Climate change refers to the fluctuation of the climate system caused by the energy entering and leaving Earth. The greenhouse effect, which refers to how greenhouse gases (GHGs) act like a blanket and prevent the loss of Earth’s heat to space, has occurred naturally throughout Earth’s history. However, since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have […]
Although massive vegetation loss is still occurring in Asia and South America, an analysis of 20 years of satellite data has revealed that the regrowth of forests in China, Australia, and Africa mean that the total amount of vegetation globally has increased by almost 4 billion tons of carbon since 2003. The new analysis, by […]
A new analysis of climate change models predicts a 50 percent increase in lightning strikes across the United States during this century as a result of warming temperatures associated with climate change. University of California, Berkeley, climate scientist David Romps and his colleagues looked at predictions of precipitation and cloud buoyancy in 11 different climate […]
An intriguing study from Yale University shows that large-scale forest losses over the last 150 years – largely through the conversion of forests to cropland – produced a net global cooling effect of about 0.1 degrees Celsius. During the same period, the global climate warmed by about 0.6 degrees Celsius, mostly due to increases in […]
Mammal body size decreased significantly during two ancient global warming events, say paleontologists from the University of Michigan who believe that similar changes are possible in response to human-caused climate change. Researchers have long known that mammals became much smaller during a period of warming called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), about 55 million years […]
While archaeological and genetic evidence suggest that Homo sapiens originated in Africa around 200,000 years ago, it is more difficult to identify when modern human behaviors emerged. Intriguingly, recent archaeological excavations in southern Africa have shown that technological innovation, linked to the emergence of culture and modern behavior, took place relatively suddenly on more than […]
The hydraulic system of trees is so finely-tuned that predicted increases in drought due to climate change may lead to catastrophic failure in many species. That’s according to a new study that found many plants around the globe are already operating at the top of their drought-stress safety threshold. The new work is based on […]
Scientists who have predicted the possible extinction of wild Arabica coffee (Coffea Arabica) within 70 years say urgent conservation measures are needed to future-proof Arabica’s genetic diversity and ensure the long-term sustainability of Arabica coffee production. The new insights into the second most traded commodity after oil have been compiled by scientists in the UK […]
Sea levels are rising faster than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted and new work presented at a meeting of The Geological Society of America suggests that previously ignored climate feedbacks, such as groundwater use, are to blame. The last official IPCC report in 2007 projected a global sea level rise of 0.2 […]
A new report looking into how climate change will affect food production and food security warns that nothing less than a “complete recalibration” of where specific crops are grown and livestock are raised will be required if the world is to be fed. The report was compiled by the Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security […]
