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Climate Change Current Events


Melting Glaciers and Sea Level Rise
May 19, 2013 | University of Colorado Boulder

“While 99 percent of Earth’s land ice is locked up in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the remaining ice in the world’s glaciers contributed just as much to sea rise as the two ice sheets combined from 2003 to 2009.” Quoted from the University of Colorado Boulder press release.

Peer Review and Climate Change
May 19, 2013 | The Guardian

An article on The Guardian website reports that 97% of peer-reviewed papers support a human cause for global climate change.

Warm Spring Temperatures and Western Water Supplies
May 17, 2013 | USGS

“Warmer spring temperatures since 1980 are causing an estimated 20 percent loss of snow cover across the Rocky Mountains of western North America. [...] Runoff from Rocky Mountain winter snowpack accounts for 60 to 80 percent of the annual water supply for more than 70 million people living in the western U.S.

Carbon Dioxide at 400 PPM
May 12, 2013 | Los Angeles Times

Carbon dioxide levels reported at Mauna Loa Observatory and several other locations are breaking the 400 PPM level. Researchers believe that carbon dioxide levels have not been this high for millions of years.

Most Popular April 16 to April 30
May 1, 2013 | Geology.com

Diamonds Do Not Form From Coal

The Falling Gold Price

What is a Maar?

Monitoring the Fire Below Yellowstone

Capturing an Asteroid

Giant Snails Invade Florida

Bingham Canyon Mine Landslide

Measuring the Size of Explosive Volcanic Eruptions

The First Satellite Images of Polar Ice Coverage
April 26, 2013 | BBC

BBC.com has an article about the first satellite maps of the Arctic and Antarctic, produced in the 1960s and now providing useful information about polar ice change.

When the Last Cooling Trend Ended
April 24, 2013 | National Science Foundation

“The most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on Earth’s continents over the past 1,000 to 2,000 years indicates that a long-term cooling trend–caused by factors including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the sun, and increases in volcanic activity–ended late in the 19th century.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.

Sea Level Rise and Small Pacific Islands
April 18, 2013 | USGS

“Dynamic modeling of sea-level rise, which takes storm wind and wave action into account, paints a much graver picture for some low-lying Pacific islands under climate-change scenarios than the passive computer modeling used in earlier research.” Quote from the USGS press release.

Fast Cycling Pollutants and Sea Level Rise
April 17, 2013 | National Science Foundation

“Scientists found that reductions in four pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly through the atmosphere could temporarily forestall the rate of sea level rise by roughly 25 to 50 percent: [...] methane, tropospheric ozone, hydrofluorocarbons and black carbon.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.

Archived in Ice
April 10, 2013 | American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History has an interesting video about the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes, where researchers are collecting cores to document past climate change recorded in the ice.

Global Land Warming Confirmed
April 9, 2013 | Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences

“A new observational study that did not use temperature recordings from land stations has confirmed global land warming, according to a scientist at NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences. The finding refutes concerns that artifacts in land-based observing systems have led to an artificial global land warming trend.” Quoted from the CIRES press release.

Low Arctic Clouds and Ice Sheet Melting
April 8, 2013 | National Science Foundation

“Clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were “just right” for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point, according to a new study by scientists funded by the National Science Foundation and at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.” Quoted from the NSF press release.

The Last Hot Spell
April 7, 2013 | National Science Foundation

“Temperature patterns during Earth’s last prolonged global “hot spell”–the Pliocene, some 5.3 to 2.6 million years ago–differed dramatically from those of modern times.” Quoted from the NSF press release.

Climate Change Pushing Species North
March 14, 2013 | Discovery.com

A gallery on the Discovery.com website illustrates how warming climates in many parts of the world are pushing plant species

Clouds and the Arctic Climate System
March 13, 2013 | CIRES @ University of Colorado at Boulder

“Clouds are a critical element of the climate system, especially in the Arctic where surface energy budgets and precipitation can have dramatic impacts on the fate of sea ice and ice sheets.” Quoted from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences press release.

Temperature History of Earth Since the Ice Age
March 11, 2013 | National Science Foundation

“With data from 73 ice and sediment core monitoring sites around the world, scientists have reconstructed Earth’s temperature history back to the end of the last Ice Age.” Quoted from the National Science Foundation press release.

Black Carbon in Snow and Climate Change
March 5, 2013 | Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science

“Black carbon particles in snow are larger than expected [...] this finding suggests that the warming produced by black carbon in snow could be currently overestimated by as much as 30 percent.” Quoted from the CIRES press release.

Small Volcanoes and Global Warming
March 4, 2013 | University of Colorado at Boulder

“A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder indicates emissions from moderate volcanoes around the world like the Augustine Volcano in Alaska, shown here, can mask some of the effects of global warming.” Quoted from the University of Colorado at Boulder press release.

February: Most Popular News Items
March 1, 2013 | Geology.com

The India-Asia Collision (MIT News)

Earth Flyby Reality Check (NASA)

68,000-Year Record of Greenhouse Gases (NSF)

Meteoroid Explodes Over Russia – Hundreds Injured (CNN)

What is Killing the Coral? (NSF)

Underwater Logging (Takepart.com)

Ancient Eruptions and Global Warming (Climate Central)

NOAA Image
How Atmospheric CO2 Levels Might Change Snowfall
February 27, 2013 | Princeton University

“A new cli­mate model pre­dicts an increase in snow­fall for the Earth’s polar regions and high­est alti­tudes, but an over­all drop in snow­fall for the globe, as car­bon diox­ide lev­els rise over the next century.” Quoted from the Princeton University press release.

Ancient Eruptions and Global Warming
February 21, 2013 | Climate Central

An article on the ClimateCentral.org website explores how massive volcanic eruptions in the geologic past have caused episodes of global warming.

Spying on China’s Glaciers
February 18, 2013 | Scientific American

An article in Scientific American reports that time lapse cameras, placed by a U.S. geologist from the University of Colorado at Boulder to record glacial melting in the Himalayas, were confiscated with the accusation that they were being used to “spy on China”. See some of the videos here.

68,000-Year Record of Greenhouse Gases
February 8, 2013 | National Science Foundation

A team of U.S. ice-coring scientists and engineers in Antarctica, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), has recovered from the ice sheet a record of past climate and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that extends back 68,000 years.

January 2013: Most Popular
February 3, 2013 | Geology.com News

Giant Squid in the North Pacific

Every Field Geologist Should Know This…

Why Lava Has a Red Glow

Falling Water Levels in the Great Lakes

Eruption at Copahue

How Deep Does Magma Form?

M6.1 Earthquake on the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge

2012: Hottest and Second Most Extreme

Black Carbon and Climate Change
January 29, 2013 | American Geophysical Union

“Black carbon is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming and its influence on climate has been greatly underestimated.” Quoted from the American Geophysical Union press release.

Mapping Ozone Sources
January 28, 2013 | NASA

“A new NASA-led study finds that when it comes to combating global warming caused by emissions of ozone-forming chemicals, location matters. Research scientists [...] set out to quantify, down to areas the size of large metropolitan regions, how the climate-altering impacts of these chemical emissions vary around the world.”

Information from Greenland Ice Cores
January 27, 2013 | National Science Foundation

“The International North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling project results indicate that melting of the Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea level rise than melting of the Greeland ice sheet some 100,000 years ago.” Quoted from the NSF press release.


The edge of the Greenland ice sheet, near Kangerlussuaq. Peter West, NSF.

National Climate Assessment
January 25, 2013 | U.S. Global Change Research Program

Climate change is already affecting the American people. Certain types of weather events have become more frequent and/or intense, including heat waves, heavy downpours, and, in some regions, floods and droughts. Sea level is rising, oceans are becoming more acidic, and glaciers and arctic sea ice are melting. These changes are part of the pattern of global climate change, which is primarily driven by human activity.” Quoted from the Executive Summary of the Federal Advisory Committee Draft Climate Assessment Report

Ecological Modeling and the Fossil Record
January 10, 2013 | Southern Methodist University

“Carbon dioxide levels in fossil soils from the Late Jurassic confirm that climate, vegetation and animal richness varied across the planet 150 million years ago, suggesting future human changes to global climate will heavily impact plant and animal life.”

2012: Hottest and Second Most Extreme
January 9, 2013 | NOAA

“2012 was a historic year for extreme weather that included drought, wildfires, hurricanes and storms; however, tornado activity was below average. 2012 marked the warmest year on record for the contiguous United States with the year consisting of a record warm spring, second warmest summer, fourth warmest winter and a warmer-than-average autumn.” Quoted from the NOAA press release.

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