Acclimating to a Warmer World
August 28 — With some climate change unavoidable, researchers are focusing on an new strategy for dealing with the threat of greenhouse warming. The U.S. National Assessment of the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability and Change aims to identify ways to adapt and cope with the changing climate, says Michael C. MacCracken, who is helping coordinate the study. (Richard Monastersky, Science News)

Eyes on the Stormy Season
August 23 — An unlikely team of scientists is seeing if they can take the fuel out of hurricanes. Robert Langer, a chemical engineer at Massachusettes Institute of Technology, and Judah Folkman, a cancer researcher at Children's hospital in Massachusetts, are experimenting with kinds of oil, that when placed on a body of water spreads out over a large area and act to slow the rate of evaporation by at least half and inhibit the formation and fueling of tropical storms. (David Chandler, The Boston Globe)

Getting to the Roots of Carbon Loss
August 20 — Scientists are attempting to sum up all the carbon added to the atmosphere since people began to leave a significant mark on the earth. Ruth DeFries of the University of Maryland, and Chris Field of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, are plugging satellite maps before-and-after people began to their mark into a computer model to trace how much carbon was released as the land has been altered. (Jocelyn Kaiser, Science)

Why Hurricanes Intensify
August 18 — Scientists at the University of Miami are probing the Gulf of Mexico in new tests to learn why some low-grade hurricanes turn into monster storms just hours before they hit land. The scientists are testing the theory that warm water eddies inject energy into weak hurricanes. (Paul Hoversten, USA Today)

Earthquakes Like Dominos
August 18 — This week’s deadly earthquake in Turkey was the latest in a string of earthquakes to radiate across Turkey. Scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey have noticed a pattern of earthquakes across northern Turkey. Scientists are aiming to make earlier predictions by using information from global positioning system satellites and by continuous monitoring the area in the future. (Kenneth Chang, ABCNEWS.com)

Japan Wants to Study Global Warming with Giant Airships
August 17 — Japanese researchers hope gigantic, solar-powered, cigar-shaped airships will be the latest tools in the fight against global warming. The 330-foot (100-meter), helium-filled craft would analyze carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere and transmit the data electronically to researchers. The only problem now is how the researchers will launch and land the airship. (Associated Press)

Utah Tornadoes Rare
August 11 — Extremely cold air passing over Utah spawned a tornado that descended upon Salt Lake City. Howard Bluestein, a tornado expert and meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma, said that this severe weather was caused by an unusual high-altitude low pressure system that moved inland. Bluestein said it is extremely rare for something like this to occur during the summer. (Kenneth Chang, ABCNEWS.com)

Big Hurricane Season Seen
August 11 — Meteorologists predict this year will have more storms than usual. Hurricane season runs from June 1-Nov. 30, but mid-August begins the peak of tropical storms. William Gray, a hurricane expert at Colorado State University, has predicted 14 tropical storms, nine hurricanes and four intense hurricanes this season. (Janell Carter, Associated Press)

La Niña Keeps Hanging Around
August 10 — According to scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, La Niña seems to be lingering in the Pacific Ocean. The result is abnormally low sea levels and cool waters in the northeastern Pacific, and unusually high sea levels and warm waters in the northwestern Pacific. The scientists report that these conditions will impact North America’s climate this fall and will be slow to change. (Environmental News Network)

Case for a Shifting Climate is Heating Up
August 9 — Scientists at Ohio State University have watched the Peru’s Quelccaya ice cap in melt and estimate that the ice cap could disappear in about 20 years. This supports reports that the Earth’s mean temperature has risen about 0.6 degrees Celsius (1 degree Fahrenheit) over the past 120 years, but British climatologists say that natural swings of climate can enhance or mask the greenhouse effect leaving more unanswered questions. (J. Madeleine Nash, Time Magazine)

Satellite Images of Arctic Declassified
August 3 — Scientists studying global warming now have access to previously classified high-resolution satellite images of the Arctic Ocean, Vice President Gore announced. The images provide data on the impact of climate change in the Arctic. The images were requested by the National Science Foundation, sponsor of the SHEBA (Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic) Project. (Environmental News Network)

Flat Carbon Dioxide Emissions Give Experts Hope of Compliance
August 2 — Despite a booming economy, emissions of man-made carbon dioxide remained almost flat in the United States last year, leading some experts to believe the economic shock of complying with international pollution curbs aimed at stemming global warming may not be so jolting. (John J. Fialka, Wall Street Journal)

Downtown LA Is Shifting
August 2 — According to researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, forces in the Earth’s crust are moving downtown Los Angeles toward the San Gabriel Mountains, possibly making the region more susceptible to earthquakes. The study in the journal Geology characterizes the strains that might be released in large and dangerous earthquakes. (Matthew Fordahl, Associated Press)

The Heat Is On
August 1 — The planet's climate is changing and is not going to stop anytime soon says Jerry Mahlman, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. Mahlman also says that with developing countries improving their standard of living a quadrupling of carbon dioxide emissions is possible in the near future. (Douglas Gantenbein, Popular Science)

Carbon’s Role in Climate Changes
August 1 — For the first time scientists have used a satellite to measure the amount of carbon stored in ocean organisms, which could lead to clues in understanding future climate change. The study in the journal Science reported measuring over a billion tons of carbon in the Southern Ocean during the peak growing season. (David E. Graham, San Diego Union-Tribune)

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