Massive geoengineering projects to hold back glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica could slow sea level rise. A major threat from climate change is rising sea levels, and much of that threat comes from glaciers melting into the oceans. By the end of the century, sea levels are predicted to be a meter higher, causing frequent […]
climate change
Climate researchers press Trudeau to renew Canadian Arctic research program
The Canadian government should renew funding for a soon-to-end Arctic climate and atmospheric research program, a group of more than 250 international climate scientists is arguing in an open letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Read more in Science.
The Climate Bomb Lurking Under Arctic Permafrost
New research aims to better understand how much methane – a potent greenhouse gas – is burbling to the surface of the Mackenzie Valley in Canada’s Northwest Territories as the permafrost melts. Hidden beneath the frozen ground of the Arctic could be a ticking time bomb. Vast reservoirs of methane – a greenhouse gas 30 times more […]
Plant Trees and Chill
Software helps a conservation group see where shade trees will best cool a river. Then the hard work starts. In 2011, the city of Medford in Oregon had a problem. The treated water being released into the Rogue River from its sewage treatment plant was too warm, threatening the river’s fish. The historically cool Rogue […]
Snowball Earth melting led to freshwater ocean 2 kilometres deep
A little more than 600 million years ago, you could have drunk from the ocean. After an extreme ice age known as snowball Earth, in which glaciers extended to the tropics and ice up to a kilometre thick covered the oceans, the melt formed a thick freshwater layer that floated on the super-salty oceans. Read more […]
Canada Foundation for Innovation awards $18 million to Amundsen
CFI aims to secure ongoing operation and maintenance funds for research facilities including Canada’s only research icebreaker. Laval University has received more than $18 million for the research icebreaker CCGS Amundsen in the latest round of funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s Major Science Initiatives Fund. Over the next five years, the funding will […]
Snow will melt more slowly in a warmer world – here’s why
As global temperatures rise, snow will melt more slowly. Yes, you read that right – more slowly. Warmer global temperatures will lead to less snow in many mountainous areas, says Keith Musselman, a hydrologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. That thinner layer of snow will be less likely to last […]
Drones on the delta
In Ghana’s Volta River delta, the remotely-operated aerial vehicles are going where researchers can’t to help study coastal erosion, flooding and migration. River deltas are among some of the most densely populated places on Earth, especially in some developing African and Asian nations. They’re also some of the areas most vulnerable to climate change, with […]
Islands to lose fresh water as rising seas sink them from within
Small island nations are among the countries most at risk from climate change, as rising sea levels threaten to swamp them and make their fresh water salty. But they face another danger – the rising seas will cause them to lose their fresh water by pushing it above ground, where it gets evaporated. Read more in […]
The surprising link between the tapirs of Costa Rica and climate change
New studies suggest that protecting tapirs and other large seed-eating mammals is key to preserving carbon storage in rain forests. Esteban Brenes-Mora has been obsessed with tapirs — large, pig-like jungle dwellers — for as long as he can remember. It started with a sticker book his grandfather gave him as a child, and continued […]