A huge find of fossils in Eastern England has revealed a pre-glacial period when the area basked in temperatures now more closely associated with the African savannah, say scientists. (Associated Press, Reuters)
Twenty-two states are being put on notice that air quality in many of their counties is unhealthy because of tons of microscopic soot from power planets, diesel-burning trucks, cars, and factories. (Associated Press)
Chinese meteorologists say China's "north drought and south flood" climate pattern will likely persist for at least another decade. (China View)
Global temperature increases could cause significant reductions in yields of rice, the staple food for over half of the world's population, according to new research. (Associated Press)
Britain's Antarctic ice station has a design problem few architects can have envisaged when it was built, within a decade it is likely to float away. (Reuters)
Hundreds of government and university scientists, from across the country and in western Europe, will led by NASA and NOAA teams to sample the quality of the air this summer in the largest air quality and climate study as part of the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformation. (NOAA Magazine)
According to scientists at Columbia University, the New York City metro area will be a hotter, wetter and significantly less healthy place to live and work by the end of this century. (The New York Times)
Researchers at the University of South Florida are studying two large dark patches in waters along Florida's Gulf Coast, one at the Big Bend area of the panhandle that grew in size and concentration in the past week and another north of the Florida Keys. (Naples Daily News, Florida)
A new report supports the hypothesis that heat transfer by ocean currents, rather than global heating or cooling, may have been responsible for global temperature patterns associated with the abrupt climate changes seen in the North Atlantic during the past 80,000 years. (Science Daily)
U.S. and Mexican weather researchers are launching a study of the monsoons that can bring summer storms to parts of the two countries. (Associated Press)
Five national parks including the Sierra Nevada's Sequoia and Kings Canyon parks have been named as the nation's most polluted in a new report issued by national environmental organizations. (Associated Press)
Australia announces a national plan to save the country's rivers, hit by the worst drought in 100 years. (Reuters)
Weather records indicate that Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas receive more annual sunshine than Florida, the self-proclaimed "sunshine state." (Associated Press)
Climate scientists are getting close to providing a link between human activity and global warming, but translating that knowledge into long-term forecasts as tricky as ever as the data become more complex, researchers report. (United Press International)
A new survey of the depths of the ice-capped Arctic Ocean could reveal a lost world of living fossils and exotic new species from jellyfish to giant squid, say scientists. (Reuters, Associated Press)
Though the catastrophe that destroyed the dinosaurs' world may have begun with blazing fire, it probably ended with icy darkness, according to a Purdue University research group. (Science Daily)
New NASA-funded research supports previous theory that clouds formed by thunderstorms may help put the brakes on global warming. (Christian Science Monitor)
New research proposes that an observed rise in the ice-melting rate during the summer and an extension of the melting periods through October in the Alps may be caused by global warming. (Innovations Report, Germany)
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has unveiled a new version of a supercomputer-based system to model Earth's climate and to project global temperature rise in coming decades. (Science Blog)
Fossil plankton dating from 65 million years ago helps confirm the theory that a dark winter lasting many thousands of years doomed the dinosaurs, researchers say. (Reuters)
The vast amount of global data that weather stations and satellites gather each day isn't precise or complete enough to answer many important questions, say University of Washington scientists. (Associated Press)
Methane-producing microbes reigned during the first two billions years of Earth's history, and the greenhouse effect they produced had profound consequences for climate. (Scientific American)
Rapid urbanization in Southeastern China in the past 25 years is responsible for an estimated warming rate much larger than previous estimates for other periods and locations, according to a new NASA-funded study. (Science Daily)
Experts plan to study a newly discovered fault in eastern Colorado this week to find out how many times it may have caused earthquakes. (Associated Press)
A new report indicates that meteorological variables such as temperature and humidity are linked to rates of childhood asthma and eczema. (Scientific American)
The March through May period of 2004 was the third warmest spring on record for the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). (Associated Press)
One of the world's largest saltwater lakes could dry up completely unless neighboring countries in Central Asia work together to increase its water supply, says the UN. (Associated Press)
The drought gripping the West could be the biggest in 500 years, with the effects in the Colorado River basin considerably worse than during the Dust Bowl years, say scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey. (Associated Press)
Irish geologists say rising sea levels from climate change are expected to wreck beaches and cause other significant coastal changes. (DiscoveryNews.com)
The world is turning to dust, with lands the size of Rhode Island becoming desert wasteland every year, threatening to send millions of people to greener countries, says the UN. (Associated Press)
Ground-level ozone, one of the most harmful compounds in smog, is on average 30 percent higher in Canadian cities than the health limit set by environment ministers, says a recent report. (Canadian Press)
A new insect that normally inhabits warm countries has been found living and breeding in the UK, a clear sign of global warming, say experts. (Reuters)
New research indicates carbon dioxide emissions could be significantly cut if countries used biomass � fuel generated from agriculture and forest products, instead of coal to produce electricity. (SolarAccess.com)
Summer nights in cities may get hotter and sweatier because of the impact of global warming, according to scientific analysis. (Reuters)
Climate change experts say they are frustrated the U.S. government and the public are not taking the risk of global warming seriously. (Reuters)
Continuing funding cuts threaten Canadian research on reducing smog and climate change, and improving the accuracy of severe weather forecasts, top government and university scientists warn. (CBC)
Climate change is already occurring and immediate steps are needed to both slow it down and adapt to changes that will occur anyway, scientists say. (Associated Press)
The Israeli Geophysics Institute is calibrating new equipment to better estimate the precise location of future earthquakes. (Associated Press)
The total impervious surface area of the United States now equals the state of Ohio in size, significantly impacting local climates and vegetation. (Science Daily)
Under drought conditions, tropical forests can be as efficient at using water as desert ecosystems, say researchers. (Science Daily)
Scientists say two small earthquakes that recently rattled Lake Tahoe are part of a long seismic area that has been active for more than 60 years. (San Francisco Chronicle)
The devastating earthquake at Bam, Iran, in 2003 was caused by the rupture of a rare, hidden fault that is invisible at the surface, experts say. (BBC)
According to a new study using NASA satellite data, phytoplankton - tiny ocean plants - tend to bloom following hurricanes, potentially affecting the Earth's climate and carbon cycle. (Scripps Howard News Service, Big News Network)
Using NASA satellite data, researchers say during the Amazon dry season, there was a distinct pattern of higher rainfall and warmer temperatures over deforested regions. (Science Daily, Space Daily)
A drastic decline in the population of ivory gulls could be sounding the alarm about changing conditions in the North, Canadian scientists say. (CBC)
Several studies have now confirmed that when levels of a common group of pollutants known as nitrogen oxides [NOx] dip on the weekends with decreased traffic, ozone - the main ingredient of smog increases. (ABC)
The number of people vulnerable to floods is expected to double to two billion worldwide by 2050 due to global warming, deforestation, rising sea levels and population growth in flood-prone areas, UN researchers warn. (Reuters)
Parts of Namibia's exotic Skeleton Coast could be submerged by the end of the century and its rich marine life badly hit by global warming, a report by the southern African country's environment ministry warns. (Independent Online, South Africa)
The vaulting heap of ice that is the Greenland icecap and the swirling seas nearby are in a state of profound flux, and if the trends continues, might mean higher sea levels and widespread coastal flooding, and perhaps a sharp cooling in the Northern Hemisphere. (The New York Times)
Scientists at the University of California-San Diego say they have extended their glimpse of Earth's oceanic and atmospheric past to 130 million years, perhaps giving researchers more information about how greenhouse gases might impact our climate. (Science Daily)
Last summer's great Northeast blackout had a silver lining - clearer skies downwind from the Midwestern power plants that were idled, researchers say. (Associated Press, Reuters)
NASA and University of Maryland scientists have found the African monsoon consists of two distinct seasons. (Science Blog, Spatial News)
Global warming will hit California hard, but the state has already become a national leader in delaying and adapting to rising temperatures as it has pushed for tighter controls on automobile emissions and coped with a major energy crisis, experts say. (Associated Press)
Based on information extracted from the oldest ice core ever drilled, scientists say barring human interference, the Earth's weather should be warm and stable for at least the next 15,000 years. (Associated Press, Reuters)
Using NASA satellite data, researchers say during the Amazon dry season, there was a distinct pattern of higher rainfall and warmer temperatures over deforested regions. (Science Daily, Space Daily)
Scientists debate how ocean phytoplankton might help fight global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via increased photosynthesis. (National Geographic)
The surface temperature of the Earth has risen by about 1 degree in the past 100 years, says a new report released by the National Academy of Sciences. (The Tennessean)
NASA has awarded three $20 million contracts for new sensor technology that will help forecasters better predict where and when severe weather will strike. (Washington Technology)
The United Nations says aggressive fishing threatens little-understood corals that 2004-05-hold the key to new medicines. (Reuters)
An international team of scientists is heading for the Arctic to extract cores from sediments deep below the sea bed. (BBC)
Idaho's snowpack could drop by 35 percent over the next 50 years, worsening the state water shortage, according to a University of Washington climate expert. (Idaho Statesman)
A new study finds pollution in North America has fallen 10 percent since 2001, but coal-burning power plants are lagging in improvements among industrial sources fouling the air. (Associated Press)
A vast belch of gas from beneath the North Atlantic 55 million years ago may have warmed the planet and holds clues to threats from an even faster modern surge in greenhouse gases, say scientists. (Reuters)
A major earthquake in Alaska in 2002 set off a series of smaller quakes in the Yellowstone National Park, thousands of miles away, say scientists. (BBC)
Researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution say clues to the timing and cause of abrupt climate changes in the past 2004-05-lie in ocean floor sediments. (Science Daily)
Researchers at the National Hurricane Center in Miami are undertaking a new research initiative where technology undergoes interactive, real-time testing in hopes of improving the information emergency managers use to decide to evacuate coastal residents when a storm approaches. (Associated Press)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have released new experimental air quality forecasts enabling state and local agencies to issue more accurate and geographically specific air quality warnings to the public. (PR Newswire)