Is brown the new green? UCLA researchers are using waste matter (yes, including poop) to make a new generation of advanced biofuels. The U.S. alone annually produces over 1 billion tons of manure from agriculture, which produces nitrous oxide methane emissions, greenhouse gases 325 times more potent than carbon dioxide. But what if all this … Read more
This week, world leaders are converging in Paris to talk about climate policy. Under current guidelines, the planet is on target to warm by 2 degrees Celsius in 2050 and by 4 degrees in 2100, triggering serious large-scale problems by the end of the century. “Drought, heat waves, forest fires — we are already seeing this,” says … Read more
As warm ocean water rises up to melt them, glaciers around the Amundsen Sea are losing half a Mount Everest a year. A second study, published Thursday in the journal Science, helps explain the accelerating ice melt: Warm ocean water is melting the floating ice shelves that hold back the glaciers. The two new pieces … Read more
The cherry blossoms in Washington D.C.’s annual festival now bloom five days earlier than when the festival was celebrated in 1921 (on average). Scientists theorize that with the drastic warming of the globe, future decades could see blossom times not just a few days early but advanced by almost a month. To better understand the … Read more
Can a status update from a tulip tell us anything about climate change?
In response to global climate change, Jill Bible at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab shows us how her research with the Olympia Oyster is aimed at restoring this species along the west coast. “My research will help us determine what populations of oysters are particularly vulnerable or particularly robust to future changes and will … Read more