Archives 2011

CAVES IN CHINA REVEAL CLUES TO EARTH’S CLIMATE

Reported by Kristofor Husted/MEDILL Geochemist Larry Edwards discusses the connection between monsoon patterns and carbon dioxide. by Kristofor Husted Jan 11, 2011 Cave deposit samples from China are helping scientists resolve the timeline of the whole Earth’s climate history.
  Knowing this history means better predictions of what’s to come with human-driven global warming speeding up the…

SCIENTISTS NAIL DOWN PAST CLIMATE TO SHOW HIGH STAKES OF WARMING

by Gretchen Roeckerand Megan Taylor Morrison Oct 12, 2011 In remote, rural Wisconsin, PVC pipe and white tarps transformed a section of an airplane hangar into a forum for some of the world’s top climate scientists to show the high stakes of ignoring a warming world. Outside the hills are green and forested, but inside…

CLIMATE OF THE TWO HEMISPHERES DIFFERED IN PAST AGES – BOTH ARE HEATING UP NOW

by Rosa Lin Oct 06, 2011 Both Northern and Southern hemispheres are heating up with global warming. Yet scientists see differences in climate patterns between the hemispheres in past ages.  Their research, presented at the recent Comer Conference on abrupt climate change, underscores the unprecedented nature of our current climate change.  Rapid warming is causing the…

GETTING PERSONAL: HERE’S WHAT CLIMATE SCIENTISTS DO TO LIMIT CARBON EMISSIONS

                                  by Megan Taylor Morrison Oct 06, 2011 Top climate scientists such as Richard Alley and Joerg Schaefer share what they do to reduce their carbon footprints. Individual efforts count in the planet-sized challenge of human-influenced global warming.

WHERE’S THE WATER? SIGNS OF ANCIENT LAKES IN CHINA’S PARCHED DESERT

by Rosa Linand Gretchen Roecker Oct 06, 2011 China, with one of the world fastest growing economies and skyrocketing energy use, still left a gaping hole in the global climate change map – until recently. Aaron Putnam, a geoscientist from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, asked the obvious question: “Why don’t we complete the global…

CHASING GREENLAND’S MELTING ICE IN SEARCH OF CLIMATE CLUES

by Gretchen Roecker Oct 06, 2011 When the late philanthropist and entrepreneur Gary Comer cruised through the Northwest Passage off Greenland’s coast and into the Arctic in 2001, he knew something was wrong. Two weeks earlier, his yacht, Turmoil, had run into an ice barrier about halfway up the coast, a typical obstacle in the…

U.N. CLIMATE ENVOY URGES ACTION TO AVERT FLOODS, DROUGHT, HUNGER

by Gretchen Roecker Oct 04, 2011 U.N. special envoy on climate change Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland and her 22-person international commission started warning countries to avert global warming in 1987. Twenty-five years later, the former Norwegian prime minister said the ongoing lack of international cooperation to curb carbon emissions and invest in clean energy threatens…

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: CHICAGO’S BACKYARD REFUGE

by Kristofor Hustedand Michelle M. Schaefer Mar 17, 2011 Whoop! There it is.   Whooping cranes, silvery-blue butterflies and Blanding’s turtles are just a few of the species who could preserve their habitat in the proposed national wildlife refuge straddling five counties in Wisconsin and Illinois. The refuge area harbors native habitats necessary for the survival of…

CLIMATE CHANGE LINKED TO GLOBAL RISE IN FOOD PRICES

by Tyler Moss, Lindsey Valichand Jennifer Wholey Mar 17, 201 “Food is power.” Michigan farmer and livestock producer Nate Robinson has known this for years. Rising food costs impact every person in every country across the globe, diminishing the ability of millions of families to meet other essential needs. Increasing floods and drought due to…

GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS WORLDWIDE FRESH WATER ACCESS

by Mike DiFerdinando Oct 11, 2011 With increasing temperatures on Earth, glaciers melt and ocean levels rise ever more rapidly, claiming coasts and causing floods. But global warming will have other serious impacts on the planet’s water resources. “A lot of these mountainous areas, including the western United States, the water resources used by the…

WHY PEOPLE STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND CLIMATE CHANGE

WHY PEOPLE STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND CLIMATE CHANGE

by Mike DiFerdinando Oct 11, 2011 The climate change debate reminds Philip Conkling, president of Maine’s Island Institute, of two earlier environmental science challenges over DDT and pesticides.  “These questions threaten industries. And industries aren’t just benign bystanders. When threatened, industries react,” said Conkling, co-author of “The Fate of Greenland: Lessons from Abrupt Climate Change.”…

SUSTAINABILITY FUELS SCIENCE AT MAJOR CLIMATE CONFERENCE

SUSTAINABILITY FUELS SCIENCE AT MAJOR CLIMATE CONFERENCE

by Gretchen Roecker Oct 06, 2011 Dozens of scientists attending the Comer Conference on Abrupt Climate Change each year enjoy the late Gary Comer’s Wisconsin retreat for a few days as they swap research updates, family stories and home-cooked meals.  But Scott Travis, a field assistant for some of the scientists, manages the 850-acre former…

WHO KNEW NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY HAD ITS OWN GLACIER? AND NOW IT’S MELTING FAST.

by Chris Bentley Mar 15, 2011 A string of once majestic tidewater glaciers named for major American universities including Northwestern are melting quickly despite the intense interest in climate science at many of their namesake schools.  More than a dozen glaciers bordering the aptly named College Fjord in Alaska’s Prince William Sound bear the names…

Global warming threatens worldwide fresh water access

by Mike DiFerdinando Oct 11, 2011 With increasing temperatures on Earth, glaciers melt and ocean levels rise ever more rapidly, claiming coasts and causing floods. But global warming will have other serious impacts on the planet’s water resources. “A lot of these mountainous areas, including the western United States, the water resources used by the…


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