Climate Change
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The DC Derecho of 2012
A devastating storm swept through Washington Friday night. By Saturday morning we were all left wondering, "what in the world had happened?"
July 02, 2012 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Body Heat From Your Seat Can Juice Your Laptop
Swedish designer Eddi Tornberg’s desk pulls power from a number of different sources — a plant, a piezoelectric pad that responds to the pressure of fidgeting, and from the body heat of the person sitting in the chair. Tornberg’s idea was to connect sustainable design and energy with day-to-day life, he says: The energy is [...]
June 29, 2012 |
By Sarah Laskow
Head of World’s Largest Oil Company Suggests Climate Change is No Big Deal
Speaking to the non-profit think tank Council on Foreign Relations, ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson said that preventing climate change will be “manageable.”
June 28, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Devastating Colorado Wildfires Most Recent in Decades-Long Surge
Residents have so far been able to stay safe from the fires, but strong winds compounding on record high temperatures, a dry winter, and possibly a recent pine beetle infestation, have rocketed this year's fire season to be one of the most destructive in at least four decades.
June 27, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Sea Level Rising Three Times Faster Than Average on Northeast US Coast
A study lead by United States Geological Survey scientist Asbury Sallenger found that over the past 20 years the ocean height has gone up faster along the coast north of Cape Hateras, North Carolina, than to the south. According to Nature, In absolute figures, sea levels on this stretch of coast have climbed by between 2 [...]
June 25, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
70 Percent of Illinois Is In A Drought (And It’s Better Off Than Indiana)
The U.S. Drought Monitor has determined that most of Illinois is in a drought. So is most of Arkansas (71%), Ohio (77%), Missouri (82%), and Indiana (85%). The drought’s bringing to mind the last bad one, which happened in 1988. The Jacksonville Journal-Courier talked to the Illinois Farm Bureau’s John Hawkins, who says it’s not [...]
June 22, 2012 |
By Sarah Laskow
Scientists Save Bats and Birds from Wind Turbine Slaughter
In the past two decades, wind generation in the United States has increased almost 50 times over, now comprising nearly a full quarter of the country’s renewable energy. Arising from this push, though, is a huge problem for the birds and bats that live near wind farms, reports Meera Subramanian in Nature. “The troubling issue with [...]
June 20, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Beautiful Infographic Charts Ugly Reality of Species Loss
Climate change. Illegal hunting. Habitat destruction. It’s no shocker that global biodiversity is plummeting. Now, the new “Living Planet Index” from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society London presents an attractively designed but immensely depressing interactive infographic depicting the rate of change of 2,500 species populations from 1970 to 2008. Spoiler alert: most [...]
June 20, 2012 |
By Rachel Nuwer
Stunning View of Arctic Could Be Last of its Kind
Photo: NASA/GSFC/Suomi NPP Scientists working with data collected by NASA’s new Suomi NPP satellite put together this absolutely gorgeous view of the Earth’s icy north. The image, which shows the Arctic polar ice cap, a green Europe poking out of the clouds on the left, and northern Africa, the middle east, and Asia, was made [...]
June 19, 2012 |
By Colin Schultz
Interview With Indianapolis Prize Winner and Polar Bear Researcher Steven Amstrup
Recognized for his role in animal conservation, Amstrup explains what climate change is doing to the arctic and what he's doing to stop it
June 14, 2012 |
By Joseph Stromberg
Climate Change Means More Wildfires in the West
A new study indicates that temperate regions will experience more fires, while equatorial areas will see fewer
June 13, 2012 |
By Joseph Stromberg
A New Opportunity at the Panama Canal
The ongoing expansion of the waterway has given Smithsonian researchers a chance to find new fossils
June 2012 |
By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
10 Things We’ve Learned About the Earth Since Last Earth Day
We recap the most surprising, awe-inspiring and alarming things that we have learned about the Earth and the environment since last year's holiday
April 19, 2012 |
By Joseph Stromberg
Climate Change’s Latest Victim: Ice Hockey
For outdoor ice rinks, hockey season has gotten shorter in the past 50 years
March 05, 2012 |
By Virginia Hughes
Trees Weathered the Ice Age
Pine and spruce trees managed to survive in certain spots in Scandinavia, according to DNA analyses
March 02, 2012 |
By Virginia Hughes
Svalbard Global Seed Vault Turns Four
Four years ago this week, researchers opened the "Doomsday Vault" to store frozen seeds in case of disaster
February 29, 2012 |
By Virginia Hughes
Arabic Manuscripts: It Used To Snow in Iraq
Baghdad was the bustling capital of the vast Islamic Empire a thousand years ago, when the city's climate was much different than today
February 27, 2012 |
By Virginia Hughes
The Wandering Albatross and Global Warming
The giant oceanic birds are producing more and plumper chicks, at least for now
February 08, 2012 |
By Greg Laden
An Astronomer’s Solution to Global Warming
The technology developed for telescopes, it turns out, can harness solar power
February 03, 2012 |
By Alaina G. Levine
What Was Killing the Aspens?
Scientists determine it was lack of water, not food, that was responsible for sudden aspen decline
December 19, 2011 |
By Sarah Zielinski
