Media articles
News headlines
Norway to expand Arctic seabed surveying
Reuters, February 8, 2012: Norway intends to expand surveys of a previously disputed area in the Arctic offshore region bordering Russian waters ahead of potential oil exploration, Norway's prime minister said on Wednesday.
NASA satellites show how our icy world is melting
LiveScience, February 8, 2012: The melt-off from the world's ice sheets, ice caps and glaciers over eight years of the past decade would have been enough to cover the United States in about 18 inches of water, according to new research based on the most-comprehensive analysis of satellite data yet.
Global warming: Like 'weather on steroids'
ABC News, February 8, 2012: Are we "doping" our atmosphere? What's going on with these record warm temperatures... extreme snowfall... even January tornadoes? Is climate change the cause? Or more appropriately, what impact is climate change having on our weather? To help answer those questions, a group of researchers has just released a new online guide for understanding the links between more extreme weather and a warming planet.
The sea is rising? Island nations will see you in court
Los Angeles Times, February 6, 2012: If the globe keeps warming and the seas keep rising, the country of Palau could be wiped off the map. So the Pacific island is teaming up with other small island nations to fight the threat of climate change – in court.
It's the economy. And politics. And not much else
Daily Climate, February 6, 2012: In March 1981, pollsters tucked the first question about global climate change into a national poll, asking 1,000 adults if they had "heard or read about the 'greenhouse effect.'" Fourteen percent replied either "a great deal" or "a fair amount." The majority – 62 percent – said they had never heard of it.
You can find articles from the past 60 days in our archives.
Research news
Climate Trends and Variations Bulletins from Environment Canada:
January 2012 fourth warmest for contiguous United States, but Alaska extremely cold
Science Daily, February 8, 2012: During January, warmer-than-average conditions enveloped most of the contiguous United States, with widespread below-average precipitation. The overall weather pattern for the month was reflected in the lack of snow for much of the Northern Plains, Midwest, and Northeast. This scenario was in stark contrast to Alaska where several towns had their coldest January on record.
Study shows global glaciers, ice caps, shedding billions of tons of mass annually
EurekAlert, February 8, 2012: Earth's glaciers and ice caps outside of the regions of Greenland and Antarctica are shedding roughly 150 billion tons of ice annually, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.
Americans' knowledge of polar regions up, but not their concern
Science Daily, February 7, 2012: Americans' knowledge of facts about the polar regions of the globe has increased since 2006, but this increase in knowledge has not translated into more concern about changing polar environments, according to new research from the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire.
Rising ocean acidity worst for Caribbean and Pacific
SciDev.net, February 7, 2012: The current trend of increasing ocean acidification, which threatens fisheries around the world, is driven mainly by man-made changes and is higher even than that seen at the end of the last ice age, some 11,000 years ago, a study has said.
Northern forests may be losing their ability to trap carbon
PhysOrg, February 2, 2012: The northern forests of western Canada are likely absorbing less carbon dioxide because of climate change, and the decline may be making a bad situation worse, researchers from Quebec and China have concluded.
You can find articles from the past 60 days in our archives.
Opinion/editorial
Why the energy industry is so invested in climate change denial
TomDispatch, February 7, 2012: If we could see the world with a particularly illuminating set of spectacles, one of its most prominent features at the moment would be a giant carbon bubble, whose bursting someday will make the housing bubble of 2007 look like a lark. As yet – as we shall see – it's unfortunately largely invisible to us.
Climate consensus cracking open – or not
BBC News, February 6, 2012: Is there or isn't there a scientific consensus on climate change? And does it matter? What's brought me here now is the letter published in the Wall Street Journal about 10 days ago, in which a group of 16 scientists declared there was "no need to panic on global warming".
"Global warming has stopped"? How to fool people using "cherry-picked" climate data
Forbes, February 5, 2012: The current favorite argument of those who argue that climate changes isn't happening, or a problem, or worth dealing with, is that global warming has stopped. Therefore (they conclude) scientists must be wrong when they say that climate change is caused by humans, worsening, and ultimately a serious environmental problem that must be addressed by policy makers. The problem with this argument is that it is false: global warming has not stopped and those who repeat this claim over and over are either lying, ignorant, or exhibiting a blatant disregard for the truth.
Why Barack Obama will have to talk about climate change
Mother Jones, February 2, 2012: In his State of the Union address on January 24, President Obama largely avoided the topic of climate change. He talked about it once, in passing, as a topic on which "the differences in this chamber may be too deep" to enact new legislation. Its less-controversial cousin, "energy," on the other hand, got a whopping 23 mentions as an area where Republicans and Democrats should be able to find agreement.
Declining fisheries will affect us all soon enough
Vancouver Sun, January 31, 2012: The sad story of Newfoundland's cod industry is well known: When the region's once-thriving cod population collapsed in 1992, 40,000 jobs vanished along with a way of life. Atlantic cod, previously abundant, became an endangered species. Char species, so critical to First Nations communities, now face similar threats. Globally, fisheries are at risk because of overfishing exacerbated by climate change.
You can find editorials from the past 60 days in our archives.