The stability of Antarctic ice has long concerned climate scientists. If the west Antarctic ice sheet’s base were to collapse, global sea levels could shoot up by five meters. But new research shows the ice could be a bit more tough than scientists thought. In a study published online last month in the geo-science journal Palaeogeograpy, Palaeoclimtology, Palaeoecology, University of Exeter-led geographer Christopher Fogwill and colleagues found that blue-ice moraines in West Antarctica fluctuated... [Read more]

Scientists define a mass extinction as when the Earth loses more than 75 percent of its species in short geological time, within 2 million years. This hasn’t happened very often — only five times in the last 540 million years. Is it happening now again? The “sixth extinction” has been discussed by biologists for decades. In a paper published this week in the journal Nature, University of California at Berkeley-led biologists take stock on the status of the the Earth’s... [Read more]

Think the 1930s “Dust Bowl” was bad in the American West? Scientists have found evidence of “mega-drought” events that lasted centuries to millennia in the same region during warm, interglacial periods in the Pleistocene era (370,000-550,000 years ago). The evidence heightens concern over how the region will react to the modern day global temperature spikes. A dust storm in Oklahoma, 1936. Photo: Arthur Rothstein The American Southwest is already predicted to get pretty dry... [Read more]

Carbon dioxide is usually the greenhouse gas of choice in climate discussions, mainly because it’s long lasting, so the impacts of higher levels unfold over decades, if not centuries. But a new policy paper by the UNEP and World Meteorological Association shines light on the lesser discussed, more immediately potent molecules in the atmosphere: black carbon, and ground-level ozone. The paper states that if reduction measures were introduced on these other molecules (by 2030), future global... [Read more]

Extreme precipitation events seem to be becoming more common in the Norther Hemisphere. But it’s been very hard for scientists to pinpoint a major weather event to global warming. Still, when a 100-year flood comes and then returns in a matter of a few years, it’s hard not to consider it a sign of a warming world. Several papers published this week in the journal Nature demonstrate that such extreme precipitation events in specific localities is the result of climate change and not an... [Read more]

Climate science may lack the knowledge to understand the full scope of climate change. But it certainly doesn’t lack data. From records dating back to the 1600s to modern day satellite images and numerical climate model simulations, there’s a treasure-trove of data out there that are aiding scientists and government officials in addressing the changing climate. The problem, as outlined this week in a perspective piece in the journal Science, is that the data is fragmented and dispersed... [Read more]

Queensland, in Northeast Australia, has seen a troubling years. A decade-long drought was followed this past November by the start extreme rains that flooded an area the size of France and Germany combined. Extreme rainfall in Queensland may become more frequent under climate change. Photo: SunriseOn7 on Flickr The large lowlands and subtropical climate make it particularly prone to tropical cyclones and a new study shows climate change could make matters worse. Janice Lough, a climate scientist... [Read more]

Which species may be most adept to climate change? The answer could very well be microbes. The microscopic critters do something that no other living thing is capable of: long term dormancy. As Jay Lennon from Michigan State University explains in his latest paper, “Microbial seed banks: the ecological and evolutionary implications of dormancy” in Nature Reviews: Microbiology, when the going gets rough, microbes can just check out and wait for better times. “There’s this transition... [Read more]

On the heels of a study showing that Arctic ice is highly susceptible to warm water fluxes from the Atlantic Ocean, comes a new one estimating that Arctic waters are the warmest they’ve been in 2,000 years. The interesting thing about this study, published in the journal Science this week, is that it looked at the history of tiny amoeboid protists called planktic foraminifers to tell the story. The remains of these creatures in sediment cores on the western edge of Svalbard, in Norway, were... [Read more]

The mass Permian extinction 250 million years ago is frequently blamed on volcanoes. But a new study shows that what may have really tipped the climate was the volcanic release of massive amounts of combusted coal –  similar to modern day coal ash from coal-fired power plants. If so, modern day climate change hasn’t been the first time that burning coal was to blame. The extinction of that era wiped out some 90 percent of marine species, one of the largest extinction events in history.... [Read more]