Science

The sharp decline in Arctic sea ice is affecting not only glaciers in Greenland but also weather patterns all over the North Atlantic. A meltwater stream near the margin of the Greenland ice sheet. Photo credit: Henrik Egede Lassen / Alpha Film A study last week shows that frequency of summer “blocking” events, capable of producing extreme and stagnant weather, has increased since […]

Infectious diseases, such as dengue and the Zika virus, could spread to new parts of the world as mosquitoes expand their habitats in a warmer, wetter world, a new study suggests. By 2061-80, an additional half a billion people could be at risk from diseases carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, the study says—and could […]

Arctic sea ice could set a new record low extent this summer, say scientists at this year’s European Geosciences Union (EGU) conference in Vienna. Measurements from satellites and “snow buoys” deployed on sea ice reveal a “certain likeness” between recent conditions in the Arctic and those seen in the run up to the record summer […]

By Tierney Smith The Great Barrier Reef is under siege from climate change and coal, with scientists confirming that 93 percent of the world heritage area is now suffering from severe coral bleaching. A diver checking out the bleaching at Heron Island in February 2016. This area was one of the first to bleach at […]

Climate scientists anxious to find ways to limit atmospheric greenhouse gases have started to look at the ground beneath their feet. Four-fifths of annual emissions from fossil fuel combustion could be retained by soil. Photo credit: Ron Nichols/NRCS / Flickr They calculate that although the world’s soils already hold 2.4 trillion tonnes of gases in […]

By Daniel Grossman A new air sampling device may help scientists better track carbon pollution in the atmosphere. Listen here or read below: As countries around the world commit to reducing emissions, measuring their carbon pollution is critical to tracking progress. Pieter Tans is a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and […]

In case anyone needed a reason to spend hours on end looking at pictures of adorable penguins, we now have a valid excuse: scientists need us to. Researchers from the University of Oxford studying penguins in Antarctica are conducting the largest ever census of penguins and have launched the latest version of their project, PenguinWatch […]

Driven by dwindling polar ice, climate change is actually changing the way the Earth spins, new research shows. Melting ice sheets are contributing to the change in polar motion, a term scientists use to describe the “periodic wobble and drift of the poles.” Climate change is actually changing the way the earth spins, new research […]