Recent headlines about severe drought in the U.S. and Australia can give the impression that these extreme events have become more common. But according to a study in Nature, the amount of drought worldwide hasn’t changed much within the past six decades.
Scientists have predicted that climate change will cause more frequent and more […] Read More »
By Andrew Zolli
For decades, people who concern themselves with the world’s “wicked problems”—interconnected issues like environmental degradation, poverty, food security, and climate change—have marched together under the banner of “sustainability”: the idea that with the right mix of incentives, technology substitutions, and social change, humanity might finally achieve a lasting equilibrium with our […] Read More »
Every summer, hummingbirds feast on the nectar of glacier lilies at breeding grounds in Colorado. But as the climate warms, lilies and other flowers are blooming earlier, scientists have found. Within several decades, the overlap between the flowering time and the hummingbirds’ nesting period could shrink enough to endanger the birds’ reproduction.
The researchers […] Read More »
Scientists have identified a 1,000-kilometer stretch along the U.S. Atlantic coast where rates of sea-level rise are increasing much faster than in the rest of the world.
Contrary to what you might assume, global warming “does not force sea-level rise (SLR) at the same rate everywhere,” the authors write. Instead, the rate of sea-level […] Read More »
By Hal Herring
In the Wax Lake Delta near Morgan City, Louisiana. The land here is low and verdant, threaded with the wide arterial channels of the mighty Atchafalaya River. The river water is the color of strong coffee cut with cream, the current carrying the heartland itself—suspended mud from Montana and Minnesota, fine […] Read More »
Rough WindsBy James Lawrence Powell
Geologist James Lawrence Powell looks at precisely what is known about the link between climate change and extreme weather. Powell suggests that scientists’ message in the media—that no single weather event can be attributed to climate change—is a misguided approach. Rather than pinpoint the cause of individual disasters, he […] Read More »
The Arctic is heating up faster than lower-latitude regions, and the biggest source of local pollution is airplanes. In a study published in Climatic Change, researchers propose a drastic solution: rerouting cross-polar flights around the Arctic Circle. This strategy could delay melting of Arctic sea ice, which is expected to vanish within the next […] Read More »
By Carl Safina
How would a biblical literalist count seven days and seven nights here? One day in Svalbard lasts four months, and the sun never sets; one night lasts four months, and the sun never rises. The other four months consist mainly of either long days with short nights or long nights with […] Read More »
Eyesores. Fire traps. Rat manors. Abandoned homes aren’t popular with the neighbors. But their weedy, unkempt lawns may be helping suck carbon out of the atmosphere, a new study suggests.
“Residential abandonment is on the rise in many urban areas,” Christopher M. Gough and Hunter L. Elliott of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond write […] Read More »
Could wandering albatrosses and British plants be gone with the wind? Two recent studies take a close look at how climate shifts are influencing wind patterns—and how those changes could in turn affect organisms that depend on a fresh breeze.
In the Southern Ocean, wandering albatrosses have so far appeared to benefit from climate-driven […] Read More »
For many and perhaps most people, climate change is an abstract concept—something that will happen in the future. Weather, on the other hand, is very real. It’s here and now, in your face, and sometimes in your basement. But lately, the long term and the short term seem to be colliding. No longer is […] Read More »
By Mark Hertsgaard
Stories that sound too good to be true usually are; an honest journalist learns that pretty early in his or her career. But every so often there is an exception. The exception I’m about to describe is from Africa, which makes it doubly welcome. For Africa is not only the continent […] Read More »
Seemed like a cool idea: paint the world’s roofs white to reflect more sunlight, and it could help cool down both cities and the planet. A new study, however, finds it’s a lot more complicated—even as the research dispels climate-change deniers’ claims that urban “heat islands” are a major cause of apparent temperature increases. […] Read More »
Mary Edna Fraser uses the ancient technique of batik to illustrate landscapes around the world that are most vulnerable to climate change. Her recent work adorns Global Climate Change: A Primer by Orrin and Keith Pilkey.
Batik is a wax-resistant fabric-dyeing technique. Fraser pencils her designs onto silk, then applies multiple layers of wax […] Read More »
When researchers noticed two unusual plants growing along the shores of Whalers Bay on Antarctica’s Deception Island in January, 2009, the discovery posed a perplexing problem: Were they newly-noticed natives to be cataloged and celebrated – or potentially damaging invaders to be quickly exterminated? Now, a new study is offering a roadmap for distinguishing Antarctica’s […] Read More »
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