Italians Pack Speedos as Dolomites See Soaring Temps
Mountain trekkers, packing essentials before heading for the glaciers in the Italian Dolomite mountains, are taking an extra piece of kit — swimming trunks. As Italy sweats through a hot summer, climbers reaching 8,200 feet have been stripping off and plunging into the glacial lake at Antermoia, which is usually icy cold in August and frozen in th… Read More
Raging Fire Season Highlights Human Cost of Firefighting
Earlier this month, a 20-year-old digging a fire line in the Idaho mountains was killed by a falling tree, making her the 12th person to die in forest firefighting operations around the country this year. When I attended her funeral a few days later, nearly 300 of her fellow U.S. Forest Service firefighters lined up outside Moscow, Idaho’s, Church … Read More
Encroaching Seas Pit Parking Against Preservation
CHINCOTEAGUE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Va. — A sign at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service visitor center here states a simple motto: "Where Wildlife Comes First." But many visitors never see the sign, or much wildlife. Cars stream past the center on hot summer days, headed for a mile-long public beach at the refuge's southern end. The prime goals … Read More
Report: Lack of Sunspots Trigger Frigid Winters in Europe
A new report published in Geophysical Research Letters shows the link between the 11-year sunspot cycle and colder winter. It’s well known that the Sun varies slightly in brightness every 11 years, and while those changes pale beside the effect of human-generated greenhouse gases, they’re enough to trigger unusually cold winters in Central Europe.… Read More
Isaac Will Lessen Drought, but Only in Some Places
The U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday was different from most such reports, in that it was essentially out of date before it was published. As always, the monitor was based on dryness readings as of 7 A.M. the previous Tuesday, and it’s unusual for conditions to change drastically in such a short time. In fact, the newest drought map showed… Read More
Isaac Weakens, But the Danger is Far From Over
Tropical Storm Isaac stayed at hurricane strength for only about a day, and it was only a middleweight Category 1 hurricane at that, with sustained winds that only reached 80 mph or so; by Thursday morning, those winds had dropped to 45 mph as the eye lumbered at a leisurely 8 mph on a north by northwesterly path through central Louisiana. By … Read More
Heidi Cullen Joins Lateline to Discuss Record Sea Ice Melt
Climate Central's Heidi Cullen appeared on Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Lateline with host Tony Jones to discuss climate change and the recent news of the record low Arctic sea ice. Click here to watch the broadcast or read the full transcript. … Read More
Antarctic Methane: A New Factor in the Climate Equation
Climate scientists have long fretted about the hundreds of billions of tons of methane frozen under the floor of the Arctic Ocean. If the water warms enough, some of that methane could escape. Nobody knows how soon or how quickly such a release might happen, but since methane is a far more potent heat-trapping gas than the more familiar carbon… Read More
