By Adam Rogers9 May 2017 (Wired) – The polyphagous shot hole borer, a brown-black beetle from southeast Asia, never gets bigger than a tenth of an inch. It breeds inside trees; pregnant females drill into trunks to create networks of tunnels where they lay their eggs. The beetles also carry a fungus called Fusarium; it […]
By PZ Myers14 May 2017 (Pharyngula) – I don’t normally read Dilbert — I’ve seen far too much of the benighted ignorant psyche of its creator — but this one was just laid out on a table at the coffee shop yesterday, and I knew I’d have to deal with it. In this one, Dilbert […]
21 March 2017 (United Nations) – Global temperatures set yet another record last year and the world witnessed exceptionally low sea ice, and unabated sea level rise and ocean heat, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said today, warning that the extreme weather and climate conditions have continued into 2017. According to the agency’s […]
By John Toon15 March 2017 ATLANTA, GA (Geirgia Tech) – China’s severe winter air pollution problems may be worsened by changes in atmospheric circulation prompted by Arctic sea ice loss and increased Eurasian snowfall – both caused by global climate change. Modeling and data analysis done by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology suggest […]
11 May 2017 (Alfred Wegener Institute) – By the second half of this century, rising air temperatures above the Weddell Sea could set off a self-amplifying meltwater feedback cycle under the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, ultimately causing the second-largest ice shelf in the Antarctic to shrink dramatically. Climate researchers at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre […]
By Timothy Cama5 May 2017 (The Hill) – The head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is recusing himself from matters involving numerous major lawsuits he filed against his own agency. Scott Pruitt filed a recusal statement Thursday, saying that he will stay away from cases challenging the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, the Clean Water […]
By Joe Sutton and Susannah Cullinane9 May 2017 (CNN) – Three people are missing and a man has reportedly died after after heavy flooding covered parts of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and British Columbia. The man was driving with his 2-year-old child in the Gaspésie area of Quebec when powerful flood waters pushed their […]
By Lauren Frisch5 May 2017 (UAF) – In one year, sea stars have almost disappeared from Kachemak Bay, Alaska. This is likely the aftermath of a sea star wasting disease episode. The disease causes lesions, and may result in the loss of arms, making a sea star look as if it is melting or decomposing. […]
By Bob Berwin8 May 2017 (InsideClimate News) – Soaring temperatures in the Arctic have triggered a huge seasonal surge in carbon dioxide emissions from thawing permafrost and may be tipping the region toward becoming a net source of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, a new study shows. Even into early winter, when the ground would have been […]
By Joe Ryan and Jennifer A Dlouhy8 May 2017 (Bloomberg) – A group of retired senior military officers is urging U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis to remain firm in their support for combating global warming as White House officials consider exiting the Paris climate accord. The 17 veterans argue […]
