Science publishes a special issue this week on “Changing Oceans.” Perhaps the most striking article in the issue is a review on “The Impact of Climate Change on the World’s Marine Ecosystems.” The article begins by pointing out how oceans, which currently cover 71% of the earth’s surface, nurtured life on our planet. The paper then …
Climate Science
Hot Times in Antarctica
The world’s polar regions are warming up faster than the global average, but the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula is especially steamy. Over the past 50 years, winter temperatures have shot up by an almost unbelievable 6°C—more than five times the global average, according to a paper just published in Science.
Industrial Farming Slows Climate Change?
That’s the conclusion from a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Two Stanford researchers looked at the effects of the Green Revolution—the half-century old transition to more intensified agriculture, with more fertilizers and more irrigation—to see what impact the shift might have had on global …
Revisiting that Sinking Feeling
The conventional wisdom that Asia and the Pacific’s thousands of low-slung islands will be swimming with the fishes by the end of this century is getting a second look. A recent study of 27 Pacific islands featured in New Scientist reports that many — including the infamously doomed Tuvalu — have remained stable in size or even …
An Ecocentric Introduction
I turned 32 yesterday. As periods of time go, not that long—according to the actuarial tables of the Social Security Administration I’m just 41.6% through my life, which actually looks depressing when you write it out. But the world has undergone immense changes over those years—explosions, really—and that growth forms the …
TIME and Climate Change
About 20 years ago, a group of TIME writers and editors had lunch with Stephen Schneider, who was then and remains a leading climate scientist. At one point during the meeting, Schneider made a plea: “You really should be covering global warming every week. That’s how important it is.”
The journalists looked at each other awkwardly. …
America’s Oil Bender
It’s axiomatic in the recovery field that addicts don’t get better until they hit bottom. For some, the bottom is shallow—a single DWI may be enough. Others sink much deeper, sobering up only after years of lost jobs, busted relationships and wrecked cars.
The U.S.—famously addicted to fossil fuels—has been struggling for …