Obama bans future oil leases in much of Arctic, Atlantic
President Barack Obama on Tuesday designated the bulk of U.S.-owned waters in the Arctic Ocean and certain areas in the Atlantic Ocean as indefinitely off limits to future oil and gas leasing.
When the coral disappears, so will they
By now, the storyline should be familiar: We humans are burning loads of fossil fuels and chopping down the rainforest, and that’s causing the atmosphere to heat up rapidly. The ocean is storing much of that heat. Beneath the surface, there’s evidence of a mass extinction brewing. Coral are among the silent victims, and the results are undeniable. That’s true regardless of who’s in the White House…
Busy Times at the World’s Largest Polar Bear Prison
Sea ice has done some extremely odd things in 2016, as climate change is reshaping the Arctic faster than the rest of the planet. According to a new study, there’s a 71 percent chance that the global polar bear population will fall by over 30 percent in the next three decades. The only hope for the polar bear is to reduce carbon emissions, in the hope that the runaway pace of Arctic warming will eventually stabilize and reverse.
Eye-Popping View of CO2, Critical Step for Carbon-Cycle Science
A new NASA supercomputer project builds on the agency’s satellite measurements of carbon dioxide and combines them with a sophisticated Earth system model to provide one of the most realistic views yet of how this critical greenhouse gas moves through the atmosphere.
Close Look at a Crack on Larsen C
The rift in Larsen C measures about 100 meters (300 feet) wide and cuts about half a kilometer (one-third of a mile) deep—completely through to the bottom of the ice shelf. While the rift is long and growing longer, it does not yet reach across the entire shelf. When that happens, Larsen C will shed an iceberg about the size of Delaware.
From Obama’s Top Scientist, Words of Caution on Climate
A physicist by training, John Holdren is the longest-serving presidential science adviser in U.S. history. Holdren spoke to Yale Environment 360 about the difference between “dangerous” and “catastrophic” warming, the incoming Trump administration, and how to talk to people who deny the existence of climate change.
Discover How Climate Change Is Rapidly Transforming Our Earth With Google Timelapse
Google Earth’s newly updated feature captures how the world has changed since 1984.
Most UK coastal flooding caused by moderate, not extreme storms
Scientists have found that the majority of instances of coastal flooding around the United Kingdom in the last 100 years have been due to moderate storm events combined with high spring tides, rather than extreme storms.
Growing Pains: Arctic Sea Ice at Record Lows
Every northern fall and winter, cooling ocean and air temperatures cause the floating cap of Arctic sea ice to grow from its annual minimum extent toward a maximum between February and April. So far in 2016, though, the Arctic Ocean and neighboring seas have been slow to freeze, setting both daily and monthly record lows.