Iowa expects more rain, braces for record flooding

By Stephen Feller   24 September 2016 WASHINGTON (UPI) – Residents of Cedar Rapids and other parts of Eastern Iowa spent Saturday reinforcing preparations for floodwaters as some were evacuated from their homes and others were set to be told to leave later tonight. The National Weather Service on Saturday afternoon issued flood warning for eastern […]

Global-warming data not enough to predict animal extinction

By Sandra Leander5 September 2016 (ASU) – Current models used to predict the survival of species in a warming world might be off target, according to new research that enlisted the help of dozens of spiny lizards in the New Mexico desert. Nearly 40 percent of the world’s populations of lizards are expected to become […]

Ocean acidification and pollution are silencing the seas

By Ivan Nagelkerken, Sean Connell, and Tullio Rossi19 September 2016 (Australian Geographic) – Despite appearances, the oceans are far from silent places. If you dunk your head underwater you’ll hear a cacophony of sounds from wildlife great and small, crashing waves, and even rain. And it’s louder still for creatures attuned to these sounds. However, […]

Polar bears across Arctic face shorter sea ice season – ‘This study shows declining sea ice for all subpopulations of polar bears’

By Michelle Ma14 September 2016 (UW) – It’s no secret that Arctic sea ice is melting. Polar bears, the poster child for climate change, are among the animals most affected by the seasonal and year-to-year changes in Arctic sea ice, because they rely on this surface for essential activities such as hunting, traveling, and breeding. […]

‘We are thirsty’, say Tunisians as drought creates tensions

TUNIS, 25 September 2016 (Associated Press) – Struggling with extremism and economic woes, Tunisia now faces another menace: persistent drought across several regions that is creating new social tensions and threatening farming, a pillar of the economy. Farmland is too parched to cultivate crops and rural protesters have tried disrupting water supplies to the capital, […]

Aquatic plants may accelerate Arctic methane emissions

[Keep in mind that Eos is a publication of AGU, which has voted to continue receiving sponsorship from the fossil-fuel industry. – Desdemona] By Rebecca Heisman22 September 2016 (Eos) – Climate change has caused a boom in aquatic plant biomass on the Arctic tundra in recent decades. Those plants, in turn, are releasing increasing amounts […]

Soil will absorb less atmospheric carbon than expected this century – ‘The problems of carbon emission and climate change are worse than what we expected’

IRVINE, California, 22 September 2016 – By adding highly accurate radiocarbon dating of soil to standard Earth system models, environmental scientists from the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have learned a dirty little secret: The ground will absorb far less atmospheric carbon dioxide this century than previously thought. Researchers used carbon-14 data from […]

Greenland ice is melting 7 percent faster than previously thought – ‘The present destabilization may increase sea level for centuries to come’

By Pam Frost Gorder21 September 2016 COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ohio State University) – The same hotspot in Earth’s mantle that feeds Iceland’s active volcanoes has been playing a trick on the scientists who are trying to measure how much ice is melting on nearby Greenland. According to a new study in the journal Science Advances, the […]

Can killer robots save ocean ecosystems? ‘Think of it as a video game’

By Kieron Monks18 September 2016 (CNN) – Few predators can match the devastating impact of the lionfish. Since arriving in US waters in the 1980s, these fearsome creatures have left a trail of destruction along the Atlantic Coast, from Rhode Island to Venezuela. Lionfish can reduce a flourishing coral reef to barren wasteland in a […]

Graph of the Day: Land surface temperature anomalies for Russia, the U.S., and Mexico, in July 2016

By Adam Voiland11 August 2016 (NASA) – Warm weather is expected in the summer, but the oppressive heat that affected several parts of the world in 2016 went well beyond warm. In June and July, people living in Siberia, the Middle East, and North America faced extreme heat waves. Parts of Siberia where cool weather […]

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