Drilling of the seabed off Antarctica has revealed that rainforest grew on the frozen continent 52 million years ago, scientists said, warning it could be ice-free again within decades. The study of sediment cores drilled from the ocean floor off Antarctica’s east coast revealed fossil pollens that had come from a “near-tropical” forest covering the…
A drought that gripped western North America from 2000 to 2004 was the worst since the Middle Ages, but such extreme conditions may become normal during the next 100 years, finds a new study. During the drought that started at the turn of the century, forests withered, river basins were depleted, crop productivity dropped and…
Summer storms may create new holes in our protective ozone layer as Earth heats up—bringing increased solar ultraviolet radiation to densely populated areas, a new study says. What’s more, if more sunlight reaches Earth, skin cancer could become the new marquee risk of global warming. As the planet warms, some studies have suggested summer storms…
A rift in the Antarctic rock as deep as the Grand Canyon is increasing ice melt from the continent, researchers say. A U.K. team found the Ferrigno rift using ice-penetrating radar, and showed it to be about 1 mile deep. Antarctica is home to a geological rift system where new crust is being formed, meaning…
Deforestation of protected areas and illegal hunting of endangered species that live there has a greater impact on biodiversity than climate change, overfishing and the degradation of coral reefs, according to a researcher. The “rapid disruption” of protected tropical forests is the greatest threat to wildlife, Bill Laurance, a professor at James Cook University in…
For several days in July, Greenland’s surface ice cover melted over a larger area than at any time in more than 30 years of satellite observations. Nearly the entire ice cover of Greenland, from its thin, low-lying coastal edges to its 2-mile-thick center, experienced some degree of melting at its surface, according to measurements from…
Polar and brown bears diverged between 4 million and 5 million years ago, but they continued to interbreed when the climate warmed. Now, there is evidence that it is happening again.
It’s assumed that modern humans, Homo sapiens, originated in Africa sometime between 200,000 and 100,000 years ago. But paleoanthropologist Tim Weaver argues there might be another way to interpret our species’ beginnings. Instead of a discrete origin event, he suggests in the Journal of Human Evolution that our ancestors’ arrival into the world might have…
Three simple numbers that add up to global catastrophe – and that make clear who the real enemy is
An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan tore off one of Greenland’s largest glaciers. For several years, scientists had been watching a long crack in the floating ice shelf of the northerly Petermann Glacier. Now, NASA satellites show it has broken completely, forming an iceberg covering 46 square miles. The same glacier spawned an iceberg…