If you don’t know what causes the seasons, you’re not alone: a mini-documentary made in the 1980’s showed that lots of Harvard grads don’t, either. For the record, the reason is that Earth’s spin axis is slightly tilted. In the months surrounding June, the Northern Hemisphere leans toward the Sun. There’s more sunlight, days are longer, and the … Read More
One of the biggest open questions about climate change is whether clouds will slow or speed global warming. Everyone agrees that as the globe warms, more water vapor will enter the atmosphere. If that leads to more low-level cumulus clouds — the kind that bring rainstorms — they'll provide more shade, and block out some o… Read More
A view of Tropical Storm Aletta, the first named storm of the 2012 Pacific Hurricane Season on May 15, 2012, as captured by the nation's newest weather satellite, the Suomi-NPP. TS Aletta currently has maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and is moving due west, according to NOAA. … Read More
Gills Onions is a food processing company in California that already sets an energy example by using its own waste to generate electricity. But recently, after repeatedly needing to purchase additional electricty at the most expensive time of day, the company became even greener by adding a gigantic battery. According to The New York Times, the … Read More
The best guess now is that a worst-case rise of 2 feet is no longer in the cards. The likely increase in sea level by 2100 now stands at 3 feet, with worst-case scenarios going as high as 6 feet. Three feet would threaten many coastal cities around the world with frequent, powerful floods, as the mildest of storms could send water coursing through … Read More
A worker walks among intense pollution in a Chinese coking factory. With China, a developing country, now the second biggest carbon emitter in the world, many nations question the old divisions between developed and developing countries that establish who should lead the fight against climate change. According to The Guardian, with negotiations … Read More
Monkeys enjoy a cool bath near Bangkok, Thailand where temperatures, according the The Guardian, are warmer than the hottest average temperatures seen in the past 30 years. … Read More
They rode into Mobile, Alabama aboard a cargo ship from South America in 1929, and since then fire ants have spread to become a painful reality in much of the Southeast. By some estimates 20 million people suffer from their agonizing bites each year. Fire ants love hot weather and moderate rainfall, and in order to flourish they also need warm … Read More
This map shows the land zone within five vertical feet of the average high tide line in the New York City area.
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