The Daily Climate

From the Daily Climate Newsroom

Enterprise and investigative reporting by DailyClimate.org

Cyber bullying rises as climate data are questioned.

By Douglas Fischer 1 March 2010

Bullying UK

The e-mails come thick and fast every time NASA scientist Gavin Schmidt appears in the press. Rude and crass e-mails. E-mails calling him a fraud, a cheat, a scumbag and much worse.

To Schmidt and other researchers purging their inboxes daily of such correspondence, the barrage is simply part of the job of being a climate scientist. But others see the messages as threats and intimidation – cyber-bullying meant to shut down debate and cow scientists into limiting their participation in the public discourse.

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Ethanol's contrasting carbon footprints.

By Douglas Fischer 12 February 2010

PXLated/flickr

The federal government last week concluded corn-based biofuels help reduce emissions; California regulators say they don't. Who's right? Oddly enough, both may be.

Regulators and policy experts insist there's no conflict: Both rules match the science; it's simply a matter of what year you start counting emissions.

California looked at current emissions and concluded they were too steep; the White House looked at 2022 and saw a rosier picture. more

US loses opportunity with home energy efficiency.

By Andrew McGlashen 25 January 2010

Great Lakes Home Performance

Despite EPA gains with its Energy Star program, some 99 percent of American houses remain "sick" – damp, drafty, expensive to heat and cool – and could be made at least 30 percent more energy-efficient with "highly cost-effective, tried-and-true" improvements, according to experts.

Those experts add that economics and regulations are the root of the problem: Mortgages are structured in ways that fail to recognize efficiency's benefits, while a patchwork of inconsistent and ill-enforced energy codes provides conflicting signals to industry.

Meanwhile consumers remain largely unaware of efficiency's advantages, advocates say, thereby bypassing an easy target for considerable cuts in national carbon emissions. more

Stern: Copenhagen Accord 'best way to make progress.'

By Douglas Fischer 15 January 2010

Demark Foreign Ministry

Lead U.S. climate negotiator Todd Stern said Thursday the Copenhagen Accord represents the best way forward for a binding global climate deal but that success likely rests with a smaller group of countries working outside the unwieldy, multi-national United Nations process.

In his first public remarks since the conclusion of the United Nations climate talks in December, Stern said the Copenhagen Accord – despite its shortcomings – included "significant breakthroughs in a number of respects."

"It is a very important step forward," he said at an investor forum on climate risk hosted jointly by the UN Foundation and CERES. more

Disappearing options.

By Douglas Fischer 12 January 2010

Denmark Foreign Ministry

Climate policy has a tipping point. Failure to set and meet strict emissions targets over the next 40 years puts long-term goals – such as limiting planetary warming to 2ºC by 2100 – permanently out of reach, according to a study published Monday.

The study establishes the notion of "feasibility frontiers," the point at which end-of-century goals become unobtainable or increasingly unlikely unless specific mid-century benchmarks are met.

These so-called "mid-century" benchmarks must be hit, in other words, to preserve options for future generations. more

2009 offered a trove of climate stories.

By Douglas Fischer 11 January 2010

D.Fischer/Daily Climate

Journalists worldwide produced more than 32,000 stories on climate change last year, but the coverage failed to garner a spot on a map showing major news events of 2009.

Those articles were written by some 11,000 different reporters, columnists and editorial boards, based on an analysis of DailyClimate.org's archives. Reuters led the pack, publishing at least 2,550 different articles on the topic last year – the equivalent of seven stories a day. The Associated Press had 1,600.

The total is a 17 percent increase from 2008, though direct comparisons are difficult given changes in posting criteria by the Daily Climate and its sister site, EnvironmentalHealthNews.org. more

One planet, different worlds.

By Douglas Fischer 19 December 2009

Denmark Foreign Ministry

All eyes in Copenhagen were on China and President Barack Obama Friday night, but nothing captured the discord, distrust and distance separating all sides at these climate talks better than a pair of press conferences held simultaneously at the Bella Center earlier in the afternoon.

In the main room, refusing to cede the stage to other dignitaries, Venezuela' Hugo Chavez and Bolivia's Juan Evo Morales railed against the developed world's inability to accept responsibility for previous emissions obligations and the role it has played in warming the atmosphere.

Across the hall, five Republican members of the U.S. House denounced the notion that humans could change the climate and expressed relief at the prospect of failure here. more

Cities pushing nations toward deeper cuts.

By Douglas Fischer 17 December 2009

Steve Oldham/flickr

Mayors of some of the world's largest cities flexed their muscle at the United Nations climate talks Wednesday, warning that "billions of people" are prepared to cut emissions far beyond whatever agreement world leaders may ink this week.

"We at the local level have too much to lose," said Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels. more

Samsø cuts the cord.

By Douglas Fischer 14 December 2009

Steve Chu and a host of foreign energy ministers announced Monday a $350 million initiative to boost renewable technologies worldwide. But out here on windswept Samsø, a remote rural island in Denmark, residents have already transited to the carbon-free world these ministers envision.

They did so without the new technology or fancy investments envisioned by the ministers. Their secret? The residents themselves. And their desire to make a buck. more

Copenhagen talks start minus a key player.

By Douglas Fischer 7 December 2009

Pew Environment Group

No one at the Copenhagen climate talks is filling the role of the late Phil Clapp, director of the former National Environmental Trust and considered by some to be the most influential campaigner the United States offered.

Clapp – Harvard-educated chain-smoker, fluent in French, an expert on British royalty and an accomplished pianist – died of pneumonia in September 2008 while vacationing in Amsterdam. He was 54.

He had spent 32 years in Washington, D.C., fighting for the environment. Policy experts and government officials rarely agree on one thing. But in a series of interviews, they all agreed on this: Climate change had no more effective advocate. more

For clean energy, Britain looks out to sea.

By Jennifer Weeks 3 December 2009

England has placed a big bet on offshore wind power to cut emissions radically by 2050 and is driving hard to get projects built. The government has shown a willingness to intervene heavily in energy markets and overrule local concerns.

"Offshore wind is going to be the greatest special use of the seas around the U.K. in a short period of time, which can be scary," said Victoria Copley, a senior energy specialist with the advocacy group Natural England. "But a lot of research has been done, and we're in a much better place than we were three years ago."
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Special Report: 'New' economy rolls forward.

By Douglas Fischer 13 November 2009

Douglas Fischer/Daily Climate

The low-carbon economy has arrived on the prairie north of Denver. Vestas is building the West's largest turbine factory, a $700 million investment in what Gov. Ritter calls a "new energy economy." Some say these efforts – not the Copenhagen talks – provide the most promising solutions to climate change.

Vestas isn't the only company spending millions of its capital. Several utilities are investing some $1 billion on an industrial-scale carbon capture and storage tests at coal plants in Wisconsin, West Virginia and Oklahoma. The race to perfect the batteries that will power the next generation of automobiles and buses has manufacturers in Europe, the United States and China scurrying to build plants and research centers.

"The vast majority of the utility industry (has) pretty much accepted the reality that CO2 is something they have to cope with," said Revis James, director of the energy technology assessment center for the Electric Power Research Institute. Part four of four. more

Special Report: The escape route.

By Douglas Fischer 12 November 2009

jasmic/flickr

Failure to confront hard decisions about emissions puts humanity in a box. But we have a way out. Call in the geoengineers.

The idea of tinkering with planetary controls is not for the faint of heart. Even advocates acknowledge that any attempt to set the Earth's thermostat is full of hubris and laden with risk.

But the concept is gaining traction as politicians, unable to wean economies off fossil fuels, cast about for a strategy that will work if climate changes quickly or in nasty ways. Part three of four. more

Special Report: Busting emissions in the 'Boulder bubble.'

By Douglas Fischer 11 November 2009

350.org/flickr

Amid increasing gloom that the Copenhagen talks will produce a global climate accord, state and local leaders pushing their own reductions efforts in the United States see only one choice: Proceed.

The number of cities and regional governments undertaking this transition to a low-carbon economy is growing. These efforts, leaders vow, will continue whatever the outcome of political debates in Copenhagen, Brussels or Washington, D.C.

There are, in other words, two trains heading out of the station: Those driving local change are confident their programs will continue to accelerate even if global discussions get waylaid in Copenhagen next month. Second of four parts. more

Special Report: An 'all-in' bet for the planet.

By Douglas Fischer 10 November 2009

Lucas Janin/flickr

This is the consequence of failure at Copenhagen: A marked shift in scientific effort from solving global warming to adapting to its consequences, a hodge-podge of uncoordinated local efforts to trim emissions – none of which deliver the necessary cuts – and an altered climate.

Climate experts, scientists and negotiators say that, absent international agreement, the children and grandchildren of those living today will negotiate a world where planetary geo-engineering is a part of daily life, sea-walls defend coastal cities, the world's poor are hammered by drought, floods and famine and our planet is heading toward conditions unseen for the last 100 million years.

The December talks are, in other words, the last, best chance to change course before chaos descends. First of four parts. more

Rapid change threatens foundations of human health - report.

By Douglas Fischer 5 November 2009

Medecins Sans Frontieres

Rapid changes already underway to the Earth's climate, ecosystems and land cover threaten the health of billions, undermining key human life-support systems and threatening the core foundations of healthy communities worldwide, according to a new report released Wednesday.

The disruption represents the greatest public health challenge of the 21st century and leaves poor populations mostly in developing nations most vulnerable – even though they contribute the least to many of the problems. more

A day built around a data point goes viral.

By Douglas Fischer 22 October 2009

350.org

Organizers of 350 Day aim to stabilize the climate and prevent disaster. Turns out many more are paying attention than they expected.

Organizers credit the increasing inter-connectedness of Web, cellular and social networks for the spread, saying such random and organic growth would have been impossible even two years ago. more

Forest's death brings higher temps, researchers suspect.

By Scott Streater 21 October 2009

Forests of dead beetle-kill pine could be speeding regional climate change, increasing temperatures and decreasing rainfalls across the American West.

"The local impacts where the forest has been destroyed will be fairly dramatic," said Peter Harley, an associate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "The big question is how much of an impact will this have?" more

A man, a plane, a very big picture.

By Dan Glick 9 October 2009

From his Cessna, Bruce Gordon provides politicians, reporters and others with an eye-opening view of an American West increasingly fractured by energy and resource development.

That awareness of scale, over both time and vast distances, is what gives Gordon - and his many passengers – the ability to piece together a startling and disturbing picture. Whether it's clear-cut forests in the Pacific Northwest, coal bed methane development in Wyoming, pine beetle blight across the Western Slope of Colorado, giant open pit gold mines in Nevada, scars from a decades-long natural gas boom in New Mexico or melting Montana glaciers, his vantage point connects the disparate dots that reveal a tattered Western tapestry. With video. more

Green shoots rise from brownfields.

By Scott Streater 8 October 2009

Courtesy First Wind

Uncle Sam looks to eliminate the biggest hurdle to expanding renewable energy – the need for suitable sites to place commercial-scale wind and solar farms – by reusing hundreds of old mines, landfills and industrial sites.

Using already disturbed lands would help avoid conflicts between renewable energy developers and environmental groups concerned about impacts to wildlife habitat. These conflicts have stalled some high-profile projects despite the fact that renewable energy sources do not produce heat-trapping emissions of carbon dioxides, the primary greenhouse gas driving global warming. more

Op-ed: The fate of our civilization.

By Dianne Dumanoski 6 October 2009

Mary Harrsch/flickr

Forget about protecting the Earth. It's the underpinnings of our civilization that climate change most endangers.

If I had one thing to impart to our leaders and opinionmakers, it would be this: Start worrying instead about the fate of human civilization. The Earth will survive the assault of the modern era. The urgent question is whether the Earth will remain a place that can support a complex, interconnected global civilization like our own. more

Altered climate shifts Andes culture.

By Barbara Fraser 5 October 2009

For ages Qoyllur Rit'i pilgrims have hauled themselves ever upward to celebrate the glaciers' life-giving waters. As that world rapidly melts, the Andes' Quechua-speaking farmers face a profound change in their relationship with their environment.

While governments seek technical solutions to climate-related problems, farmers in the Andes are struggling to understand events that are altering their livelihood. Drip irrigation and water reservoirs are only a partial response.

Farmers are being squeezed by warmer temperatures that shift crops up mountainsides, vanishing glaciers and the expansion of mountaintop mining that destroys high wetland pastures. more

Op-Ed: One giant leap ... on Earth.

By Dianne Dumanoski 14 September 2009

NASA

Our continued focus on economic growth makes clear that we remain seriously mistaken about the geography of the future. This radical experiment with the Earth's metabolism is our predicament, the unifying force of our planetary era.

The greatest challenges of the 21st century will not be those of the space age, but rather urgent earthly ones in a new planetary era that arrived in the second half of the 20th century. If any single event marked this profound watershed in the human journey, it was the sudden appearance of a yawning hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica first reported in May 1985. With the explosive, exponential expansion of modern industrial civilization following World War II, human activity reached a scale great enough to disrupt essential, but invisible planetary systems, in this case, the ozone layer which shields the Earth from deadly ultraviolet radiation. The human enterprise had become agent of risky global change. more

Seeking change in human behavior.

By Douglas Fischer 5 September 2009

joiseyshowa/flickr

Frustrated by society's inability to tackle pressing environmental dilemmas, Stanford ecologist Paul Ehrlich has launched a new endeavor aimed at changing human behavior.

Called the Millennium Assessment of Human Behavior, or MAHB (pronounced "mob"), the venture seeks to change human activities to better confront issues threatening humanity's future – among them climate change, declining food security, loss of biological diversity, water shortages, pollution, land use changes.

"I and my colleagues believe humanity must take rapid steps," Ehrlich said in an email announcing the launch. "But, in essence, nothing serious is being done – as exemplified by the 'much talk and no action' on climate change." more

Rising acidity erodes Alaska's fisheries.

By Douglas Fischer 20 August 2009

Corey Arnold/flickr

New research suggests Alaska's marine waters are particularly susceptible to acidification, with potentially dire consequences to the state's rich crab and salmon fisheries.

"Everything is acting in unison on the environment – it's not just the ice loss or the warming or the acidification," said UAF chemical oceanographer Jeremy Mathis. "The Arctic is taking a multilateral hit."

Mathis' newest data from the Gulf of Alaska show that acidity levels far higher than expected might already be impacting the food web. In several sites the increasing acidity has changed ocean chemistry so significantly that organisms are unable to pull crucial minerals out of the water to build shells, he said. more

Op-Ed: The return of the population bomb.

By Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich 14 July 2009

No driver of environmental deterioration is more obvious than population growth, and none has been more taboo to talk about. A collapse of civilization now seems ever more likely than it did back in 1968, when the Population Bomb was written.

The role of population growth and related issues (especially patterns of rising consumption) as drivers of some of our most serious problems has been largely ignored. That makes a collapse of civilization now seem ever more likely than it did back in 1968, when the Population Bomb was written. more

Climate change solution: one billion emitters.

By Douglas Fischer 7 July 2009

Adreina Lairet Morreo/flickr

A new framework for reducing carbon emissions takes a crack at the knottiest dilemma confronting a global climate solution: how to divvy cuts between rich and poor nations.

The study, published Monday, attempts to sidestep the rancor, finding that virtually every country has a class of individuals – the so-called "high emitters" - enjoying a rich, carbon-intensive lifestyle. If those individuals, no matter their locale, are forced to take responsibility for their emissions, a great swath of countries become participants in the climate effort, the study claims. more

Calling for action, White House underscores climate impact.

By Douglas Fischer 17 June 2009

chascar/flickr

A report showing that climate disruption is already leaving deep imprints on every sector of the environment and that the consequences of these changes will grow steadily worse in coming decades was released Tuesday by the Obama Administration.

The 196-page report crisscrosses the United States and finds that global warming has touched every corner: Heavier downpours, strengthened heat waves, altered river flows and extended growing seasons. more

Climate change hitting poor in U.S. hardest.

By Douglas Fischer 29 May 2009

GreenAction

Climate change is disproportionately affecting the poor and minorities in the United States – a "climate gap" that will grow in coming decades unless policymakers intervene.

Everyone, the researchers say, is already starting to feel the effects of a warming planet, via heat waves, increased air pollution, drought, or more intense storms. But the impacts – on health, economics, and overall quality of life – are far more acute on society's disadvantaged, the researchers found. more

Drought, conflict and tension in Andes.

By Barbara Fraser 19 May 2009

Icelight/flickr

Rapid disappearance of Andean glaciers is already producing conflicts in the region and is likely to force major human migrations in the relatively near future.

With cities growing and agriculture expanding throughout South America, experts predict that climate change will exacerbate water scarcity, increasing conflicts between competing users, pitting city dwellers against rural residents, people in dry lands against those in areas with abundant rainfall, Andean mining companies against neighboring farm communities, and eucalyptus plantation operators on the Argentinian and Uruguayan plains against farmers who say the trees are sucking the water table dry. more

The Andes' triple bottom line.

By Barbara J. Fraser 11 May 2009

Climate change is hitting South America with a triple whammy: More water stress, more migration, more disease.

Rising temperatures can change the way diseases behave, while collateral effects — from the retreat of glaciers that provide vital drinking and irrigation water to more frequent, intense storms and flooding — increase the burden on developing economies.

As diseases like dengue, bartonellosis and malaria spread, pressures mount on already understaffed, underfunded health services. As crops dry up and farmers migrate to urban shantytowns lacking clean water and basic sanitation, the burden is amplified. more

Andes at risk: Slideshow.

By Walter Hupiú and Barbara J. Fraser 11 May 2009

Walter Hupiú

Climate change is further straining Peru's already stressed public health system. Two minute slideshow.

Cherry growers, deciphering models, find uncertainty.

By Andrew McGlashen 6 May 2009

Andrew McFarlane/absolutemichigan.com

A novel interdisciplinary effort strives - and struggles - to give Michigan's $44 million tart cherry industry a roadmap for a warmer future.

Their work provides insight on the promises and pitfalls of what researchers and policy makers agree is an urgent task of climate science: translating the global problem to backyard consequences. more

First fruits of cap-and-trade.

By Doug Struck 23 April 2009

Some of the first workers on energy efficiency programs are now hitting the streets with salaries paid by proceeds of the cap-and-trade program started by 10 Northeast States. The initiative may or may not be a good model for the Obama Administration, but it already has raised millions for efficiency programs.

And there is little dispute the program is achieving one main goal, to finance an aggressive expansion of energy efficiency programs. The first reductions of carbon dioxide allowances raised $262 million for the programs, just the beginning of a steady stream of funds being funneled to the 10 participating states. more

California takes on King Corn.

By Matthew Cimitile 20 April 2009

fafou, flickr

California regulators, trying to assess the true environmental cost of corn ethanol, are poised to declare that the biofuel cannot help the state reduce global warming.

As they see it, corn is no better – and might be worse – than petroleum when total greenhouse gas emissions are considered.

Such a declaration, to be considered later this week by the California Air Resources Board, would be a considerable blow to the corn-ethanol industry in the United States. more

Valley fever blowin' on a hotter wind.

By Janice Arenofsky 15 April 2009

Christopher Taggart, flickr

Harsher weather conditions – hotter temperatures and more intense dust storms fueled by global warming – are spreading the transmission of valley fever, a fungal disease endemic to the southwestern United States.

Forecasts of rising temperatures and moisture levels and alternating hot-dry and wet periods create a hospitable environment for the disease, and researchers believe climate change may impact it more than other infectious ailments. more

Steep cuts avert the worst problems - study.

By Douglas Fischer 14 April 2009

NCAR

Drastic, economy-changing cuts to greenhouse gas emissions will spare the planet only half the trauma expected over the next century as the Earth warms. And that’s the good news.

Because a failure to significantly curb these planet-warming gases will truly transform our world in less than 100 years. more

All tapped out.

By David Biello 6 April 2009

All farming depends on the weather, but few foods are more dependent on a specific climate than maple syrup. And change underway in New England suggests the region's sugar country faces a bitter future.

After all, for the sugar maple's sap to run at all requires cooperative weather — freezing nights followed by warmer days.

But with the buildup of invisible greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, those temperature swings don't happen as reliably. At risk is an American tradition that stretches back even before Europeans discovered the "New World."

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Clean fuels are a social panacea - EPA.

By Douglas Fischer 26 March 2009

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Shifting the United States to clean-burning renewable fuels has the potential to solve long-standing social ills across the entire spectrum of American life, from manufacturing to national security to clean water, the country’s top environmental cop said on Wednesday.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said weaning the country from fossil fuels remains a top priority of the Obama administration because it offers such a broad suite of solutions across all aspects of American life: rewarding innovation, discouraging pollution, investing in jobs and encouraging energy independence.
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Climate change comes to your backyard.

By Jennifer Weeks 23 March 2009

Darien Library/flickr

A standard gardening reference – the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Plant Hardiness Zone Map – is about to make very clear how much rising temperatures have shifted planting zones northward.

By injecting climate change into one of America’s favorite pastimes, the revised USDA map could become an important public education tool, experts say. “Hopefully the new map will clear up a lot of confusion about what’s happening to the climate,” said Charlie Nardozzi, a National Gardening Association horticulturist. more

Changing climate ups West Nile threat in U.S.

By Crystal Gammon 20 March 2009

ikkoskinen/flickr

The higher temperatures, humidity and rainfall associated with climate change have led to increased outbreaks of West Nile Virus infections across the United States in recent years, according to a study published this week.

One of the largest surveys of West Nile Virus cases to date links warming weather patterns and increasing rainfall – both projected to accelerate with global warming – to outbreaks of the mosquito-borne disease across 17 states from 2001 to 2005.

The authors predict the pattern will only get worse. more

Climate science: A call to think big - and think policy.

By Todd Neff 17 March 2009

Peter Rejcek/NSF

Researchers question whether our scientific institutions can solve the climate dilemma, arguing that daunting pressures require a new degree of political cooperation - from the county commission up to the United Nations.

Without a fundamental shift in emphasis, they caution, the scientific infrastructure so painstakingly erected to identify the problem will find itself impotent to ensure that global warming will be mitigated and civilization will adapt. more

Saving the oceans: 'Mission Possible.'

By Daniel Glick 25 February 2009

Claire Fackler, NOAA

Marine scientist Joanie Kleypas was one of the first to link ocean acidification to coral death. Now she's working to bolster reef health to help them weather the climate crisis.

Losing a third of the coral species on a reef “is like losing a third of the colors from a Van Gogh painting,” she said. “The loss of biodiversity is like having a football team with only tight ends.” more

Climate science: Where next?

By Todd Neff 17 February 2009

With the human role in climate change largely settled, researchers see a need to shift science's focus from discovery to mitigation, solutions and policy.

The climate community, in other words, must emerge from field and lab to point the way out of this mess.

"Physical science is still very important, but for many people — and for some physical scientists — we already know enough," said Linda Mearns, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Institute for the Study of Society and Environment. First in a series. more

Malaria rates, drug resistance tied to climate.

By Andrew McGlashen 16 February 2009

Pierre Holtz, UNICEF

Warmer temperatures are at least partly to blame for a surge in malaria cases in the highlands of East Africa and the increasing development of drug-resistant strains of the disease, according to a University of Michigan researcher.

The malaria parasite is highly sensitive to changes in temperature, and even subtle warming can dramatically increase populations of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease, said ecologist Mercedes Pascual.

Some scientists have argued that climate is not involved in the increasing highland epidemics. Instead, they say, adaptations in the parasite that make it resistant to anti-malarial drugs are the key drivers.

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Climate change erodes marine preserves.

By Andrew McGlashen 16 February 2009

Nick Lucey

Climate change has undermined fundamental assumptions about oceanic conservation, challenging the notion that today’s sanctuaries will protect tomorrow’s fish.

Conservationists have long assumed fish harvested at a sustainable rate will forever be available for future generations.

Instead, scientists now find that a warming ocean is mobilizing fish populations, sending them to the poles with little regard for marine preserve boundaries more

First glimpse of global greenhouse gases comes into view.

By Douglas Fischer 30 January 2009

NCAR

Scientists have taken the first crack at a climate mystery, criss-crossing the globe in a souped-up jet to map where and when greenhouse gases enter and leave the atmosphere.

An understanding of how these climate-warming gases move about the globe is a critical prerequisite for any policy aimed at curbing global warming, scientists said Thursday. Information gained over the next three years will play a crucial role in sharpening future predictions and improving their accuracy. more

Rx for Arctic warming.

By Elizabeth Grossman 29 January 2009

(c)Elizabeth Grossman

The quickest way to curb Arctic melting now underway may be to turn off the tap of short-lived pollutants swirling north from cities and industry far to the south, say scientists.

Preliminary data suggest that these pollutants can increase Arctic surface temperatures as much as three degrees. more

Climate change is killing forests, scientists say.

By Douglas Fischer 23 January 2009

Eric Magnuson/flickr

The death rate of the most stable and resilient forests in western North America has doubled during the past few decades.

These new data from a team of 11 scientists provide more evidence that climate change is having a broad and significant impact, independent of other human activities such as logging and development.

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A tale of two pollutants.

By Andrew McGlashen 8 January 2009

Brian Parmeter

Excess nitrogen mitigates carbon dioxide's effects – but with considerable risk, scientists say.

Coal is the great danger as 'peak oil' approaches, scientist warns.

By Harvey Leifert 18 December 2008

The most important question about peak oil - and the largest source of uncertainty in climate models - is whether the end of oil will usher in a century of coal.

Science must evolve to tackle the challenges of warming, researchers say.

By Harvey Leifert 16 December 2008

As the science of climate change matures, scientists must change their focus to advise local and regional leaders on how best to adapt to a warmer future, senior climate researchers said Monday.

Cleaning the air helps cool planet.

By Douglas Fischer 12 December 2008

John B. Mueller/flickr

Local and state regulators have new ammunition in the fight to justify expensive air pollution rules: Cutting smog and soot has an immediate impact on climate change.

Solar thermal comes out of the shadows.

By Douglas Fischer 20 November 2008

There is energy to be harvested in deserts of Southern California, Arizona, Spain and Africa: Sunlight focused so intensely it can melt salt, vaporize water and run air conditioners from Phoenix to Seville long after the sun has set.

This is concentrated solar power, and it represents the best hope for utility-scale power from renewable energy and the surest way to get energy-sucking Sun Belt cities off carbon. more

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From the Daily Climate Newsroom

Enterprise and investigative reporting by DailyClimate.org