Acid Oceans Need Urgent Action
January 30, 2009Marine ecosystems are at risk from ocean acidification unless there are dramatic cuts in CO2 emissions, warn scientists. (BBC News) more...
Underground Particles Forecast Winter Storms
January 30, 2009Scientists consult a strange source -- cosmic rays -- to predict winter weather. (Discovery News) more...
Climate Change Could Drain Great Lakes
January 30, 2009A new study shows that climate change once cut off flow between the Great lakes, suggesting it could happen again. (Discovery News) more...
Hurricanes' Climate Footprint Felt for Months
January 29, 2009Just as a changing climate shapes the strength and frequency of hurricanes, the storms may have a huge effect on climate, leaving "footprints" in the atmosphere and ocean. (MSNBC/Discovery) more...
Prescription for Arctic Melting: Clear the Air Down South
January 29, 2009The quickest way to curb Arctic melting now underway may be to turn off the tap of short-lived pollutants swirling north from cities and industry far to the south, say scientists. (Scientific American) more...
How Conclusive is Climate Research?
January 28, 2009Stanford University biology professor Stephen Schneider worked alongside former Vice President Al Gore to research the significance of global warming. Host Alex Cohen talks with Schneider about the state of climate change research today. (National Public Radio) more...
Long Droughts, Rising Seas Predicted Despite Future CO2 Curbs
January 27, 2009Greenhouse gas levels currently expected by mid-century will produce devastating long-term droughts and a sea-level rise that will persist for 1,000 years regardless of how well the world curbs future emissions of carbon dioxide, scientists reported. (The Washington Post) more...
Ocean Dead Zones Could Approach Mass Extinction Levels
January 26, 2009The future of Earth's oceans is beginning to look a lot like a mass extinction, according to a computer simulation that found dead zones could engulf one-fifth of the seas within a few millennia if humans don't change their carbon-emitting ways soon. (Discovery News) more...
Mega-Quakes Prime Volcanoes for Eruption
January 23, 2009Some of the world's biggest tremors can make volcanoes blow their tops for up to a year afterwards, according to new research. (Discovery News) more...
Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths
January 22, 2009Rising temperatures and the resulting drought are causing trees in the West to die at more than twice the pace they did a few decades ago, a new study has found. (The New York Times) more...
New Fault Raises Threat of Eastern Earthquakes
January 22, 2009A newfound earthquake fault in Arkansas could eventually be the site of a major earthquake that would rock much of the south and east, according to news reports. (Live Science) more...
Study Finds New Evidence of Warming in Antarctica
January 21, 2009Antarctica is warming. That is the conclusion of scientists analyzing half a century of temperatures on the continent, and the findings may help resolve a climate enigma at the bottom of the planet. (The New York Times) more...
Spring Coming Earlier, Study Says
January 21, 2009Tired of winter? Good news: Spring arrives an average of 1.7 days earlier now than it did in the first half of the 20th century, according to a new study. (National Geographic News) more...
We're In a CO2 Danger Zone
January 21, 2009Carbon dioxide levels today are unacceptably high, says NASA scientist James Hansen, who talked to EarthSky about the dangers of atmospheric CO2, and what can be done to bring the levels down in the future. (Earth & Sky Radio) more...
Rainmaker Ritual Helps Date Ancient Droughts
January 20, 2009The charred ashes left by rainmaking rituals in ancient Africa are helping archaeologists pinpoint the timing of droughts . (New Scientist) more...
Antarctic Ice Shelf Set to Collapse Due to Warming
January 20, 2009A huge Antarctic ice shelf is on the brink of collapse with just a sliver of ice holding it in place, the latest victim of global warming that is altering maps of the frozen continent. (Scientific American) more...
Europe's Lost Mist Boosts Heat
January 19, 2009The number of foggy, misty and hazy days is diminishing across Europe, say scientists, and this clearing of the air in the past 30 years may have amplified the warming of the continent. (BBC News) more...
A New Pair of Eyes in Space
January 19, 2009Two new satellites are to be added to the five-strong Disaster Monitoring Constellation, which has spied on Afghan poppy growers and mapped the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. (BBC News) more...
Solving Avalanches' Mysteries
January 19, 2009Forecasting avalanches is as much an art as a science, but a new “cold lab” is helping researchers study snow, an ever-moving target, in more detail. (The New York Times) more...
Heard Island Glaciers Melting Away
January 16, 2009Scientists say glaciers on Heard Island in the Southern Ocean, 4,000 kilometers [2,485 miles] south-west of Western Australia, are continuing their rapid retreat. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
Study Warns of Threat to Coasts from Rising Sea Levels
January 16, 2009Sea level rise fueled by global warming threatens the barrier islands and coastal wetlands of the Middle Atlantic States, a federal report warned on Friday. (The New York Times) more...
Car Exhaust Fumes Cause Lightning Strikes
January 15, 2009Lightning strikes have increased with pollution by as much as 25 percent, researchers say. (BBC News) more...
Lightning Helps Predict Hurricane Fury
January 15, 2009Lightning patterns near the cores of storms can help predict hurricane intensity, suggests new research. (Discovery News) more...
NASA to Fly Unmanned Spy Plane for Science
January 15, 2009NASA is prepping a Global Hawk, a version of the Air Force's top-of-the-line unmanned spy plane, for its first Earth science mission in June. (Associated Press/MSNBC) more...
Final Tests for Polar Explorers
January 14, 2009Polar explorers are undergoing final tests in Canada before the start of a major scientific survey to collect 10 million measurements on the Arctic ice cap to help scientists to calculate more accurately how long the dwindling ice cap might last. (BBC News) more...
World Needs Radical Cuts on CO2
January 14, 2009More carbon dioxide needs to be absorbed than emitted by 2050 in order to prevent catastrophic climate change, according to a new report. (BBC News) more...
Challenge to Plant Methane Link
January 14, 2009The recent finding that plants could be a major source of the atmosphere's methane is challenged by new research that reports that under normal conditions, plants just convey methane from the soil to the air without actually producing it. (BBC News) more...
Seas to Rise at Varying Rates
January 14, 2009Sea levels will rise at widely varying rates around the world because of a quirk of the Earth's gravity linked to global warming, a leading glaciologist says. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) more...
"Alien" Atmosphere Helped Unfreeze Early Earth
January 13, 2009Oxygen trapped in 635-million-year-old rocks from the Arctic has revealed that ancient Earth once had an otherworldly atmosphere that might have helped melt millions of years' worth of deep freeze. (National Geographic News) more...
Ground-Based Bacteria May be Making it Rain
January 12, 2009Bacteria may be able to make it rain without ever leaving the ground - if the powerful detergents they produce can reach the clouds, that is. (New Scientist) more...
Greenland Meltdown? Not Necessarily
January 12, 2009As the world warms, Greenland's dwindling glaciers may actually slow in their retreat, according to new research. (Discovery News) more...
Soot-Stained Snow Melts Sooner
January 12, 2009Soot-darkened snowdrifts aren't just unsightly; they also become warmer and thinner than pristine white snow, bumping up the start of the spring snowmelt by as much as a month, a new study finds. (Live Science) more...
Ancient Supercontinent was a Diamond Factory
January 12, 2009A find of unusual "ultra-deep" gems in Australia has provided new clues to how diamonds are formed deep below the Earth's crust. (New Scientist) more...
Mapping the Sea and Its Mysteries
January 12, 2009“Ocean: An Illustrated Atlas,” details how surprising discoveries are illuminating the sea, its immense impact on the planet and its habitability. (The New York Times) more...
Croplands May Wither as Global Warming Worsens
January 8, 2009Climate models predict that the hottest seasons on record will become the norm by the end of the century – an outcome that bodes ill for feeding the world. (Scientific American) more...
"Warm Plasma Cloak" Discovered Enveloping Earth
January 7, 2009The Earth is dressed in layers that protect it from the sun's fierce winds, and scientists have identified a new one they call a "warm plasma cloak." (National Geographic News) more...
Yellowstone Quakes Raise Explosion Fears
January 6, 2009Hundreds of earthquakes rippled through Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, in late December and early January, prompting fears that the shaking might trigger dangerous steam explosions. (New Scientist) more...
Why Storms are Good news for Fisherman
January 6, 2009You might think fish are unaffected by winds and storms, but in fact what ends up on our dinner plates today depends on what the weather was like a few years ago. (New Scientist) more...
Did Earth's Twin Cores Spark Plate Tectonics?
January 6, 2009A new theory aims to rewrite the classic image of Earth's interior by proposing the seemingly impossible: Earth has not one but two inner cores. (MSNBC/Discovery) more...
So Much to Learn About the Oceans From Sand
January 5, 2009Rob Holman, a coastal oceanographer at Oregon State University, has a collection of sand from around the world that is a valuable teaching tool for how the oceans operate. (The New York Times) more...
Why Mountains are Bad for the Ozone Layer
January 4, 2009Airflows above mountains create rare clouds that act as reaction sites for the chlorofluorocarbons that eat ozone. (New Scientist) more...
Coral Reef Growth is Slowest Ever
January 2, 2009Coral growth in Australia's Great Barrier Reef has slowed to its most sluggish rate in the past 400 years. (BBC News) more...