Climate

  1. Climate

    Rising CO2 promotes weedy rice

    There has been a lot of research, recently, showing how global change — especially warming — can alter the habitat and preferred range of marine and terrestrial species. But rising levels of greenhouse gases can also, directly, do a number on agricultural ecosystems, a new study shows. At least for U.S.-grown rice, rising carbon dioxide levels give a preferential reproductive advantage to the weedy natural form — known colloquially as red rice (for the color of its seed coat).

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  2. Earth

    Study keeps pace with Greenland glaciers

    Herky-jerky motion of the island’s ice suggests that melting ice is unlikely to contribute to dramatic sea level rise this century, but the news isn’t all good.

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  3. Humans

    Warming Marches in

    People may argue about why Earth is warming, how long its fever will last and whether any of this warrants immediate corrective action. But whether Earth is warming is no longer open to debate. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has just published domestic examples to reinforce what Americans witnessed last month — either on TV or in their own backyards.

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  4. Humans

    Weighing the costs of conferencing

    A provocative editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association questions the value of attending scientific conferences. It’s a theme that reemerges every few years. And in times of tight budgets, the idea seems worth revisiting.

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  5. Climate

    Carbon dioxide breaking down marine ecosystems

    Scientists capitalize on 'natural’ experiment to chronicle how ecosystems will change as oceans continue to acidify.

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  6. Climate

    Humans’ greenhouse gas emissions throw next ice age off schedule

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  7. Climate

    Amazon may become greenhouse gas emitter

    South America’s massive rain forest may soon release more carbon into the atmosphere than it absorbs.

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  8. Climate

    Soil’s Hidden Secrets

    Shocking discoveries from the underground may shake up climate science.

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  9. Humans

    Insurance payouts point to climate change

    Natural disasters in 2011 exerted the costliest toll in history — a whopping $380 billion worth of losses from earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis and more. Only a third of those costs were covered by insurance. And the tally ignores completely any expenses associated with sickness or injuries triggered by the disasters. And except for quake-related events, climate change appears to have played a role in the growing cost of disasters, insurers said.

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  10. Climate

    Matt Crenson, Reconstructions

    In ancient Southwest droughts, a warning of dry times to come.

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  11. Humans

    Contrasting the concerns over climate and ozone loss

    On November 7, ozone and climate scientists met in Washington, D.C., to discuss whether the history of stratospheric ozone protection offered a useful case study about how to catalyze global action on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The simple answer that emerged: No.

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  12. Humans

    Sarah’s tale of Arctic warming

    Over a half-century or so, Sarah James' town of some 150 Athabascan Indians has watched as the formerly extreme but fairly predictable climate in this amazingly remote region of inland Alaska has become warmer and more erratic. Overall, that’s definitely not been a change for the better, she says. James ventured to South Florida this week — and the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual meeting — to describe what it’s like to weather life on the frontlines of climate change.

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