Pipe: Climate and Health

Beekeepers and researchers nationally are reporting growing evidence that a powerful new class of pesticides may be killing off bumblebees. Now, research points toward another potential cause: metal pollution from aluminum and nickel. A new study finds that bumblebees are at risk of ingesting toxic amounts of metals like aluminum and nickel found in flowers growing in soil that has been contaminated by exhaust from vehicles, industrial machinery, and farming equipment.

The patent ruling cuts healthcare costs but risks innovation, and New Delhi must make far greater efforts to invest in its own health system

Studying volcanos can be hazardous work, both for researchers and aircraft. To penetrate such dangerous airspace, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), especially those with electric engines that ingest little contaminated air, are an emerging and effective way to gather crucial data about volcanic ash and gases.

A chat with NASA experts on rising seas in a warming world.

James E. Hansen, a longtime NASA scientist, retires this week and plans to pursue even greater political and legal efforts to limit greenhouse gases.

Surface appearances can be so misleading: In most forests, the amount of carbon held in soils is substantially greater than the amount contained in the trees themselves, according to new research.

At 72, a leading climate scientist leaves NASA to intensify his carbon-cutting campaign.

The authors of an important new study comparing recent warming with the last 11,300 years answer questions.

People living near asphalt pavement sealed with coal tar have an elevated risk of cancer, according to a new study. Much of this calculated excess risk results from exposures in children, age six or younger, to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from the sealant.

Spring is yet to arrive in much of northern Europe. Experts say the prolonged cold is yet another extreme consequence of man-made climate change.

When in doubt about climate change, you can always deny it exists. At least that seems to be a popular approach.

With DNA from just four cells, researchers reveal how some of the world's most abundant organisms play a key role in carbon cycling in the seabed.

OVER the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO₂ put there by humanity since 1750. And yet, as James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, observes, “the five-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade.” Temperatures fluctuate over short periods, but this lack of new warming is a surprise. Ed Hawkins, of the University of Reading, in Britain, points out that surface temperatures since 2005 are already at the low end of the range of projections derived from 20 climate models (see chart 1). If they remain flat, they will fall outside the models’ range within a few years.The mismatch between rising greenhouse-gas emissions and not-rising temperatures is among the biggest puzzles in climate science just now. It does...

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  Heathrow: our solution Fly Title:  Climate science Rubric:  The climate may be heating up less in response to greenhouse-gas emissions than was once thought. But that does not mean the problem is going away Main image:  20130330_STD001_1.jpg OVER the past 15 years air temperatures at the Earth’s surface have been flat while greenhouse-gas emissions have continued to soar. The world added roughly 100 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere between 2000 and 2010. That is about a quarter of all the CO₂ put there by humanity since 1750. And yet, as James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, observes, “the five-year mean global temperature has been flat for a decade.” Temperatures fluctuate over short periods, but this lack of new warming is a surprise. Ed Hawkins, of the University of Reading, in Britain, points out that surface temperatures since 2005 are already at the low end of the range of projections derived from 20 ...

UK Only Article:  standard article Issue:  Heathrow: our solution Fly Title:  Global warming Rubric:  Climate change may be happening more slowly than scientists thought. But the world still needs to deal with it IT MAY come as a surprise to a walrus wondering where all the Arctic’s summer sea ice has gone. It could be news to a Staten Islander still coming to terms with what he lost to Hurricane Sandy. But some scientists are arguing that man-made climate change is not quite so bad a threat as it appeared to be a few years ago. They point to various reasons for thinking that the planet’s “climate sensitivity”—the amount of warming that can be expected for a doubling in the carbon-dioxide level—may not be as high as was previously thought. The most obvious reason is that, despite a marked warming over the course of the 20th century, temperatures have not really risen over the past ten years. It is not clear why climate change has “plateaued” (see article). It could be because of greater natural variability in the climate, because clouds dampen warming or because of ...

Excess carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere created by the widespread burning of fossil fuels is the major driving force of global climate change, and researchers the world over are looking for new ways to generate power that leaves a smaller carbon footprint. A new process is made possible by a unique microorganism called Pyrococcus furiosus, or "rushing fireball," which thrives by feeding on carbohydrates in the super-heated ocean waters near geothermal vents. By manipulating the organism's genetic material, scientists have created a kind of P. furiosus that is capable of feeding at much lower temperatures on carbon dioxide.

As the need for carbon sequestration, biofuels, and other forest products increases, study suggests that there might be unintended consequences to enhancing ecosystems using fertilization.

Agronomy researchers found that elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere have an upside -- a reduced need for moisture in some important crops.

  THE uneasy relationship between America’s corn (maize) farmers and its oil refiners is fraying at the edges. The source of the conflict is the amount of corn-derived ethanol which has to be blended into petrol as an oxygenator, to boost the fuel’s octane rating (while also providing a generous off-budget subsidy for corn-growers). The farmers want the amount of ethanol used in petrol to be increased from 10% to 15% of each gallon sold at the pump. The distillers argue that diluting petrol with that amount of ethanol would damage engines and leave them liable to lawsuits from motorists and manufacturers alike.Ethanol in such quantities can certainly damage engines that are not equipped to handle it—as few are. The problem is that, unlike the hydrocarbons of pure petrol, ethanol has a special affinity for water from the atmosphere. The entrapped moisture can corrode petrol tanks, pumps, fuel lines and injectors. Only 3.6% of vehicles on the road in America are certified to use fuel containing higher blends of ethanol like E15 and E85 (15% and 85% ethanol, respectively).Moreover, ethanol burned in an engine produces more than twice as much ozone as the equivalent amount of petrol. Ground-level ozone is a big cause of smog. And, while good at boosting a fuel’s octane rating, ethanol packs only two-thirds the energy per gallon of petrol. As a result, motorists get fewer ...

Catching rides on cargo ships and fishing boats, many invasive species are now covering our shorelines and compromising the existence of our native marine life. Scientists have examined what factors allow some invasive species to survive in their new environments and others to fail.