Earth
- Earth
Age of solar system needs a fresh look
Honed measurements show age overshot by amount significant to earliest stage of formation.
- Earth
Danish sustainability: From coats to undies
The United Nations climate change conference may be over, but Denmark’s interest in climate-protection issues isn’t. Case in point: an exhibit at the Danish Design Center. Across the street from Copenhagen’s famed Tivoli Gardens, local fashion-design students are showcasing their idea of another type of greens – fashion-forward clothes that are kind to Mother Nature.
By Janet Raloff - Climate
Warming has already boosted insect breeding
Museum records, publications suggest extra generations at same time as temperature increases
By Susan Milius - Earth
Tides in Earth’s crust trigger small, deep quakes
Study of one portion of the San Andreas fault finds that just a little added stress from crustal tides makes a quake more likely.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
Mistletoe leaves a big carbon footprint in Yellowstone
Earth sciences reporter Sid Perkins blogs on new research from the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
By Sid Perkins - Chemistry
Climate deal reached, importance debated
“Finally, we sealed the deal. And it is a real deal,” said United Nations Secretary General Ban ki-Moon this morning at an 11:15 press briefing. He was referring to a new climate accord – one aimed at reducing global greenhouse-gas emissions and setting up a green trust fund for mitigation and adaptation programs in the world’s poorest countries, ones that are already being hammered by a changing climate.
By Janet Raloff - Climate
Climate: Deal or no deal?
We’ve got a climate accord, President Barack Obama said at a parting press conference tonight (at about 11 to 11:30 p.m. local time, before leaving Denmark). Not so fast, argue a number of other negotiating blocs...like the G77.
By Janet Raloff -
- Earth
Cameras catch underwater volcano in the act
Seafloor eruption in the South Pacific is the deepest and most violent yet seen.
By Sid Perkins - Earth
2009 Science News of the Year: Environment
Recent monitoring (from a gondola in Washington state, shown) reveals that rates of tree death are up. Credit: Univ. of Washington Routine tree deaths doubled Small background rates of everyday tree death have doubled in old-growth, western forests since 1955, possibly because of climate change, researchers report (SN: 2/14/09, p. 8). In 76 plots with […]
By Science News - Climate
Carbon dioxide: Blame where blame is due?
Blog: Measuring outsourcing of greenhouse gases. From the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
By Sid Perkins - Climate
Climate: China defends its reputation
Over the past few days, a number of national delegations – not least the United States’ – have criticized implicitly, if not explicitly, China’s unwillingness to accept binding limits on its greenhouse-gas emissions and the measurement of emissions by outside auditors. This morning, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao addressed a plenary meeting of the United Nations climate-change conference – populated by more than 100 heads of heads of state – to make his case that China has embarked on an earnest step toward substantive climate protection.
By Janet Raloff