Climate

Environment

U.S. oil and gas boom behind rising ethane levels

Oil and gas operations on North Dakota’s Bakken shale are largely to blame for a recent rise in global emissions of the greenhouse gas ethane, researchers conclude.

Earth

Rainwater can help trigger earthquakes

Rainwater plays a major role in the triggering of earthquakes along New Zealand’s Alpine Fault.

Climate

Fizzled 2014 El Niño fired up ongoing monster El Niño

The ongoing El Niño, one of the strongest on record, got a heat boost from a 2014 event that failed due to unfavorable winds.

Climate

Wildfire shifts could dump more ice-melting soot in Arctic

Wildfires will emit more soot into the air in many regions by the end of the century, new simulations show.

Environment

EPA boosts estimate of U.S. methane emissions

A new report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revises the agency’s methane emission estimates upward by 3.4 million metric tons.

Ecosystems

Heat may outpace corals’ ability to cope

Corals may soon lose their ability to withstand warming waters.

Environment

EPA underestimates methane emissions

Methane estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency fail to capture the full scope of U.S. emissions of the greenhouse gas, studies show.

Climate

Pollen becoming bee junk food as CO₂ rises

Rising CO2 lowers protein content in pollen, threatening nutrition for bees.

Climate

Science’s inconvenient (but interesting) uncertainties

In the latest issue of Science News, Editor in Chief Eva Emerson talks climate change, mouth microbes, and synthetic life.

Climate

Changing climate: 10 years after ‘An Inconvenient Truth’

In the 10 years since "An Inconvenient Truth," climate researchers have made progress in predicting how rising temperatures will affect sea level, weather patterns and polar ice.

Climate

Sea levels could rise twice as fast as previously predicted

Sea level rise from Antarctica’s melting ice could accelerate faster and sooner than previously thought.

Environment

Dome effect leaves Chinese megacities under thick haze

Airborne black carbon lowers an atmospheric boundary, trapping pollution around major cities and worsening air quality, researchers propose.