Trend May Mean a Wetter U.S. West
September 30 — Scientists say that global warming could leave the Intermountain West with less snow, but more rain and higher temperatures. (Associated Press)

Extinction Risk Grows Around the Globe
September 29 — The World Conservation Union's 2000 Red List of Threatened Species released this week lists 11,046 plants and animals as being endangered. (Associated Press; CBSNews.com)

Warming Climate "Means Worse Weather"
September 28 — A report by the World Wildlife Fund concluded that global warming is happening and that more weather extremes can be expected around the world. (BBCNews.com)

Forecasters at a Loss With Absence of El Niño
September 26 — A world without an El Niño or a La Niña proves to make long-term forecasting a challenge as global weather becomes more typical and more unpredictable. (Andrew Revkin, The New York Times)

Ozone Layer May Take Decades to Mend
September 26 — Scientists studying upper level ozone say that it could be between 15 and 45 years before ozone levels start to recover. (Robinson Shaw, ENN.com)

Lightning Study Produces New Flashes of Insight
September 25 — Scientists have observed "lightning-free zones" just before tornadoes spawn from severe thunderstorms and logged new clues about the causes of reverse-lightning, and above-cloud lightning. (Sandra Blakeslee, The New York Times News Service)

U.S. Group Lists Important World Environmental Needs
September 25 — A new National Research Council report lists eight research priorities including climate change and biodiversity that need more attention and funding from the U.S. government. (Reuters)

Haze Won't Faze Temperatures
September 24 — Researchers have concluded that although urban air pollution is expected to increase over the next 100 years, global temperatures will not increase because of it. (Robinson Shaw, ENN.com)

Planting New Forests Versus Saving Old Ones
September 22 — New research concludes that old, wild forests are much better at trapping carbon dioxide than young trees. (Andrew Revkin, The New York Times )

U.N. Says Ozone Hole Could Be Deepest On Record
September 22 — Recent findings by The World Meteorological Organization concurred with NASA's conclusions that the largest ozone hole ever had opened up over Antarctica and could reach a record depth this year. (Reuters)

African Dust Killing Caribbean Coral
September 22 — A team of scientists found bacteria in African dust was responsible for a sharp drop in one type of coral found in Caribbean reefs. (Randolph Schmid, Associated Press; BBCNews.com)

Sea-level Rise
September 21 — A recent study indicates that coastal areas along the Gulf of Mexico and southeastern United States are more prone to coastal erosion that other parts of the country as the world's oceans continue to rise. (ENN.com)

Warming Will Not Spread Malaria
September 21 — A leading entomologist has concluded that global warming will not spread malaria, contradicting an earlier assessment. (BBCNews.com)

Marine Life May Temper Global Warming
September 20 — Scientists believe that an important group of marine plankton could play an important role in determining the speed at which any global warming may occur. (BBCNews.com)

Uncovering Storms
September 20 — Two NASA satellites are now helping meteorologists see through the clouds to find the eye in a tropical cyclone. (ABCNews.com)

Buoy Network to Measure Ocean
September 19 — Scientists are planning to launch 3,000 buoys that will be tracked by satellite, to measure the temperature and salinity of the Earth's oceans and their impact on weather around the world. (Andrew Revkin, The New York Times, The Associated Press)

Carbon Dioxide May Play a Role in Ice Ages
September 15 — According to British research, changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are directly tied to the origin of ice ages, and may provide a better understanding of how the fluctuation of this greenhouse gas can lead to climate change. (ENN.com)

Glacier Test Shows Global Warming
September 15 — According to scientists who have studied ice cores from deep inside a glacier in the Himalayan Mountains, this past century has been the hottest period in 1,000 years. (Associated Press, BBCNews.com)

Africa's Burning Environmental Problem
September 15 — NASA researchers and scientists from many countries gathered in southern Africa to study the continent's air quality, ecosystems, and impacts of humans on the landscape. (The Chronicle for Higher Education)

Global Warming Threatens Extinction for Many Species
September 14 — A report from the World Wildlife Fund states that rapid rates of global warming will likely increase species loss, particularly in higher northern. (Nature)

The Other El Niño
September 13 — Scientists are collecting evidence from around the world that links El Niño's effects to outbreaks of cholera, a reduction in the food chain, fish and bird migrations, and the killing of coral reefs. (ABCNews.com)

Southern Africa Inferno: An Ideal Laboratory
September 12 — A group of international scientists is studying the impact of seasonal grassland fires in Southern Africa and regional air quality and the region's contribution to global climate change. (NationalGeographic.com)

Hurricane Experts Find Reason for Slow Season
September 11 — Researchers say that the Madden-Julian Oscillation that starts in the Indian Ocean, but has surprisingly worked its way into the Atlantic Ocean may be suppressing Atlantic hurricane formation. (Associated Press)

Global Waffling: When Will We Be Sure?
September 10 — Global warming is a complex issue that experts are still trying to sort out. Scientists believe that evidence of global warming is incremental and will continue to add up over the years. (Andrew Revkin, The New York Times)

Largest Seasonal Ozone Depletion Recorded
September 8 — The annual ozone hole over Antarctica has begun with depletion rates that are unprecedented for this time of year. (Associated Press, BBC News)

Bacteria "Hasten Climate Change"
September 8 — A Swedish scientist working in the Arctic says that bacteria in soils are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (BBC News)

El Niño May Skew the Balance of Marine Ecosystems
September 8 — The warming of equatorial eastern Pacific waters by an El Niño event reduce surface water nutrients and harm fish populations that feed off phytoplankton. (ENN.com)

NASA Spies Largest-Ever Antarctic Ozone Hole
September 8 — This year's ozone hole at the South Pole covers over 11 million square miles, according to researchers. (Reuters)

Good News About Warming and Disease
September 7 — British researchers say their computer models show drier conditions in northern latitudes, not the humid conditions needed for malaria-spreading mosquitoes to thrive. (ABCnews.go.com)

Shorter Lake and River Ice Seasons Show Warming
September 7 — Researchers have confirmed increasingly shorter winter seasons since 1840 through direct observations of frozen lakes and rivers in the Northern Hemisphere. (CNN.com and The Washington Post)

A Summer of Fire and Ice
September 7 — An analysis of the summer season that revealed a diminishing polar ice cap, drought and rampant fires in the western United States all point to climate change. (CNN.com)

Climate Change Expert Stirs New Controversy
September 7 — Controversial new research that appears to give carbon dioxide less blame in global warming has been welcomed by opponents of the Kyoto Protocol. (Nature)

Trouble in the Greenhouse
September 7 — Modeling the effects of aerosols on the Earth's climate includes a great deal more than their influence on clouds. Scientists are still trying to determine what those effects are. (Nature)

African Dust in the Wind
September 5 — Researchers are studying clouds of dust containing bacteria, fungi and viruses from drought-stricken North Africa and their effect on the health of people in the United States. (St. Petersburg Times)

The Big Arctic Meltdown
September 4 — Rising temperatures could cause more ice to melt at the North Pole, shrinking the Arctic ice cap, but the current hole in the ice at the top of the world is nothing new, researchers say. (Time Magazine)

NASA Project Studies Southern African Environment
September 4 — SAFARI 2000 brought NASA scientists and researchers from 13 nations to South Africa to study environmental effects of regional pollutants using airplanes and satellites. (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Back to: News