Simple statement: 13 of the 15 warmest years ever recorded have occurred within the first 15 years of this century. Complicated question: what is the probability that this happened purely by chance? The latest calculated answer: it could be one in 5000, or it could be as unlikely as one in 170,000, or it could be somewhere in between. Conclusion: […]
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Results from a new climate reconstruction of how Antarctica’s ice sheets responded during the last period when atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) reached levels like those expected to occur in about 30 years, plus sediment core findings reported in a companion paper, suggest that the ice sheets are more vulnerable to rising atmospheric CO2 than previously thought. Details appear in two […]
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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 would be […]
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If you are interested in a research expedition to Antarctica then Airbnb is looking for you. It will be an all expenses paid trip for five lucky travelers. You will get to work with some researchers to study the climate on this freezing continent. The trip will be with Ocean Conservancy with Kirstie Jones-Williams. Kirstie studies the impact of microplastics […]
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Long ago, in the largest canyon system in our solar system, vibrations from “marsquakes” shook soft sediments that had accumulated in Martian lakes. The shaken sediments formed features that now appear as a series of low hills apparent in a geological map based on NASA images. The map was released today by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This map of […]
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A research paper published in Nature Climate Change predicts widespread death of needleleaf evergreen trees (NET) within the Southwest United States by the year 2100 under projected global warming scenarios. The research team that conducted the study, which includes University of Delaware’s Sara Rauscher, considered both field results and a range of validated regional predictions and global simulation models of […]
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What is hail or a hailstone? Hail is a form of precipitation that occurs when updrafts in thunderstorms carry raindrops upward into extremely cold areas of the atmosphere where they freeze into balls of ice. Hail can damage aircraft, homes and cars, and can be deadly to livestock and people. How does hail form? Hailstones grow by colliding with supercooled […]
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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 is a […]
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Climate change is killing off Bees In India. A lethal combination of climate change and human interference is helping to wipe out colonies of the giant honeybees on which many plants and trees in India depend for their survival. The precise cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) is not known, but researchers say that the loss of the bees will […]
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Geologists are convinced that humans have left a mark upon the planet that will detectable millions of years from now. Long after human civilization has perished, there could be a stratum of fossilized rock and a geological time zone that says: “We were here.” So there is a case for calling the present epoch “the Anthropocene” − probably dating from […]
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