Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
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The After-kla-math
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences has determined that there was “no sound scientific basis” for the federal government’s decision to deny irrigation water to more than 1,000 farms in Oregon’s Klamath Basin during last summer’s drought. A panel of 12 independent scientists, convened at the behest of Interior Secretary Gale Norton, concluded that there […]
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Great Bitten?
Large parts of England and Wales are at risk of becoming breeding grounds for malaria as global warming heats up local temperatures, according to a study by Durham University scientists commissioned by the Brits’ Department of Health. Increased temperatures encourage mosquitoes to breed and feed more rapidly, and they speed up the maturation of the […]
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Chairwoman of the Boardwalk
The U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System could get a $56.5 million budget increase in the next fiscal year, according to an announcement made yesterday by Interior Secretary Gale Norton. The proposed increase would represent an 18 percent budget hike and would be earmarked for maintenance and renovation of such features as boardwalks, trails, and levies. […]
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Michelle Nijhuis reviews Power Politics by Arundhati Roy
When your first novel wins the Booker Prize, sells 6 million copies, and earns you a publicity trip around the world, what do you do next? Arundhati Roy, author of the 1997 novel The God of Small Things, decided she wanted to switch from fiction to the hard facts. A year after Roy’s big debut, […]
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Deep Sea Diving
As if all the political strife weren’t enough, here’s more grim news from the Middle East: The Dead Sea, the lowest spot on Earth, is getting even lower. In the last decade, the sea, which already lies more than 1,300 feet below sea level, has fallen an additional 20 feet. Scientists attribute the change to […]
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Fire, Fire, Fire, Fire
Fires that rage in thousands of underground coal seams around the world are polluting the air and releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas. Although coal fires occur naturally from spontaneous combustion, scientists say the frequency of such fires has risen as mining has exposed coal deposits to more fires and […]
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Tank You Very Much
A technique invented to reduce corrosion of steel components on ships could also prevent exotic species from stowing away in the ballast water of cargo ships. The technique, which was designed by Mario Tamburri of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in collaboration with Japanese scientists, involves pumping nitrogen gas into ballast tanks, thereby virtually […]
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Coal bed methane extraction threatens Wyoming’s Red Desert
OREGON BUTTES, Wyo. Tom Bell remembers how plush the carpet was in Interior Secretary Stewart Udall’s Washington, D.C., office. Bell spent time on his hands and knees there during the 1960s, poring over a large map while making the case for preserving Wyoming’s Red Desert as a national pronghorn antelope refuge. The Pinnacles in the […]
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Coughing in a Winter Wonderland
Be glad you’re not on the planning committee for the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. First there was terrorism to worry about; now there’s the weather. Salt Lake’s squeaky-clean image could suffer a blow if the world gets a glimpse of the woeful air pollution that plagues the city in the winter. Snow in Salt […]
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Suddenly Sizzlin'
Global warming is typically thought of as a gradual process, but a report released this week by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences warns that greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutants could cause massive, sudden, and potentially disastrous climate shifts. The authors of the report relied on paleontological evidence, the historical record, and computer modeling […]
