5.0 01 Aerosols, tiny solid and liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere, impact the environment by affecting air quality and alter the Earth’s radiative balance by either scattering or absorbing sunlight to varying degrees. What impact does climate change, induced by greenhouse gases (GHGs), have on the aerosol “burden”–the total mass of aerosols in a vertical column of air? Past […]
Read more
5.0 04 When the atmosphere had much higher levels of carbon dioxide, Antarctica was as warm as California. New research has revealed that 430 million to 50 million years ago, temperatures on the frozen continent averaged 57 degrees Fahrenheit, with part of the surrounding Pacific Ocean reaching up to 72 degrees. In this ancient era, known as the Eocene epoch, […]
Read more
5.0 01 European researchers have once again warned that the thinning of the Antarctic ice shelf means that the flow of glaciers on the frozen continent could accelerate, with a consequent rise in sea levels. They examine, in two separate studies, the increasingly precarious state of some of the ice shelf. When the shelf, consisting of ice floating on the […]
Read more
5.0 03 Why the oceans are in trouble! The oceans can no longer handle the damage brought on by the 7 billion people on Earth. Over the decades, the human race has over-fished specific species to near extinction, and polluted them with carbon dioxide emissions, toxic chemicals, garbage, and unrecycled plastics. A shocking new study, recently published in […]
Read more
5.0 07 Cold-blooded animals like lizards, insects and fish have a preferred body temperature range at which they hunt, eat, move quickly and reproduce. Fear that a warming climate will constrict this temperature range underlies recent studies that warn of the detrimental effects of climate change on the activity and survival of cold-blooded animals. While not contradicting these warnings, a […]
Read more
0.0 00 10 myths about global warming, and what the science really says. THE REASONS FOR raising doubts about the human causes of global warming, explains Skeptical Sciences John Cook, are often political rather than scientific. Cook hears from climate change skeptics that ‘“its all a liberal plot to spread socialism and destroy capitalism. However, what is causing global warming […]
Read more
4.0 04 While restoring one of the exploration huts in Antarctica, Conservators of the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust discovered a 100 year old box that turned out to be a remarkable treasure. It contained 22 never-before-seen cellulose nitrate negatives documenting the life of Antarctic explorers a 100 years back. Preserved in a block of ice, this 100 year old box of […]
Read more
4.3 03 The amount of CO2 is increasing all the time – we just passed a landmark 400 parts per million concentration of atmospheric CO2, up from around 280ppm before the industrial revolution. That’s a 42.8% increase. A tiny amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, like methane and water vapor, keep the Earth’s surface 30°Celsius (54°F) warmer than it […]
Read more
3.9 21 Winter in Antarctica, it is dark all of the time. In the Antarctic summer, (between January and March, when there is plenty of daylight—twenty-four hours a day! In September, the Sun rises, and then doesn’t set again until March. Why does Antarctica have six whole months of darkness in the winter and six whole months of lightness in […]
Read more
5.0 01 2013 – Colorado River Delta, Mexico: Water began flowing in the Mexican part of the Colorado River for the first time in decades. Dams, including the Hoover Dam and the Morelos Dam, usually keep most of the river’s water in the U.S. and divert some to Tijuana and surrounding farmland. The joint U.S.- Mexican International Boundary and Water […]
Read more