Time Is Running Out to Avert a Third Summer of Drought
Meanwhile, the economic toll of the worst drought to strike the U.S. since at least the 1950s is climbing, and it “will probably end up being a top-five disaster event” among the government’s ranking of all weather disasters over the past three decades, said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist in the Agriculture Department’s Office of the Chief Economist,… Read More
Nearing a Tipping Point on Melting Permafrost?
Nearly a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere’s land surface is covered in permanently frozen soil, or permafrost, which is filled with carbon-rich plant debris — enough to double the amount of heat-trapping carbon in the atmosphere if the permafrost all melted and the organic matter decomposed. According to a paper published Thursday in Science, … Read More
Spring Chill Sends Monarchs Fluttering North
For scientists, the annual migration of Monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico and back again has been as mysterious as it is beautiful. Each autumn, the brilliant orange-and-black insects converge on fir and pine forests in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains, where they spend the winter in a kind of hibernation until spring comes. Researchers… Read More
NASA Probes Show ‘Alarming’ Water Loss in Middle East
Parts of the Middle East are losing groundwater reserves at “an alarming rate,” according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data. From the beginning to 2003 to the end of 2009, portions of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria that lie within the Tigris and Euphrates river basins shed 117 million acre-feet of water. That’s roughly equivalent to the… Read More
Volcanic CO2 Caused Ancient Episodes of Global Warming
In order to predict our climate future, scientists spend a lot of time looking into the past, trying to understand what conditions were like during times when the planet was much warmer or much cooler than it is today. The latest instance: a report published in the February issue of the journal Geosphere, offering a plausible explanation for swings… Read More
The Top 10 Hardest-Hit States for Crop Damage
The searing U.S. drought of 2012 devastated the nation’s corn crop, pushing yields down in some states to their lowest levels in nearly 30 years. According to recently-released numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were among the hardest hit Corn Belt states, with yields at 28-, 26-, and 22-year … Read More
Snow-loving Wolverines Threatened by Climate Change
When 18th century zoologists gave the largest land-dwelling member of the weasel family the scientific name Gulo gulo — which translates, not so roughly, to gluttonous glutton — they were foreshadowing what would be mankind’s rather one-dimensional view of the creature we now know as the wolverine. The black-and-white, 30-pound, bushy-tailed … Read More
Looking for Love as the Climate Heats Up
The interbreeding has several consequences, none well understood: It could increase genetic diversity, helping species weather rapid ecosystem changes. It also could dilute the genetics of at-risk animals such as polar bears – perhaps even diluting them beyond recognition. And the changes threaten to wreak havoc with conservation efforts. Not all e… Read More
