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Climate Change

CLIMATE CHANGE: Human Disruption of Earth’s Oceans and Ice is ‘Unprecedented,’ Says Chilling New Report

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Marine life overheats as it gasps for oxygen in warming oceans. Rising seas swallow islands and coastal areas. A growing number of storms generate historic flooding. Landslides and avalanches wreak havoc as stabilizing ice melts away. These are just a few of the impacts that scientists are already documenting across the planet after decades of human-driven climate disruption. And there’s far worse to come if climate-damaging activities continue unchecked, according to a report released today (Sept. 25) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body tasked with evaluating climate change (also referred to as global warming) … Read more

SPACE: Where is Everybody? And What Does That Mean for Us?

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It is 1950 and a group of scientists are walking to lunch against the majestic backdrop of the Rocky Mountains. They are about to have a conversation that will become scientific legend. The scientists are at the Los Alamos Ranch School, the site for the Manhattan Project, where each of the group has lately played their part in ushering in the atomic age. They are laughing about a recent cartoon in the New Yorker offering an unlikely explanation for a slew of missing public trash cans across New York City. The cartoon had depicted “little green men” (complete with antenna … Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE: Greenland Melting; July Heat; Fracking

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Here are some of the latest climate change stories to keep you up-to-date: Greenland Loses 11 Billion Tons of Ice – In One DayAfter months of record temperatures, scientists say Greenland’s ice sheet experienced its biggest melt of the summer on Thursday, losing 11 billion tons of surface ice to the ocean — equivalent to 4.4 million Olympic swimming pools. Greenland’s ice sheet usually melts during the summer, but the melt season typically begins around the end of May; this year it began at the start. It has been melting “persistently” over the past four months, which have recorded all time … Read more

CLIMAGE CHANGE: Hot July; Greenland Melt, More…

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I’ve long believed that, as a sci fi writer, I have a special responsibility to look forward and see not only the amazing possibilities ahead, but also the dangers we face, and right now climate change is just about at the top of that pile. So we’re going to bring you stories like these that may fire up the sci fi writer in you, but more importantly, serve to raise awareness of what’s already happening around the globe. July May Have Been the Hottest Month Ever Recorded, UN Says July 2019 may have been the single hottest month in recorded … Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE: We Need to Plant Trees

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Want to help save the world from climate change? Then grab some seeds, or some seedlings, and start planting trees like there’s no tomorrow. At least 1 trillion of them, and fast. That may sound like a lot of trees, but the Earth has room for their gnarled bows and branches. In a new study that excluded cities and agricultural areas, researchers found that the planet has nearly 3.5 million square miles (9 million square kilometers) to spare for trees. Such newly planted trees could cut carbon (a part of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide) in the atmosphere by nearly … Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE: This Is the Most pressing Issue of Our Time

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Think climate change is a far-off thing affecting only future generations? Think again. Check out these headlines from just the last TWO DAYS: Today’s Climate Change Is Worse Than Anything Earth Has Experienced in the Past 2,000 Years The global climate is changing faster now than it has at any point in the past 2,000 years. That’s the conclusion of a trio of papers published July 24 in the journals Nature and Nature Geoscience that examined the global climate over the past two millennia. The researchers showed that none of the past fluctuations — that is, not the Little Ice … Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE: Has it Been Hotter Than This Before?

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Short Answer – yes. And almost everything died. Would you ever go on vacation to the North Pole? Unless you like subzero temperatures and Nordic-ski treks, probably not. But if you lived 56 million years ago, you might answer differently. Back then, you would have enjoyed balmy temperatures and a lush green landscape (although you would have had to watch out for crocodiles). That’s because the world was in the middle of an extreme period of global warming called the Paleo-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when the Earth was so hot that even the poles reached nearly tropical temperatures. But was the … Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE: Arctic Permafrost is Melting – 70 Years Sooner Than Expected

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In the Canadian Arctic, layers of permafrost that scientists expected to remain frozen for at least 70 years have already begun thawing. The once-frozen surface is now sinking and dotted with melt ponds and from above looks a bit like Swiss cheese, satellite images reveal. “We were astounded that this system responded so quickly to the higher air temperatures,” said Louise Farquharson, a co-author of the study and postdoctoral fellow at the Permafrost Laboratory at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Permafrost is ground that remains frozen for at least two years. It underlies about 15% of the unglaciated Northern Hemisphere … Read more

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Danger of “Fire Ice”

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There’s a giant trove of frozen methane, or “fire ice,” locked beneath our ocean’s surface. If released, it could trigger tsunamis, landslides and release huge amounts of carbon into our already-warming atmosphere. But we have almost no idea how much there is or where to find it. That’s in part because frozen methane on our planet takes many more forms than we previously thought, and we are only now beginning to recognize some of them, Ann Cook, an associate professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University said during a presentation yesterday (June 25) here at … Read more

The Heat Is Coming

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When I say, “how about that heat wave,” perhaps you think of the western United States, where temperatures last week soared above 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius), smashing dozens of historical heat records from Oregon to Arizona. Or maybe you think of India — where intense heat has scorched the country for more than a month, killing at least 36 people and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate their villages — or perhaps Kuwait, where local media recently reported high temperatures of 145 F (63 C), potentially the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth. The point is, the Northern … Read more