climate change news stories on Newser

New Environmental Worry: Ancient Gas

Mark Russell — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:40:00 CDT

There are huge quantities of methane locked in ice sheets around the world, threatening to speed up climate change as they get released in melting ice. But determining which methane is the ancient kind and which is much younger and hails from, say, plant life that has decayed in lakes...

Peru: Climate Change Behind Dead Animals?

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 10 May 2012 11:12:57 CDT

Peru may finally have an answer for the 5,000 birds and nearly 900 dolphins that have died on its northern coast: climate change. As waters warm, food supply is disrupted, says the country’s deputy environment minister. A weather expert also confirms warmer waters due to El Niño could be...

Last 12-Month Stretch Warmest on Record

Rob Quinn — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:44:56 CDT

It's getting hot out there. The 12-month period from May 2011 to April 2012 was the warmest since records began in 1895, according to the NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. The year-long stretch was 0.1°F warmer than the previous record-setter, November 1999-October 2000, and was 2.8°F warmer than...

Culprit in Prehistoric Climate Change: Dinosaur Farts

Matt Cantor — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:40:37 CDT

Dinosaurs may have their own flatulence to thank for the warm climate—about 18 degrees hotter—when they roamed the Earth back 150 million years or so ago. During the Mesozoic era, the creatures likely generated 520 million metric tons of methane every year, researchers find. That's not too different...

Billboard Equates Climate Believers to Crazy Killers

John Johnson — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:24:07 CDT

A conservative think tank has pulled a controversial billboard that compared those who believe in global warming to deranged killers. The Heartland Institute was taking heavy flak for the digital sign in Chicago that featured a photo of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and the question, "I still believe in Global Warming....

Influential Climate Change Scientist: I Was an 'Alarmist'

Evann Gastaldo — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:32:05 CDT

James Lovelock, a favorite of environmentalists ever since he originated the "Gaia" theory that views the planet as a single organism, admits today that he may have overreacted a bit when it comes to climate change. In recent years, Lovelock hypothesized that billions of us would die within the century—...

2012 Obliterating US Heat Records

Evann Gastaldo — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 11:51:56 CDT

If you found yourself thinking last month, "Wow, it's awfully hot for March," you weren't wrong. Temperatures were 8.6 degrees higher than normal last month in the contiguous US, and 6 degrees above average for January, February, and March, the AP reports. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric...

Climate Change Solution: Rebuild Human Beings

Neal Colgrass — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:18:57 CDT

Frustrated by the lack of progress in fighting climate change? Researchers suggest we should consider re-engineering human beings rather than trying to reverse climate change directly, LiveScience reports. "We might not be entirely serious that people should be doing this," says Anders Sandberg, an author of a study coming out...

Weapon of the Future: Water

Kevin Spak — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 18:11:05 CDT

Soon, the precious commodity that starts wars may not be oil: It'll be water. Thanks to fresh-water shortages, droughts, and floods, US intelligence thinks it's increasingly likely that water could be "used as a weapon" in war, with one state denying water to another, according to a report released yesterday....