climate change Archives - Page 2 of 5 - Science Connected Magazine

Renewable Energy and the Power of Diverse Sources

December 28, 2017December 28, 2017 Science Connectedclimate change, energy, renewable energy, solar, wind power

By Susannah Bruck As we continue to explore new forms of renewable energy, in order to decrease our dependence on oil and coal, researchers are beginning to see which energy sources are the cleanest and most efficient. We also need to consider which forms of renewable energy are viable options to power our homes, businesses, cars, and devices on a large scale. The use of renewable energy in the United States has steadily increased in recent years as the public’s awareness and interest has grown. However, in 2015, only 10…

Animals Environment Oceanography

How Can Caribbean Corals Cope with Climate Change?

November 9, 2017November 9, 2017 Science ConnectedCaribbean corals, climate change, coral, coral reefs

By Justin Baumann @jbaumann3 The planet is warming. This is a fact we should all be comfortable with by now. As a result of this warming (and other human-caused stressors such as overfishing and nutrient pollution coupled with disease), coral reefs are in decline globally. Corals are animals that live in a symbiotic relationship with algae from the genus Symbiodinium. These symbionts are photosynthetic and transfer sugars to the coral host. While corals can also capture prey using their stinging cells and tentacles, most reef-building corals rely heavily on the…

Biology Environment Oceanography

Ocean Floor Warming Affects Antarctic Seabed Life

October 12, 2017October 12, 2017 Science ConnectedAntarctic, climate change, global warming, sea

By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore A rise in ocean temperatures by 1°C may not seem like a lot. But researchers were surprised to find nearly doubled growth of some species with just one-degree rise in ocean warming and varied growth responses of assemblages with two degrees of warming, in the most realistic marine warming study conducted in Antarctica to date. These drastic changes in community structure may have huge consequences for the entire ecosystem, as they affect the food chain. “I was not expecting such a visible difference,” said Gail Ashton,…

From California to New Jersey and points in between, friends of GotScience Magazine showed support for science in their I “heart” Science T-shirts from Science Connected. Photos contributed.

Citizen Science Science Policy

Marching On: Science for the People

April 25, 2017April 25, 2017 Science Connectedclimate change, Earth Day 2017, march for science

By Shayna Keyles Twitter @shaynakeyles Instagram @shaynakeyles Tens of thousands descended on state and country capitals on Earth Day to march for science, and I was one of them. I joined up with fellow science lovers in San Francisco, where carbon-based comrades waved permanent-marker protest signs at each other in acknowledgment and wore T-shirts emblazoned with puns or allegiances to research organizations and educational associations. Some even wore lab coats, and one man was spotted wearing a spacesuit and helmet from NASA. People all had their own reasons for marching, but…

Environment Science Policy

Nuisance Flooding May Cost More Than Extreme Storms

March 8, 2017March 7, 2017 Science Connectedclimate change, floods, nuisance flooding, sea level, storms

By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore Climate change affects us in many ways, particularly those of us living near the coasts, who have to bear the brunt of rising sea levels. We usually focus on preparing for that rare superstorm that everyone is talking out. But researchers find that the seemingly harmless episodes of nuisance flooding that we often overlook are becoming more frequent, thanks to rising sea levels, and can turn out to be more costly in the long term. “These diffuse floods happen multiple times a month or year,” says…

Science Policy

Science Policy Challenges, Part One: A Rising Sea

February 20, 2017May 24, 2017 Science Connectedclimate change, emissions, policy, science, sea level rise

By Jonathan Trinastic @jptrinastic This is the first in a series of four articles by Dr. Jonathan Trinastic in our new Science Policy section. Why science policy? Five minutes and 27 seconds. That’s the length of time that climate change was discussed across the three presidential debates of 2016, amounting to 2 percent of the total debate time. Although outrage over this scant time has quickly spread, it may be more surprising how little time is spent discussing science as a whole in presidential campaigns. Scientific progress is closely tied…

Environment

Frequent Rainstorms Predicted with Climate Change

January 23, 2017January 22, 2017 Science Connectedclimate change, global warming, rain, storms

By Neha Jain @lifesciexplore If you live in California, you might recall the powerful winter rainstorm of 2014, dubbed the “storm of the decade.” While it offered some respite from the prolonged drought in the region, it dumped several inches of rain—in some Bay Area counties average annual rainfall was doubled—which caused widespread flooding and power outages. Until now such intense rainstorms have been rare. But in the future, Californians may need to clutch their umbrellas and slip on their rain boots more often because such monster rainstorms might become the…

Environment

What Happens When Antarctica Melts?

October 26, 2016October 24, 2016 Science Connectedantarctica, climate change, global warming, melt ice

By Kate Stone @GotScienceOrg Between December 2001 and February 2002, the Antarctic continent underwent a season of intense melting. Aside from the loss of ice, what really happens when Antarctica melts? New research reveals that the changes range from sped-up microbial food webs to shifting penguin populations. The clash of two climatic cycles, the Southern Annular Mode and the El Niño Southern Oscillation, produced an unusually warm and windy spring season across Antarctica back in 2001–2002. This climate event melted glaciers including the Totten Glacier, thinned lake ice, and caused…

Environment Videos

Global Warming: What’s Really Warming the Earth?

October 10, 2016October 7, 2016 Science Connectedclimate change, earth, environment, global warming

Dr. Joe Hanson explores the possible causes of global warming in this episode of It’s Okay To Be Smart. References and Further Reading July 2016 is hottest on record NOAA’s State of the Climate July 2016 Bloomberg’s climate change data viz project Solar activity and temperature show opposite trend Milankovitch cycles (I left out eccentricity because it operates on scales so long that it doesn’t affect short-term climate change) Connecting climate models with actual temperature changes NASA Goddard’s Gavin Schmidt explains the history of the instrumental temperature record Last time…

Totten Glacier. Esmee van Wijk/Australian Antarctic Division

Environment

Climate Change Strikes Totten Glacier in Antarctica

August 23, 2016August 22, 2016 Science Connectedclimate change, glacier, global warming, meltwater

By Norman Rusin @normanrusin A warmer climate attacks polar glaciers at both ends of the Earth. In the Arctic, ponds of meltwater speed up the overall melting process, but in Antarctica, currents of warm water erode the ice sheet beneath the surface. Recent observations revealed that ice sheet erosion in two Antarctic regions is deep enough to expose basement rocks. At current rates, the erosion could trigger instability in a major Antarctic glacier, ultimately leading to more than 2 m (6.56 ft) of sea level rise. What Is a Grounding Line?…