Climate Change, features and articles | Educational Science

Jul 27, 2022

Mongol Invasion in 1200 Altered Carbon Dioxide Levels

The Mongol invasion of Asia in the 1200s took enough carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to offset a year's worth of the world's gasoline demand today, according to a new study. But even Genghis Khan couldn't create more than a blip in atmospheric carbon compared to the overwhelming effect...

Aug 8, 2022

Intact WWII-era bomb discovered in Italy's River Po following extreme drought

Extreme drought brought on by record high temperatures in Europe has revealed an unexploded, WWII-era bomb nestled along the banks of Italy's River Po. Fishermen discovered the American-made bomb on July 25, near the northern Italian village of Borgo Virgilio, near the city of Mantua, according to Reuters. The bomb...

Sep 15, 2022

Climate 'points of no return' may be much closer than we thought

Climate tipping points — the points of no return past which key components of Earth's climate will begin to irreversibly break down — could be triggered by much lower temperatures than scientists previously thought, with some tipping points potentially already reached. There are also many more potential tipping points than...

Oct 8, 2022

'Death throes' of ancient ice sheets carved hidden valleys below the seafloor

Hidden valleys buried beneath the ocean bottom in the North Sea were rapidly carved out during the death throes of an ancient ice sheet toward the end of the last ice age around 20,000 years ago, a new study shows. The surprising subterranean structures could yield clues as to how...

Oct 11, 2022

Is Atlantic hurricane season getting worse (and is climate change to blame)?

With Cuba and Florida left reeling after Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in September 2022 and was one of the region's most powerful and destructive storms in decades, it is tempting to attribute the carnage of yet another deadly hurricane season to climate change. But is climate change the culprit?...

Oct 13, 2022

Mt. Everest's highest glacier lost 2,000 years worth of ice since the 1990s

Even the glaciers on Mount Everest are not safe from climate change, new research suggests. In a record-setting study, a team of scientists scaled the world's highest peak to monitor the mountain's highest-altitude glacier — the South Col Glacier, standing nearly 26,000 feet (8,000 meters) above sea level — for...

Oct 14, 2022

Sea Creatures Make Brighter Clouds to Cool the Earth

Green globs of little critters in the ocean are responsible for half of the cloud droplets that cover the Southern Ocean during the summer, a new study finds. This link between the critters and clouds provides needed insight for predicting the effects of climate change, the researchers say. Marine phytoplankton,...

Oct 14, 2022

Frequent Fires? New Tool Reveals Climate Impact by ZIP Code (Op-Ed)

Frances Beinecke is the president of NRDC, served on the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, and holds a leadership role in several environmental organizations. She contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. The fires burning around Colorado Springs, Colo., in...

Oct 14, 2022

What is global warming?

Global warming is the rise in average temperatures across the globe, which has been ongoing at least since record keeping began in 1880. Here are the bare numbers, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA): Between 1880 and 1980, the global annual temperature increased at a rate of...

Oct 14, 2022

Glaciers Morph Lickety-Split as Climate Changes

Arctic glaciers grew rapidly in response to sudden climate change 8,200 years ago, a new study finds. The study suggests that ice sheets such as those covering Greenland can quickly react to short-term climate shifts, said lead researcher Nicolás Young, a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Ice...

Oct 14, 2022

Americans' Mental Health is Latest Victim of Changing Climate (Op-Ed)

Freelance writer Marlene Cimons is a former Washington reporter for the Los Angeles Times who specializes in science and medicine. She writes regularly for the National Science Foundation, Climate Nexus, Microbe Magazine, and the Washington Post health section, and she is an adjunct professor of journalism at the University of...

Oct 14, 2022

Will Climate Change Destroy New York City?

The city of New York — America's largest metropolis and home to over 8 million people — will be ravaged by the effects of climate change within a few years. That's the bleak scenario presented by a recent 430-page report developed by a blue-ribbon panel of academics, environmental planners and...

Oct 14, 2022

Raging Debate: Should We Geoengineer Earth’s Climate?

The world is warming, this much we know. But exactly how much it will warm in the coming decades, and the exact effects that warming will have is still uncertain. Equally as uncertain is humanity's ability and desire to undo what we have done. Lately, efforts to stop the warming,...

Oct 14, 2022

Cool the Planet? Geoengineering Is Easier Said Than Done

With the world facing increased warming, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, intense weather events and other global disasters, scientists are exploring ways to re-engineer the planet to counter the effects of global warming. Earth's surface has warmed, on average over land and sea, 1.53 degreesFahrenheit (0.85 degrees Celsius) since...

Oct 14, 2022

White Roofs Could Reduce Urban Heating

To help combat global warming and urban heating, we might just need to paint the town white. A new modeling study simulated the effects of painting roofs white to reflect incoming solar rays and found that it could help cool cities and reduce the effects of global warming. The feasibility...