Only Zero Emissions Can Prevent a Warmer Planet
February 29, 2008Greenhouse gas emissions will have to be eliminated completely to stabilize the Earth's climate and prevent temperatures from rising, according to the results of a new study. (New Scientist)
Climate Secrets of Marine Snail
February 26, 2008It is one of the world's strangest and smallest sea creatures, growing no bigger than the size of a lentil, but the tiny pteropod could help scientists understand how marine animals will respond to the stresses of climate change. (BBC News)
Gas Releases Helped End Ice Ages
February 26, 2008Vast releases from the oceans of a potent greenhouse gas may have helped trigger the ends of past ice ages, says a researcher studying methane levels in ancient ice cores from Antarctica. (Discovery News)
Backyard Gardeners Keep Tabs on Warming
February 25, 2008Climate scientists are now enlisting gardeners, students and any willing plant or flower lovers to take part in a project that allows people to enter their backyard spring leaf budding and bloom data into an online database to help track the advance of spring. (Discovery News)
Heavy Rain Can Trigger Earthquakes
February 25, 2008Huge downpours of rain can trigger earthquakes in landscapes riddled with caves and channels by increasing pressure within underlying rock, suggests a new study. (New Scientist)
Antarctic Glaciers Surge to Ocean
February 24, 2008U.K. scientists working in Antarctica have found some of the clearest evidence yet of instabilities in the ice of part of West Antarctica, and if the trend continues, they say, it could lead to a significant rise in global sea level. (BBC News)
Avalanche Forecast Worsens with Warming
February 20, 2008New research on the timing of deadly avalanches in mountain ski areas such as Aspen, Colo., suggests global warming could start the worst kind of snowy train wrecks earlier in the year than usual in mountains all over the world. (Discovery News)
Study Debunks Global Cooling Concern of '70s
February 20, 2008The supposed "global cooling" consensus among scientists in the 1970s Niño frequently offered by global-warming skeptics as proof that climatologists can't make up their minds – is a myth, according to a survey of the scientific literature of the era. (USA Today)
Scientists Read Antarctic Mud for Climate Change Insight
February 20, 2008Scientists hope to predict how well Antarctica's ice will withstand rising temperatures by working around the clock examining a 4-inch-wide column of stone – a new section of which is delivered daily from a drill that, by the end of the season, will have penetrated three-quarters of a mile into the ocean bed. (Christian Science Monitor)
How Satellites Saved the World
February 19, 2008In the 50 years since satellites first went into orbit, the readings they've provided have given science a huge boost, and now scientists are trying to give a boost to a new generation of satellites that will monitor the changes sweeping over our planet. (MSNBC)
Support for a Theory as to Why Land Sinks Along the Gulf Coast
February 19, 2008A new study provides strong support for the view that subsidence along the Gulf Coast is the result of compaction of shallow peat deposits. (The New York Times)
Corals May Get Help Adapting to Warmer Waters
February 18, 2008A marine biologist is about to embark on an experiment aimed at learning whether scientists can help corals adapt to climate change by providing them with symbiotic partners better prepared to cope with warmer waters. (Washington Post)
Book Takes Wide-Angle View of a Changing Planet
February 17, 2008A new book, Our Changing Planet: The View from Space, uses dramatic satellite images to document the dynamic rock called Earth. Photos, detailed charts and diagrams illustrate how the planet is changing – from the destruction of the Aral Sea to the spread of pollutants. (National Public Radio)
Warming Risks Antarctic Sea Life
February 16, 2008Unique marine life in Antarctica will be at risk from an invasion of sharks, crabs and other predators if global warming continues, scientists warn. (BBC news)
Research Shows Southern Ocean Wind Currents Weakening
February 15, 2008A 15-year research project has revealed that changes in wind patterns are contributing to rising sea temperatures in the Southern Ocean. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Study into Intense Rain Patterns
February 15, 2008Scientists have found that winter rain became more intense in the United Kingdom during the last 100 years, while similar increases in heavy rainfall are also evident in spring and, to a lesser extent, in autumn. (BBC News)
Map Shows Toll on World's Oceans
February 14, 2008Only about 4 percent of the world's oceans remain undamaged by human activity, according to the first detailed global map of human impacts on the seas. (BBC News)
Sea's Thermostat Protects Reefs
February 13, 2008Some coral reefs may be protected from global warming by a natural thermostat that regulates sea-surface temperatures in the open ocean, researchers said. (ABC News)
King Penguin Could be Wiped Out by Warming
February 12, 2008One of the emblems of the Antarctic, the king penguin, could be driven to extinction by climate change, a French study has warned. (Discovery News)
Lava and Water Battled at Grand Canyon
February 12, 2008The Grand Canyon was not just carved by water – it has also been the scene of periodic wars between the Colorado River and volcanic eruptions which dammed the river and then burst. (Discovery News)
Ancient Global Warming Gave Bugs the Munchies
February 11, 2008A temperature spike about 55 million years ago gave bugs the munchies, according to a new study, and if modern temperatures continue to rise as anticipated in the coming years, researchers add, the planet could see a similar increase in insect damage to crops and other plants. (National Geographic News)
'Ocean Thermostat' can Save Coral
February 8, 2008Some coral reefs could be protected from the impacts of climate change by an "ocean thermostat," according to researchers who say that natural processes appear to be regulating sea surface temperatures in a region of the western Pacific Ocean. (BBC News)
Experts Challenge Ice Shelf Claim
February 7, 2008Two scientists have claimed that climate change was not the only cause of the collapse of a 500-billion-ton ice shelf in Antarctica six years ago, and that that glaciological and atmospheric factors were also involved. (BBC News)
Nevada Supervolcano's Flesh Exposed
February 7, 2008The fault-riddled landscape of northern Nevada has sliced and diced the remains of one of the world's largest volcanoes, providing a rare chance to inspect the innards of the so-called "supervolcano." (Discovery News)
The Race to Chase Sahara's Sand
February 6, 2008Scientists have been sailing across the Atlantic in a bid to track down sand from the Sahara Desert, trying to find out how the dust is affecting marine biology and, in turn, the ocean's ability to soak up the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. (BBC News)
Tsunami Threat Hangs Over Southern Italy
February 5, 2008Researchers used historical data to estimate earthquake risk for three different fault zones in the Mediterranean region, and say that a major rumble in the quake-prone region off the coast of Greece would trigger a tsunami about 15 feet high. (New Scientist)
Study Looks at Crops' Effect on Weather
February 4, 2008A new study will look at what crops can do to the weather by asking whether regional weather patterns and the risk of wildfires could change because of a shift in planting. (ABC News)
UK Set for Early Spring Arrival
February 4, 2008Mounting evidence suggests spring is arriving early in the United Kingdom this year, according to Woodland Trust research which found that some species of frogs, butterflies and plants have become "startlingly" active. (BBC News)
Climate Set for Sudden Shifts
February 4, 2008Many of Earth's climate systems will undergo a series of sudden shifts this century as a result of human-induced climate change, a study suggests. (BBC News)
Climate Secrets Sought in Tasmania's Fossil Reef
February 1, 2008A team of Australian and U.S. scientists have spent the past three weeks off the coast of Tasmania using a robot to record live and fossilized coral at depths never before explored. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Decline in Snowpack Blamed on Warming
February 1, 2008The persistent and dramatic decline in the snowpack of many mountains in the U.S. West is caused primarily by human-induced global warming and is not the result of natural variability in weather patterns, researchers reported. (Washington Post)
Unquiet Ice Speaks Volumes on Global Warming
February 1, 2008Abundant liquid water newly discovered underneath the world's great ice sheets could intensify the destabilizing effects of global warming on the sheets, and even without melting, the sheets may slide into the sea and raise sea level catastrophically. (Scientific American)