Climate Change

  • Extreme Weather News May Not Change Climate Change Skeptics’ Minds

    The year 2018 brought particularly devastating natural disasters, including hurricanes, droughts, floods and fires – just the kinds of extreme weather events scientists predict will be exacerbated by climate change. Amid this destruction, some people see an opportunity to finally quash climate change skepticism. After all, it seems hard to deny the realities of climate Read More

  • National Service for the Environment – What an Army of Young Conservationists Could Achieve

    National Service for the Environment – What an Army of Young Conservationists Could Achieve

    The school climate strikes show that young people want to fight climate change, but their enthusiasm for collective action is largely untapped. A volunteer conservation army could mobilise their talent and passion by channelling it into work to restore ecosystems. The Green New Deal – endorsed by US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and numerous presidential candidates Read More

  • How (and Why) to Stay Optimistic When It Feels Like the Environment is Falling Apart

    How (and Why) to Stay Optimistic When It Feels Like the Environment is Falling Apart

    Humans love optimism. It’s a no-brainer – optimism makes us feel good and wanting more. This attraction has deep neurological roots that affect both our brain functions and how we process new information. For this reason, optimism is powerful. Optimistic individuals or groups frequently perform better in sports, are better negotiators in business, and recover Read More

  • Researchers, Set an Example: Fly Less

    Researchers, Set an Example: Fly Less

    The world is warming and ecosystems are dying. To avoid disastrous climatic change, massive reductions in CO2 emissions are required in all sectors, reaching net-zero globally no later than 2050. This requires an unprecedented and rapid change in our ways of life. In this, the world of research is challenged for two reasons. First, researchers Read More

  • Fossil Fuels Are Bad for Your Health and Harmful in Many Ways Besides Climate Change

    Fossil Fuels Are Bad for Your Health and Harmful in Many Ways Besides Climate Change

    Many Democratic lawmakers aim to pass a Green New Deal, a package of policies that would mobilize vast amounts of money to create new jobs and address inequality while fighting climate change. Led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, they are calling for massive investments in renewable energy and other measures over a Read More

  • Capturing Carbon to Fight Climate Change Is Dividing Environmentalists

    Capturing Carbon to Fight Climate Change Is Dividing Environmentalists

    Environmental activists are teaming up with fresh faces in Congress to advocate for a Green New Deal, a bundle of policies that would fight climate change while creating new jobs and reducing inequality. Not all of the activists agree on what those policies ought to be. Some 626 environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the Center for Read More

  • How Frigid Polar Vortex Blasts Are Connected to Global Warming

    How Frigid Polar Vortex Blasts Are Connected to Global Warming

    A record-breaking cold wave is sending literal shivers down the spines of millions of Americans. Temperatures across the upper Midwest are forecast to fall an astonishing 50 degrees Fahrenheit (28 degrees Celsius) below normal this week – as low as 35 degrees below zero. Pile a gusty wind on top, and the air will feel Read More

  • Eat Veggies! It Will Make You and The Earth Healthier

    Eat Veggies! It Will Make You and The Earth Healthier

    Eating a diet of poultry, whole grains and vegetables isn’t just beneficial to your health; it is also better for the environment! By assessing the carbon footprint of what more than 16,000 individuals consume in a day, researchers from Tulane University and the University of Michigan have found that environmentally-conscious eaters also have healthier diets. Read More

  • Listening to Nature: How Sound Can Help Us Understand Environmental Change

    Listening to Nature: How Sound Can Help Us Understand Environmental Change

    Our hearing tells us of a car approaching from behind, unseen, or a bird in a distant forest. Everything vibrates, and sound passes through and around us all the time. Sound is a critical environmental signifier. Increasingly, we are learning that humans and animals are not the only organisms that use sound to communicate. So Read More

  • Scientists Reconstruct 150 Years of Ocean Warming

    Scientists Reconstruct 150 Years of Ocean Warming

    A new method to reconstruct global ocean temperature changes since 1871 estimates that the ocean absorbed as much energy during 1921-1946 as it did during 1990-2015. Noticeable changes in warming and sea level rise throughout the past 60 years have been caused, in part, by changes in ocean circulation. This innovative mathematical approach, which was Read More

  • Trees Fight Back Against the Impacts of Climate Change

    Trees Fight Back Against the Impacts of Climate Change

    Hurricanes are known for tearing away the limbs and leaves of trees, but some species are able to combat this damage by growing replacement leaves optimized for greater survival, according to a new study. In the study, researchers from Clemson University focused on the tropical dry forests in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria — the Read More

  • World Is Failing to Meet UN Sustainability Goals, But Students Can Help

    World Is Failing to Meet UN Sustainability Goals, But Students Can Help

    In October 2010, government leaders from all over the world gathered for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya, Japan, and committed to reach sustainability targets by 2020. Now, eight years later, researchers warn that the current global progress toward sustainability goals is not fast enough to avert the biodiversity crisis, especially Read More

  • Forest Snowpack Decline Could Stunt Tree Growth, Impact Animal and Human Life

    Forest Snowpack Decline Could Stunt Tree Growth, Impact Animal and Human Life

    Climate change could drastically reduce winter snowpack in forests across the northeastern United States, creating a cascade of problems for the ecosystems of affected forests as well as human populations living in those areas, according to a new study. Drawing on over 60 years of data showing winter snowpack declines at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest Read More

  • Uneven Sea Level Rise Is Driven by Climate Change, New Study Proves

    Uneven Sea Level Rise Is Driven by Climate Change, New Study Proves

    Climate change, driven by humans, plays a significant role in the pattern of uneven sea level rise, according to a new study funded by the National Science Foundation, the NASA Sea Level Change Team and the U.S. Department of Energy. Using two different climate models, the researchers found that climate change could be attributed to Read More

  • New Report Links Climate Change to Health Problems, Premature Death

    New Report Links Climate Change to Health Problems, Premature Death

    According to the United Nation’s World Meteorological Organization, 2018 has marked the fourth hottest year on record for the Earth. Despite some who still may disagree, the World Weather Attribution Study for northern Europe showed that this summer’s heat wave was twice as likely to have happened as a result of man-made climate change. Of Read More

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