Group items tagged

This animated GIF shows landmark moments that happened during the warmest and coldest years in modern record.

2:09 video Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the differences between weather and climate change.

As a Sunday target date approaches for countries to submit to the United Nations their plans for fighting climate change, China is banding together with other major developing nations to stress that only the wealthier countries need to make internationally binding commitments.

From the following article: The velocity of climate change Scott R. Loarie, Philip B. Duffy, Healy Hamilton, Gregory P. Asner, Christopher B. Field & David D. Ackerly Nature 462, 1052-1055(24 December 2009) doi:10.1038/nature08649

epa side on global climate change

Séguin, a research scientist in forest genomics with the Canadian Forest Service, inserted bacterial DNA into spruces that effectively made them immune to spruce budworm, a pest that can chew needles off tens of millions of hectares of trees in a single outbreak. While there is controversy over genetic engineering, some scientists say it could also help fight climate change by creating trees that grow bigger, faster, resist disease and can even turn carbon into a stable white powder that falls to the ground - in other words, trees that would be better at pulling carbon from the atmosphere.

curricular materials around solutions to climate change

Palm oil - which appears in a dizzying amount of food and cosmetic products, and is a feedstock for biofuel - poses many environmental problems. It's the largest driver of Indonesian deforestation, which destroys habitat and contributes to climate change. And ponds of wastewater at palm oil refineries release immense amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Online museum in UK.   Explore the home of human ingenuity online. Find out about our objects, arts projects and medical collection, play educational games and discover climate science. Plus check out our blogs, a tabloid history of science and the latest contemporary science news from the Antenna team.

Data from three major climate-tracking groups agree: The combined land and ocean surface temperatures hit new highs this year, according to the United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the United Kingdom's Met Office and the World Meteorological Association.

Science Forward is a new type of undergraduate science seminar, helping students to see science as a lens on the world, a way of approaching questions and challenges. The course focuses on the critical thinking skills in use across the scientific disciplines, which we have summarized as the "science senses." Starting with critical issues in the contemporary world, from climate change to the social and economic implications of artificial intelligence, the course encourages active learning and inquiry-based instruction.

In this video Paul Andersen explains how biodiversity measures the variety of genes, species, and ecosystems on the planet. Biodiversity provides resources and ecosystem services for humans on the planet. He also explains how biodiversity is decreasing on the planet due to habitat destruction, invasive species, climate change, over harvesting, and pollution. Relevant treaties and laws designed to preserved biodiversity is also included.

Now, a new study reports that at least one species of songbird-and likely many more-already knows how to prep its chicks for a warming world. They do so by emitting special calls to the embryos inside their eggs, which can hear and learn external sounds. This is the first time scientists have found animals using sound to affect the growth, development, behavior, and reproductive success of their offspring, and adds to a growing body of research revealing that birds can "doctor" their eggs.

Herds of wooly mammoths once shook Earth beneath their feet, sending humans scurrying across the landscape of prehistoric Ohio. But then something much larger shook Earth itself, and at that point these mega mammals' days were numbered.

By calling to their eggs, zebra finch parents may be helping their young prepare for a hotter world brought on by climate change.

The fates of ice age human groups in Europe were closely linked to climate change, according to an unprecedented study of the genomes of 51 individuals who lived between 45,000 years ago (when modern humans arrived in Europe) and 7,000 years ago. "We see multiple, huge movements of people displacing previous ones," David Reich of the Harvard Medical School said. "During this first four-fifths of modern human history in Europe, history is just as complicated as it is during the last fifth that we know so much more about." 

The Future of Research is being decided now! While we are fortunate to have a robust system of protections in place that help assure research will provide more benefit than harm, the regulations that guide research with human participants have been in place for 40 years. Society is changing, technology is changing, the capabilities and interests of all of us are changing. We need to evolve our research systems too. It is increasingly hard for one group to decide what would be considered a benefit, or a harm, for another. In this new People Matter Project video, we call to institutions and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to think creatively about how to conduct trustworthy research in this changing climate.