An area in the Amazon twice the size of California is experiencing what scientists call a “megadrought.” The prolonged drought, which began in 2005, has caused widespread damage to the area and may possibly be a sign that the rainforest is showing the first signs of large-scale degradation due to climate change. A research team,…
A special panel of scientists issued a report detailing the dozens of ways how climate change is already disrupting the health, homes and other facets of daily American life. It warns that those disruptions will increase in the future. The report uses the word “threat” or variations of it 198 times and versions of the…
Japan is moving away from reliance on nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster, and plans to plans to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Officials say the proposal calls for construction of 143 wind turbines on platforms 10 miles off the coast of Fukushima, where the Daiichi nuclear power plant was damaged in…
You could call them early bloomers: In 2010 and 2012, plants in the eastern U.S. produced flowers earlier than at any point in recorded history, a new study says. This result, according to the research team, has a bit of a literary twist: It comes from data collected by U.S. environmental writers Henry David Thoreau…
Air pollution in China is at an all-time high. The Asian Development Bank together with Tsinghua University recently released the “National Environmental Analysis,” has reported that among the world’s ten most air polluted cities, 7 are in China. They are Taiyuan, Beijing, Urumqi, Lanzhou, Chongqing, Jinan and Shijiazhuang. The NY Times recently reported that the…
Soot ranks as the second-largest human contributor to climate change, according to a new analysis, exerting twice as much of an impact as previously thought. The four-year, 232-page study of black carbon, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, shows that short-lived pollution known as soot, such as emissions from diesel engines and wood-fired…
The average global temperature in 2012 was among the 10 hottest since official record keeping began in 1880, with most of the world — from North America to far northeastern Asia — experiencing higher-than-usual temperatures, according to related reports issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Last…
The stifling pollution in Beijing is being called “airpocalypse” by some. According to an air monitoring station located at the U.S. Embassy there, particulate pollution was literally off the charts — with readings well into the 700s on a 0-500 scale. To see how the pollution over much of China increased from Jan. 3 to…
The natural conservatism of science has often led climatologists to be cautious in their pronouncements about global warming. Indeed, more than once they have drawn criticism for burying their fundamental message – that society is running some huge risks — in caveats and cavils. To judge from the draft of a new report issued by…
Green groups are amping up the pressure on President Barack Obama to make good on his promises to address climate change — even if Congress fails to act. By refocusing their efforts on the White House, environmentalists are bypassing the all-but-paralyzed legislative branch, appealing to Obama’s desire for a legacy and operating in an arena…