Choose your own (climate) adventure
The climate system has a carbon budget of one trillion pounds. How quickly we spend that is up to us.
"climate change"
Spot the Differences in New IPCC Report
Changes have been made. No, I’m not talking about the difference between the 2007 climate change report from the Intergovernmental on Climate Change versus this latest iteration.
Sustainability
Dig This: Decline of Australian Digging Mammals Impacts Entire Ecosystems
How much soil would a bandicoot dig if a bandicoot could dig soil? Quite a lot, it turns out. The southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) weighs just 1.4 kilograms, but over the course of a year this tiny digging marsupial can excavate more than 3.9 metric tons of soil as it builds its nests and [...]..
Sustainability
Piping Plovers in Migration: Foraging for Their Lives
Is invisibility overrated? For many species, the ability to camouflage themselves against their natural habitat provides safety from predators and other unwanted eyes.
Sustainability
Teach the Children Well…About Water
Today, all eighth and ninth graders in the public school system here in Decatur, Ga., are partaking in a day-long seminar known as Water Wise. Last night, I attended the preview complete with presentations about water-borne diseases, water conservation, and the intricate interplay between energy use and water...
What You Need to Know about the Forthcoming Climate Change Report
Talk about management by committee: one group of more than 800 scientist authors to cope with more than 9,000 scientific publications on climate change and more than 20,000 comments from “expert reviewers” (plus another 30,000 or so from various other interested parties.) Now the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is into four days of wrangling [...]..
The Answer to Coal Climate Pollution Is Natural Gas and Carbon Capture, EPA Says
The Environmental Protection Agency has new rules for how much carbon dioxide power plants can spew. Designed to ensure that no new plants built in the U.S.
EPA Challenges Coal Industry to Adopt New Technology
The White House unveiled a powerful incentive to speed track carbon capture technology innovations this morning with the release of highly-anticipated requirements to harness the emissions of new coal-fired power plants and natural gas facilities...
Running the numbers on EPA’s new CO2 regulations: combined cycle stacks up well
Existing technology like combined cycle generation could be used to meet EPA's stricter CO2 emissions limits
On environmentalism and ‘frackademia’
It’s sad that the biggest takeaway from the UT Austin/Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) study on methane emissions from upstream shale gas production has been the involvement of industry...
EPA “got it right” on more stringent methane regulations
One of the big takeaway from the big UT Austin/Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) methane leakage study released today is emissions rates are actually lower in some parts of the production process than initially thought...
Switching from coal to natural gas may be better for the climate than previously thought: new measurements see lower fugitive emissions from fracking
A new study finds that methane emissions from shale gas production are nearly 50 times lower than previous estimates, improving the climate benefit of switching from coal to natural gas...
“Consistent With Our Carbon Budgets”
That’s how Ed Davey, the United Kingdom’s Energy and Climate Minister, is describing the climate impacts of natural gas from shale formations: This report shows that the continued use of gas is perfectly consistent with our carbon budgets over the next couple of decades...
Scientists Report Human-Induced Climate Change Influences Extreme Weather Events. Now What?
Last week, a new analysis of climate change and extreme weather was released in the peer-reviewed Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
Scientists Report Human-Induced Climate Change Influences Extreme Weather Events. Now What?
Last week, a new analysis of climate change and extreme weather was released in the peer-reviewed Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.
How One Little Molecule Influences Earth’s Climate
A seemingly humdrum little molecule has found itself responsible for not just one but two positive feedback loops, one moderating climate and the other gathering animals across the food web...
East Antarctic glaciers could be much more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought.
The warming, melting and potential contributions to sea level rise from glaciers in Greenland and West Antarctica in the face of climate change has long since been a serious concern.
The Climate May Be Changing, but the IPCC Remains the Same
By 2021, climate scientists should be 99 percent certain that climate change is our fault—up from 95 percent certain presently and a mere 90 percent certain all the way back in 2007.
Well hello there.
My name is Sheril. I’m new here, although I’ve been bouncing around the science blogosphere since 2006. Today I’m delighted to be joining the terrific energy team at Scientific American’s Plugged In!...
Sustainability
Cultured Beef: Do We Really Need a $380,000 Burger Grown in Petri Dishes?
For the first time, the public has been treated to the spectacle of lab-grown meat cooked and eaten via live Webcast. Backed by Google billionaire Sergey Brin, Dutch tissue engineer Mark Post unveiled his “cultured beef” at a press event on August 5, answering the question posed by a 2011 Scientific American feature: “When Will [...]..
