The Earth is a giant magnet because its core is solid iron, and swirling around it is an ocean of molten metal. An ancient, well-preserved tree that was alive the last time the Earth’s magnetic poles flipped has helped scientists pin down more precise timing of that event, which occurred about 42,000 years ago. This[…]
In the middle of a global pandemic, it can be easy to forget the significant danger that global warming presents. The planet is warming at an accelerating rate, from the north pole to the south. The average surface temperature has seen an increase of 0.9 degrees Celsius. The impact of this warming isn’t something way[…]
Athens city walls / Photo by GreeceGuy, Wikimedia Commons Critically examining elements of both anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric environmentalism in ancient Greek thinking. By Dr. Munamato Chemhuru Professor of Philosophy University of Johannesburg Abstract In this article, I consider how ancient Greek philosophical thinking might be approached differently if the environmental ethical import that is salient in[…]
Near Oymyakon in Yakutia, Russia / Photo Maarten Takens, Wikimedia Commons To work out how the climate has changed over time, climate scientists need long-term records. By Dr. K. Jan Oosthoek Associate Member, Centre for Environmental History Australian National University Documentary data To get a more convincing assessment of a statement such as a regular occurrence[…]
The world’s biggest desert used to be green, lush and full of hippos. A new theory suggests humans could have tipped the environment over the edge. By Dr. David K. Wright / 03.16.2017 Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology and Art History Seoul National University Once upon a time, the Sahara was green. There were vast lakes. Hippos and giraffe lived there, and large human populations of fishers foraged for food alongside the lakeshores.[…]
The Growroom exhibited at Copenhagen Opera House. Photo by Alona Vibe From Space10 / 02.14.2017 Introduction The design for The Growroom, an urban farm pavilion that looks into how cities can feed themselves through food producing architecture, is now open source and available for anyone to use. SPACE10 envision a future, where we grow our own[…]
Photo by Pixabay “We can create a spectacular legacy for our loved ones.” By Marlene Cimons / 11.08.2017 Natural burials — where bodies are buried in the soil to allow for a hasty decomposition — have already caught on. But an Australian scientist has proposed that the concept of “dust-unto-dust” go even further. He suggests that natural burials become “conservation”[…]
“We will lose much of the record of the last several thousand years of human occupation in coastal areas.” By Marlene Cimons / 11.29.2017 Extreme weather events powered by climate change already have shown how rising seas threaten coastal communities: flooding and destruction of homes followed by widespread migration and resettlement. That’s horrible enough. But sobering new[…]
Tornado seven miles south of Anadarko, Oklahoma, May 3, 1999. OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory/Flickr By Dr. Paul Markowski and Dr. Yvette Richardson / 05.18.2017 Professors of Meteorology Pennsylvania State University 1. Where are tornadoes most likely to occur? Most headline-making tornadoes are spawned by what are known as supercell thunderstorms. These are large, intense[…]
01.09.2017 For the past four decades, billy barr – he insists his name be written with lower case letters only – has been living by himself in Gothic, Colorado, a ghost town deserted since the 1920s, passing the time by recording all sorts of data, from daily snowfalls, temperatures, snow melting, animal sightings, etc.. He never[…]
Madison, Wisconsin, USA – October 8, 2013: Construction workers install a solar panel system on a residential home for power generation. / From Filo at iStock Corporate-backed utilities have quashed solar initiatives for years, but residents fought back. By Adam Lynch / 12.02.2016 Commonly topping any list of obstacles to a home solar energy boom[…]
An aerial shot of downtown Houston during the “Tax Day Flood” in April. (Jordan Anderson/DoubleHorn Photography) Climate change will bring more frequent and fierce rainstorms to cities like Houston. But unchecked development remains a priority in the famously un-zoned city, creating short-term economic gains for some while increasing flood risks for everyone. By Neena Satija[…]
A massive fish die-off occurred in Redondo Beach, California in 2011 caused by oxygen-starved fish. seadigs/flickr By Dr. Karin Limburg / 10.31.2016 Professor of Environmental and Forest Biology State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Global climate change produces many effects – warming air energizes the atmosphere and intensifies storms; warmer[…]
The guided missile destroyer USS Barry deploys to sea from Naval Station Norfolk ahead of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. U.S. Navy/Flickr By Dr. David W. Titley / 10.13.2016 Professor of Practice in Meteorology & Director Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk, Adjunct Senior Fellow Center for New American Security, Pennsylvania State University In[…]
Illustration by Erin Dunn By Gavriella Keyles / 08.31.2016 The growth of distributed energy generation, particularly in the form of solar energy, leaves the aging, monopolistic electric utility system a daunting choice: Come out swinging in defense of the status quo or boldly jump into the cockpit, put on the co-pilot’s hat and fly toward[…]
NASA Earth Observatory image of hurricanes Lester and Madeline taken August 29, 2016, when both storms were hovering between Category 3 and 4. / Jesse Allen / NASA Earth Observatory, using VIIRS data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership By Adam Wernick / 09.27.2016 Familiar weather patterns are a thing of the past, and the[…]
Lightning moves pretty quickly; would you call it instantaneous? Steven Vanderburg, NOAA By Dr. Kevin Knudson / 09.14.2016 Professor of Mathematics University of Florida How short is an “instant”? Is it a second? A tenth of a second? A microsecond? You might think all of these qualify. What about 100 years? That certainly doesn’t seem[…]
Human climate change has shifted vegetation and wildlife upslope in Yosemite National Park. Patrick Gonzalez, Author provided By Dr. Patrick Gonzalez / 09.01.2016 Principal Climate Change Scientist National Park Service Trees are dying across Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks. Glaciers are melting in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Corals are bleaching in[…]
Over the past century, temperatures began to rise at a rate that is 10 times faster than historical averages. (Photo: Asian Development Bank/flickr/cc) ‘People who think this is over are viewing the world through rose-tinted spectacles. This is a chronic problem for society for the next 100 years’ By Nadia Prupis / 08.30.2016 Another day,[…]
“We have had an incredible impact on the environment of our planet,” says Colin Waters, principal geologist at the British Geological Survey. (Photo: Kevin Gill/flickr/cc) The epoch is thought to have begun in the 1950s, when human activity set global systems on a different trajectory By Deirdre Fulton / 08.29.2016 The Anthropocene Epoch has begun,[…]
An abandoned house in Shishmaref, Alaska sits on the beach after sliding off during a fall storm in 2005. (Photo: AP Photo/Diana Haecker) “Once you see how vulnerable my community is to sea-level rise and erosion,” wrote a Shishmaref youth, “you won’t be able to deny that Arctic communities are already feeling the impacts of[…]
Last year’s record heat was fueled by a combination of the effects of global warming and one of the strongest El Niño events on record since at least 1950. (Photo: Project LM/flickr/cc) ‘The impacts of climate change are no longer subtle. They are playing out before us, in real time’ By Nadia Prupis / 08.02.2016[…]
Southern California’s years-long drought has resulted in one of the “most extreme” wildfires the region has ever seen. (Photo: Nick Ut/AP) As wildfire rages in California, flooding affects millions in India and China, and eggs are fried on sidewalks in Iraq, scientists say global climate catastrophe is surpassing predictions By Nika Knight / 07.27.2016 Record[…]
The ICESCAPE mission, or “Impacts of Climate on Ecosystems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment,” is a NASA shipborne investigation to study how changing conditions in the Arctic affect the ocean’s chemistry and ecosystems. (Photo: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/flickr/cc) By Deirdre Fulton / 06.03.2016 Funds for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric[…]
Corals north of Cairns have been hit hardest by the recent bleaching. AAP Image/ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Kerry By Dr. Mia Hoogenboom Senior Lecturer, Marine Biology and Aquaculture James Cook University The problems caused by mass bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef have continued to deepen, with the latest estimates based[…]
Kudremukh National Park, India Valuing nature’s bounty and accounting for it on the balance sheets of companies and nations. CK Staff / 05/25/2016 New legislation approved in May by lawmakers in India’s lower house, the House of the People, would allocate $6.2 billion (U.S.) to building new forests across India. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill[…]
An 1858 woodcut celebrating the laying of the transatlantic telegraph cable. (Library of Congress) By Ben Wilson / 05.22.2016 There is something wonderfully seductive about our gadgets. Sleek and futuristic, they seem not of this world – and certainly not of the toxic, noisy world of extractive rock mining. Few think of the ecological impact[…]
Photo © iStockphoto.com/Andrey Danilovich Marine governance favors consumption and commerce over conservation. Here’s what we can do about it. By Liza Gross / 05.23.2016 When New England fishers complained of working harder and harder to catch fewer and fewer fish, Spencer Baird assembled a scientific team to investigate. Though a fishery failure would once have[…]
Credit: NASA/Flickr It will take at least three decades to completely leave behind fossil fuels. But we can do it. The first step is to start with the easy stuff. By Richard Heinberg If our transition to renewable energy is successful, we will achieve savings in the ongoing energy expenditures needed for economic production. We[…]
Illustration by Kelsey King By Dr. Philip Loring Ecological Anthropologist University of Saskatchewan It goes without saying that humans are good at causing problems. Climate change, overfishing and widespread environmental contamination from chemical toxicants are all creations of our own making. But are we destined to create such problems? Many people believe so, and argue[…]