Climate News Articles Archive Page 6 from Fri 22 Jul 2011 to Thu 15 Sep 2011

Climate change: asking the experts

Posted Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:15:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

Away from the labs and the computer models, social scientists are turning to indigenous peoples in Alaska as a new measure of the impacts of climate change.

Climate change: asking the experts

Arctic ice retreats to new minimum

Posted Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:26:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

Physicists observing the Arctic's ice cover say that a new, and ominous, record has been set this year with the ice melting more than ever previously recorded. Since July, scientists at the University of Bremen, who monitor the extent of the Arctic's seasonal melting and freezing, have feared that 2011 would see an even greater melt than the previous largest in 2007.

Arctic ice retreats to new minimum

CO2 storage is super safe say scientists

Posted Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:01:01 GMT by Colin Ricketts

By studying the risk of death from naturally occurring CO2 leaks in Italy, a team of geoscience experts have estimated there's much more chance of winning the lottery than there is of being harmed by new carbon storage facilities.

CO2 storage is super safe say scientists

Flood and fire - climate change warnings from Irene and Texas?

Posted Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:03:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

With the unrelenting weather extremes in the US swinging to firestorms in Texas, after the floods of Irene, the picture of a climate in chaos is a compelling one. But how much can the cause of individual events such of these, even when gathered in a flurry, be pinned to climate change?

Flood and fire - climate change warnings from Irene and Texas?

Ploughing into the effect of crop tillage on greenhouse gas emissions

Posted Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:43:00 GMT by Kieran Ball

A new study finds that crop tillage could play a significant role in measuring greenhouse gas emissions. A team from the USDA-ARS in partnership with the University of Minnesota has found that the tillage of crops can affect levels of greenhouse gas emissions over a specified area of land.

Ploughing into the effect of crop tillage on greenhouse gas emissions

Socking it to soot could clean air and save ice caps

Posted Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:43:25 GMT by Martin Leggett

A Stanford University scientist is claiming that action on soot could have immediate and dramatic effects on slowing global warming, and reducing deaths from smoky air. The model being presented at the 242nd American Chemical Society meet suggests that soot is the second-biggest contributor to global warming - but that controlling it could be cheaper, and produce results faster, than the ongoing battle to reduce CO2.

Socking it to soot could clean air and save ice caps

Mongolia - a laboratory for climate change

Posted Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:06:00 GMT by Julian Jackson

The land of herders and yurts has undergone over two degrees Celsius of warming during the past 70 years. Mongolia, the little-known land sandwiched between China to the south and Siberia to the North is what one expert calls, ''a laboratory for climate change''.

Mongolia - a laboratory for climate change

Global climate affects stability of modern societies

Posted Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:41:00 GMT by Louise Murray

For the first time scientists have linked the stability of modern societies to the global climate. Tropical civil conflicts doubled during the hot and dry El Nino cycles between 1950 and 2004. Researchers have proved that the risk of civil conflict doubles in the hotter and drier conditions prevailing in El Nino years.

Global climate affects stability of modern societies

How thawing permafrost can increase CO2 emissions and accelerate climate change

Posted Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:50:21 GMT by Michael Evans

As high-latitude permafrost thaws following climate change, a new study reveals that released CO2 can accellerate the process. Billions of tonnes of carbon are trapped in this permafrost and this will be released as the permafrost begins to thaw and early predictions were that the growth of the new vegetation would pull more carbon from the atmosphere than the permafrost would release.

How thawing permafrost can increase CO2 emissions and accelerate climate change

New age for ice spotters as satellites map Antarctic

Posted Fri, 19 Aug 2011 15:25:00 GMT by Colin Ricketts

A NASA project has for the first time mapped the glacial flows of Antarctica, providing vital information in the monitoring of climate change. The map they have created shows glaciers as they snake their way from the desolate Antarctic interior to the southern oceans.

New age for ice spotters as satellites map Antarctic

North and south, changes to polar ecology racking up

Posted Thu, 11 Aug 2011 20:00:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

Not all of the changes ongoing in the Arctic and Antarctic are big and dramatic. Small-scale changes to the bugs and soils are likely to change the face of the poles too, says a presentation to the Ecological Society of America, made in Texas yesterday.

North and south, changes to polar ecology racking up

Managed forests can soak up more carbon

Posted Wed, 10 Aug 2011 15:08:00 GMT by Kieran Ball

Researchers discover that forests with younger, more diverse, species of trees are more effective at soaking up carbon than their older trees. Forests act as CO2 sponges, soaking up to 2.4 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases annually - almost a third of all CO2 released through the burning of fossil fuels each year.

Managed forests can soak up more carbon

Horn of Africa faces more extreme future - a tale from the lake

Posted Thu, 04 Aug 2011 18:00:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

While the drought crisis still rages in the Horn of Africa, a study published in Science today provides snapshots of how such droughts have played out over the last 20,000 years. Researchers have been able to connect muddy layers in a lake in Kenya to the ragged fluctuations of the El Nino/ La Nina cycle in the Pacific; the story confirms that a future both wetter, and more drought-prone, is likely.

Horn of Africa faces more extreme future - a tale from the lake

Fire in the north: burning tundra heralds new warming worries

Posted Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:00:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

A paper out in Nature today suggests that the touch-paper for runaway global warming could be lit by increased fires in the previously damp tundra soils of the Arctic. Such fires have been absent for 11,000 years - their reappearance could help cause permafrost to melt more readily, in a chain-reaction of CO2 emissions that would boost global warming.

Fire in the north: burning tundra heralds new warming worries

Ice shelf collapse causes glacial surge

Posted Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:50:00 GMT by Melanie J. Martin

Just how much does the collapse of an ice shelf affect glaciers? Glacial ice may surge into the ocean for many years after an ice shelf's collapse. New research studying two ice shelf collapses provides the most accurate data yet on this phenomenon.

Ice shelf collapse causes glacial surge

Is carbon capture kaput?

Posted Fri, 22 Jul 2011 16:44:00 GMT by Martin Leggett

News of AEP's cancellation of its carbon capture trial after mixed success have added to worries that CCS (Carbon capture and Storage) is struggling to match hopes for helping with the global carbon conundrum. And a new report into reusing CO2 - released yesterday by the UK's Center for Low Carbon Futures - is a reminder that potential their may also be too little too late.

Is carbon capture kaput?

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