When it comes to gnarly weather, tornadoes, blizzards and hurricanes seem to get most of our attention, perhaps because their destructive power makes for imagery the media can't ignore. But for sheer killing power, heat waves do in far more people than even the most devastating hurricane. Ask medical historian Richard Keller.
A University of Washington researcher and colleagues discovered the critically endangered bowhead whales singing like birds in the Fram Strait, indicating that the whales might be more populous than previously thought or that they sing a wide repertoire of songs, unlike other whales.
Secure World Foundation is pleased to announce the release of the Summer 2012 issue of Imaging Notes magazine dedicated to highlighting the urgent, interrelated issues of Earth remote sensing for security, energy and the environment.
After Columbus’ voyage, burning of New World forests and fields diminished significantly – a phenomenon some have attributed to decimation of native populations. But a University of Utah-led study suggests global cooling resulted in fewer fires because both preceded Columbus in many regions worldwide.
The chronic drought that hit western North America from 2000 to 2004 left dying forests and depleted river basins in its wake and was the strongest in 800 years, but those conditions will become the “new normal” for most of the coming century. Such climatic extremes have increased as a result of global warming.
Charles H. Greene, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University, a fellow at Cornell’s Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and an expert on oceans, climate and Arctic ice, comments on this week’s news of a stunningly rapid thawing of the Greenland Ice Sheet.
During a recent oceanographic expedition off San Diego, graduate student researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego discovered convincing evidence of a deep-sea site where methane is likely seeping out of the seafloor, the first such finding off San Diego County.
Local weather patterns temporarily influence people’s beliefs about evidence for global warming, according to research by political scientists at New York University and Temple University. Their study found that those living in places experiencing warmer-than-normal temperatures at the time they were surveyed were significantly more likely than others to say there is evidence for global warming.
The northern spotted owl, a threatened species in the Pacific Northwest, would actually benefit in the long run from active management of the forest lands that form its primary habitat and are increasingly vulnerable to stand-replacing fire.
China's efforts to reduce pollution for the Beijing Olympics has enabled scientists to quantify traffic impacts on carbon dioxide emissions. New research led by NCAR shows Beijing's lighter traffic achieved a percentage of the emissions cut that would be needed worldwide to prevent warming from exceeding 2 degrees Celsius.
Researchers have found a way to use GPS to measure short-term changes in the rate of ice loss on Greenland – and reveal a surprising link between the ice and the atmosphere above it.
With a series of papers published in chemistry and chemical engineering journals, Georgia Tech researchers have advanced the case for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air using newly-developed adsorbent materials.
A whole-genome analysis suggests that polar bear numbers waxed and waned with climate change, and that the animals may have interbred with brown bears since becoming a distinct species millions of years ago.
Biological soil crust organisms found to play an active role in the development of soil structures and the allocation of water and nutrients.
Jessica Rennells, a climatologist with the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, comments on data released today confirming that the first six months of 2012 are drier than normal – and that those conditions are expected to persist in a band stretching from Lake Erie to Albany as well as western Pennsylvania. NOTE: An online drought monitor and seasonal drought outlooks are available at: www.droughtmonitor.unl.edu/forecast.html
Climate change, habitat destruction, pollution and invasive species are all involved in the global crisis of amphibian declines and extinctions, researchers suggest in a new analysis, but increasingly these forces are causing actual mortality in the form of infectious disease.
A new analysis of the common accretion-disk model explaining how planets form in a debris disk around our Sun uncovered a possible reason for Earth's comparative dryness. The study found that our planet formed from rocky debris in a dry, hotter region, inside of the so-called "snow line." The snow line in our solar system currently lies in the middle of the asteroid belt, a reservoir of rubble between Mars and Jupiter; beyond this point, the Sun's light is too weak to melt the icy debris left over from the protoplanetary disk. Previous accretion-disk models suggested that the snow line was much closer to the Sun 4.5 billion years ago, when Earth formed.
An ice island twice the size of Manhattan has broken off from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier, according to researchers at the University of Delaware and the Canadian Ice Service. This marks the second massive break in two years.
A new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Integral Ecology Research Center, the University of California Davis and other partners shows that imperiled fisher populations are being poisoned by the use of anticoagulant rodenticides (AR) on public and community forest lands in California–likely those used illegally by marijuana growers.
As the natural gas extraction process known as fracking surges across Pennsylvania, scientists are trying to understand what the short- and long-term consequences could be for the state's forests and watersheds.
The U.S. Chemical Safety Board today has announced a public hearing to support its continued analysis of effective safety performance indicators and to release preliminary findings into the agency’s investigation of the Macondo well blowout, explosion and fire in the Gulf of Mexico. The CSB’s two day hearing on July 23-24, 2012, in Houston, Texas, will feature presentations and discussions on measuring process safety performance in high hazard industries, including the development and implementation of leading and lagging indicators, for effective safety management.
The continent of Antarctica is at risk from human activities and other forces, and environmental management is needed to protect the planet’s last great wilderness area, says an international team of researchers, including a Texas A&M University oceanographer.
Scientists have discovered two viruses that appear to infect the single-celled microalgae that reside in corals and are important for coral growth and health, and they say the viruses could play a role in the serious decline of coral ecosystems around the world.
Professors from Appalachian State University, UNC Greensboro, University of West Florida and Indiana University have studied a 58-year history of tropical cyclones and their role in ending drought in the Southeast.
Like many Neotropical fauna, sloths are running out of room to maneuver. As forests in South and Central America are cleared for agriculture and other human uses, populations of these arboreal leaf eaters, which depend on large trees for both food and refuge, can become isolated and at risk. But one type of sustainable agriculture, shade grown cacao plantations, a source of chocolate, could become critical refuges and bridges between intact forests for the iconic animals.
University of Iowa scientists have created a technique to help satellites "see" through the clouds and better estimate the concentration of pollutants, such as soot.
Jessica Rennells, a climatologist and extension support specialist at the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, comments on data released today by the center that shows the region’s July heat wave broke records for longevity, and came close to all-time temperature records.
No matter how you drill it, using natural gas as an energy source is a smart move in the battle against global climate change and a good transition step on the road toward low-carbon energy, according to a new study by Cornell Professor Lawrence M. Cathles published in the most recent edition of the peer-reviewed journal Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems.
Elevated levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide accelerate carbon cycling and soil carbon loss in forests, new research led by an Indiana University biologist has found. The new evidence supports an emerging view that although forests remove a substantial amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, much of the carbon is being stored in living woody biomass rather than as dead organic matter in soils.
New ideas and approaches for better teaching are common to all who are interested in learning. The Society for Range Management seeks to address gaps between what students are learning and what employers and other stakeholders need and value. While nurturing modern rangeland professionals is the society’s focus, its objective is a dialogue about innovative teaching methods.
Kansas geologists are doing a comprehensive statewide study on using rocks for long-term storage of carbon dioxide.
A University of Saskchewan-led international research team has discovered that aerosols from relatively small volcanic eruptions can be boosted into the high atmosphere by weather systems such as monsoons, where they can affect global temperatures.
The recent heat wave baking much of the country has prompted many people to ask: Is this due to climate change?
Researchers have long believed that the longer days and calmer seas of spring set off an annual bloom of plants in the North Atlantic, but University of Washington scientists and collaborators discovered that warm eddies fuel the growth three weeks before the sun does.
University of Adelaide researchers have discovered that recent climate change is causing leaves of some Australian plants to narrow in size.
Though worries about “nuclear winter” have faded since the end of the Cold War, existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons still hold the potential for devastating global impacts.
Climate change could exacerbate existing threats to critically endangered leatherback sea turtles and nearly wipe out the population in the eastern Pacific. Deaths of turtle eggs and hatchlings in nests buried at hotter, drier beaches are the leading projected cause of the potential climate-related decline, according to a new study in the journal Nature Climate Change by a research team from Drexel University, Princeton University, other institutions and government agencies.
A new study indicates that mass extinctions affect the pace of evolution, not just in the immediate aftermath of catastrophe, but for millions of years to follow. The study will appear in the August issue of the journal Geology.
American Society of Agronomy Provides Panel of Experts to Answer Questions Related to Heat and Dry Conditions
Grasslands are experiencing a major transformation globally as woody plants begin to dominate. While some consider this shift to represent environmental deterioration, researchers at ASU suggest these changes may not be completely detrimental.
New research concludes that a one-two punch of drought and mountain pine beetle attacks are the primary forces that have killed more than 2.5 million acres of pinyon pine and juniper trees in the American Southwest during the past 15 years, setting the stage for more ecological disruption - including major soil erosion and further loss of water in the Colorado River basin.
The world cannot soon shift to clean, carbon-free sources of energy, says Vaclav Smil, who is both a distinguished scientist and a historian of technology.
American University Grad Student’s Film “Dying Green” discusses new sustainable burial method.
The reclassification of a woodland grass as two distinct species has created further botanical questions. One of these species is considered imperiled and in need of protection in some areas of the United States. However, that same species has recently been found rapidly spreading into mid-Atlantic states where previously only its sister species was known. Could the plant species have been misidentified?
While invasions of unwanted plant species are easy to see in a single location, gauging the impact on a regional or continental level is difficult. As woody plants encroach onto grasslands, they could potentially impact the continental carbon budget. Measuring large-scale encroachment of species such as juniper is vital to understanding its influence on carbon budgets of ecosystems. Aerial photography and satellite imagery offer opportunities for measurement at these larger scales.
A new program at the University of Vermont allows the university to collect compostable material from the university's many smaller academic and administrative buildings by using a low cost bicycle composting service.
Ice samples pulled from nearly a mile below the surface of Greenland glaciers have long served as a historical thermometer, adding temperature data to studies of the local conditions up to the Northern Hemisphere’s climate. But the method — comparing the ratio of oxygen isotopes buried as snow fell over millennia — may not be such a straightforward indicator of air temperature.
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