Global Climate Change


Extreme Heat Raises Climate Change Questions, Concerns

The recent heat wave baking much of the country has prompted many people to ask: Is this due to climate change?

Natural Climate Shifts Drove Coral Reefs to a Total Ecosystem Collapse

Climate change drove coral reefs to a total ecosystem collapse lasting thousands of years, according to a paper published this week in Science.

Satellite Research Reveals Smaler Volcanoes Could Cool Climate

A University of Saskatchewan-led international research team has discovered that aerosols from relatively small volcanic eruptions can be boosted into the high atmosphere by weather systems such as monsoons, where they can affect global temperatures.

Warmer Baltic Sea May Promote Harmful Algal Blooms

Global warming can signal bad news for the Baltic ecosystem. If the waters of the Baltic get warmer, it may instigate low oxygen conditions and massive blooms of cyanobacteria ("blue-green algae").

War-Related Climate Change Would Substantially Reduce Crop Yields

Though worries about “nuclear winter” have faded since the end of the Cold War, existing stockpiles of nuclear weapons still hold the potential for devastating global impacts.

Global Warming Favors Proliferation of Toxic Cyanobacteria

Cyanobacterial populations have increased in recent decades and scientists suspect that global warming may be behind the phenomenon.

Shrinking Leaves Point to Climate Change

University of Adelaide researchers have discovered that recent climate change is causing leaves of some Australian plants to narrow in size.

Rising Heat at the Beach Threatens Largest Sea Turtles, Climate Change Models Show

For eastern Pacific populations of leatherback turtles, the 21st century could be the last. New research suggests that climate change could exacerbate existing threats and nearly wipe out the population.



Climate Change and the South Asian Summer Monsoon

The vagaries of South Asian summer monsoon rainfall impact the lives of more than one billion people.

Significant Sea Level Rise in a 2-Degree Warming World

The study is the first to give a comprehensive projection for this long perspective, based on observed sea-level rise over the past millennium, as well as on scenarios for future greenhouse-gas emissions.

Arctic Climate More Vulnerable Than Previously Thought

First analyses of the longest sediment core ever collected on land in the Arctic, published this week in Science, provide dramatic, "astonishing" documentation that intense warm intervals, warmer than scientists thought possible, occurred there over the past 2.8 million years.

Top Predators Key to Extinctions as Planet Warms

Global warming may cause more extinctions than predicted if scientists fail to account for interactions among species in their models, Yale and UConn researchers argue in Science.

Melting Sea Ice Threatens Emperor Penguins

If global temperatures continue to rise, the Emperor penguins in Terre Adélie, in East Antarctica, may eventually disappear, according to a new study by led by researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Hot Weather for Southern New England Means Poor Air Quality

Unhealthy air quality is predicted for the southern portions of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the south coast of Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and the Islands, on Wednesday due to ground-level ozone.

Expansion of Forests in the European Arctic Could Result in the Release of Carbon Dioxide

Carbon stored in Arctic tundra could be released into the atmosphere by new trees growing in the warmer region, exacerbating climate change, scientists have revealed.

May 2012 Global Temperatures Second Warmest On Record

The globally-averaged temperature for May 2012 marked the second warmest May since record keeping began in 1880.

As World Warms, Conservation Evolves

Climate and Conservation offers a glimpse of climate change beyond images of melting Arctic ice—illustrating that landscapes and seascapes in places like the coastal Caribbean, mountainous eastern Australia, and the Brazilian Amazon are all susceptible to climate related impacts.

Ancient Warming Greened Antarctica, Study Finds

A new university-led study with NASA participation finds ancient Antarctica was much warmer and wetter than previously suspected.

Global Climate Change: Underestimated Impact of Sea Level Rise on Habitat Loss?

The hidden impact of sea-level rise: current projections may be underestimating the consequences of global climate change on habitat loss.

Big Uncertainties in the Global Water Budget

A study in the Journal of Hydrometeorology now outlines significant differences of global models and measurement data sets. As the network of measurement stations worldwide is shrinking dramatically, uncertainties are increased.