- By Alex Kirby
Leading climate scientist highlights the importance of regional data in understanding the effects of global climate change.
- By Alex Kirby
A flagship UN policy designed to help to save the world’s forests faces rejection by indigenous groups in Panama, who believe it is being used in an attempt to usurp their ownership.
The majority of the 9 billion people on Earth will live with severe pressure on fresh water within the space of two generations as climate change, pollution and over-use of resources take their toll, 500 scientists have warned.
- By Alex Kirby
One of the factors which has prompted US scientists to warn of intensified hurricane activity in the Atlantic this year is warmer water temperatures, linking storm frequency with climate change.
- By Tim Radford
Cities are liable to heat up much more than open countryside as the climate warms – and in the case of New York City, this could mean a big increase in heat-related deaths.
- By Paul Brown
The Good News for humans is the arctic will be warmer and it will sprout forests although it will be bad news for many other animal species. The Bad News? Southern areas will also be warmer and be deforested. Perhaps you can move to Russia or Canada, eh.
When 97 percent of Greenland’s ice experienced at least some melting in July 2012, scientists wondered if it was a one-time phenomenon. Now a new study in Geophysical Research Letters indicates it is a sign of things to come and by 2025, there is a 50-50 chance of it happening annually.
- By Paul Brown
The ability of clouds to reflect sunlight back into space and so help to cool the Earth appears to have been over-estimated, researchers say, in a study especially significant for major polluters.
- By Alex Kirby
A study of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific articles on climate change has found almost unanimous agreement among the authors that most of the recent warming has resulted from human activities.
- By Tim Radford
Scientists have wrestled for years with the problem of detecting evidence of climate change in the oceans. Now a Canadian team has found a way to do so: by working out what temperatures suit different fish species.
- By Kieran Cooke
Agricultural scientists are linking several pests and diseases affecting British farming with climate change, posing problems for both livestock and crops.
- By Amy Goodman
As the carbon dioxide in the air hits 400 parts per million for the first time in human history, some are arguing that the best way address climate change is to use the controversial practice of geoengineering — the deliberate altering of the Earth’s ecological and climate systems to counter the effects of global warming.
- By Tim Radford
Although hundreds of the world’s glaciers are shrinking fast, far more are losing ice much more slowly, new research has established. But it shows that, almost everywhere, the glaciers are in retreat.
- By Paul Brown
Unexpected, perhaps, but true – clouds are sending more sunlight back out into space because pollution from human activities is making them more reflective.
Our society's addiction to fossil fuels is not only polluting our skies and wreaking havoc on our climate - it's also threatening to kill one of mankind's most precious resources.
- By Tim Radford
The world has a chance to slow the speed of sea level rise and to buy more time for tackling climate change by reducing emissions of some potent pollutants apart from carbon dioxide.
- By Alex Kirby
The year just past confirmed the Earth’s warming trend, which will continue and is reason for concern, says the World Meteorological Organisation.
- By Tim Radford
The energy released by 2012?s Superstorm Sandy in the US was so immense that it triggered seismic waves which registered on equipment designed to detect earthquakes.
- By Tim Radford
Warmer temperature prompts trees to release aerosols which in turn stimulate cloud formation. And that can help to cool the temperature, at least modestly.
- By Tim Radford
The fossilized remains of snails are helping scientists to understand how a fall in carbon dioxide levels signaled the start of a far colder and quite different climate.
- By Tim Radford
An increasingly warm climate will mean ever more rapid changes in the Earth’s climatic zones, researchers say, and the species that live there will face a heightened extinction risk.
- By Tim Radford
Work by an international scientific team has disclosed what the patterns of climate change have been across almost all the Earth’s continents over the past millennium. and sometimes longer.
Solar power is here to stay. So is efficiency and conservative use of electricity. Solar power and local or community production is the best bet for combating global warming. Decentralized and personal production gives home owners and business managers a stake in production and thus conservation.