The groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, NOVA takes data from earth-observing satellites and transforms it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth.
By Phil Plait (Slate): It’s official: 2013 is the fourth hottest year since records started being kept in 1880. It ties with 2003 for that dubious honor. This result was just announced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It uses global annual land and sea surface temperatures to make the call, and in 2013 these two measures combined…
Robert Scribbler: Well, the forecast is in. And it appears we are about to receive yet another helping of winter weather extremes driven by human caused climate change. ECMWF and NOAA models both show mid and upper level warmth increasing over the polar region. This warmth, over the next week, will invade toward the surface, collapsing the…
Fiona Harvey and Terry Macalister from The Guardian, report: Energy firm’s analysis finds switch to other fuels like shale gas will do little to cut carbon emissions In the UK, shale gas has received a boost from David Cameron, who vowed to go all out for shale by offering taxpayer-funded giveaways to companies. But the news that such a move will…
David Cameron tells Polish Prime Minister that he will cooperate to prevent EU legislation that could slow down fracking industry By Sophie Yeo | Release URL The UK and Poland have pledged to work together against any EU regulation that could threaten the shale gas industry. Speaking to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the phone, David…
Posted on 2 January 2014 by gws Earlier last year we posted a blog on whether the new natural gas boom, thanks to improved drilling technologies and hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, was to be considered a boon or bane to Earth’s climate. The…
by Science World Report | January 8, 2014 | Release URL Dr Guido Grosse has been studying the Arctic for fourteen years to find out how the frozen ground, known as the permafrost, is reacting to an environment that is getting hotter all the time. The samples he has drilled out – in regions so…
by Becky Fried | January 08, 2014 | Release URL Here at the White House, while we’re beginning to thaw from this week’s bone-chilling deep freeze, our discussions about the science of weather extremes are heating up. We know that no single weather episode proves or disproves climate change. Climate refers to the patterns observed in…
by Richard Ingham | Phys.org | January 8, 2014 | Release URL An idea by the father of the H-bomb to slow global warming by sowing the stratosphere with light-reflecting particles could wreck the weather system in the tropics, a study said Wednesday. The scheme may benefit northern Europe and parts of Asia, but around…