Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second smallest extent since satellite records began, US scientists have revealed.

Scientists suggest the Arctic is already at a climatic "tipping point"
The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says that the ice-covered area has fallen below its 2005 level, which was the second lowest on record.
Melting has occurred […]

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Conservation zones are in the wrong place to protect vulnerable coral reefs from the effects of global warming, an international team of scientists warn.

Now the team – led jointly by Newcastle University and the Wildlife Conservation Society, New York – say that urgent action is needed to prevent the collapse of this important marine ecosystem.
The […]

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There have been many reports in the media about the effects of global warming on the Greenland ice-sheet, but there is still great uncertainty as to why there is an ice-sheet there at all.

Reporting today (28 August) in the journal Nature, scientists at the University of Bristol and the University of Leeds show that only […]

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The geysers of Yellowstone National Park owe their existence to the "Yellowstone hotspot"–a region of molten rock buried deep beneath Yellowstone, geologists have found.

But how hot is this "hotspot," and what’s causing it?
In an effort to find out, Derek Schutt of Colorado State University and Ken Dueker of the University of Wyoming took the hotspot’s […]

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Seemingly barren soil can be seen at the foot of the Puca glacier, which is retreating by 20 metres per year (Image: Sasha C Reed)Enlarge
We’ve all been stunned by images showing the dramatic retreat of mountain glaciers. Yet few of us have given much thought to what happens next.
Now the first study to look at […]

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No-take areas might protect reefs against overfishing, but they seem powerless to help corals fight the effects of global warming.

Coral bleaching refers to the loss of colour caused by the expulsion of symbiotic algae which usually live inside coral tissue. It is caused by unusually high ocean temperatures, and scientists are concerned that bleaching events […]

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Engineering researchers from UC San Diego and the University of Arizona have concluded three months of rigorous earthquake simulation tests on a half-scale three-story structure, and will now begin sifting through their results so they can be used in the future designs of buildings across the nation. The engineers produced a series of earthquake jolts […]

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A study by a group of prominent seismologists suggests that a pattern of subtle but active faults makes the risk of earthquakes to the New York City area substantially greater than formerly believed. Among other things, they say that the controversial Indian Point nuclear power plants, 24 miles north of the city, sit astride the […]

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August 22, 2008—Greenland’s glaciers are breaking up at a worrisome pace, new satellite images show.

A gigantic, 11-square-mile (29-square-kilometer) chunk of the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland broke off between July 10 and July 24.

The collapsed section is comparable in size to half of Manhattan Island (see the breakup in three images above).
Petermann covers 500 square […]

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More than 2,000 times the entire annual energy consumption of the U.S. is available deep underground

For $1 billion over the next 40 years, the U.S. could develop 100 gigawatts (a gigawatt equals one billion watts) of electricity generation that emits no air pollution and pumps out power to the grid even more reliably than coal-fired […]

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