Acid Rain Still Taking a Toll on Northeast Forests
May 30 — Researchers reported that soils throughout the Northeast are continuing to acidify, despite a 50 percent decrease in acid rain since the peak in 1973. (Discovery News)

Methane Warmed Ancient Snowball Earth
May 30 — The melting of methane ice unleashed runaway global warming some 635 million years ago, according to a study that has implications for today's climate-change crisis. (Agence France-Presse)

New Climate Report Foresees Big Changes
May 28 — The rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from human activities is influencing climate patterns and vegetation across the United States and will significantly disrupt water supplies, agriculture, forestry and ecosystems for decades, a new federal report says. (The New York Times)

Could Dust Weaken Hurricanes?
May 28 — Some scientists will try something new this year to unravel the extremely complex mosaic that creates storms of varying intensities – by questioning whether it is possible that dust storms in Africa might weaken those Atlantic storms before they reach the eastern seaboard. (ABC News)

Can Big Earthquakes Trigger a Domino Effect?
May 25 — The giant earthquake that unleashed the Indian Ocean tsunamis in 2004 – killing more than 225,000 people in one of the deadliest natural disasters in history – might also have triggered other quakes around the world, new findings reveal. (Live Science)

Methane Rise Points to Wetlands
May 23 — Higher atmospheric levels of the greenhouse gas methane noted by scientists last year are probably related to emissions from wetlands, especially around the Arctic. (BBC News)

Vast Cracks Appear in Arctic Ice
May 23 — Scientists travelling on an expedition with the Canadian military found major new fractures during an assessment of the state of giant ice shelves in Canada's far north. (BBC News)

Growing Ocean Acidity May Erode Coastal Ecosystems
May 22 — Ocean waters along North America's west coast are becoming more acidic than expected in response to atmospheric carbon emissions, which will likely cause significant changes to economically vital marine ecosystems, a new study says. (National Geographic News)

Ice Flow Alone Explains Why Fjords are Cut So Deep
May 20 — A computer model shows that positive feedback in the way ice moves toward the sea is entirely responsible for fjords' depth. (New Scientist)

Global Warming May Change Ocean Biology
May 19 — Climate models indicate slightly less phytoplankton in the ocean overall by the year 2100, but because the tiny plants form the base of the ocean food chain, even a small change can have a big impact on ocean life. (Earth & Sky)

Overheated Earth Would Lock Into Place
May 19 — Dramatic changes to the temperature of Earth's atmosphere could cause the planet's crust to become locked in place, research shows. (Discovery News)

Fewer Hurricanes as World Warms
May 18 — Hurricanes and tropical storms will become less frequent by the end of the century as a result of climate change, U.S. researchers have suggested. (ABC News)

Researchers Warn of Nitrogen Hazard to Environment
May 15 — While carbon dioxide has been getting lots of publicity in climate change, reactive forms of nitrogen are also building up in the environment, scientists warn. (ABC News)

Natural Changes Pinned to Warming
May 14 — Major changes in the Earth's natural systems are being driven by global warming, according to a vast analysis. (BBC News)

Antarctic Melt Releasing DDT, Tainting Penguins
May 12 — Poisonous chemicals that had been locked in ice for decades are now being released as climate change melts Antarctic glaciers, researchers report. (National Geographic News)

Water-Cooled Supercomputer Set to Study Climate
May 9 — A water-cooled supercomputer is the first one in the United States, and it is destined for scientists working on models of how climate is likely to change regional weather patterns – one of the most demanding problems in the climate science world. (National Public Radio)

Greenland Ice Has Sensitive History to Warming
May 8 — New geologic evidence from the seafloor off the southern tip of Greenland shows that during the two past periods of global warming, the melting of Greenland glaciers was right in synch with rising global temperatures – rather than lagging behind as models have predicted. (Discovery News)

How Cleaning up America Dried up the Amazon
May 7 — U.S. reductions in sulphate pollution may have led to severe droughts in the Amazon rainforest – and with climbing CO2 levels these droughts could get worse. (New Scientist)

Fewer Wildfires, Less Carbon Stored?
May 7 — Fire suppression in the western United States may be decreasing the amount of carbon stored in the forests there, finds new research in a study that contradicts what scientists have long believed. (Discovery News)

Politician Suggests Mangrove Loss Put Burma at Risk
May 6 — Destruction of mangrove forests in Burma left coastal areas exposed to the devastating force of the weekend's cyclone, a top politician suggests. (BBC News)

Warming Hits Tropical Creatures Harder
May 6 — Global warming could pose a greater risk to tropical insects and other tropical species sensitive to the slightest shifts in temperature than to creatures living in the world's tundra, scientists warned. (Agence France Presse)

Climate-Cyclone Link Spurs Debate
May 6 — Climate scientists have begun to debate whether global warming is producing more powerful storms, after Nargis smashed into Myanmar – brutally changing gear from a Category One to a Category Four cyclone just before it made landfall. (Agence France Presse)

Vog – Volcanic Smog – Casts Haze over Hawaii
May 6 — Big Island crops are shriveling as sulfur dioxide from Kilauea wafts over them and envelops them in "vog," or volcanic smog. (Associated Press)

Once Lush Sahara Dried Up Over Millenia
May 6 — The grassy prehistoric Sahara turned into Earth's largest hot desert more slowly than previously thought, a new report says – and some say global warming may turn the desert green once again. (National Geographic News)

What Made the Dust Bowl Bad is in Its Name
May 5 — New computer simulations reveal that whipped-up dust is what made the Dust Bowl drought of the 1930s, arguably one of the worst environmental disasters of the 20th century, so severe. (Discovery News)

Major Arctic Sea Ice Melt is Expected This Summer
May 2 — Scientists say that this summer the Arctic will remain on thinning ice, and climate warming is expected to begin affecting the Antarctic too, which to date has responded differently to similar amounts of solar radiation and greenhouse gases. (Associated Press)

Inner Earth Filled With 'Peanut Butter'?
May 2 — New data reveal that Earth's mantle consists of more varied material than was previously thought, leading to different ideas about how convection – heated material bubbling up – is thought to work. (Live Science)

In a New Climate Model, Short-Term Cooling in a Warmer World
May 1 — One of the first attempts to look ahead a decade, using computer simulations and measurements of ocean temperatures, predicts a slight cooling of Europe and North America, probably related to shifting currents and patterns in the oceans. (The New York Times)

Ocean Dead Zones Growing; May Be Linked to Warming
May 1 — The world's hypoxic zones – swaths of ocean too oxygen-deprived to support fish and other marine organisms – are rapidly expanding as sea temperatures rise, a new study suggests. (National Geographic News)

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