Much of Australia has just come out the other side of restrictive water use regulations in an attempt to halt the dramatic decrease in water-storage levels. Levels have recovered, but a new study shows that Australia should start banking its water underground now in preparation for future dry times. “There is enormous national potential to […]
Australia Must Bank Its Water Now Read More 👉
An Australian scientist told the Australian Academy of Science’s Earth System Outlook Conference in Canberra that Australia could be a world leader in developing marine reserves that are able to keep pace with climate change and absorb the impact of warming oceans, storms, and flood events. “The challenge we face is that a marine reserve or
Australian Marine Reserves Must Adapt to Climate Change Read More 👉
The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation has released it’s provisional annual statement on the state of the global climate and it shows that, if things keep going as they have for the first 10 months of the year, 2012 will join the ranks of warmest years on record that have been filled by the years 2001
The Arctic Lost US-Sized Sea Ice in 2012 Read More 👉
The spectacular Columbia Glacier in Alaska is expected to halt its retreat in 2020 when it reaches a new stable position approximately 15 miles upstream from the stable position it had held prior the 1980s. Currently 425 square miles, the multi-branched Columbia Glacier will halt at a new stable position in 2020, and measuring in
Columbia Glacier Expected to Stop Retreating in 2020 Read More 👉
The United Kingdom is one of those places that have been studying their weather and rainfall patterns for ages, with huge numbers of rain gauges scattered all across the country. Using this wealth of information, researchers from Germany have found that as the global climate warms the time of year when the UK will receive
Global Warming to Shift Heavy Rainfall Times in the UK Read More 👉
Normally when you see the word ‘discovery’ in a headline you can be assured of a new point of interest in the next atlas you buy. Not this time, however, after a group of scientists ‘undiscovered’ an island in the south Pacific which has been recorded on maps for over a decade. The non-existent island
Undiscovering Pacific Island Read More 👉
After covering environmental research and science for the past 7 years I’ve come to believe that there needs to be more focus shone on a holistic response to environmental crises. In the wake of the flooding caused by Superstorm Sandy, Governor Andrew Cuomo and other officials called for the building of storm surge barriers to protect
Storm Surge Defense Alternatives in Wake of Hurricane Sandy Read More 👉
Predicting when an ecosystem is likely to collapse has benefits for foretelling crises in agriculture, fisheries and even social systems, and scientists from the University of Southampton in the UK are pioneering a new technique that may be able to do just that. The research applies a mathematical model to a real world situation, in
Predicting Environmental Collapse Read More 👉
In late 2010 residents of Australia would be able to tell you very clearly the impact a strong La Nina can have on the coast: rain. Lots and lots of rain! However, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Colorado Boulder will be able to tell you that the same La Nina had
La Nina Only Temporarily Halted Sea Level Rise Read More 👉
The volcano that was featured as Mount Doom for the Lord of the Rings trilogy is causing the New Zealand Department of Conservation some angst, with department measurements indicating the increasing likelihood that Ruapehu will erupt. Subsequently, the Department of Conservation issued a warning to climbers and trampers in the region, recommending that they do not
Mount Doom Likely to Erupt Soon Read More 👉
In an attempt to determine the density of our planet’s core, scientists have attempted to simulate Earth’s formation, and found that Earth’s core contains the largest reservoir of carbon on the planet. Or should we say in the planet … I’m sorry. I’ll shut up now.
Scientists Simulate Creation of Earth to Determine Core Density Read More 👉
The small Indian town of Leh was struck by flash flooding on the night of August 5, 2010, which left 193 dead, hundreds missing, thousands homeless, and caused severe damage throughout the town. During the 24 hour period of the flash flooding the rainfall in the area measured 8 inches, when the average for the whole
Identifying Roots of 2010 Indian Floods and Preparing for the Future Read More 👉
Understanding the specifics of how global climate change will affect any one specific region is tricky, but two researchers have tackled the issue of what will happen to Greenland over the next century, and the news is not encouraging. “We put Greenland under a microscope to see what accounts for melting and for ice mass
How Warming Temperatures Will Change the Face of Greenland Read More 👉
A new analysis of 90 years worth of observational data has shown that summer climates across the globe are changing, in most cases warming, yielding valuable location-by-location insights rather than vague global averages which hold the potential to be more relevant in understanding changes to flora and fauna in any particular region. “It is the
Summer Climates Are Mostly Warming due to Climate Change Read More 👉
A new research paper has shed light on an interesting aspect of the climate change battle, voicing concerns that the impact of climate change on cultural life is not being sufficiently accounted for by scientists and policy makers as they attempt to inform the public about the dangers climate change may bring. The research was
Scientists discover just why it is Antarctic sea-ice cover has been increasing while the Arctic sea-ice cover has been so dramatically decreasing.
Why Antarctic Sea Ice Cover is Increasing Under Climate Change Read More 👉
For what may be the first time in history, a climate disaster has hit a populated area with enough advance warning that the Internet was able to quickly kick into gear and prepare: everything from Twitter-hashtags to Google Docs peppered the Internet in preparation of the big storm.
Introducing Hurricane Sandy to the Internet Read More 👉
Monday night saw Hurricane Sandy make landfall in New Jersey after days of heavy rains and slow progress up the Mid-Atlantic. While not as horrific as past hurricanes — owing to the intricate workings of what makes a storm a hurricane and what makes a hurricane a storm — Hurricane Sandy has left millions reeling
The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy Read More 👉
Since we last reported on Hurricane Sandy last week the storm has only intensified and the US East Coast is preparing for massive flooding and a massive damage bill. Saturday NASA reported on Saturday that Sandy was merging with a cold front and “creating a monster storm with a massive reach.” They believe that
Hurricane Sandy: Frankenstorm Intensifies And Heads Landward Read More 👉
NASA satellites have been monitoring Hurricane Sandy for a a few days now, and as time goes on the storm just seems to get bigger, as seen in the image below. Early on October 25, NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Hurricane Sandy, allowing the AIRS instrument on board to capture an infrared image of
Hurricane Sandy Gaining Power As It Moves Landward Read More 👉
Never let it be said that planet Earth made life easy for its scientists. A new NASA study has shown that, while the Arctic has been losing ice each summer, Antarctica has been gaining ice. “There’s been an overall increase in the sea ice cover in the Antarctic, which is the opposite of what
Antarctica and Arctic Polar Opposites Read More 👉
Socioeconimic, political and geographic factors play a much more substantial role in human conflict across the East of Africa than climate does, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. “The effects of climate variability on conflict risk is different in different countries,” said CU-Boulder geography Professor John O’Loughlin. “Typically conflicts
Climate Variability and Conflict Risk Measured in East Africa Read More 👉
Geoengineering has been a hot topic over the past little while and into this mix has come a new study looking at the possibility of using solar geoengineering to counter the loss of Arctic sea ice by tailoring geoengineering by region and by need. A team of leading researchers developed a new computer model
Could Solar Geoengineering Prove Effective? Read More 👉
According to a resident of the suddenly-important aboriginal village of Old Massett in British Columbia, Canada, the Canadian government knew all about the well-publicised ocean fertilization project conducted off Canada’s west coast earlier this year. John Disney of the Village of Old Massett told a press conference that the project followed international legal and scientific
Canadian Government Knew About Controversial Sea Fertilisation Read More 👉
A new study led by researchers from Durham University in the UK has found that the geometry of channels beneath an ice-sheet play a much stronger role in mitigating retreat than previously understood. The findings are part of a study which simulate ice-sheet retreat and collapse over a ten thousand year period in Antarctica,
Geography Can Temporarily Halt Ice-Sheet Retreat Read More 👉
The circulation of water through the Atlantic Ocean during the last Ice Age was faster than previously assumed, and stronger than it currently is today, according to new research led by environmental physicists at Heidelberg University, Germany. The “Atlantic heat pump” sees warm water from the Gulf of Mexico transported north and west where it
Atlantic Ocean Circulation Found to be Faster During Last Ice Age Read More 👉
How do you measure something when your ruler only goes back 40 years? It’s like trying to measure the height of a tree with your school ruler: you need more ruler! Climate scientist Aslak Grinsted of the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen wanted to find
Are There More Tropical Cyclones Than Before? Read More 👉
Mitigating the tonnes of pollution that are being swept into the atmosphere every day is a big part of environmental research these days, and researchers from the University of Sheffield and the London College of Fashion have managed to come up with the coolest method of contributing to the removal of pollution ever. They’ve developed a new
Do the Washing, Eradicate Pollution! Read More 👉
The North Atlantic warming and cooling cycles are known as the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation (AMO) and new research from the University of Reading suggests that the warming cycle that has been in place since the 1990s may be the cause of the wetter summers the UK and northern Europe have been encountering lately. Published in
North Atlantic Ocean Culprit of Dismal UK Summers Read More 👉
A new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that the Great Barrier Reef in Australia has lost half of its coral in the last 27 years thanks to storm damage, crown of thorns starfish and bleaching. The study, conducted by researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science
The Great Barrier Reef Has Lost Half of its Coral in the Last 27 Years Read More 👉
It’s too late! We’re all going to die! So says the latest research to be published in the respected journal Environmental Research Letters. OK. I might be jumping to a bit of a dramatic conclusion there. In fact, the study in question has shown that the levels of greenhouse gasses we have already pumped into the
Irreversible Sea Level Rise to Continue for Thousands of Years Read More 👉
The Board of Directors of the US Government’s development finance institution, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), has approved up to $250 million for the agency’s first solar power project in South Africa. The 60-megawatt plant located in Boshoff in South Africa’s Free State province will help push the country beyond a dependency on coal
OPIC to Invest in South African Solar Power Read More 👉
We want it to provide us food, fuel, paper, cotton, and still expect it to allow us to continue living in the comfortable climate we’ve grown adapted to. What am I talking about? Planet Earth, of course. But human ecologist and economist Kenneth Hermele from Lund University in Sweden believes that the struggle for land
Struggle for Land is Intensifying Rapidly Read More 👉
As glaciers melt and retreat they often leave behind massive lakes of fresh water where once had been only ice. Now, a student from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland has studied the possibility of using these new lakes as possible hydroelectric power sources. Climate change has seen glaciers all over the world retreating,
Potentially Helpful Lakes Left Behind Melting Glaciers Read More 👉
The current global hope regarding climate change is that we can minimize the warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, however this will not be enough if we want to save the coral reefs that are so necessary in the overall health of the oceans. Only if we look to drastically and speedily halt
Majority of Coral Reefs at Risk Unless Climate Change is Halted Read More 👉
The consequences for the Himalayan water supply depend heavily on the region’s thousands of glaciers, that in the east and central areas of the region are retreating at accelerating rates similar to those seen in other glacier-clusters around the world, but that in the western Himalayas are more stable and could in fact be growing.
Himalayan Glaciers Retreating at Accelerated Rate in Some Regions but Not Others Read More 👉
Here’s an interesting question to ponder: You want to escape life in the city and take a break. You jump in your car, or on a plane, and head out to “the unspoiled environment” to relax and “be at one with your surroundings.” Ask yourself, is this any good for that unspoiled environment? New research
Is Escaping the Urban Jungle to the Wilderness Good for the Wilderness? Read More 👉
Predicting hurricane activity is vitally important for the people who live in high-hurricane-risk regions, allowing businesses and governments, not to mention the populace, time to prepare and plan their way through the next hurricane season. Researchers from North Carolina State University have recently created a new method in forecasting seasonal hurricane activity that is 15 percent
New More Accurate Method of Predicting Hurricane Activity Read More 👉
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided scientists with the clearest evidence to date of carbon-dioxide snowfalls on Mars, revealing the only known example of carbon-dioxide snow falling anywhere in our solar system. Frozen carbon-dioxide is better known here on Earth as dry ice, and requires temperatures of around minus minus 125 Celsius (193 degrees Fahrenheit), much, much colder than what
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Detects Dry Ice on Red Planet Read More 👉
Ernst & Young released late August their quarterly global Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Indices report which showed that China is set to continue it domination of the global renewable energy market, as US elections and political support in Europe prevent other countries from keeping up. The Ernst & Young report “provide scores in 40 countries for national
China Continues to Dominate Global Renewable Energy Market Read More 👉
Scientists are excited over an inadvertent discovery using instruments aboard the new Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, or Suomi NPP, a joint venture between NASA and NOAA. The satellite is actually sensitive enough to detect clouds and other objects in the nighttime sky from space, what to the human eye would simply be complete darkness. Such a discovery
Starlight and "Air Glow" Reveal the Nighttime Cloudy Sky from Space Read More 👉
A new study conducted by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has found that there is more than enough power in our planet’s winds to be a primary source of near zero emissions, but that also the power generation necessary to support current and future demand would not substantially affect the climate. Climate scientists and collaborators
Wind Power Can Meet Demand and Not Affect the Global Climate Read More 👉
The wacky weather continues no matter where you live, apparently, with New York City residents baffled by the arrival of two tornadoes on Saturday, the first touching down near Breezy Point, a Queens neighbourhood, and the second in Brooklyn. Saturday was a day of severe weather across the Northeast and mid-Atlantic as a powerful cold
Two Tornadoes Touch Down in New York City Read More 👉
New research by scientists has found that biodiversity on Earth actually increases as the planet warms. However, importantly, this growth is observed in the evolution of new species over millions of years and is most often accompanied by the extinction of other species.
The present trend of accelerated warming is not likely to boost global biodiversity, rather, it is set to destroy it.
Warming Earth Results in Contrasting Consequences, But Not So Fast Read More 👉
Researchers have found that previous estimates about the total mass of life on our planet have been a little too generous, having to decrease the estimate by one third. The study behind the discovery was published in the current online issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and was led by Dr. Jens
One Third Less Life on Planet Earth than Previous Estimates Read More 👉
Charles Darwin was right, again, but this time his predictions focused on a somewhat different genre than we normally associate with the man; this time, it’s the ocean. Researchers have found that Darwin may in fact have been right on the money when he labelled the Eastern Pacific Barrier (EPB) “impassable” in the 1880s. The
Eastern Pacific Barrier Is Virtually Impassable by Coral Species, Darwin Was Right Read More 👉
If you look at the Caribbean islands from above you’ll see that they arc, and new research by geophysicists at the University of Southern California have found that over the past 50 million years the Caribbean islands have been pushed east by the steady movement of the Earth’s viscous mantle against the more stationary Southern
Why do the Caribbean Islands Arc? Read More 👉
The 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) has already revealed several big stories regarding alternative fuels for transport, but it has also given Nobel Prize winning scientist, Mario J. Molina, Ph.D. a platform from which to explain why he believes there is new scientific proof linking extreme weather to climate change. “People may not
Nobel Prize Winning Scientists Links Extreme Weather to Global Warming Read More 👉
