Climate
- Humans
Really bad year for Arctic sea ice
On October 4, the National Snow and Ice Data Center posted information on its website indicating that the summer melt of sea ice in the Arctic, this year, approached — but did not quite match — the record set four years ago. A team of European scientists now concludes NSIDC underestimated those Arctic losses.
- Humans
Study recalibrates trees’ carbon uptake
Photosynthesis appears to be somewhat speedier than conventional wisdom had suggested, a new study finds. If true, this suggests computer projections are at risk of overestimating the potential for trees to sop up carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas.
- Earth
Summer Arctic melt among worst ever
With no obvious weather pattern to explain this year’s near-record annual ice retreat, generally warming climate appears to be the culprit.
- Chemistry
HIPPO reveals climate surprises
A major pollution-mapping program that ends September 9 has turned up startling trends in climate-warming gases and soot.
- Climate
El Niños may inflame civil unrest
Weather extremes associated with this climate phenomenon appear to double the risk that conflict will erupt in any given year.
- Tech
Growing need for space trash collectors
On April 2, for the fifth time in less than three years, the International Space Station fired its engines to dodge a piece of orbital debris that appeared on a collision path. Other spacecraft also regularly scoot out of the way of rocket and satellite debris. Such evasive action will be needed increasingly frequently, a new study finds.
- Earth
Marine microbes prove potent greenhouse gas emitters
Earth’s oceans emit an estimated 30 percent of the nitrous oxide, or N2O, entering the atmosphere. Yet the source of this potent greenhouse gas has puzzled scientists for years. Bacteria — long the leading candidate — can generate nitrous oxide, but the seas don’t seem to contain enough to account for all of the nitrous oxide that the marine world has been coughing up. Now researchers offer a better candidate.
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- Humans
AAAS board defends climate scientists
“AAAS vigorously opposes attacks on researchers that question their personal and professional integrity or threaten their safety based on displeasure with their scientific conclusions.” This declaration was contained in a 400-word denunciation of attacks on climate scientists and the politicization of climate science that was issued June 29 by the organization's board of directors.
- Humans
It’s time to put a price on carbon, NRC says
“It is imprudent to delay actions that at least begin the process of substantially reducing emissions [of greenhouse gases],” according to a May 12 report by the National Research Council. It didn’t get a lot of press play in the past week, perhaps because its 144 pages don’t say anything readers might not have expected this august body to have proclaimed years ago. But that shouldn’t diminish the significance of this report, its authors contend.
- Earth
Warming dents corn and wheat yields
Rising temperatures have decreased global grain production and may be partly responsible for food price increases.
- Earth
Earth/Environment
How Antarctica got its ice, plus Chinese dust-ups and rising bird malaria in this week’s news.
