Acid Rain Recovery 'Slower Than Expected'
September 29 — Studies in Scotland and Wales show that streams still have high levels of acidity from pollution in the 1970s and 1980s, despite efforts to clean them. (Cardiff University press release) More

Carbon Dioxide Did Not End the Last Ice Age
September 27 — A new study contradicts the view that carbon dioxide was responsible for the meltdown that ended the last ice age, as new evidence points to springtime Antarctic sun as the main driver. (University of Southern California press release) More

Discovery Challenges Timeline of Oxygen on Earth
September 27 — An international team of researchers has determined there was a 'whiff' of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere about 2.5 billion years ago, the earliest time any significant amount of oxygen has been detected on Earth. (Arizona State University press release) More

Environmental Changes Preceded First Great Rise in Atmospheric Oxygen
September 27 — New findings indicate that significant oxidative changes were occurring in the oceans and atmosphere before the Great Oxidation Event some 2.4 billion years ago. (University of Maryland press release) More

Antarctic Plant and Animal Life Survived Ice Ages
September 27 — Scientists report that of the evolutionary history of Antarctica's terrestrial plant and animal life does not reconcile with current reconstructions of past glacial ice extent going back more than 23 million years. (British Antarctic Survey press release) More

Life-Giving Rocks From Deep Earth
September 26 — Researchers have shown that a mineral in Earth's mantle acts as an oxygen reservoir, stopping Earth from becoming a barren planet. (University of Bonn press release) More

Cave Records Provide Clues to Climate Change
September 26 — Using stalagmites found in two different caves in Borneo, researchers found that the tropical Pacific may play a much more active role in historic climate change events than was previously thought. (Georgia Institute of Technology press release) More

Impact of Arctic Heat Wave Stuns Researchers
September 26 — Unprecedented warm temperatures in the High Arctic this past summer were so extreme that researchers with a Queen's University-led climate change project have begun revising their forecasts. (Queen's University press release) More

Arctic Sea Ice Minimum Shatters All-Time Record Low
September 20 — Scientists said that the extent of Arctic sea ice appears to have reached its minimum for 2007 on Sept. 16, shattering all previous lows since satellite record-keeping began nearly 30 years ago. (University of Colorado at Boulder press release) More

CO2 Emissions Could Violate EPA Ocean-Quality Standards Within Decades
September 19 — Scientists state that human-induced carbon dioxide emissions will alter ocean chemistry to the point where it will violate U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Quality Criteria, set in 1976, by mid-century if emissions are not dramatically curtailed now. (Carnegie Institution for Science press release) More

First Global Study of 'Poison' Gas in the Atmosphere
September 18 — It was used as a chemical weapon in the trenches in the First World War, but nearly a century later, an international team of scientists has discovered that phosgene is present in significant quantities in the atmosphere. (University of York press release) More

Researchers Reassess Theories on Formation of Earth's Atmosphere
September 18 — Geochemists are challenging commonly held ideas about how gases are expelled from Earth, and their theory could change the way scientists view the formation of Earth's atmosphere and those of our distant neighbors, Mars and Venus. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute press release) More

Increase in Atmospheric Moisture Tied to Human Activities
September 18 — Observations and climate model results confirm that human-induced warming of the planet is having a pronounced effect on the atmosphere's total moisture content. (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory press release) More

Rising Surface Temperatures Drive Back Winter Ice in Barents Sea
September 18 — Rising sea-surface temperatures in the Barents Sea, northeast of Scandinavia, are the prime cause of the retreating winter ice edge in the Arctic over the past 26 years, new research suggests. (Rutgers University press release) More

Ancient British Bog Provides Clue to Global Warming
September 17 — Analysis of sediments from a British bog suggest that methane emissions increased around 55 million years ago due to intense global warming. (University of Bristol press release) More

Satellites Witness Lowest Arctic Ice Coverage in History
September 14 — The area covered by sea ice in the Arctic has shrunk to its lowest level this week since satellite measurements began nearly 30 years ago, opening up the Northwest Passage - a long-sought short cut between Europe and Asia that has been historically impassable. More

Climate Change Science Program Receives Progress Report
September 13 — Climate change research directed by the federal government has made good progress in documenting and understanding temperature trends and related environmental changes on a global scale, but the study of impact on humans and communication with decision makers lags, according to the National Research Council. More

Peat, Vegetation Help Reduce Permafrost Thaw
September 13 — Peat and vegetation in northern areas may help protect permafrost from the effects of climate change, according to a recent study. (McMaster University press release) More

Icy Calculations on a Hot Topic
September 10 — Mathematicians have arrived at a new understanding of how salt-saturated ocean water flows through sea ice - a discovery that promises to improve forecasts of how global warming will affect polar icepacks. (University of Utah press release) More

Acid Rain has a Disproportionate Impact on Coastal Waters
September 7 — The release of sulfur and nitrogen into the atmosphere by power plants and agricultural activities plays a minor role in making the ocean more acidic on a global scale, but the impact is greatly amplified in the shallower waters of the coastal ocean, according to new research by atmospheric and marine chemists. (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution press release) More

Role Reversal as Humans Suck Life Out of Leeches
September 5 — Findings show that human-induced temperature increases over a 40-year period in the Graz region of Austria may have led to the near extinction of the local land leech Xerobdella lecomtei. (Springer press release) More

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