No Quick Fix for the Ozone Hole
June 30, 2006An improved computer model fed with fresh data from satellites and airplanes by scientists at NASA, NOAA, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, predicts ozone hole recovery will not occur until 2068. (LiveScience.com)
Northeast U.S. Floods Stir Global Warming Debate
June 30, 2006Images of swamped homes in the U.S. Northeast deepened suspicions over global warming, giving ammunition to scientists and others who say greenhouse gases are fueling extreme weather, as meteorologists said the Atlantic Ocean is unusually warm for this time of year, creating excess moisture in the atmosphere. (Reuters)
Delaware River Recedes, Cleanup Awaits
June 30, 2006The muddy floodwater swirling through riverside towns across the Northeast was receding, although at least 16 deaths in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and New York have been blamed on recent storms. (Associated Press)
Bursting Ice Dam Flooded the Ancient Ocean
June 29, 2006Near the end of the last Ice Age 8,000 years ago, an ice dam on North America's east coast broke, releasing a torrent of fresh water seven times more voluminous than all the Great Lakes combined - and around the same time, ocean circulation worldwide slowed to a crawl, plunging Europe into a second Ice Age that lasted centuries. (LiveScience.com)
Global Warming Alters Departure Time for Birds
June 29, 2006Migratory birds are adapting to changes brought on by global warming by laying eggs earlier and moving up dates for their migratory departures - but European birds must wing longer distances to get to warmer winter homes set off earlier than birds making shorter trips. (LiveScience.com)
Volcano in Western Mexico Shoots Ash
June 29, 2006Western Mexico's Volcano of Fire sent a towering column of ash and gas more than a mile into the air, but no communities were affected, authorities said. (Associated Press)
Asia Tsunami Warning System Ready
June 28, 2006A tsunami warning system covering the Indian Ocean region is now operating and the United Nations organization Unesco said the whole region can now receive and distribute warnings of possible tsunamis. (BBC)
Faster Tsunami Warnings Possible
June 28, 2006New software coupled with data from the Global Positioning System (GPS) could quickly determine whether a large earthquake will generate an ocean-wide tsunami by detecting shifts in the seafloor, the quake-induced "paddles" that can spawn a tsunami. (LiveScience.com)
Sunken Ships Eyed for Storm Barriers
June 28, 2006Marine scientists and Louisiana officials are floating the idea of sinking ships, aging tankers, research vessels and cargo ships along the water's edge to create a steel barrier against hurricane flooding. (Discovery.com)
Tiny Time Capsules Show Oxygen on Early Earth
June 26, 2006Smidges of primeval oil found inside grains of Canadian rocks are providing new evidence of an oxygen-rich Earth almost 2.5 billion years ago � suggesting oxygen infused Earth's lower atmosphere 500 million years earlier than previously thought. (Discovery.com)
Hurricane Machine to Flatten Home
June 26, 2006A family home in Canada will be deliberately destroyed as part of a project involving a high-tech wind machine developed to help inform building plans in areas such as New Orleans. (BBC)
Weather Makes Earth Wobble
June 26, 2006Using newly-available Global Positioning System (GPS) data that establishes the exact location of the poles, a research team determined that weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere play a significant role in the Earth's small wobbles, which together can tilt the planet's axis. (Associated Press)
Japan Has Ambitious Plan to Fight Warming
June 26, 2006Japan hopes to slash greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming with a plan to pump carbon dioxide into underground storage reservoirs instead of releasing it into the atmosphere, an official said. (Associated Press)
Rain Sparks Evacuations on East Coast
June 25, 2006Heavy rains caused serious flooding in Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore - where up to 12 inches fell in just six hours - washing out roads and forcing some residents to evacuate their homes. (Associated Press)
Philippines Brace for Deadly Storm-Volcano Combination
June 24, 2006The Philippines have put civil defense personnel on alert for possible deadly volcanic mudflows as a tropical storm began bearing down on a volcano that has been spitting ash for weeks. (AFP)
Ohio Governor Declares Flood Emergency
June 24, 2006Ohio's governor surveyed damage from two days of severe storms and declared emergencies in two northern Ohio counties, where more than 800 homes were damaged and crop losses could top $5 million. (Associated Press)
Extreme Weather Fits Global Warming Pattern
June 24, 2006Climate extremes, including record droughts, massive floods, and raging wildfires have soared over the last five decades in the United States and other continents, and scientists say ongoing climate change will lead to more frequent extremes of too dry and too wet. (ABC)
Humans 'Destroying Coastal Life'
June 24, 2006Scientists studied 12 estuarine and coastal regions in Europe, North America and Australia from the onset of human settlement until today and found more than 90 percent of coastal life has declined, along with widespread degradation of water quality. (BBC)
Denmark to Set Up Ice Cap Stations
June 23, 2006Denmark is to set up seven unmanned measuring stations along the edge of Greenland's vast ice cap, to monitor how fast the frozen sheet covering the massive island is thinning, officials announced. (Associated Press)
'Warm' Species Invading Antarctic
June 23, 2006Scientists are calling for action to prevent foreign species from taking hold in Antarctica and wrecking the continent's unique ecosystems. (BBC)
Earth Hottest It's Been in 2000 Years
June 22, 2006The National Academy of Sciences, after reconstructing global average surface temperatures for the past two millennia, said data are providing sound evidence that human activities are responsible for much of the world's recent warming. (Associated Press)
Volcano Larger than Washington, D.C. Discovered
June 22, 2006An underwater volcano with a base larger than Washington, D.C., has been discovered just off the shores of Sicily and incorporates peaks previously thought to be separate volcanoes. (Reuters)
New Science Shows Greenhouse Gases Under-Reported
June 22, 2006Many countries may be underestimating the quantity of greenhouse gases they emit, scientists said, following a new "top-down" system that measures the actual amount of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, compared with the traditional "bottom-up" method which estimates what is likely to be produced on the ground. (Reuters)
Global Warming Topped Natural Cycles in Fueling 2005 Hurricanes
June 22, 2006Global warming accounted for about half of the extra hurricane-fueling warmth in the waters of the tropical North Atlantic in 2005, and natural cycles were a minor factor, according to a new analysis by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. (Associated Press)
Ocean Temperatures Warm, But Not as Extreme as 2005
June 21, 2006As the 2006 hurricane season gets underway, a NASA satellite map shows water is again warmer than normal in hurricane spawning grounds that extend off the Africa coast west to the Caribbean - but this year's water temperatures are not as extreme as those spotted last year at this time. (USA Today)
Study: San Andreas Fault Overdue for Quake
June 21, 2006The lower section of the San Andreas Fault near Los Angeles has not produced a major earthquake in more than three centuries, and a new study that analyzed 20 years of data found stress has been building up since then - and could rupture at any moment. (Associated Press)
Reading the Poles: Earth's Ice in Jeopardy
June 20, 2006Climate researchers say the disappearance of Antarctica's Larsen B ice shelf was a turning point in the global warming debate for scientists and the public, and that Arctic winters have seen record ice lows in recent years -- a troubling sign. (National Public Radio)
World Carbon Dioxide Emissions to Rise 75 Percent by 2030
June 20, 2006Annual global emissions of the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide will rise 75 percent from 2003 to 2030, the U.S. government forecast. (Reuters)
NASA Lightning Research Highlights Safety Awareness Week
June 20, 2006The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration named the week of June 18-24 National Lightning Safety Awareness Week, and ongoing lightning research at NASA involving data from satellites, aircraft and field research could someday help forecasters better predict and alert the public for severe weather � from thunderstorms and tornadoes to hurricanes. (Science Daily)
Scientists Says Volcano Threatens Farmers
June 19, 2006Indonesia's most volatile volcano - Mount Merapi - spewed searing ash two miles down the mountain's southeastern flank, dusting crops and rooftops in the villages of Kinahrejo and Palemsari, threatening the lives of hundreds of villagers farming on its fertile slopes, a scientist said. (Associated Press)
Urban Irrigation Has Increased Phoenix Area's Rainfall
June 19, 2006A new study relying on data from NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite found a 12 to 14 percent increase in rainfall in the northeast suburbs of Phoenix from the pre-urban period (1895-1949) to post-urban (1950-2003) - at least in part due to human activities that have altered the natural system and monsoon flow, researchers said. (LiveScience.com)
Torrential Rains Hit Houston and Louisiana
June 19, 2006Many residents in the Houston metropolitan area and parts of southwest Louisiana awakened to floodwaters creeping into their yards and basements following heavy rains - up to 11 inches in just a few hours - that closed highways and stranded hundreds of morning commuters. (Associated Press)
UAF Gets $1 Million to Study Sea Ice in Arctic
June 18, 2006A team of scientists from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks have received more than $1 million in federal grant money to study how storm systems stir up ice on the upper ocean, drawing water from the warmer middle layers of the Arctic Ocean to the surface. (Associated Press)
Residents Run for Cover as Philippine Volcano Spews Ash
June 18, 2006One of the most active volcanoes in the Philippines spewed a massive column of ash about two kilometers (more than a mile) into the sky, sending residents of surrounding areas fleeing for cover, radio reports said. (AFP)
Thawing Permafrost Could Unleash Tons of Carbon
June 16, 2006Ancient roots and bones locked in long-frozen soil in Siberia are starting to thaw, and have the potential to unleash billions of tons of carbon and accelerate global warming, scientists said. (Reuters)
Louisiana Faces Battle Against Mother Nature
June 16, 2006Engineers are already working on the earthen levees and floodgates around New Orleans, but officials say there is also an urgent need to pour money into a second line of defense: the natural world of barrier islands and marshlands that stand between towns and the Gulf of Mexico. (Associated Press)
�Green Slime� Returns to Great Lakes
June 15, 2006Back in the 1960s, foul gobs of algae along Great Lakes shorelines made swimmers and sunbathers miserable before a crackdown on phosphorus pollution repelled the invasion, but now the algae are mounting a comeback and controlling it may be tougher this time, according to the Michigan Environmental Council. (Associated Press)
Arctic Dips as Global Waters Rise
June 15, 2006Arctic sea level has been falling by a little over two millimeters a year - a movement that sets the region against the global trend of rising waters. (BBC)
Drought Plagues Southern Louisiana
June 15, 2006After most of New Orleans sat submerged in water for weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the eight months since October 1 have been the driest southern Louisiana has been during the 111 years that records have been kept, the state climatologist says. (Associated Press)
Wildfires Burn More than 20,000 Acres Across Arizona
June 15, 2006Strong winds thwarted efforts to battle several wildfires that have burned more than 20,000 acres across the rain-deprived state, including a blaze that threatened five subdivisions on the west side of Flagstaff, forcing more than 100 homes to evacuate. (Associated Press)
Nighttime Flights �Boost Warming�
June 14, 2006Night flights by aircraft are much more damaging to the environment than air travel during the day because aircraft have a greater warming effect during darkness, finds a new study. (BBC)
As the World Warms: A Glacier Archive that Documents a Melting Landscape
June 13, 2006Several research centers around the world have been amassing images taken by generations of glaciologists to build a picture of frozen places as the world warms, including an online archive of before-and-after photographs of Alaskan glaciers by the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. (The New York Times)
Alberto Hits Florida with Rain, Gusty Winds
June 13, 2006The first tropical storm of the hurricane season was less than advertised, bringing rain, gusty winds and some thigh-high street flooding to Florida's Gulf Coast without blowing up into the hurricane forecasters feared. (Associated Press)
Hurricane Plane Files Into Storms to Sharpen Forecasts
June 12, 2006NASA scientists flew the ER-2 research aircraft at an altitude of more than 65,000 feet (19,800 meters) into Hurricane Erin last year � a category five storm � as part of a mission to better understand how tropical storms form, intensify, and travel. (National Geographic News)
Video Projections on a Globe Make Planetary Data Click
June 12, 2006Science on a Sphere - a new �globe� for presenting planetary portraits gathered from satellites and other spacecraft - is now on display at NASA�s Goddard Space Flight Center, giving the illusion of spinning as images move and a nearly invisible wire makes it seem to be floating in space. (The New York Times)
First 2006 Storm Puts Florida on Watch
June 11, 2006Most of Florida's west coast was under a tropical storm watch as Tropical Storm Alberto spun over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening to bring heavy rain in the next few days. (Associated Press)
Volcano Spews Ash in Central Philippines
June 10, 2006A restive volcano in the central Philippines spewed a column of ash at least 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) into the sky, raising concern of an eruption in the days ahead. (Reuters)
CloudSat System Offers Views of Storms
June 9, 2006The first images from a $217 million satellite project to measure the moisture content of clouds provided breathtaking views of storms on Earth, scientists said. (Associated Press)
Floods Displace 66,000 People in India
June 9, 2006Floods caused by summer monsoon rains displaced about 66,000 people in India's northeast, while heavy rains disrupted traffic in eastern India, officials said. (AFP)
Spring 2006 Warmest Since Records Began in 1948
June 9, 2006The spring of 2006 has been the warmest in Canada since record keeping began almost 60 years ago, data from Environment Canada shows. (CTV.ca)
Volcano Spews Hot Gas Clouds, 15,000 Flee
June 8, 2006Mount Merapi spewed a column of gas and sent clouds of hot ash tumbling down its slopes, causing 15,000 villagers to flee. (Associated Press)
Researchers to Study Monsoon Formation
June 8, 2006A team of researchers from Alabama and other states will train an array of instruments skyward in Arizona this summer for an unprecedented study of the genesis of monsoon storms. (Associated Press)
Global Warming is Spurring Evolution, Study Says
June 8, 2006German birds are changing migration patterns, Canadian red squirrels are reproducing earlier in the year, and mosquitoes in Newfoundland remain active longer into August, and scientists believe they are signs of a changing environment�in this case, global warming. (National Geographic News)
Early Life Survived 'Snowball Earth'
June 7, 2006Water droplets trapped inside ancient rocks suggest relatives of today's plants and animals may have survived Earth's longest winter more than two billion years ago, when the planet was encased in a shell of ice - a period known as "Snowball Earth". (LiveScience.com)
Expert Says Meteor May Have Caused Extinction
June 7, 2006A massive crater in Antarctica may have been caused by a meteor that wiped out more than 90 percent of the species on Earth 250 million years ago, an American geologist said. (Associated Press)
Study: Ground-Shaking Causes Aftershocks
June 7, 2006New research suggests ground-shaking from an earthquake, not underground stress, can trigger far-away aftershocks - going against the popular view that aftershocks tend to cluster near the epicenter. (Associated Press)
Study: Clean Air, Global Warming Mean More Hurricanes
June 6, 2006Cleaner air and more Atlantic hurricanes may come as a pair, according to a new study comparing rising global sea surface temperatures with sun-blocking pollution particles. (Discovery.com)
As Planet Heats Up, Deserts Face Drier Future
June 5, 2006The world's deserts are under threat as never before, with global warming making lack of water an even bigger problem for the parched regions, a U.N. report said. (Associated Press)
Global Warming May Swamp Hawaii Wildlife, Study Warns
June 5, 2006A team of Hawaii-based scientists calculates that two-thirds of some islands in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands could be submerged by 2100 due to global warming - including a chain of tiny, remote islands full of rare wildlife. (National Geographic News)
China World Leader in "Artificial Rain"
June 4, 2006Drought-plagued China has used an arsenal of rockets, artillery and aircraft to seed clouds and produce enough artificial rain to fill one of the country's biggest rivers four times over, Xinhua News Agency said. (Reuters)
India Monsoon Toll Hits 133, Floods Displace 25,000
June 4, 2006Twenty-eight people died in lightning strikes and rain-related accidents as the death toll from the early monsoon hit 133 and 25,000 people were displaced by flooding, officials said. (AFP)
Millions Breathe Cancer-Causing Air in India: Report
June 3, 2006Millions in India breathe air loaded with cancer-causing chemicals and toxic gases present at levels that are thousands of times higher than permissible limits, an independent report said. (Reuters)
Big Crater Seen Beneath Ice Sheet
June 3, 2006What appears to be a 300-mile wide crater has been detected under the East Antarctic Ice Sheet and scientists say it could have been made by a massive meteorite strike 250 million years ago. (BBC)
Drought Worsens in Eastern Australia
June 2, 2006The drought gripping parts of eastern Australia for the past five years has worsened in recent weeks as rainfall during the southern autumn remained well below normal, the Bureau of Meteorology reported. (Associated Press)
Earth's Ozone Shield is Poised for Recovery
June 1, 2006After years of decline, global concentrations of ozone in a key region of the stratosphere have held steady for the past eight to nine years, according to two new, independent studies. (Christian Science Monitor)
Million Year Forecast Shows Disasters Galore
June 1, 2006Despite the difficulties inherent in predicting climate changes over decades and centuries, Earth's longer term forecast includes plenty of meteor impacts, super-volcanic eruptions, mega-quakes and worse, says a geologist who is taking a novel look at Earth's last million years to forecast the next. (Discovery.com)
China Fights Double Fury of Floods and Forest Fires
June 1, 2006China, where natural disasters killed 2,500 people last year, is battling forest fires in its arid north and floods in its center, east and south that have killed 59 and "affected" 19 million, state media reported. (Reuters)
Scientists Discover Eight New Species
June 1, 2006Israeli scientists have discovered an ancient ecosystem containing eight previously unknown species in a lake inside a cave, where they were completely sheltered from the outside world for millions of years. (Associated Press)