June 7th, 2010

An international group of researchers who have compiled the first comprehensive history of Arctic ice have come to a sobering conclusion: Less of it covers the region today than at any time in recent geologic history.

In an upcoming issue of Quarternary Science Reviews, a team led by Ohio State University offers results derived from re-examining data from nearly 300 past and ongoing studies. The group combined all observations to construct a view of the pole’s climate history for millions of years.

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January 12th, 2010

(Sometimes a few words on a list can explain a lot. Here, reprinted with permission from the Environmental Defense Fund, is a list that captures the profound and reverberating effects of climate change .)

Here are 10 startling facts we learned in 2009 that underscore the climate threat:

1. A study published in the journal Science reports that the current level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere – about 390 parts per million – is higher today than at any time in measurable history — at least the last 2.1 million years. Previous peaks of CO2 were never more than 300 ppm over the past 800,000 years, and the concentration is rising by around 2 ppm each year.

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October 20th, 2009

Greenland Ice Flow (Photo: NASA)

By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

By now you’ve heard the dire predictions for how sea level rise would affect Miami. Basically this city, already imperiled by worsening hurricanes is in the bulls-eye for rising oceans too.

But did you realize that a one meter sea level increase — now believed by many scientists to be a likely outcome of global warming by 2100 — would put Philadelphia underwater?

Yes, the city of Brotherly Love would be among the large family of coastal cities potentially devastated by coastline changes. And not in the too-distance future either.

According to glacier and ice shelf expert Dr. Gordon Hamilton, Philadelphia could experience troubles decades before that 2100 benchmark if storm surges pushed rising oceans inland.

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