Fortress Charleston: Will Walling Off the City Hold Back the Waters?

Officials in Charleston, South Carolina have endorsed a $2 billion plan to wall off the historic downtown from rising seas and surging storms. It is the latest in a growing number of extravagantly expensive seawalls and barriers being proposed to defend U.S. coastal cities.

As sea levels rise, will drinking water supplies be at risk?

The Delaware River, a major source of drinking water for Philadelphia, is facing an emerging threat as rising seas push saltwater farther upstream. It’s a problem that other places, from Miami to Shanghai, will also confront, especially as increasing drought lowers river flows.

New model to improve accuracy of storm surge analysis

Accurately predicting how many people are at risk due to sea level rise and storm surges has always challenged scientists, but a new method is improving models that account for the impact of these natural occurrences.

North Pole soon to be ice free in summer

The Arctic Ocean in summer will very likely be ice free before 2050, at least temporarily. The efficacy of climate-protection measures will determine how often and for how long. These are the results of a new research study involving 21 research institutes from around the world.

Eurasian ice sheet collapse raised seas eight metres: study

Ice sheets melting or breaking away as global temperatures rise are subject to what climate scientists term temperature “tipping points”. Many researchers fear that the ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica will continue to melt even if warming is slowed as carbon emissions are cut.