASA: Sea ice melt opens the Northwest and Northeast Passage

NASA: Melting sea ice opens the Northwest and Northeast Passage NASA: Sea ice melt opens the Northwest and Northeast Passage mongabay.com September 9, 2008 An image released by NASA shows that Arctic sea ice has retreated to the point where both the Northwest Passage around North America and the Northern Sea Route around Russia are […]
Sea level rise likely limited to 2-6 feet by 2100

Sea level rise likely limited to 2-6 feet by 2100 Forecast sea level rise may be overestimated by some models mongabay.com September 4, 2008 Global sea level rise is unlikely to exceed 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) by the end of century argues a new study published in the journal Science. The researchers, led by […]
Powerful hurricanes may be getting stronger due to warmer seas

Powerful hurricanes may be getting stronger due to warmer seas Powerful hurricanes may be getting stronger due to warmer seas mongabay.com September 3, 2008 Warming climate is causing the strongest hurricanes to strengthen and more moderate storms to stay the same, claims a new study published in Nature. However the data on which research is […]
Canada’s ice shelves lost 23% of their area this summer

Canada’s ice shelves lost 23% of their area this summer Canada’s ice shelves lost 23% of their area this summer mongabay.com September 3, 2008 A 19-square-mile (50 sq km) chuck of ice shelf broke off from Canada’s Ellesmere Island in the northern Arctic, reports the Associated Press. The Manhattan-sized ice shelf is now adrift in […]
Scientist forecast 4 Atlantic hurricanes in September

Scientists forecast 4 Atlantic hurricanes in September Scientists forecast 4 Atlantic hurricanes in September mongabay.com September 2, 2008 Prominent hurricane researchers are forecasting five tropical storms in the Atlantic for September, including four hurricanes. Two of these are expected to be “major” — category 3 or greater. Retired Colorado State University climatologist William Gray and […]
Melting permafrost will be major driver of global warming

Melting permafrost will be major driver of global warming Melting permafrost will be major driver of global warming mongabay.com September 1, 2008 The thawing of permafrost in northern latitudes will become a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study that more than doubles previous estimates of the amount of carbon stored […]
Past decade is warmest in at least 1300 years

Past decade is warmest in at least 1,300 years Past decade is warmest in at least 1,300 years Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com September 1, 2008 A reconstruction of surface temperatures over the past two thousand years provides further evidence that the northern hemisphere is now warmer than at any time in at least 1300 years. […]
Could hurricane Gustav be stopped or diverted?

Could hurricane Gustav be stopped or diverted? Could hurricane Gustav be stopped or diverted? mongabay.com August 31, 2008 With Gustav threatening to become the second major hurricane to hit New Orleans in three years, the question emerges, is there something that could be done to redirect or at least diminish storms from major population areas? […]
Sea ice extent falls to second lowest on record

Sea ice extent falls to second lowest on record Sea ice extent falls to second lowest on record mongabay.com August 27, 2008 Arctic sea ice extent presently stands at it second-lowest level on record and could set a new low in coming weeks, reports the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). With several weeks […]
Smoke from Amazon fires reduces local rainfall

Smoke from Amazon fires reduces local rainfall Smoke from Amazon fires reduces local rainfall mongabay.com August 14, 2008 Smoke released by fires set to clear the Amazon rainforest inhibit the formation of clouds, thereby reducing rainfall, report researchers writing in the journal Science. The study provides clues on how aerosols from human activity influence cloud […]
Global warming increases “extreme” rain storms

Global warming increases “extreme” rain storms Global warming increases “extreme” rain storms mongabay.com August 7, 2008 Global warming is increasing the incidence of heavy rainfall at a rate greater than predicted by current climate models have predicted, reports a new study published in the journal Science. The findings suggest that storm damage from precipitation could […]
NASA study shows global warming will diminish rainfall in East Africa, worsening hunger

NASA study shows global warming will diminish rainfall in East Africa, worsening hunger NASA study shows global warming will diminish rainfall in East Africa, worsening hunger mongabay.com August 6, 2008 A new NASA-backed study has found a link between a warming Indian Ocean and reduced rainfall in eastern and southern Africa. The results suggest that […]
Deepest-ever lake dive searches for new energy sources

Deepest-ever lake dive searches for new energy sources Russians search for new energy source at bottom of Lake Baikal mongabay.com July 29, 2008 Russian scientists have reached the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake, to take samples of gas hydrate deposits. Russia hopes the methane-rich deposits could someday be exploited as an energy […]
Shell Oil funds “open source” geoengineering project to fight global warming

Shell Oil underwrites “open source” geoengineering project to fight global warming Shell Oil funds “open source” geoengineering project to fight global warming mongabay.com July 21, 2008 Shell Oil is funding a project that seeks to test the potential of adding lime to seawater as a cost-effective way to fight global warming by sequestering large amounts […]
U.S. should merge NOAA, USGS to form national Environmental Agency

U.S. should merge NOAA, USGS to form national Environmental Agency U.S. should merge NOAA, USGS to form national Environmental Agency mongabay.com July 3, 2008 The United States should establish a new agency “to meet the unprecedented environmental and economic challenges facing the nation” argue a group of former senior federal officials in an editorial published […]
Geology, climate links make Guiana Shield region particularly sensitive to change

Geology, climate links make Guiana Shield region particularly sensitive to change Geology, climate links make Guiana Shield region particularly sensitive to change mongabay.com June 14, 2008 Soil and climate patterns in the Guiana Shield make the region particularly sensitive to environmental change, said a scientist speaking at a biology conference in Paramaribo, Suriname. David Hammond, […]
Unlocking the potential of forests to limit climate change

Unlocking the potential of forests to limit climate change Unlocking the potential of forests to limit climate change mongabay.com June 12, 2008 Understanding the complex interactions between forests and climate may “unlock the potential of forests to limit global climate change,” argues a researcher writing in the journal Science. In a review to be published […]
Carbon dioxide levels at highest level in 800,000 years

Carbon dioxide levels at highest level in 800,000 years Carbon dioxide levels at highest level in 800,000 years mongabay.com May 29, 2008 Greenhouse gases are at the highest levels in the past 800,000 years according to a study published in the journal Nature. Analyzing carbon dioxide and methane trapped in tiny air bubbles up to […]
Global warming will produce fewer hurricanes

Global warming will not increase the number of Atlantic hurricanes Global warming will produce fewer hurricanes mongabay.com May 18, 2008 Global warming will produce fewer Atlantic hurricanes, according to a study published today in the journal Nature Geoscience by a U.S. government meteorologist. Devising a regional climate model of the Atlantic basin that reproduces the […]
NASA study links changes in Earth’s systems to global warming

NASA study links changes in Earth’s systems to global warming NASA study links changes in Earth’s systems to global warming mongabay.com May 14, 2008 Human-induced climate change has impacted a wide range of Earth’s natural systems, including permafrost, lakes, and oceans, reports a new study led by scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Science […]
Global warming to worsen ocean dead zones, hurt fisheries
Global warming to worsen ocean dead zones, hurt fisheries Global warming to worsen ocean dead zones, hurt fisheries mongabay.com May 1, 2008 Warming oceans will worsen oxygen-deficient or hypoxic dead zones, affecting ecosystems and fisheries, warn researchers writing in the journal Science. Constructing a 50-year time series of oxygen concentration in tropical oceans, Lothar Stramma […]
No longer a fan of Earth Day

Thoughts following Earth Day 2008 As It Stands in May 2008 After April 22nd of this year, I am no longer a fan of Earth Day. It has become a strange pseudo-holiday that allows individuals, governments, corporations, and the media to focus a minuscule spotlight on our environmental crises, and then breathe a sigh of […]
Earth’s minerals kept CO2 levels in balance prior to humans

CO2 emissions are presently 100 times the natural rate Earth’s minerals kept CO2 levels in balance prior to humans mongabay.com April 28, 2008 CO2 emissions are presently 100 times the natural rate The natural feedback system that has kept Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide levels finely-balanced for millions of years has been overwhelmed by fossil fuel […]
Ozone-hole recovery may spur Antarctic warming
Ozone-hole recovery may spur Antarctic warming Ozone-hole recovery may spur Antarctic warming AGU April 24, 2008 A full recovery of the stratospheric ozone hole could strongly modify climate change in the Southern Hemisphere and possibly amplify warming of the Antarctic continent, a new study finds. “If the successful control of ozone-depleting substances allows for a […]
Geoengineering solution to global warming could destroy the ozone layer

Geoengineering solution to global warming could destroy the ozone layer Geoengineering solution to global warming could destroy the ozone layer mongabay.com April 24, 2008 A proposed plan to fight global warming by injecting sulfate particles into Earth’s upper atmosphere could damage the ozone layer over the Arctic and Antarctic, report researchers writing in the journal […]
Sunshine worsens Arctic sea ice melt

Sunshine worsens Arctic sea ice melt Sunshine worsens Arctic sea ice melt mongabay.com April 21, 2008 Arctic sea ice is increasingly vulnerable to sunny days, concludes new research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. “The relative importance of solar radiation in the summer is changing,” said Jennifer Kay, lead author of the study and […]
Black carbon pollution has big impact on climate

Black carbon pollution has big impact on climate Black carbon pollution has big impact on climate University of California – San Diego March 24, 2008 Black carbon, a form of particulate air pollution most often produced from biomass burning, cooking with solid fuels and diesel exhaust, has a warming effect in the atmosphere three to […]
How Old Is the Grand Canyon?

How Old Is the Grand Canyon? How Old Is the Grand Canyon? mongabay.com March 6, 2008 The Grand Canyon began to open at least 17 million years ago — older than previously believed — report researchers writing in the journal Science. Using uranium-lead isotope dating to determine the age of carbonate deposits that form in […]
Cretaceous sea levels were 550 feet higher than today

Cretaceous sea levels were 550 feet higher than today Cretaceous sea levels were 550 feet higher than today mongabay.com March 6, 2008 Sea levels were 550 feet (170 m) higher in the late Cretaceous period, about 80 million years ago, than today, shows a new reconstruction of historic ocean basins published in the journal Science. […]
Tsunami alert lifted after strong earthquake in Indonesia
Tsunami alert lifted after strong earthquake in Indonesia Tsunami alert lifted after strong earthquake in Indonesia mongabay.com February 25, 2008 The tsunami warning following a 7.3 earthquake off the island in Sumatra, Indonesia has been lifted according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The U.S. Geological Survey (U.S.G.S.) said the quake was centered 300 km […]
Amazon rainfall linked to Atlantic Ocean temperature
Amazon rainfall linked to Atlantic Ocean temperature Amazon rainfall linked to Atlantic Ocean temperature mongabay.com February 25, 2008 Climate models increasingly forecast a dire future for the Amazon rainforest. These projections are partly based on recent research that has linked drought in the Amazon to sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic. As the tropical […]
Large-scale Amazon deforestation or drying would have dire global consequences

Large-scale Amazon deforestation or drying would have dire global consequences Large-scale Amazon deforestation or drying would have dire global consequences Jeremy Hance, mongabay.com February 21, 2008 A new study shows that large-scale degradation of the Amazon, either through drying or continued deforestation, would have global consequence, including worsening climate change, causing regional vegetation shifts, and […]
Planktos kills iron fertilization project due to environmental opposition

Planktos kills iron fertilization project due to environmental opposition Planktos kills iron fertilization project due to environmental opposition mongabay.com February 19, 2008 Planktos, a California-based firm that planned a controversial iron-fertilization scheme in an attempt to qualify carbon offsets, announced that it failed to find sufficient funding for its efforts and would postpone its project […]
Why are oceans at risk from global warming?

Why are oceans at risk from global warming? Why are oceans at risk from global warming? mongabay.com February 17, 2008 Climate change is putting the world’s oceans at risk by increasing the temperature and acidity of seawater, and altering atmospheric and oceanic circulation, warned a panel of scientists this week at the American Association for […]
How will global warming affect marine food chains?

How will global warming affect marine food chains? How will global warming affect marine food chains? mongabay.com February 17, 2008 Rising temperatures and acidity of the world’s oceans due to human emissions of carbon dioxide is putting marine food webs at risk warned a researcher speaking at a press briefing at the annual meeting of […]
Lake Mead could be dry up by 2021

Lake Mead could be dry by 2021 Lake Mead could dry up by 2021 Scripps Institution of Oceanography February 12, 2008 There is a 50 percent chance Lake Mead, a key source of water for millions of people in the southwestern U.S., will be dry by 2021 if climate changes as expected and future water […]
Natural ocean thermostat may protect some coral reefs

Natural ocean thermostat may protect some coral reefs Natural ocean thermostat may protect some coral reefs National Center for Atmospheric Research February 7, 2008 Natural processes may prevent oceans from warming beyond a certain point, helping protect some coral reefs from the impacts of climate change, new research finds. The study provides evidence that an […]
NASA: Rain falls more often during the week than weekends

Rain falls more often during the week than weekends, finds NASA NASA: Rain falls more often during the week than weekends mongabay.com February 4, 2008 Storms in the southeastern United States generate more rainfall during the work week than on weekends, report NASA scientists. The pattern can be attributed to lower atmospheric pollution from humans […]
Largest body of geologists issues warning on global warming

Largest body of geologists issues warning on global warming Largest body of geologists issues warning on global warming AGU January 24, 2008 A statement newly released by the world’s largest scientific society of Earth and space scientists–the American Geophysical Union, or AGU–updates the organization’s position on climate change: the evidence for it, potential consequences from […]
Climate change already affecting water supplies in the Western U.S.

Climate change already affecting water supplies in the Western U.S. Climate change already affecting water supplies in the Western U.S. mongabay.com December 11, 2007 Climate change is already impacting water supplies in the western United States and is likely to reducer carbon sequestration by regional ecosystems, reports research presented at the fall meeting of the […]
Greenland ice sheet melting hits record in 2007

Greenland ice sheet melting hits new record in 2007 Greenland ice sheet melting hits new record in 2007 University of Colorado December 11, 2007 The 2007 melt extent on the Greenland ice sheet broke the 2005 summer melt record by 10 percent, making it the largest ever recorded there since satellite measurements began in 1979, […]
Melting of Greenland ice sheet could alter warming trend

Melting of Greenland ice sheet could alter warming trend Melting of Greenland ice sheet could alter global warming trend mongabay.com December 6, 2007 Public sector has growing role in China’s forest management according to a new paper published in the journal Science A massive release from freshwater from the glacial Lake Agassiz 8,200 years ago […]
Photo: Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupts

Photo: Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupts Photo: Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupts mongabay.com December 3, 2007 Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupted several times on Saturday, December 1, ejecting steam and ash, according to Mexico’s National Disaster Prevention Center (CENAPRED). The first eruption occurred at 6:20 a.m. local time (1220 GMT) and a total of six eruptions took place […]
Tropics are expanding

Tropics are expanding Tropics are expanding NOAA December 3, 2007 EDITOR’S SUMMARY: Climate change has caused a widening of Earth’s tropical belt, according to a new study published in a new scientific journal, Nature Geoscience. “Remarkably, the tropics appear to have already expanded — during only the last few decades of the 20th century — […]
Global warming to boost severe thunderstorms in NYC, Atlanta

Global warming to boost severe thunderstorms in NYC, Atlanta Global warming to boost severe thunderstorms in NYC, Atlanta mongabay.com December 3, 2007 Global warming could lead to weather conditions that spawn severe thunderstorms in the United States, according to research appearing in the early edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. […]
Hurricane Katrina released large amounts of carbon by destroying 320m trees

Hurricane Katrina released large amounts of carbon by destroying 320 million trees Hurricane Katrina released large amounts of carbon by destroying 320m trees mongabay.com November 15, 2007 The destruction of 320 million large trees by Hurricane Katrina reduced the capacity of forests in the Southern United States to soak up carbon, reports a new study […]
NASA: Arctic Ocean circulation reversal not due to global warming

NASA: Arctic Ocean circulation reversal not due to global warming NASA: Arctic Ocean circulation reversal not due to global warming NASA November 13, 2007 SUMMARY: A study published in Geophysical Research Letters by NASA scientists shows that weakening of the Arctic Oscillation results from a cyclical process rather than climate change. The results suggest not […]
Weathering technology could mitigate global warming

Weathering technology could mitigate global warming Weathering technology could mitigate global warming Harvard University November 8, 2007 Researchers invent technology to accelerate Earth’s own solution to greenhouse gas accumulation Researchers at Harvard University and Pennsylvania State University have invented a technology, inspired by nature, to reduce the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by […]
Climate sensitivity to rising CO2 levels still uncertain

>Climate sensitivity to rising CO2 levels still uncertain Climate sensitivity to rising CO2 levels still uncertain mongabay.com October 25, 2007 Climate sensitivity to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases is still largely uncertain and researchers will likely not be able to further refine their estimates on future climate scenarios, say two University of Washington scientists writing […]
Kyoto Protocol is fatally flawed; replacement needed

Kyoto Protocol is fatally flawed; replacement needed Kyoto Protocol is fatally flawed; replacement needed mongabay.com October 25, 2007 The Kyoto Protocol is fatally flawed and show be replaced by a more effective framework, argue researchers writing in this week’s issue of Nature. Gwyn Prins of the London School of Economics and Steve Rayner of Oxford […]
Arctic sea ice extent hits record low in September

Arctic sea ice extent hits record low in September Arctic sea ice extent hits record low in September mongabay.com October 16, 2007 Arctic sea ice reached a record low in September 2007, well below the previous record set in 2005 and substantially below the long-term average, according to an image released by NASA. The announcement, […]
Northwest Passage now open for business

Pictures of the ice-free Northwest Passage Northwest Passage now open for business mongabay.com September 15, 2007 Melting sea ice has opened the Northwest Passage in the Arctic to navigation, reports the European Space Agency. The clearing allows direct access between the North Pacific and North Atlantic and could eventually be a cheaper shipping route that […]
Arctic sea ice thickness only half of 2001 level

Arctic sea ice thickness only half of 2001 level Arctic sea ice thickness only half of 2001 level mongabay.com September 14, 2007 Arctic sea is thinning and disappearing, report German researchers. An Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research expedition to the North Polar Sea found that large areas of the Arctic sea-ice are only one […]
8.2 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia, minor tsunami reported

8.4 magnitude earthquake triggers tsunami in Indonesia 8.4 magnitude earthquake triggers tsunami in Indonesia mongabay.com September 12, 2007 An 8.4 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia Wednesday at 6:10 pm local time. The epicenter was located 130 km (80 miles) southwest of Bengkulu, Sumatra and 620 km (385 miles) west-northwest of Jakarta at a depth of 30 […]
7.8 earthquake strikes Indonesia hours after 8.4 quake

7.8 earthquake strikes Indonesia hours after 8.4 quake 7.8 earthquake strikes Indonesia hours after 8.4 quake mongabay.com September 13, 2007 A second powerful earthquake struck Indonesia, just 12 hours after it was rocked by the strongest earthquake of 2007. Both earthquakes were centered off the coast of Bengkulu on the island of Sumatra. The first […]
Arctic sea ice melts to all-time record low

Arctic sea ice melts to all-time record low Arctic sea ice melts to all-time record low mongabay.com September 12, 2007 Sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean is presently 20 percent below its all time lowest extent and may decline further before winter, said scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder […]
La Nina may be coming

La Niña may be on its way Pacific La Nina Building? La Niña may be on its way Joshua S Hill special to mongabay.com September 7, 2007 Scientists with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center are predicting that another La Niña event is on its way, according to the latest monthly El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion. […]
Felix Death Toll Washes Up on Coastline

Felix Death Toll Washes Up on Coastline Felix Death Toll Washes Up on Coastline Joshua S Hill special to mongabay.com September 7, 2007 Nicaraguan and Honduran officials have announced that upwards of 100 people are confirmed dead, and another 120 still unaccounted for after Hurricane Felix made landfall earlier this week. Touching down in the […]
Two-thirds of polar bears at risk of extinction by 2050

Two-thirds of polar bears at risk of extinction by 2050 Two-thirds of polar bears at risk of extinction by 2050 mongabay.com September 7, 2007 Two-thirds the world’s polar bears could be threatened with extinction by 2050 due to melting sea ice resulting from global warming, said U.S. government scientists Friday. U.S. Geological Survey biologists said […]
Experts forecast large decline in Arctic sea ice

Experts forecast large decline in Arctic sea ice Experts forecast large decline in Arctic sea ice mongabay.com September 7, 2007 Summer sea ice off Alaska’s north coast will likely shrink to nearly half the area it covered in the 1980s by 2050, report scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The loss of ice […]
Global warming to cause more severe thunderstorms, reports NASA

Global warming to cause more severe thunderstorms, reports NASA Global warming to cause more severe thunderstorms, reports NASA mongabay.com August 31, 2007 Global warming will increase the incidence of severe storms and tornados, report NASA scientists. Tony Del Genio, Mao-Sung Yao, and Jeff Jonas at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies have developed the first […]
Future Ice Age Put on the Back Burner

Future Ice Age Put on the Back Burner Future Ice Age Put on the Back Burner Joshua S Hill, special to mongabay.com August 30, 2007 Dr Toby Tyrrell of the University of Southampton’s School of Ocean and Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton has published a report in the latest edition of New […]
Global warming causes increase in tropical rainfall

Global warming causes increase in tropical rainfall Global warming causes increase in tropical rainfall mongabay.com August 27, 2007 Climate change appears to be resulting in higher levels of rainfall in the tropics, reports NASA. Using a 27-year-long global record of rainfall from satellite and ground-based instruments — the longest and most complete data record available […]
4.25 billion year old diamond discovered

4.25 billion year old diamond discovered 4.25 billion year old diamond discovered mongabay.com August 22, 2007 Scientists have discovered 4.25 billion year old diamonds in Australia. The diamonds, found trapped in zircon crystals in Western Australia, are the oldest identified fragments of the Earth’s crust. Their existence suggests that Earth may have cooled faster than […]
Could a hurricane hit California?

San Diego has been hit by hurricanes in the past and could be affected by such storms in the future, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While a hurricane in San Diego would likely produce significantly less damage than 2005’s Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, it could still exact a […]
Earthquakes can break speed limit

Earthquakes can break speed limit Earthquakes can break speed limit mongabay.com August 16, 2007 Earthquakes can move faster than previously thought with rupture rates well exceeding the conventional 3 kilometeres per second, reports Oxford University professor Shamita Das writing in the journal Science. The finding suggests that earthquakes in the world’s largest quake zones may […]
Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low in 2007

Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low in 2007 Arctic sea ice shrinks to record low in 2007 mongabay.com August 16, 2007 Arctic sea ice has shrunk to a record low according the Japan Aerospace Exploration agency. Sea ice at the North Pole was 5.31 million square kilometers (2.1 million square miles) on Aug. 15, […]
Antarctic Bottom Water has warmed since 1992
Antarctic Bottom Water has warmed since 1992 Antarctic Bottom Water has warmed since 1992 mongabay.com August 14, 2007 Deep ocean waters near Antarctica have warmed significantly since 1992, though variable temperatures may it difficult to determine whether it is a trend, reports a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Measuring the temperature of water […]
Geoengineering cure for global warming could cause problems

Geoengineering cure for global warming could cause problems Proposed cure for global warming could cause problems mongabay.com August 14, 2007 Proposed geoengineering schemes to reduce global warming may do more harm than good, warns a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Based on observations of the global temperature effects from aerosols released during volcanic […]
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami waves hit Florida, Maine
2004 Indian Ocean tsunami waves hit Florida, Maine 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami waves hit Florida, Maine mongabay.com August 14, 2007 Waves from the devastating December 2004 tsunami were recorded along the Atlantic coast of North America, reports a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters. Analyzing more than 100 tide gauge records from Florida to […]
Controversy over flawed NASA climate data changes little

Controversy over flawed NASA climate data changes little Controversy over flawed NASA climate data changes little mongabay.com editorial August 10, 2007 [corrected Aug 12] NASA corrected an error on its U.S. air temperature data after a blogger, Steve McIntyre of Climate Audit, discovered a discrepancy for the years 2000-2006. The revised figures show that 1934, […]
European heat waves double in length since 1880

European heat waves double in length since 1880 European heat waves double in length since 1880 American Geophysical Union August 11, 2007 The most accurate measures of European daily temperatures ever indicate that the length of heat waves on the continent has doubled and the frequency of extremely hot days has nearly tripled in the […]
U.S. government weather agency cuts hurricane outlook

U.S. government weather agency cuts hurricane outlook U.S. government weather agency cuts hurricane outlook mongabay.com August 6, 2007 The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday reduced its forecast for the number of tropical storms and hurricanes expected during the 2007 Atlantic season. NOAA said it now expected between 13 and 16 named storms, […]
Global warming will slow, then accelerate reports ground-breaking model

Global warming will slow, then accelerate reports ground-breaking model Global warming will slow, then accelerate reports ground-breaking model mongabay.com August 9, 2007 Global warming will slow during the next few years but then accelerate with at least half of the years after 2009 warmer than 1998, the warmest year on record, reports a new study […]
7.4 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia
7.4 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia 7.4 magnitude earthquake hits Indonesia mongabay.com August 8, 2007 A 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia’s West Java on Thursday, causing widespread panic according to Reuters. There are no immediate reports of damage or casualties. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake struck just after midnight. The epicenter was 110 […]
Sunspot activity linked to rainfall in Africa
Sunspot activity linked to rainfall in Africa Sunspot activity linked to rainfall in Africa American Geophysical Union August 6, 2007 A new study reveals correlations between plentiful sunspots and periods of heavy rain in East Africa. Intense rainfall in the region often leads to flooding and disease outbreaks. The analysis by a team of U.S. […]
2007 hurricane season downgraded, questions over climate role remain

2007 hurricane season downgraded, questions over climate role remain 2007 hurricane season downgraded, questions over climate role remain mongabay.com August 6, 2007 Hurricane researcher William Gray from Colorado State University cut his 2007 hurricane season outlook, saying there will likely be fewer storms than previously projected due to weak La Niña conditions and more atmospheric […]
Jet stream drives summer temperature, plankton growth in Oregon
Jet stream drives summer temperature, plankton growth in Oregon Jet stream drives summer temperature, plankton growth in Oregon mongabay.com August 6, 2007 Short-term shifts in the jet stream off the Oregon coast drive changes in ocean temperature and plankton growth during summer months, reports a new study published in the early online edition of the […]
2007 hurricane season to be weaker than expected says forecaster

2007 hurricane season to be weaker than expected says forecaster 2007 hurricane season to be weaker than expected says forecaster mongabay.com July 24, 2007 Forecaster downgrades 2007 hurricane season projections WSI Corp, a private forecaster, cut its 2007 hurricane season outlook, saying there will likely be fewer storms than previously projected, reports Reuters. WSI now […]
Human-induced climate change causes shifts in rainfall

Human-induced climate change has caused changes in rainfall patterns around the world over the past century, claims a new study published in Nature. Using fourteen climate models to compare observed changes in land precipitation during the twentieth century, an international team by researchers from Environment Canada show that humans have had “a detectable influence on […]
Melting glaciers and ice cap will drive sea level rise

Melting glaciers and ice cap will drive sea level rise Melting glaciers and ice cap will drive sea level rise mongabay.com July 19, 2007 Melting glaciers and ice caps will contribute more to global sea level rise this century than the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, reports a study published in the […]
Hurricanes can help coral reefs

Hurricanes can help coral reefs Hurricanes can help coral reefs mongabay.com July 17, 2007 A close call with a hurricane can be beneficial to a stressed coral reef, reports a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The new research shows that hurricanes, which can form when surface temperatures reach about […]
Experts: sun not linked to current global warming

Study: sun not linked to current global warming Experts: sun not linked to current global warming mongabay.com July 11, 2007 Changes in the sun’s output is not linked to recently observed global warming, reports a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. The research shows that for the last twenty years, […]
9 Atlantic hurricanes expected in 2007

9 Atlantic hurricanes expected in 2007 9 Atlantic hurricanes expected in 2007 mongabay.com May 31, 2007 Hurricane forecaster William M. Gray of the Colorado State University updated his hurricane predictions for the 2007 storm season, expecting 17 named storms and nine hurricanes in the Atlantic basin. The forecasts were unchanged from his last bulletin. This […]
Monsoon pattern linked to climate change

Monsoon pattern linked to climate change Monsoon pattern linked to climate change mongabay.com May 31, 2007 Researchers have constructed a 155,000 record of monsoon history. The findings could help climatologists better understand the impact of climate change on monsoon patterns, which play a critical role in agriculture for hundreds of millions of people. Analyzing fossil […]
Hurricanes may help cool climate

Hurricanes may help cool climate Hurricanes may help cool climate mongabay.com June 1, 2007 Tropical cyclones and hurricanes play an important role in the ocean circulation patterns that transport heat and maintain the climate of North America and Europe, report researchers from Purdue University. “It was thought that hurricanes occurred over too short of a […]
Hurricanes occur during cool periods as well

Hurricanes occur during cool periods as well Global warming may not worsen hurricanes Hurricanes occur during cool periods as well mongabay.com May 28, 2007 A team of scientists have found evidence of intense hurricane activity during both cool and warm periods reports The New York Times. The findings suggest that factors other than sea temperature […]
Climate shift in East Africa due to geology, not global climate change

Climate shift in East Africa due to geology, not global climate change Climate shift in East Africa due to geology, not global climate change Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com May 11, 2007 A past shift towards a drier climate in East Africa may be due to geological changes like the emergence of the Rift Valley, not […]
Ocean ‘burps’ may have ended last ice ages

Ocean “burps” may have ended last ice ages Ocean “burps” may have ended last ice ages University of Colorado at Boulder May 10, 2007 A University of Colorado at Boulder-led research team tracing the origin of a large carbon dioxide increase in Earth’s atmosphere at the end of the last ice age has detected two […]
Global carbon cycle is key to understanding climate change

Global carbon cycle is key to understanding climate change Global carbon cycle is key to understanding climate change mongabay.com May 9, 2007 Despite its importance to mankind, the global carbon cycle is poorly understood. With concerns over climate change mounting, it becomes all the more imperative to understand how carbon is absorbed by the Earth’s […]
North Atlantic circulation may be more sensitive to Greenland melting than thought

North Atlantic circulation may be more sensitive to Greenland melting than thought North Atlantic circulation may be more sensitive to Greenland melting than thought Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona May 8, 2007 According to two international-research studies on the last ice age, studies with the participation of Dr Rainer Zahn, research professor in the ICREA at […]
Volcanoes linked to massive global warming event

Volcanoes linked to massive global warming 55M years ago Volcanoes linked to massive global warming event Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com April 26, 2007 Scientists have linked a sharp spike in ocean temperatures 55 million years ago to massive volcanic eruptions that created the North Atlantic Ocean when Greenland and northwestern Europe separated. Writing in the […]
Venus, Mars reveal climate change examples

Venus, Mars reveal climate change examples Venus, Mars reveal climate change examples European Space Agency April 27, 2007 EDITOR’S NOTE: We can look to neighboring planets to see examples of the impact of extreme climate change, say researchers at the European Space Agency. Earth sits between two worlds that have been devastated by climate catastrophes. […]
Sudden sea level rise could put hundreds of millions at risk

Sudden sea level rise could put hundreds of millions at risk Sudden sea level rise could put hundreds of millions at risk mongabay.com April 19, 2007 Pakarang Cape, Thailand before and after the December 26, 2004 tsunami. Image courtesy of USGS. A sudden surge in sea levels could put more than a billion people at […]
Soybeans may worsen drought in the Amazon rainforest

Soybeans may worsen drought in the Amazon rainforest Soybeans may worsen drought in the Amazon rainforest Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com April 18, 2007 The rapid expansion of soybean cultivation in the Amazon may be having a larger impact on climate than previously believed, according to research published last week in Geophysical Research Letters. Using experimental […]
Wind shear could reduce future hurricane activity

Wind shear could reduce future hurricane activity Wind shear could reduce future hurricane activity Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com April 17, 2007 The debate over the impact of global warming on hurricane intensity rages on with a new study published April 18 in Geophysical Research Letters. The research, conducted by Gabriel A. Vecchi of the National […]
Tsunami-producing quake caused mass coral death in Indonesia

Tsunami-producing quake caused mass coral death in Indonesia Tsunami-producing quake caused mass coral death in Indonesia WCS April 11, 2007 Researchers say 300 kilometers of sea floor heaved more than a meter upwards, exposing — and killing — corals in unprecedented numbers Scientists have reported what is thought to be one of the world’s greatest […]
Non-CO2 gases also cause global warming

Non-CO2 gases also cause global warming Non-CO2 gases also cause global warming mongabay.com March 29, 2007 While most of the focus in developing a policy to fight global warming has been on carbon dioxide, other gases also contribute to climate change. The effect of these gases is still poorly understood and should be the subject […]
Some corals may survive acidification caused by rising CO2 levels

Some corals may survive acidification caused by rising CO2 Some corals may survive acidification caused by rising CO2 levels mongabay.com March 29, 2007 Several studies have shown that increased atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are acidifying the world’s oceans. This is significant for coral reefs because acidification strips carbonate ions from seawater, making it more difficult […]
CO2 levels tightly linked with climate change over past 420 million years

CO2 levels tightly linked with climate change over past 420 million years CO2 levels tightly linked with climate change over past 420 million years mongabay.com March 28, 2007 New research shows that sensitivity of Earth’s climate to changes in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) have been relatively consistence for at least 420 million years, […]
Lightning may be used to predict volcanic activity
Lightning may be used to predict volcanic activity Lightning may be used to predict volcanic activity University of Alaska Fairbanks March 28, 2007 Although it’s been more than a year since Mount Augustine had its memorable eruption, work continues for University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers. The work of Alaska Volcano Observatory employees from UAF’s Geophysical […]
Past winter (2006-2007) was warmest on record

Past winter was warmest on record Past winter was warmest on record Rhett Butler, mongabay.com March 16, 2007 This winter was the warmest on record according to the U.S. government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA also reported that precipitation was above average in much of the United States. NOAA said that winter temperature […]
Melting Antarctic glaciers could trigger sea level rise

Melting Antarctic glaciers could trigger sea level rise Melting Antarctic glaciers could trigger sea level rise mongabay.com March 15, 2007 Perspective view of the Helheim Glacier at different times over the past 3 years. Between 2004 and 2005, the glacier front had retreated 3 miles inland and its ice discharge was accelerating. However, since then […]
Earth may be near global warming tipping point

Earth may be near global warming tipping point Earth may be near global warming tipping point mongabay.com March 15, 2007 Earth could be reaching a tipping point that could trigger rapid climate change according to scientists studying declining sea ice in the Arctic. While little is known about the exact cause of Arctic sea ice […]
Asian pollution contributes to California warming
Asian pollution contributes to California warming Asian pollution contributes to California warming mongabay.com March 14, 2007 Pollution from Asia may cause warmer spring temperatures on the West Coast of the United States according to a new study led by scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at the University of California San Diego. The researchers […]
Amazon rainforest does have rainy and dry seasons

Amazon rainforest does have rainy and dry seasons Amazon rainforest does have rainy and dry seasons mongabay.com March 12, 2007 A new study using NASA satellite images found evidence of seasonality in the Amazon rainforest. The results, published in the March 20 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the […]
Biodiversity extinction crisis looms says renowned biologist

An Interview with Dr. Peter Raven, director of the Missouri Botanical Garden Jump to Interview What do tigers in India, chameleons in Madagascar, redwood trees in California, and tube worms living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents have in common? They are all components of Earth’s biological diversity, or “biodiversity” for short. Biodiversity is the sum of […]
Air pollution can reduce rainfall

Air pollution can reduce rainfall Air pollution can reduce rainfall mongabay.com March 8, 2007 Air pollution can reduce rainfall in mountainous areas according to research published in Friday’s issue of the journal Science. 50 years of measurements at Mt. Hua near Xi’an, in central China, show that precipitation levels can be decreased by 30 to […]
Carbon dioxide levels threaten oceans regardless of global warming

Carbon dioxide levels threaten oceans regardless of global warming Carbon dioxide levels threaten oceans regardless of global warming Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com March 8, 2007 Rising levels of carbon dioxide will have wide-ranging impacts on the world’s oceans regardless of climate change, reports a study published in the March 9, 2007, issue of the journal […]
Asian pollution causes stronger thunderstorms, may worsen global warming

Asian pollution causes stronger thunderstorms, may worsen global warming Pollution in Asia causes stronger thunderstorms, may worsen global warming mongabay.com March 5, 2007 Growing levels of pollution in Asia are altering the chemistry of the atmosphere and causing a change in Pacific storm patterns according to researchers writing in the online early edition of PNAS. […]
Ozone ban has been more effective in fighting global warming than Kyoto Protocol

Ozone ban has been effective in fighting global warming Ozone ban has been more effective in fighting global warming than Kyoto Protocol mongabay.com March 5, 2007 The 1987 Montreal Protocol, which restricted the use of ozone-depleting substances, has helped slow the rate of global warming in addition to protecting the ozone layer, report scientists writing […]
Global warming is causing stronger Atlantic hurricanes finds new study

Global warming is causing stronger Atlantic hurricanes finds new evidence Global warming is causing stronger Atlantic hurricanes finds new study Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com March 1, 2007 Global warming is fueling stronger hurricanes according to a new Geophysical Research Letters study that revises that database of historic hurricanes. Previously the hurricane database was considered inconsistent […]
Climate change is a “threat to society” says largest scientific body

Climate change is a “threat to society” says largest scientific body Climate change is a “threat to society” says largest scientific body mongabay.com February 18, 2007 The world’s largest scientific society today voiced concern over global warming, calling it a “threat to society.” It was the first consensus statement of the board of the American […]
Past climate change may have fried rainforests

Past climate change may have fried rainforests Past climate change may have fried rainforests From icehouse to hothouse: Melting ice and rising CO2 caused climate shift University of Michigan February 18, 2007 Three hundred million years ago, Earth’s climate shifted dramatically from icehouse to hothouse, with major environmental consequences. That shift was the result of […]
Global warming could cause Canadian forests to absorb more carbon

Global warming could cause Canadian forests to absorb more carbon Global warming could cause Canadian forests to absorb more carbon mongabay.com February 19, 2007 Researchers say they have found links between seasonal temperature changes and the uptake and loss of carbon dioxide. Speaking last week at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting […]
Largest tropical glacier retreating at 200 feet per year in Peru

Largest tropical glacier retreating at 200 feet per year in Peru Largest tropical glacier retreating at 200 feet per year in Peru mongabay.com February 19, 2007 Peru’s largest glacier is melting rapidly and could complete disappear by 2012 says a glaciologist from Ohio State University. Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for […]
Global research network needed to understand changes in the Arctic

Global research network needed to understand changes in the Arctic Global research network needed to understand changes in the Arctic mongabay.com February 17, 2007 A worldwide research network is needed to better understand how climate change is affecting the Arctic, says an Ohio State University geologist. Saturday Berry Lyons, director of the Byrd Polar Research […]
Global warming may worsen droughts in U.S. Southwest, Middle East

Global warming may worsen droughts in U.S. Southwest, Middle East Global warming may worsen droughts in U.S. Southwest, Middle East mongabay.com February 14, 2007 A new NASA study says that global warming could increase droughts in southwest United States, Mexico, parts of North Africa, the Middle East, and Australia — areas already stressed by periodic […]
Global cooling may have spawned complex life on Earth

Global cooling may have spawned complex life on Earth Global cooling may have spawned complex life on Earth mongabay.com February 13, 2007 Icy conditions some 600-800 million years ago may have set the stage for the evolution of more complex lifeforms, according to research published in the February 14, 2007 edition of PLoS ONE. The […]
2006 was fifth warmest year on record

2006 was fifth warmest year on record 2006 was fifth warmest year on record mongabay.com February 13, 2007 Last week NASA scientists announced that 2006 was the fifth-warmest year in the past century, after 2005, 1998, 2002, and 2003 (in descending order by warmest year). According to Dr. James Hansen, Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute […]
Caves may reveal if global warming is causing stronger hurricanes

Caves may reveal whether global warming is causing stronger hurricanes. Caves may reveal if global warming is causing stronger hurricanes mongabay.com January 29, 2007 (modified from a Jan. 26 article) Scientists have shown that cave formations could help settle the contentious debate on whether hurricanes are strengthening in intensity due to global warming. Measuring oxygen […]
Is global warming causing stronger hurricanes? Caves may hold the answer

Is global warming causing stronger hurricanes? Caves may hold the answer. Is global warming causing stronger hurricanes? Caves may hold the answer. mongabay.com January 26, 2007 Scientists have shown that cave formations could help settle the contentious debate on whether hurricanes are strengthening in intensity due to global warming. Measuring oxygen isotope variation in stalagmites […]
Antarctic ozone depletion exceeds that of Arctic

Antarctic ozone depletion exceeds that of Arctic Antarctic ozone depletion exceeds that of Arctic mongabay.com December 25, 2006 A new study comparing ozone depletion between the poles shows that the Antarctic is experiencing the most severe depletion of the ozone layer. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Online Early Edition […]
Evidence of massive simultaneous supervolcano eruption in NZ

Evidence of massive simultaneous supervolcano eruption in NZ Evidence of massive simultaneous supervolcano eruption in NZ mongabay.com December 24, 2006 Eruptions of supervolcanoes capable of causing planetary climate disruptions and mass extinctions can be worse than previously thought according researchers from Auckland University in New Zealand. Darren Gravley, a geologist at Auckland University, and colleagues […]
ESA seeks to better understand impact of oceans on climate

ESA seeks to better understand impact of oceans on climate ESA seeks to better understand impact of oceans on climate mongabay.com December 11, 2006 The European Space Agency (ESA) said it is backing two projects that aim to better understand the impact of oceans on climate. The first, called the Medspiration project, seeks to chart […]
Small insects tell us Earth is warming

Small insects tell us Earth is warming Small insects tell us Earth is warming mongabay.com December 11, 2006 Small insects known as midges are telling scientists that Earth is warming, according to research to be presented December 15 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. David Porinchu, the study’s lead […]
Global warming could save NASA millions in fuel costs

Global warming could save NASA millions in fuel costs Global warming could save NASA millions in fuel costs mongabay.com December 11, 2006 Carbon dioxide emissions produced from the burning of fossil fuels will produce a 3 percent reduction in the density of Earth’s outermost atmosphere by 2017, according scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric […]
Melting glaciers, not ice sheets, primarily responsible for rising sea levels

Melting glaciers, not ice sheets, primarily responsible for rising sea levels Melting glaciers, not ice sheets, primarily responsible for rising sea levels mongabay.com December 11, 2006 A new study says that melting glaciers are contributing more to the global rise in sea levels than melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Of the estimated 650 […]
Global warming could make Arctic sea ice-free by 2040

Global warming could make Arctic sea ice-free by 2040 Global warming could make Arctic sea ice-free by 2040 mongabay.com December 11, 2006 Global warming is causing an abrupt retreat in Arctic sea ice that could leave the Arctic Ocean with ice-free summers by 2040 according to research published in the December 12 issue of Geophysical […]
Nuclear war could cause global cooling (i.e. block global warming)

Nuclear war could cause global cooling (i.e. block global warming) Nuclear war could cause global cooling (i.e. block global warming) Rhett Butler, mongabay.com December 11, 2006 Nuclear war would disrupt global climate for at least a decade according to new research presented Dec. 11 at the annual meeting of American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. […]
Earthquake prediction, however brief, could save lives

Earthquake prediction, however brief, could save lives Earthquake prediction, however brief, could save lives Powerful earthquakes can be detected within two seconds, helping to mitigate their effects in distant cities mongabay.com December 5, 2006 Could a few seconds warning of an impending strong earthquake be of practical use in mitigating its effects? Scientists, engineers, and […]
Another large tsunami could hit Indonesia soon

Another large tsunami could hit Indonesia soon Another large tsunami could hit Indonesia soon mongabay.com December 4, 2006 Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) say that the Indonesian island of Sumatra could be due for another large tsunami like the one that devastated the island on December […]
Clues about origin of life found in meteorite

Clues about origin of life found in meteorite Clues about origin of life found in meteorite mongabay.com November 30, 2006 NASA scientists studying a rare type of meteorite have found organic materials that were formed in the early days of the solar system according to a paper published in the December 1 issue of the […]
To avoid extinction humans must colonize space says Hawking

To avoid extinction humans must colonize space says Hawking To avoid extinction humans must colonize space says Hawking mongabay.com November 30, 2006 As he was awarded the most prestigious prize in science, British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said that humans need to colonize outer space in order avoid extinction. Hawking, who was presented Thursday with […]

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