Climate Climate & Energy

Climate change: Acid oceans transform marine life, says study

PARIS — Ocean acidification driven by climate change is stripping away the protective shell of tiny yet vital organisms that absorb huge amounts of carbon pollution from the atmosphere, a new study has revealed. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the calcium carapace of microscopic animals called foraminifera living in the Southern Ocean have […]

Drought threatens Amazon, speeds global warming: study

PARIS — Drought is killing off trees in Brazil’s fragile Amazon rain forest and depleting the region’s carbon reservoirs — an ecological double-whammy with devastating implications, according to a study published Thursday. The Amazon’s lush vegetation in a typical year absorbs nearly two billion tonnes of carbon dioxide, one of the chief culprits causing climate […]

Join new climate-action Facebook application, win rewards

If you haven't already heard, Grist is tickled to be the editorial sponsor of Hot Dish, a climate change news-'n'-activism Facebook app that has all the cool kids talking. It's the brainchild of online social media and news aggregator NewsCloud, made possible by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. (Yours truly even had a hand in it.) Hot Dish is where online news meets real-world action to fight climate change.

Grist helps drive the conversation around the day's top climate change news, and Hot Dish enables users to share it with each other within the comfy confines of Facebook. But wait -- there's more! Users can join the Action Team to complete challenges and earn points by, say, writing to a congressperson, setting up composting, or volunteering with an environmental group.

Sweden’s ozone layer thickest in decades: institute

STOCKHOLM — The ozone layer over Sweden was thicker in February than it has been in decades, the Swedish meteorological institute SMHI said on Tuesday. Measurements taken at SMHI’s station in Norrkoeping, just south of Stockholm, showed the ozone layer was at its thickest in February since recordings there began in 1988, with a measurement […]

Global warming could delay, weaken monsoons: study

CHICAGO — Global warming could delay the start of the summer monsoon by five to 15 days within the next century and significantly reduce rainfall in much of South Asia, a recent study has found. Rising global temperatures will likely lead to an eastward shift in monsoon circulation which could result in more rainfall over […]

UN report warns fishing industry on climate change

ROME — The fishing industry must do more to confront the effects of climate change as well as get a grip on the perennial problem of overfishing, said a UN report to be published Monday. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture report said responsible fishing practices must be more widely implemented and called for […]

Scientists find bigger than expected polar ice melt

GENEVA — Icecaps around the North and South Poles are melting faster and in a more widespread manner than expected, raising sea levels and fuelling climate change, a major scientific survey showed Wednesday. The International Polar Year survey found that warming in the Antarctic is “much more widespread than was thought,” while Arctic sea ice […]

Japan may force utilities to buy surplus domestic solar power

TOKYO — Japan plans to soon require electricity companies to buy surplus power generated by household solar panels at about twice the current price, a government official said Tuesday. The scheme, to start as early as the fiscal year beginning in April, aims to promote solar power as part of efforts to cut greenhouse gas […]

Climate change risk underestimated: study

WASHINGTON — The risk posed to mankind and the environment by even small changes in average global temperatures is much higher than believed even a few years ago, a study said Monday. Published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study updated a 2001 assessment by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change […]

NASA mission to monitor carbon dioxide fails

WASHINGTON –A US satellite to monitor global carbon dioxide emissions plummeted into the ocean near Antarctica Tuesday after failing to reach orbit, NASA officials said, calling it a major disappointment for climate science. NASA said the satellite launched successfully from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Taurus XL rocket at 1:55 am […]