Warming Causing Rockies, Everest to Lose Ice and Snow
Around 20 percent of the snow cover in North America’s greatest mountain range has been lost – because of warmer springs in the last three decades. Scientists from the American Geophysical Union and the U.S. Geological Survey report that they had established a pattern of snowfall in the northern and southern Rockies: when the snowpack was large in… Read More
Study: 97 percent Agreement on Manmade Global Warming
The research, which is the most comprehensive analysis of climate research to date, finds that 97.1 percent of the studies published between 1991 to 2011 that expressed a position on manmade climate change agreed that it was happening, and that it was due to human activity. The study looked at peer reviewed research that mentioned climate change … Read More
Smaller Glaciers Boost Sea Level as Much as the Giants
As the planet warms under the influence of rising greenhouse gases, and melting ice drives sea level higher, scientists have focused mostly on changes in the vast ice sheets that cover Greenland and Antarctica. If either one melts substantially or slides into the ocean, the results would be catastrophic. But there’s another ice reserve to worry … Read More
Good News, Bad News from New EIA Emissions Analysis
There was good news and bad to be mined from a state-by-state analysis of carbon emissions over a decade, which was released this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Overall, the EIA reported that between 2000 and 2010, 38 states saw an overall drop in their annual energy-related carbon emissions, but between 2009 and 2010, … Read More
Tinderbox-Dry Western U.S. at High Risk of Major Wildfires
The anticipated escalation in U.S. wildfire activity comes after the slowest start to wildfires in at least 10 years, according to Jeremy Sullens, a forecaster at NIFC. As of May 3, the country had seen 13,150 wildfires, which have burned about 153,000 acres. Due to a combination of drought and record heat, 2012 saw one of the most destructive wild… Read More
China ‘Moving to Lead on Climate Change,’ Says Report
Both China and the U.S., the world’s two principal emitters of greenhouse gases, have been making significant recent progress on tackling climate change, a report by an influential Australian advisory group says. Its report, The Critical Decade: Global Action Building on Climate Change, has particular praise for China, saying its efforts “demonstra… Read More
Six to See: Slideshow of This Week’s Top Climate News
Tracking wildfires, measuring hurricanes and how this wacky weather is effecting the U.S. … Read More
Carbon Dioxide Passes 400 PPM Milestone, NOAA Finds
Climate scientists recognize this 400 ppm mark as a symbolic milestone, illustrating the rapid increase of human-caused CO2 emissions over the past century. Numerous other climate data, gleaned from ice cores, ocean sediment, and other sources show that this is the highest CO2 concentration in the air in all of modern human history, possibly as far… Read More
