M.I.T. Professor to Prove Earth's 'Great Dying'
September 12 — Two colossal events in Earth's history took place about 250 million years ago: a gigantic volcanic eruption and massive extinction of species, and a professor has won a major grant to explore if the events were related. (National Public Radio)

Antarctic Sea Ice Increases Despite Warming
September 12 — The amount of sea ice around Antarctica has grown in recent Septembers in what could be an unusual side-effect of global warming, experts say. (New Scientist and Reuters)

Old-Growth Forests Help Combat Climate Change
September 11 — Old forests may be more efficient than previously believed, according to biologists who found that existing data for temperate and boreal forests suggests that old trees continue to actively capture carbon and store it in their wood. (Scientific American)

Honey, Climate Change is Shrinking the Species
September 11 — The old adage that bigger is better could be about to go out of fashion, as ecologists say climate change will shrink species. (New Scientist)

Climate Change Gave Dinosaurs a Lucky Break
September 11 — For millions of years, dinosaurs were overshadowed by their crocodilian cousins, but then these arch rivals disappeared thanks to climate change, and dinosaurs had the evolutionary advantage. (New Scientist)

Vesuvius Still an Eruption Risk
September 10 — French and Italian scientists said they could not rule out another cataclysmic explosion by Vesuvius, the volcano that destroyed Pompeii in A.D. 79. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Giant Underground Fossil Forests Show Record of Warming
September 9 — Huge tracts of prehistoric rain forest ravaged by global warming more than 300 million years ago have been found preserved underneath the U.S. Midwest, according to scientists. (National Geographic News)

Arctic Ice Hints at Warming, Specialists Say
September 6 — Leading ice specialists in Europe and the United States for the first time have agreed that a ring of navigable waters has opened all around the fringes of the cap of sea ice drifting on the warming Arctic Ocean. (The New York Times)

Asian Soot, Smog May Boost Global Warming in USA
September 5 — Smog, soot and other particles like the kind often seen hanging over Beijing add to global warming and may raise summer temperatures in the American heartland by three degrees in about 50 years, says a new federal science report. (The Associated Press)

African Dust Linked to Hurricane Strength
September 5 — Though winds off the Africa coast contained large amounts of dust in 2005 and 2006, which scientists say may have dampened storms in the Atlantic Ocean, the air this year is clear and powerful storms are lining up to strike the U.S. (National Public Radio)

Sea Level Rise Limited to Just Over Six Feet
September 5 — By studying bottlenecks in glacier flow and the fastest speeds at which ice moves, researchers have found that sea levels are unlikely to rise more than 2 meters [6.6 feet] by 2100. (New Scientist)

Earth's Windiest Region Confirmed by Crewed Flight
September 4 — For the first time, research planes have flown in the windiest region on Earth – Cape Farewell in Greenland – to check computer simulations of the wind, and its possible role in world climate systems. (National Geographic News)

Supercontinent Pangaea Pushed, Not Sucked, Into Place
September 4 — A plume of superheated rock from deep in Earth's crust welled up between the ancient continents, pushing them apart until they collided to form Pangaea, a new study proposes. (National Geographic News)

Major Ice-Shelf Loss for Canada
September 3 — The floating tongues of ice attached to Ellesmere Island, which have lasted for thousands of years, have seen almost a quarter of their cover break away. (BBC News)

Strongest Storms Grow Stronger Yet
September 3 — A new study finds that the strongest of hurricanes and typhoons have become even stronger over the last two and a half decades, adding grist to the contentious debate over whether global warming has already made storms more destructive. (The New York Times)

Seas Will Rise Much Faster Than Thought
September 3 — Melting Greenland ice could cause oceans to rise by more than a foot (30 centimeters) over the next hundred years, and the resulting sea level rise, spurred by global warming, may happen three times faster than previously predicted. (National Geographic News)

Some Seaweed Hampers Coral Recovery
September 2 — Marine scientists have discovered some types of seaweed are affecting the speed of coral recovery after damage from bleaching and storms. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Why Hurricane Gustav Didn't Become a Monster
September 2 — Hurricane Gustav had the potential to become a monster hurricane, but two factors intervened: the storm's eye partly deteriorated over western Cuba, and upper-level winds were strong enough to keep the hurricane from quickly regaining power over the Gulf of Mexico. (National Geographic News)

Hurricane Forecast: "No Let Up" in Weeks Ahead
September 2 — Just as Hurricane Gustav was dissipating and three tropical storms were brewing in the Atlantic, forecasters predicted that September hurricane activity would be well above normal for the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. (National Geographic News)

Climate 'Hockey Stick' is Revived
September 1 — A new study by climate scientists behind the controversial 1998 "hockey stick" graph suggests their earlier analysis was broadly correct. (BBC News)

Beyond Carbon: Scientists Worry About Nitrogen's Effects
September 1 — Public discussion of complicated climate change is largely reduced to carbon: carbon emissions, carbon footprints, carbon trading, but other chemicals have large roles in the planet’s health, and the one Dr. Giblin is looking for in Arctic mud, and that a growing number of other researchers are also concentrating on, is nitrogen. (The New York Times)

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