Grinnell College experts available to discuss the science behind research on climate change from the perspective of many disciplines, including ecology, biology, economics, global food supplies, and geology.
GW experts are available to discuss climate, environment, and sustainability issues. Faculty come from academic fields including business and economics; geography; law and ethics; politics and policy; science; and engineering.
Only the fossil record provides a window into the responses of species and ecosystems to climate change over extended periods of time. A panel of scientists speaking in a special forum will offer critical insights from the fossil record for global changes underway today, including warming of the earth's surface, rise in sea level, and changes in seasonality.
Mini-report from National Wildlife Federation details how:
"¢ Global Warming Makes Forests More Susceptible to Fire
"¢ Past Forest Management Makes Forests More Susceptible to Fire
"¢ Large Wildfires Put Unnatural Stress on Ecosystems
"¢ Large Fires Make Global Warming Worse
"¢ To Reduce Risks and Prepare for Future Fires
Soot, or aerosols, can have both heating and cooling effects on clouds. Weizmann Institute scientists and colleagues have now developed a model of this complex relationship, showing when aerosols rising into the clouds will result in heating or cooling. Their findings may help convey the true climatic consequences of fires and industrial fuels.
Earthwatch Institute is kicking off a two-month regional campaign to support global climate change research at Boston's Museum of Science this Thursday evening. The Climate Change Campaign"”a "first" for Earthwatch"”runs from August 14-October 14, 2008. For event details, visit http://www.earthwatch.org/beattheheat2.
In a new kind of transatlantic graduate program, students on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean now can earn dual forest resources master's degrees from Michigan Technological University and a Finnish or Swedish university.
Dramatic year-to-year temperature swings and a century-long warming trend across West Antarctica are linked to conditions in the tropical Pacific, according to an analysis of ice cores. The findings show the connection of the world's coldest continent to global warming, as well as to events such as El Niño.
A University of Arkansas legal scholar says that despite its regional nature, the most recent legal conflict between Oklahoma and Arkansas over water quality highlights an issue of national significance and will likely influence methods in which legislators and policymakers will address water pollution in the United States.
A research team from the University of Tennessee (UT) has completed a study on an East Tennessee river to determine the connection between watershed hydrology and fecal bacteria statistical time series analysis. The article presents a study of the temporal patterns and statistical persistence of total coliform based on data gathered from the Little River near an intake at a public water supply plant.
"Just one day after President Bush renewed his demand for Congress to turn over more of America's natural resources to Big Oil, Exxon Mobil reports the largest quarterly profit in America's history, an amazing $1,485.55 per second," said the National Wildlife Federation's Adam Kolton. "If you're trying to quit smoking, you don't ask the Marlboro Man for help, and if you're serious about quitting your oil addiction, you don't ask Big Oil for help."
UC San Diego undergraduate students have designed, built and deployed a network of five weather-monitoring stations as a key step toward helping the university use ocean breezes to cool buildings, identify the sunniest rooftops to expand its solar-electric system, and use water more efficiently in irrigation and in other ways.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego plans to purchase and deploy an autonomous buoy-mounted sensor to study the effect increasingly acidic ocean water could be having on ecosystems in the California Current.
In the U.S. and North America, nuclear energy has yet to overcome the stigmas associated with Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, disasters that are an entire generation removed. With energy issues emerging as the great national challenge of our time, and fully 17% of the world's electricity generated from nuclear reactors"”including 80% of France's electricity"”former treasurer of Greenpeace, Canada, and CEO and President of Bancroft Uranium Inc., Paul Leslie Hammond, is available to discuss the future of nuclear energy as an economical and sustainable energy source.
Are you planning to add a new roof or new siding to your home before winter? Paul Fisette, an expert on green building, says that these home improvement jobs can be the perfect time to boost your home's energy efficiency and lower your heating bills, especially if you own an older home.
Insight from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, commitment from two Michigan companies and funding from the Department of Energy have led to the commercialization of a lightweight urban transit bus with double the fuel efficiency of conventional hybrid buses.
The first study to compare the performance of different types of green roofs has been completed by The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and suggests that buyers shouldn't assume these roofs are created equal.
The Gulf Stream"”a massive and highly energetic ocean current which holds great potential for electric power generation and other renewable power sources"”physically connects Florida with the United Kingdom. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Center for Ocean Energy Technology recently accompanied Florida Governor Charlie Crist to the UK to formalize agreements on ocean energy research and development.
Wealthy nations willing to collectively spend about $1 billion annually could prevent the emission of roughly half a billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year for the next 25 years, new research suggests. It would take about that much money to put an end to a tenth of the tropical deforestation in the world, one of the top contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, researchers estimate.
Jeffrey S. Levinton, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University and the senior author of the study done with Sharon T. Pochron, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stony Brook University, found that mercury in common Hudson River fish, has declined strongly over the past three decades.
Record-setting "dead zones" in the Gulf of Mexico and Chesapeake Bay appear likely this summer, according to new forecasts from a University of Michigan researcher.
Tufts University students, faculty and staff are first college campus in Massachusetts to join an effort that will finance development of renewable energy projects in low-income communities across the state. School will also solicit donations to purchase renewable energy credits (REC's).
Once approved by the U.S. and Canadian governments, the Great Lakes Compact will for one thing, erect a "legal fence" prohibiting the exportation of water from the Great Lakes basin. "The Great Lakes are the largest freshwater source on the planet, and their protection and smart use are essential," says water resource management and policy expert Bill Blomquist.
Conservation biologists from UC San Diego are collaborating with scientists from the African Conservation Centre and other institutions to map patterns of biodiversity and land use in East Africa in unprecedented detail.
Numerous studies over the past four decades have established that pesticides can move downward to reach the water table at detectable concentrations. This study found that the pesticides detected most frequently in shallow ground-water samples were predominantly from two classes of herbicides"”triazines and chloroacetanilides.
Iowa State University faculty and staff members are available to share their insight and expertise on numerous flood-related topics as the devastating Midwest flooding continues this week along the Mississippi River.
One of Australia's leading environmentalists will spearhead a world-class project to help revegetate the Mount Lofty Ranges, to stave off the effects of climate change and halt the loss of bird, animal and plant species.
A North Carolina State University study published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that examining an insect's "family tree" might help predict a "cousin" insect's level of tolerance to pollutants, and therefore could be a reliable way to understand why certain insect species thrive or suffer under specific ecological conditions.
A Web site developed at the University of Michigan shows where tornados hit the United States each day. At www.tornadopaths.org, visitors can zoom in to see a city, or zoom out to see the entire country.
Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a region of the atmosphere that influences climate change by affecting Earth's thermal balance. Researchers worldwide will use the project's findings to improve computer models of global climate in preparation for the next report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
When researchers observe natural changes in clouds and temperature, they have assumed that temperature change caused the clouds to change, and not the other way around. This can lead to overestimates of how sensitive Earth's climate is to greenhouse gas emissions.
The rate of climate warming in the Arctic could more than triple, raising concerns about thawing permafrost and the potential consequences for sensitive ecosystems, an NCAR study finds.
The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) has signed a contract with researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health to lead an assessment of health risks due to environmental factors in the country, one of the fastest developing nations in the world.
In October 2006, an historic system of parks in Buffalo, chock full of 12,000 trees, was devastated by a pre-season ice storm. Starting Wednesday, June 11, a total of nearly 200 corporate volunteers will pitch in their time to restore the Olmsted Parks, and in doing so will contribute to a $100 million effort to fight climate change around the world.
Employees of HSBC, the world's largest bank, will abandon their offices for one day to help revitalize a unique green urban space in the Bronx, NY. This effort is part of an employee program on climate change spearheaded by Earthwatch, a major partner in the five-year HSBC Climate Partnership that launched last year.
New survey by National Wildlife Federation shows that many more mainstream retailers are offering outdoor furniture made from sustainable wood which is good for the environment and is priced competitively.
Prof. John Quigley conducts the first systematic analysis of environmentally-sustainable construction and its economic impact on the real estate market
For those hoping to create a greener world, our country's millions of miles of asphalt roads may seem like an odd place to seek solutions. Yet, it's precisely because asphalt is so common that we have much to gain from making it more eco-friendly, says University of Wisconsin-Madison civil engineering professor Hussain Bahia.
A Missouri University of Science and Technology team is one of 17 university groups from the United States and Canada selected to compete in a three-year competition, to design a more eco-friendly vehicle, announced today by the U.S. Department of Energy, General Motors and Natural Resources Canada.
A Kansas State University instructor and his students tell businesses they can be profitable and environmentally friendly. And then they tell them how to do it.
The first graduating class from the University of Maryland's distinctive real estate development program sees the world through green-colored glasses. Most are early or mid-career professionals with real-world experience, and their teachers say they are poised to change the field.
The problem of excessive reactive nitrogen in the environment is little-known beyond a growing circle of environmental scientists who study how the element cycles through the environment and negatively alters local and global ecosystems and potentially harms human health. Two new papers by leading environmental scientists bring the problem to the forefront in the May 16 issue of the journal Science.