Nature puzzles over an unforeseen consequence of global warming – an expansion of Antarctic sea ice as the climate warms:

While sea ice at the North Pole has shrunk substantially over the past three decades, scientists have struggled to explain why sea ice near the South Pole has grown in extent over the same period.

“The paradox is that global warming [...]

Brace yourselves for more global warming news. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is ready to post its next report. Most of us, like Scientific American, won’t really be surprised by its contents. (Yes, we’re getting warmer. Yes, it seems to be because people have made machines that pump out carbon dioxide and methane like crazy.) But the guy who [...]

Reuters has the cheery news that no matter what we do, ocean levels will be rising:

More than 180 countries are negotiating a new global climate pact which will come into force by 2020 and force all nations to cut emissions to limit warming to below 2 degrees Celsius this century – a level scientists say is the minimum [...]

The world’s future supply of chalk is threatened by global warming. That’s what I take away from this LiveScience report on how the souring of the ocean is weakening plankton shells:

In the new study, a trio of scientists at the Helmholtz Center for Oceanographic Research in Kiel, Germany, bred a variety of phytoplankton, called Emiliania huxleyi, to tolerate [...]

Climate scientists, as quoted in New Scientist, have said goodbye to summer ice in the Arctic. For good:

Despite fears of runaway sea-ice loss after summer cover hit an all-time low in 2007 – opening the Northwest Passage for the first time in living memory – modelling studies based on our best understanding of ice dynamics indicated the [...]

Amid all the fish kills and rising gas prices, here’s a feel-good story for the season from the kindly folks at Scientific American. It seems that thanks to freaky weather, we’ll be paying more for groceries:

“It’s a worrisome situation with prices this high,” said Dan Gustafson, the director of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s Washington, D.C., office. “The [...]

In case you were wondering, what with all the climate change talk nowadays, LiveScience reminds us that there’s still a hole in the sky:

First, the good news: Since the 1989 Montreal Protocol banned the use of ozone-depleting chemicals worldwide, the ozone hole has stopped growing. Additionally, the ozone layer is blocking more cancer-causing radiation than any time in a [...]

Finally, finally, NASA explains in clear, simple terms why they think humans are behind global warming:

Based on a combination of paleoclimate data and models, scientists estimate that when ice ages have ended in the past, it has taken about 5,000 years for the planet to warm between 4 and 7 degrees Celsius. In the past century alone, the [...]

The Scientists and Engineers for America have a fun trivia question today:

Which gas of the following is the most important greenhouse gas but will NOT be covered by the new landmark climate legislation?

A. methane (CH4)
B. water (H2O)
C. sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)
D. carbon dioxide (CO2)

Stumped?

Here’s the answer.