Current Events

  • Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm
    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm rep...Read more

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    Atmospheric CO2 Level Tops 400 ppm

    During the week of May 13th, the CO2 level at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii topped 400 ppm repeatedly. Daily levels of CO2 can vary due to weather, and there are seasonal trends as well. The level of atmospheric greenhouse gases continues to increase, now over 120 ppm since the Industrial Revolution began. For more on the Keeling Curve, see http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/. Find out more about greenhouse gases and warming.
  • Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley
    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Io...Read more

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    Massive Tornado Outbreak on Tornado Alley

    The week of May 19 brings dozens of tornadoes to Tornado Alley in the states of Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri. On May 20th, a massive tornado struck Moore, Oklahoma, devastating communities - destroying over 100 homes and hitting two elementary schools and a hospital - with many casualties and deaths. Our thoughts are with our friends and colleagues suffering from these storms. For more on the May 20th storms, see the NOAA Storm Prediction Center Storm Report.
  • Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education
    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of ...Read more

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    Kansas Legislator Proposes Bill to Outlaw Sustainability Education

    A bill has been introduced in the Kansas legislature this week that would prohibit the promotion of sustainability. Here is a link to the one-page bill: http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2013_14/measures/documents/hb2366_00_0000.pdf. See report on Bloomberg News.

Climate and Global Change

Warm near the equator and cold at the poles, our planet is able to support a variety of living things because of its diverse regional climates. The average of all these regions makes up Earth's global climate. Climate has cooled and warmed throughout Earth history for various reasons. Rapid warming like we see today is unusual in the history of our planet. The scientific consensus is that climate is warming as a result of the addition of heat-trapping greenhouse gases which are increasing dramatically in the atmosphere as a result of human activities.
Roaming across Arctic <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/polar/sea_ice.html">sea ice</a>, <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/polar/polar_bears_jan07.html">polar bears</a> peer through cracks in the ice to look for ringed seals, their favorite food, in the water below. Almost all of a polar bear's food comes from the sea. The <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/polar/sea_ice.html">floating sea ice</a> is a perfect vantage point for the bears as they hunt for food. Unfortunately, the amount of sea ice floating in the <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/polar/polar_north.html">Arctic region</a> is shrinking each year, and getting farther apart.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of Ansgar Walk. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.</em></small></p><a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/climate/cli_define.html">Regional climate</a> is the average weather pattern in a place over more than thirty years, including the variations in <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/climate/cli_seasons.html">seasons</a>. The climate of a region depends on many factors including sunlight, altitude, topography, and proximity to oceans. Since the equatorial regions receive more sunlight than the poles, climate varies with <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/climate/cli_latitude.html">latitude</a>. This image shows how sea surface temperatures change at different latitudes.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of NOAA. Public domain.</em></small></p>Coral animals build reefs in warm, tropical seawater. However, <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/changing_planet/ocean_temperatures_intro.html">seawater can be too warm</a> for their liking. If waters get too warm, coral animals lose the algae that live within their little bodies, a process called coral bleaching. Without the algae, corals have less nutrition. Unless cooler temperatures return, allowing algae to return, the coral dies.<p><small><em>Credit: UNC</em></small></p>Many forms of air pollution are human-made. Industrial plants, power plants and vehicles with internal combustion engines produce <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/climate/nitrogen_airpollution.html">nitrogen oxides</a>, <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/Atmosphere/vocs.html">VOCs</a>, <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_monoxide.html">carbon monoxide</a>, <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_dioxide.html">carbon dioxide</a>, <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/physical_science/chemistry/sulfur_oxides.html">sulfur dioxide</a> and <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/Atmosphere/particulates.html">particulates</a>. Some of these gases are <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/climate/cli_greengas.html">greenhouse gases</a>, meaning that they retain heat in the Earth's atmosphere, due to the Earth's <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/climate/earth_greenhouse.html">greenhouse effect</a>.<p><small><em>Image copyright UCAR</em></small></p>Scientists at the University of Michigan have found that <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/polar/cryosphere_permafrost1.html">permafrost</a> in the <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/polar/polar_north.html">Arctic</a> is extremely sensitive to sunlight. Exposure to sunlight releases carbon gases trapped in the permafrost, including <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/climate/earth_greenhouse.html">climate-warming</a> <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/physical_science/chemistry/carbon_dioxide.html">carbon dioxide</a>, to the <a href="/php/tour_test_mobile.php?page=/earth/Atmosphere/overview.html">atmosphere</a> much faster than previously thought.<p><small><em>George Kling, The University of Michigan</em></small></p>Greenland’s <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/polar/cryosphere_glacier1.html">ice sheet</a> saw a record <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/headline_universe/olpa/greenland_10dec07.html">melt</a> in July 2012. Scientists studying this event have found that this melting event was triggered by an influx of unusually warm air and amplified by the presence of a blanket of thin low-level <a href="http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/cloud.html">clouds</a> which pushed temperatures up above freezing. For more information see the <a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/21638">press release</a> from the University of Wisconsin Madison.<p><small><em>Image courtesy of University of Wisconsin-Madison</em></small></p>

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Explore Climate and Global Change

What Is Climate?

The climate where you live is called regional climate. It is the average weather in a place ...Read more

What Controls the Climate System?

Some of the factors that have an affect on climate, like volcanic eruptions and changes in ...Read more

Climates of the Past (Paleoclimates)

Earth's climate has been changing for billions of years. It warmed and cooled many times long ...Read more

Our Changing Planet

Our planet is changing rapidly. Check out videos and lesson plans for key climate change indicators ...Read more

Effects of Climate Change Today

Over 100 years ago, people worldwide began burning more coal and oil for homes, factories, ...Read more

Climate Change in Polar Regions

The effects of climate change are not the same in all parts of the world. While Earth’s average ...Read more

El Nino and Other Climate Events

Sometimes there is a change in the way air moves through parts of the atmosphere. And there ...Read more

The Role of Clouds in Climate

Clouds are an important part of Earth's weather and climate. Scientists use computer models ...Read more

Energy Choices and Climate Change

The choices we make about the sources of the energy we use and the amount of energy we use affect ...Read more

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The IPCC is a group of hundreds of experts from more than 100 countries ...Read more

Tackling the Global Warming Challenge

Earth’s climate is warming and we humans are mostly to blame.  By releasing greenhouse gases ...Read more

More about Climate and Global Change

Historical Events

5/30 7.5 magnitude quake hits Quetta, Pakistan in 1935
5/31 7.9 magnitude earthquake hits Peru in 1970
6/8 Giovanni Cassini, an Italian-French astronomer, was born on this date in 1625 Details

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Did you know that greenhouse gases are increasing rapidly in the Earth's atmosphere?

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Earth and Space Science Concept of the Day

Do you know what this word or phrase means?

Holocene
xHolocene : The past 10,000 years, including most of the time since the end of the most recent ice age.

Click on the word to find out!

Research Highlights

Even in the Desert, Plants Feel the Heat of Global Warming

Scientists who study plants in the Sonoran Desert are worried about global warming. While desert winters have become warmer and drier over the years, climate changes have pushed the arrival of winter rains...Read more

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