In The News

New Study Shows Climate Change Largely Irreversible

January 28, 2009
A new scientific study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warns that the world approaches the point of no return with regards to climate change. Soon, even halting carbon-dioxide emissions altogether would not reverse the crucial planetary shifts in rainfall, surface temperature and sea level that threaten human life, not to mention geography itself, as huge coastal regions...

Western US Forests Suffer Death by Degrees

Elizabeth Pennisi January 27, 2009
It's suspected that some redwoods, yellow cedars and hemlocks of the temperate rain forests of the Pacific Northwest can live 1000 years and well beyond. But a new study from the US Geological Survey, reported on in Science, suggests that the lifespan for such confers is on the decline. “Warmer temperatures and subsequent water shortfalls” are pinpointed as the likely cause of the trees...

Politically Incorrect

Nayan Chanda January 23, 2009
Battles rage to save some products ill-suited in a world worried about energy shortages: In the US, CEOs of auto companies who long depended on oversized vehicles for profits now lobby politicians for financial aid, while protesters in Kolkata aim to protect noisy, polluting auto-rickshaws by burning buses and disrupting traffic. “Allowing the city’s 60,000-odd auto-rickshaws to carry on...

A Green Revolution Blooms in the Desert

Elisabeth Rosenthal January 15, 2009
Countries in the Middle East have bountiful supplies of oil, but the leaders also recognize that such fossil fuels are limited and make what Elisabeth Rosenthal calls in the International Herald Tribune “a concerted push to become the Silicon Valley of alternative energy.” The countries are using their oil wealth to invest in alternative technologies, create alternative-energy investment funds...

Running Dry, Running Out

Juliette Jowit January 13, 2009
Struggles in supplying enough water to meet demand are not limited to dessert or developing nations, and nearly half of the population in England and Wales live in areas with “water stress,” explains Juliette Jowit in an article for the Guardian. She reports on a government environment report, which “warns that many rivers, lakes, estuaries and aquifers are already being drained so low that there...

Climate Scientists: It's Time for “Plan B”

Steve Connor January 5, 2009
Nations around the globe have failed to curb carbon emissions, and more than half of climate researchers surveyed in a poll agree that humans can expect to rely on technology to control the most volatile effects of climate change. Some “geoengineering” approaches, as listed in the article from the Independent, resemble strategies described in science fiction novels and include using artificial...

Tropics No Longer Museum of Plant Biodiversity

December 23, 2008
University of Calgary researchers report that the risk of extinction for plants is higher in habitats close to the equator than those that are more distant. The study by researchers by Jana Vamosi and Steven Vamosi also suggests that animals and plants undergo different extinction processes. Latitude could be more influential than human activity, the study also suggests. “"This is not to say...