A number of environmental groups are giving a thumbs-down to the efforts of an advocacy group established earlier this year by Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, the Los Angeles Times reports. Created in April, Fwd.us promotes policies designed to keep the United States and its citizens competitive in a global economy, including comprehensive immigration and education…
“We already know it is too late to reverse the planet’s transformation, and we know what is going to happen next – superstorms, super-droughts, super-pandemics, massive population displacement, water scarcity, desertification and all the rest. Massive destruction, displacement and despair. Our worst fears are already upon us. The reality is far worse than anyone has…
Ravaged by arid winds and ultraviolet rays, some bacteria not only survive in the upper atmosphere but might affect weather and climate, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In one of the first attempts to explore atmospheric microbiology at high altitude, researchers analysed air samples from a…
The sun’s energy is virtually limitless, but harnessing its electricity with today’s single-crystal silicon solar cells is extremely expensive — 10 times pricier than coal, according to some estimates. Organic solar cells — polymer solar cells that use organic materials to absorb light and convert it into electricity — could be a solution, but current…
The massive amounts of heat produced by cities may be heating up rural areas 1,000 miles away, atmospheric researchers have found in a new modeling study. Scientists have long invoked the “urban island heat effect” to explain why cities are generally hotter than suburban and rural areas. More people, as well as more cars, houses,…
A new study indicates that the last interglacial period may give us a picture of where the planet is headed now, as greenhouse gases increase and temperatures rise. Results from the NEEM deep ice core drilling project, led by the University of Copenhagen, show that during the Eemian period, between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago,…
Climate change has shrunk Andean glaciers between 30 and 50% since the 1970s and could melt many of them away altogether in coming years, according to a study published in the journal Cryosphere. Andean glaciers, a vital source of fresh water for tens of millions of South Americans, are retreating at their fastest rates in…
From our friends at NASA comes an amazing 13-second animation that depicts how temperatures around the globe have warmed since 1950. You’ll note an acceleration of the temperature trend in the late 1970s as greenhouse gas emissions from energy production increased worldwide and clean air laws reduced emissions of pollutants that had a cooling effect…
President Barack Obama promised to take action on climate change in his inaugural speech, putting the issue at the forefront of his agenda for the second term. Americans’ obligations are not just to self, “but to all posterity,” Obama said. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do…
Whether in Davos or almost anywhere else that leaders are discussing the world’s problems, they are missing by far the biggest issue: the rapidly deteriorating global environment and its ability to support civilization. The situation is pretty much an endgame. Unless pressing issues of the biology of the planet and of climate change generated by…