By Virginie Noel To understand how space weather affects us it is important to define it first. We know that our star—the Sun—is a bubbling, boiling ball of fire. It constantly belches out great clouds of hot gas. This gas is all charged up with electricity, too. This stuff travels at astounding speeds, some of […]
Climate Change
Volcano Eruption Leads to Phytoplankton Bloom
October 9, 2010
By Pennell Paugh We recently wrote that phytoplankton, which is the basis for the vast majority of oceanic and some freshwater food chains, is on the decline due to global warming of the planet. However, a new article published in Geophysical Research Letters, reports that the recent eruption of a volcano in the on the […]
Video Review: HOME
September 23, 2010
By Virginie Noel Most of us are not aware in a global way how quickly mankind is depleting our non-renewable energy resources and consuming creatures in the oceans faster than they can reproduce. We have little awareness of how our food is grown. Yet, all of these affect our daily quality of life. HOME, a […]
Water Vapor, CO2, and Global Warming
September 23, 2010
By Anita Dotson MYTH: Water vapor is the most important, abundant greenhouse gas. So if we’re going to control a greenhouse gas, why don’t we control it instead of carbon dioxide (CO2)? This is a common misconception in the debate over greenhouse gases and the causes of global warming. Both water vapor and carbon dioxide […]
Climate Change and Invasive Plants
September 23, 2010
The new battle on climate change is being waged in our nation’s forests. Nonnative, invasive species are changing the face of natural ecosystems across the country by reducing biodiversity or wiping out large areas of natural vegetation completely. Climate change is helping to fuel this transformation. Warmer temperatures and variations in precipitation are allowing the […]
Video Review: Climate Voices
September 23, 2010
“Save us and you will save yourselves,” is the plea from the Environment Minister for the Maldives. Though it may be one of the first countries to be completely inundated due to global warming, the Maldives will certainly not be the last. It is only a matter of time before it is our turn. One […]
What is “good science”? IEDRO volunteers discuss.
September 19, 2010
By Carmen Lee and Gary Reidister Carmen Lee, a PhD in library and information studies from the University of London: I find the question “What is good science?” to be very interesting, but not because it sounds like an intelligent question inquisitive minds would ask. It is interesting to me because it is exactly the […]
Do Scientists Agree on Global Warming?
September 13, 2010
Of all the myths about global warming this one is perhaps the most dangerous. In point of fact, the most respected world scientific bodies have stated quite clearly that global warming is happening and that it is caused by people burning fossil fuels, coal, oil and natural gas, and cutting down forests. In a recent […]
Climate change and drought in Australia
June 3, 2010
By Allyson Gorsuch Have you ever spent any amount of time on an island? If you have, then you know that the local population is acutely aware of winds, tides, precipitation, humidity, and all other weather conditions in general. With little protection from a sizable land mass, the ocean and its resulting atmosphere become much […]
Ocean warming could have severe consequences for marine life
May 23, 2010
May 2010 By Kevin Tsai The effects of climate change, such as melting ice caps and increasing tropical hurricane intensity, may seem remote to many people. On the other hand, decades of increasing ocean temperatures, which reached new record average highs in June 2009, will likely drive changes to marine life that no one will […]