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  • The coming decline of accurate hurricane forecasts

    NOAA put out this summer's hurricane forecast late last week, and it looks like it's going to be another doozy of a storm season. And that’s probably all we’re going to get in terms of forecasting. NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco took the opportunity to point out that, in the last round of budget cuts, Congress […]

    Sarah Laskow Science

  • Feral camels are coming to eat your air conditioner

    … if you live in Australia, that is. Perhaps as a punishment for making me think about giant snakes, Australia is suffering yet another attempted takeover by non-native species, which periodically come in and disrupt the continent's carefully balanced ecosystem of massively deadly freaks of nature. This time, it’s feral camels. And they eat air […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science

  • Apocalypse now? Lessons for the climate movement from the ‘Rapture’ that didn’t happen

    So, the world did not end on Saturday. Harold Camping’s predicted Judgment Day and “Rapture” failed. I wonder how disappointed his followers are. I also wonder if this might be a good time for the environmental community to reconsider its use of apocalyptic terms when describing our fears for the future. There’s no doubt that […]

    Claire Hope Cummings Science

  • Last seen in 1898, red-crested tree rat pokes its nose out

    This is a very fuzzy, cute rodent, and no one has seen one like it since 1898. It's called a red-crested tree rat, or, more evocatively, a red-crested soft-furred spiny-rat. This one wandered up to two volunteers at Fundacións ProAves' El Dorado Nature Reserve in Colombia earlier this month and hung around for a couple […]

    Sarah Laskow Science

  • Species are going extinct, but how quickly?

    Species are going extinct at an alarming rate, and shrinking habitats are an important factor. Everyone agrees on that. But scientists don't agree about exactly how quickly species are disappearing and how they can craft mathematical models to predict that rate. A new study in Nature claims that the mathematical formula that the scientific community […]

    Sarah Laskow Science

  • A violent climate is the new normal, say scientists

    "Extreme weather" may soon just be called "weather." Thanks to climate change, floods and storms and droughts and Snowpocalypses and the like will soon be standard office procedure, according to scientists and civic planners brought together by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Nobody was willing to say that any specific recent instances of severe weather […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science

  • Is climate sanity the kiss of death for Republican presidential candidates?

    Beware the kiss of death.Even after backing away from his previous support for cap-and-trade programs, Jon Huntsman is getting slammed by the right wing. His treasonous crime? Daring to suggest that climate scientists might be right. Not that they are right, mind you, and not that we should do anything in response to their warnings, […]

    Lisa Hymas Science

  • Prof. Socolow’s bizarre climate comments and the pessimism of Serious People

    The blogosphere is all abuzz about recent comments from Princeton professor Robert Socolow, who along with fellow scholar Stephen Pacala developed the famous “wedges” approach to tackling climate change. (A wedge of nuclear, a wedge of solar, a wedge of efficiency, etc., and slowly you get that emissions curve down. That’s the basic idea anyway.) […]

    David Roberts Science

  • Could climate disruptions lead to an increase in GIANT SNAKES?

    Here's another reason to combat climate change: Severe weather events can flush out terrifying giant snakes. This photo — which gives me ALL THE WILLIES. ALL OF THEM — was taken in Louisiana near the Morganza spillway, a flood control structure that was just employed to relieve pressure on the levee system after recent floods. […]

    Jess Zimmerman Science

  • United Kingdom adopts ambitious climate change target

    Cross-posted from the World Resources Institute. The post was written by Jennifer Morgan, director of WRI’s Climate and Energy Program. Today, the government of the United Kingdom took a significant step to shift to a low-carbon economy, providing clear signals to investors that the U.K. wants to host large-scale clean energy projects moving forward. The […]

    World Resources Institute Science