The global impact of air conditioning: big and getting bigger
Jul 25, 2016 06:31 am UTC| Nature
With a heat wave pushing the heat index well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) through much of the U.S., most of us are happy to stay indoors and crank the air conditioning. And if you think its hot here, try 124F...
How a single word sparked a four-year saga of climate fact-checking and blog backlash
Jul 10, 2016 21:06 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
In May 2012, my colleagues and I had a paper accepted for publication in the Journal of Climate, showing that temperatures recorded in Australasia since 1950 were warmer than at any time in the past 1,000...
Learning to live with wildfires: how communities can become 'fire-adapted'
Jul 10, 2016 20:47 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
In recent years wildfire seasons in the western United States have become so intense that many of us who make our home in dry, fire-prone areas are grappling with how to live with fire. When I moved to a small town in...
A marine heatwave has wiped out a swathe of WA's undersea kelp forest
Jul 10, 2016 19:59 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
Kelp forests along some 100km of Western Australias coast have been wiped out, and many more areas damaged, by a marine heatwave that struck the area in 2011. The heatwave, which featured ocean temperatures more than 2℃...
Too many males spell trouble for UK migratory birds
Jul 08, 2016 23:48 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
If you hear a bird singing in the spring, you might assume its calling to a potential mate in the hope of producing offspring. But in parts of the UK, birdsong could be helping to mask the fact that the populations of...
How the UK can still lead on climate change – even after Brexit
Jul 04, 2016 19:25 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature
In the wake of the Brexit earthquake, experts are sifting through the rubble, assessing the damage, and checking the stability of remaining structures. Advocates of ambitious climate policy have been particularly active....
After Paris, UK's latest 'carbon budget' just isn't ambitious enough
Jul 04, 2016 18:51 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature Law
A major new climate policy was announced by the UK government on June 30, almost unnoticed in the Brexit aftermath. The medias focus on Westminster backstabbing meant the countrys latest carbon budget, widely heralded as...
South Africa’s plan to move away from coal: 8 steps to make it succeed
Germany lowers voting age to 16 for the European elections
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects