climate change

Into the unknown: Exploring caves to uncover climate change clues

Archives 2021, Slider Stories, Top Stories / By

Nearly 20 years ago, then Ph.D. student Gina Moseley walked into a bar in Bristol to meet fellow members of the University of Bristol Spelæological Society caving club. An older caver talked with her over drinks about some small caves in northeastern Greenland he’d always dreamed of organizing an expedition to explore. But, “logistically, it’s a nightmare to get out there,” said Moseley, now a professor in the Institute of Geology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. The caver gave her all the papers he’d collected on the caves, and for years she kept them filed away.

Safety requirements for Antarctic climate scientists can take your wisdom teeth

Archives 2019 / By

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 according to Christopher Klein’s History article “The Viking Explorer Who Beat Columbus to America.” Wrapped in layers of pelts, tools in hand, the Viking dropped anchor on new land. Gradually, he took control, founding the first European settlement in what is today Greenland.

“LAKE MAFIA” GETS TOUGH ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Archives 2018 / By

An alpine forest turns into a desert within a mere 16,000 years – the geologic equivalent of a blink of an eye. The transformation is just one climate mystery waiting to be solved.

Wondering what drives local rainfall? Curious about tipping points for the entire global weather system? To find answers, you’ll have to go through the “lake mafia,” a disparate collection of scientists who study closed lake basins.

SCIENTISTS CALL FOR ACTION TO FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE NOW

Archives 2017 / By

Climate change is an urgent threat linked to floods, drought and increasing heat waves.  While carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise, President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord meant to cap emissions and the temperature rise due to them. Scientists gathered at the Comer Climate Change Conference in southwestern Wisconsin this fall to share their latest research and emphasize the critical need to fight climate change now.

ANSWERS IN THE ANDES: LOOKING TO ANCIENT LAKES TO PREDICT CLIMATE

Archives 2015 / By

Christine Chen is a scientist on a mission.

Thousands of miles away from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she is a third-year doctoral student, Chen reached one of the most remote regions on Earth equipped with a knapsack, a rudimentary rock hammer and a burning question—can ancient lakes in the Andes Mountains shed light on past climate, clues that can then be used to predict future climate change?

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