As the atmosphere continues to fill with greenhouse gases from human activities, many proposals have surfaced to “geoengineer” climate-saving solutions, that is, alter the atmosphere at a global scale to either reduce the concentrations of carbon or mute its warming effect.
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Thawing Permafrost Threatens up to Three Million People in Arctic Regions
First comprehensive pan-Arctic study of social impacts of thawing permafrost soils.
New Study Reveals How Climate Change May Alter Hydrology of Grassland Ecosystems
New research co-led by the University of Maryland reveals that drought and increased temperatures in a CO2-rich climate can dramatically alter how grasslands use and move water.
To Mitigate Impact of Wildfires on Communities’ Water, Report Fills Gaps in Guidance to Public Drinking Water System Staff
Wildfires increasingly threaten public drinking water systems, but guidance on how to address damage to these systems from a wildfire has been insufficient, conflicting or inaccurate.
Three million years ago, our ancestors were vegetarian
Human ancestors like Australopithecus -- which lived around 3.5 million years ago in southern Africa -- ate very little to no meat, according to new research. This conclusion comes from an analysis of nitrogen isotope isotopes in the fossilized tooth enamel of seven Australopithecus individuals. The data revealed that these...
The megadroughts are upon us
Increasingly common since 1980, persistent multi-year droughts will continue to advance with the warming climate, warns a new study. This publicly available forty-year global quantitative inventory seeks to inform policy regarding the environmental impact of human-induced climate change. It also detected previously 'overlooked' events.
Volcanic eruption caused Neolithic people to sacrifice unique ‘sun stones’
4,900 years ago, a Neolithic people on the Danish island Bornholm sacrificed hundreds of stones engraved with sun and field motifs. Archaeologists and climate scientists can now show that these ritual sacrifices coincided with a large volcanic eruption that made the sun disappear throughout Northern Europe.
Asteroid impact sulfur release less lethal in dinosaur extinction
Previous studies have posited that the mass extinction that wiped the dinosaurs off the face of the Earth was caused by the release of large volumes of sulfur from rocks within the Chicxulub impact crater 66 million years ago. A new study questions this scenario. Using groundbreaking empirical measurements of...
Speleothem and ice cores: Natural climate archives offer new insights into the climate history of central Europe
The synchronization of data from two natural climate archives -- a speleothem from the Herbstlabyrinth Cave in Hesse (Germany) and ice cores from Greenland -- offers new insights into the chronology of abrupt climate changes in Central Europe. According to the analysis, the devastating eruption of the Laacher See volcano...
Pioneering research exposes huge loss of glaciers in one of the fastest-warming places on Earth
A new study has revealed the alarming extent glaciers have shrunk over the past 40 years in a global warming hotspot -- and the biggest retreat has occurred in recent years.