Stretch of I-40 Part of ORNL, UT Environmental Lab Initiative
December 19 — Twenty-five thousand big rigs rumbling through Knoxville every day will help researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory get a better handle on real-world emissions and their effects on the environment. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) More

Livermore Researchers Determine Biosphere Unaffected by Geoengineering Schemes
December 19 — Using models that simulate the interaction between global climate and land ecosystems, atmospheric scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have shown that compensating for the carbon dioxide “greenhouse effect” by decreasing the amount of sunlight reaching the planet (geoengineering) could create a more vigorous ecosystem while helping to curb global warming. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory release) More

Mercury in California Rainwater Traced to Industrial Emissions in Asia
December 19 — Industrial emissions in Asia are a major source of mercury in rainwater that falls along the California coast, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. (University of California-Santa Cruz release) More

Rain Will Take Greater Toll on Reindeer, Climate Change Model Shows
December 18 — Rain falling on snow is becoming a more-common phenomenon in northern latitudes. When it happens, ungulates such as reindeer and caribou can be cut off from a substantial portion of their food supply. (University of Washington release) More

DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Mobile Facility Moves to Niger
December 15 — A mobile suite of climate monitoring equipment has moved to Niger to take cloud and aerosol measurements for a year. (Sandia National Laboratories press release) More

Study Published in Science Finds Freshwater Runoff into Arctic Ocean on the Rise
December 13 — New research, published in the journal Science, finds the average annual discharge of freshwater from the six largest Eurasian rivers into the Arctic Ocean to have increased 7 percent since 1936. (University of New Hampshire release) More

Antarctic Ice Seals Life’s Fate
December 13 — Microbes discovered packed in an ice-sealed, briny lake in Antarctica may help advance techniques to search for signs of life locked in the subterranean ice on Mars, and provide a model for what lakes on Earth may have looked like during severe glacial periods. (University of Illinois-Chicago release) More

Increase in Rainfall Variability Related to Global Climate Change
December 12 — Projected increases in rainfall variability resulting from changes in global climate can rapidly reduce productivity and alter the composition of grassland plants, according to scientists funded by the National Science Foundation. (EurekAlert) More

Malaria Rise in Africa Parallels Warming Trends
December 11 — A new analysis of research data concludes that the increase in the incidence of malaria in East Africa parallels warming trends over the last several decades. (EurekAlert, Nature) More

Forest Stress Linked to Climate Phenomenon
December 10 — Forest dieback in the Northeast has intensified in recent decades. A new study links escalating freeze-thaw episodes, which are known to harm trees, to the atmospheric pressure imbalance called the North Atlantic Oscillation. (EurekAlert) More

Researchers Unlock Key to Regional Haze in Yosemite Valley in 2002
December 10 — A researcher from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and colleagues from Colorado State University on Tuesday will show that forest fires likely contributed to periods of regional haze in Yosemite National Park in 2002. (EurekAlert) More

Prospect of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Drives Biofuels Market
December 9 — The market for biofuels is driven by the need for security of fuel supply and the recognition that greenhouse gas emissions are causing global warming. In the US, the transportation sector is responsible for more than 70 percent of the petroleum consumed and one-third of the carbon dioxide emissions. (EurekAlert) More

Will Climate Change Temper El Niño’s Tantrums?
December 9 — El Niño typically brings flooding to some parts of the world and drought to others. New research suggests El Niños have weakened since prehistoric times and could change still further in the future. (EurekAlert) More

Are Wildland Fires Fueling the Greenhouse?
December 9 — Wildland fires are taking tons of carbon out of storage and feeding it into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, a primary greenhouse gas. New computer modeling studies of the 2002 Colorado wildfires suggest local fires have a global influence on the carbon budget. (EurekAlert) More

Global Pollution Hot Spots Identified
December 9 — Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and other institutions have pinpointed the locations of high concentrations of air pollutants around the world by combining data from four satellite imaging systems. (EurekAlert) More

Coral Layers Good Proxy for Atlantic Climate Cycles
December 7 — Tree rings may tell how old a tree is, but the rings or annual bands in some skeletal coral may tell not only the age of the animal, but also something of the dynamics of the ocean in which it grew, according to Penn State and University of Miami researchers. (EurekAlert) More

Prepare to be Surprised by Future Climate Changes
December 7 — Current debate in the U.S. on climate change often focuses on whether things will really be as bad as scientists say they will be, but according to a Penn State climatologist, perhaps the question we should be asking is, are we confident that things will be as good as they are saying. (EurekAlert) More

A Global Warming Catch-22?
December 7 — The ability of the ocean to buffer the effects of global warming may hinge upon the interactions of tiny marine organisms at various temperatures according to a marine scientist at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. (EurekAlert) More

Methane-Based Greenhouse and Anti-Greenhouse Events Led to Stable Archean Climate
December 6 — In the absence of oxygen, methane may have been the most abundant greenhouse gas in Earth's atmosphere, reaching a stable balance between a greenhouse and anti-greenhouse until oxygen producing single-celled organisms burst upon the scene, according to Penn State researchers. (EurekAlert) More

Climate Change Will Affect Carbon Sequestration in Oceans, Scientists Say
December 3 — The direct injection of unwanted carbon dioxide deep into the ocean is one suggested strategy to help control rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and mitigate the effects of global warming. But, like the problems associated with the long-term storage of nuclear waste, finding a safe place to sequester the carbon may be more difficult than scientists first anticipated. (U.S. Department of Energy Release) More

Satellite Images Predict Hantaviral Transmission Risk
December 2 — Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions report that satellite imagery could be used to determine areas at high-risk for exposure to Sin Nombre virus (SNV), a rodent-born disease that causes the often fatal hantaviral pulmonary syndrome (HPS) in humans. According to the researchers, satellite imaging detects the distinct environmental conditions that may serve as a refuge for the disease-carrying deer mice. (National Academy of Sciences Release) More

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