By Janice Cantieri – Nov. 8, 2016, Election Day. “If you want to name things that could really bring down civilization, nuclear bombs are one, but I think CO2 has all the seeds of that,” said pioneering climate scientist Wallace Broecker of Columbia University. “You’re going to see enormous problems with that, I mean political problems,…
CRACKS IN THE WORLD’S ICE SHEETS ARE LIKE THOSE NOTCHES IN THE KETCHUP PACKETS
By Janice Cantieri – “You can’t open a McDonald’s ketchup packet without the little notch. Try it, okay?” noted climatologist Richard Alley. Without the little notches, plastic ketchup packets are almost impossible to open no matter how much you pull or tear. Cracks in the world’s ice sheets are like those little notches, Alley said.…
COMER CONFERENCE SCIENTISTS BUNKER DOWN ON RESEARCH TO MEET CLIMATE CHANGE THREATS
By Kelly Calagna – Every autumn climate scientists from diverse disciplines gather at the Comer Climate Conference on a farm in rural Wisconsin. They focus on the latest research to predict the on-going pace of sea level rise, the retreat of the glaciers past and present and the profound threat to our planet as human…
TACKLING GLOBAL WARMING BY EXPLORING THE EBB AND FLOW OF THE ICE AGES
By Lakshmi Chandrasekaran/Video by Kelly Calagna – “Don’t get old if you can help it,” climatologist George Denton joked at the Comer Abrupt Climate Change Conference in Wisconsin this fall. But he must have been proud. As one of the earliest and premiere veterans of climate change research, the University of Maine professor had three…
A CLIMATE CHANGE FOR ‘GLACIOGENIC ART’
By Lakshmi Chandrasekaran – Glaciers and forests show jagged retreats in Jill Pelto’s paintings while the sky above heats up. Pelto, a graduate student studying climate science at the University of Maine, uses her art to convey the impacts of climate change on world environments. She overlays climate change research data with striking colors and…
AND THE RECORD FOR THE WARMEST YEAR GOES TO…
By Danielle Prieur It should come as no surprise to Chicagoans that 2015 was the hottest year on record. A snow-free, unseasonably warm holiday season surely gave Chicagoans a clue – 2015 is the hottest year on record. What may come as a surprise to some is that Chicago and the Midwest aren’t alone –…
COSMIC RAYS FROM THE GALAXY HELP TRACK THE RETREAT OF THE GLACIERS ON EARTH
By Lakshmi Chandrasekaran – Cosmic rays, hurling across the galaxy near light-speed, generate a time machine on Earth for us to measure the retreat of the glaciers and the pace of climate change. Ph.D. student Peter Strand, at the University of Maine, drilled samples of quartz from boulders in Mongolia’s Altai Mountains this summer to…
ARTIFICIAL TREES COULD OFFSET CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS
By Janice Cantieri – Physicist and engineer Klaus Lackner makes artificial trees – but not the kind that decorate living rooms and lobbies. His artificial trees can capture carbon dioxide directly out of the air—and they’re 1,000 times more efficient than nature’s trees in doing so. Millions of the trees could eventually generate “negative carbon…
THE DUAL FORCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SEA LEVEL RISE
By Kelly Calagna – Sea level rise – a direct impact of a warming climate and melting ice – threatens island nations and coastal communities across the world. Photo at top and video by Kelly Calagna
OUR THIRST FOR ENERGY – DRIVING INNOVATION TO REDUCE WATER RISKS
By Lakshmi Chandrasekaran “Green city planning to create green roofs, green parks and deployment of green assets in places where we are worried about heat effects is necessary,” said Jessica Hellmann, director of the Institute on Environment from the University of Minnesota. At stake is keeping climate change at controllable levels. She stressed in no…
SEARCHING FOR CLIMATE SWITCHES – A GLACIAL MYSTERY IN MONGOLIA
Aaron Putnam of the Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine is searching for the switches that caused the Earth to lurch out of the last Ice Age. Climate levers are not yet well understood, and “just what the heck” causes them is still a mystery he’s hoping to solve in Mongolia this summer.…
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