Madhurita Goswami, Dec. 18, 2019 — Most of us associate glaciers with Antarctica or the northern ice-sheets of the Arctic and Greenland. It may come as a surprise that scientists Alice M. Doughty and Meredith Kelly are studying tropical glaciers at the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda to improve our understanding of climate change. The Rwenzori…
Glaciers as “global thermometers” show the fast pace of melting in a warming world
Madhurita Goswami, Dec. 18, 2019 — Glaciers across the globe behave in a synchronized manner, said geologist Thomas Lowell at the recent Comer Climate Conference, an annual national conference held in southwestern Wisconsin. Not only does he study glaciers around the world to reach this conclusion but also compared data obtained by separate dating techniques.…
Climate science pioneer Wallace Broecker memorialized at namesake symposium
By Zack Fishman, Dec. 18, 2019 — The locked office of the late climate scientist Wallace “Wally” Broecker displays a wooden ship’s wheel, mounted on a window-paneled wall behind his former desk. The wheel overlooks the forested campus of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, where Broecker conducted research for nearly 70 years. It originated from…
RAPID GLACIAL MELT NEAR MOUNT EVEREST PEAKS THREATENS NEPALI COMMUNITIES
By Elena Bruess, Oct. 20, 2019 Near the peaks of Mount Everest – towering some 5.6 miles above sea level – the ancient Khumbu Glacier is melting. Never before in the last 70 years has the massive ice rock melted more quickly than it is retreating now. It is losing thickness at an unprecedented rate…
4,000 floating robots take on climate change
By Elena Bruess, Oct. 16, 2019 – I ziplined recently with a scientist who told me that her work involved almost 4,000 floating robots and a massive global computer database that could help her predict the future of our world’s climate. This was during a break in the Comer Climate Conference and the woods behind…
Khumbu Glacier in Nepal offers clues to rapid retreat of ice
By Anne Snabes, Dec. 19, 2019 – The Khumbu Glacier in the Himalayas retreated rapidly in the past, offering clues to how the glacier will behave in the future, University of Maine research suggests. Laura Mattas, a master’s student at the university, conducted field research this summer on the Khumbu Glacier in Nepal. She presented…
Tiny shells reveal clues to ocean health in North Pacific
By Anne Snabes, Dec. 19, 2019 – Calcium carbonate, a primary ingredient in the shells of tiny marine organisms, reduces the acidification of our world’s oceans. The ocean is approximately 30% more acidic than when the Industrial Revolution began, and carbon dioxide emissions from human use of fossil fuels have greatly contributed to this increase.…
‘Grandfather of climate science’ Wally Broecker remembered at climate conference
By Zack Fishman, Nov. 20, 2019 — Dozens of scientists convene every year at the Comer Climate Conference to share new research about rising oceans and melting glaciers, both today and in the past. The event, funded by the family of late billionaire philanthropist Gary Comer, has been organized since 2004 by famed climate scientists…
Greenland ‘ice tongue’ at risk of melting away — again
By Zack Fishman, Nov. 12, 2019 — A 30-mile-long strip of sea ice in northwest Greenland, once thought to be a permanent structure, didn’t exist until 2,000 years ago, according to newly published research from researchers at Oregon State University. The findings suggest that some of the Arctic may melt more quickly in today’s warming…
Renowned geoscientist talks climate research, renewable solutions
By Zack Fishman, Oct. 29, 2019 — Richard Alley caught a cold while flying to southwest Wisconsin for the annual Comer Climate Conference land, hosted each fall by the Comer Family Foundation. But the illness didn’t stop the seasoned scientist from celebrating each research presentation with emphatic words of encouragement, and he used his closing…
Fox in the field: Following the tracks of climate triggers in Mongolia
By Stephanie Fox, August 20, 2019 – I should probably explain that headline. In mid-July, I left my Illinois home and headed to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. That’s where I met up with two scientists, a high school teacher and a rising university freshman. Together we boarded a plane to Beijing, China, then Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia,…
Safety requirements for Antarctic climate scientists can take your wisdom teeth
By Stephanie Fox, Jan. 12, 2019– What do Antarctic climate scientists and Nordic Vikings have in common? More than you’d think. After being cast out of Iceland for murdering his neighbor, Erik the Red, the notorious Viking who walked the Earth around 985 A.D., braved the unforgiving seas in search of a new home. That’s…
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