Latest Scientific opinion on climate change Stories

Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide levels reached record highs in 2010, surpassing what experts had previously called the worst-case scenario for these greenhouse gases, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on Monday. The WMO, which is the U.N.'s weather agency, reported that CO2 levels increased by 2.3 parts per million, to 389 ppm, from 2009 to last year, according to Reuters reporter Tom Miles. That single-year increase exceeds the average for both the 1990s...

New NSF grants seek to improve predictions of climate change and how it will affect Earth's future What will Earth's climate be like in a decade--or sooner? And what will it be like where you live and around the globe? National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded scientists are working to find answers. NSF and other federal agencies recently awarded more than $38 million to study the consequences of climate variability and change. The awards, made through the interagency Decadal and...

Two research papers, each appearing in the journal Nature Climate Change, have warned that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, global temperatures could exceed “safe” levels of two degrees Celsius in some regions of the world by 2060. Even if the 2C threshold is inevitable, reducing emissions now could delay that rise by up to several decades, giving us much needed time to adapt to climate change. These are the conclusions of new research by scientists from the...

Cities release more heat to the atmosphere than the rural vegetated areas around them, but how much influence these urban "heat islands" have on global warming has been a matter of debate. Now a study by Stanford researchers has quantified the contribution of the heat islands for the first time, showing that it is modest compared with what greenhouse gases contribute to global warming. "Between 2 and 4 percent of the gross global warming since the Industrial Revolution may be due to urban...

New Award from the American Geophysical Union Recognizes Excellence in Climate Communications WASHINGTON, Oct. 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of his exceptional work as a climate communicator, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) has selected Gavin Schmidt as the recipient of its inaugural Climate Communications Prize. Schmidt is a climate scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and co-founder of RealClimate.org, a blog that covers areas of science related to...

Climate change poses an immediate, grave and escalating threat to the health and security of people around the globe and must be tackled urgently, warned leading experts at a high-level meeting hosted by the BMJ (British Medical Journal) in London today. Opening the conference, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne urged governments around the world to limit the impact of climate change for a "cleaner, healthier, safer future for us all." "Climate knows no...

Rising sea levels in the coming centuries is perhaps one of the most catastrophic consequences of rising temperatures. Massive economic costs, social consequences and forced migrations could result from global warming. But how frightening of times are we facing? Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute are part of a team that has calculated the long-term outlook for rising sea levels in relation to the emission of greenhouse gases and pollution of the atmosphere using climate models. The...

A majority of Europeans believe that climate change is one of the world's biggest problems, and one-in-five feel that it is the most serious issue facing the planet today, according to the results of a new poll released on Friday. Furthermore, according to the Eurobarometer study, residents of the European Union view global warming as "the second most serious issue facing the world, after poverty, hunger and lack of drinking water, and a more serious problem than the economic situation."...

In the first of its kind analysis of Canadian trends in the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, population and the economy, in the context of climate change science, a troubling report is causing the Canadian government to sit up and take serious notice of climate trends, reports Montreal’s The Gazette. Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent says his government is not surprised that its own advisory panel on business and environmental issues is warning that greenhouse gas emissions...

Species' ability to overcome adversity goes beyond Darwin's survival of the fittest. Climate change has made sure of that. In a new study based on simulations examining species and their projected range, researchers at Brown University argue that whether an animal can make it to a final, climate-friendly destination isn't a simple matter of being able to travel a long way. It's the extent to which the creatures can withstand rapid fluctuations in climate along the way that will determine...