Results tagged “globalwarming” from 60 Second Science

Clouds complicate the measurement of climate change. Last year, for example, a couple of Colorado State students used CloudSat data to show that pollution by aerosols is causing the formation of more of those eerie, high altitude noctilucent clouds. (Said clouds are reportedly encroaching on the lower latitudes…) The increase in cloud cover resulted in an increase of reflected sunlight, which resulted in less solar radiation reaching the surface.

Now, a team of Ukrainian scientists argue that clouds are the only thing that matter when it comes to climate change. Well, almost. Clouds… and solar radiation. Basically, contrary to what almost every other scientist has been saying, they hypothesize that the big picture of climate change has little to do with carbon dioxide. There’s incoming solar radiation, and clouds that either reflect said radiation or reflect it back into space.

Here’s where cosmic rays come in, according to the Ukrainians: they cause an increase in cloud cover by ionizing the atmosphere, which forms aerosols, which leads to more clouds. Thus, cloud cover patterns should follow the same 11 year cycle that is observed in the Sun’s magnetic field, which corresponds the influx of cosmic rays.

Is it time to throw out any inconvenient truths out there?

Continue reading 'Can we blame cosmic rays for climate change?' >

Methane-filled cow toots have long been the bane of environmentalists and pythonophobes everywhere (see also: megacorporations and carbon dioxide).

Now there's a chance that at least one thing coming out of cows could actually help stop global warming.

"When most people see a pile of manure, they see a pile of manure. We saw it as an opportunity for farmers, for utilities, and for California," said David Albers, dairyman and collaborater in The Vintage Dairy Biogas Project.

Continue reading 'Everybody poops, but cow's power the world' >

Back around the turn of the century, some genius with a Burmese python realized his chosen pet was a lot more difficult to manage than a goldfish, so he dumped it in the Everglades. Meanwhile, another genius discovered the same thing and also released his or her Burmese python in the Everglades, and — voila! — by 2003, biologists with the park service confirmed an established breeding population of a 20-foot, 300-lb. snake.

But it gets better: See all the green space on the map? According to a new USGS survey, that represents the area of our country that climatically matches the python's historical range from Pakistan to Indonesia. Burmese pythons have already been spotted north and east of the Everglades, so it seems like only a matter of time before these highly adaptable reptiles spread even more.

Unsurprisingly, global warming could play a big part in the invasive animals' spread. Click through to see another USGS projection of the python's suitable range in 100 years:

Continue reading 'Hope you like pythons: Climate conditions in southern U.S. perfect for invasive constrictors' spread' >

Everyone knows chipmunks need their sleep — otherwise they get ornery and attack you in local parks. Oh, and they're also more likely to die.

Global warming, it seems, has shortened the hibernation period for animals like bears, marmots and chipmunks like Mr. Cutie Pants over there. But it leads to more than animals just getting crankier: They wake up earlier thinking it's spring, but the food sources often haven't caught up, and the animals starve. So much for the early-bird-gets-the-worm theory; it's more like "the early bird gets the shaft."

Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Biological lab have checked up on marmot hibernation behavior since the 1970s, and because temperatures have risen by about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit in recent times, they've seen the marmots awaken from their dens about a month earlier.

Because of the temperature change, some animals don't hibernate at all. Brown bears in Spain skipped out on hibernation as did chipmunks in the U.S., and while the bears didn't take much of a population hit, many early-rising chipmunks starved or got chomped by predators.

Continue reading 'Don't wake me up before you go-go: Global Warming could be killing hibernating animals' >

The polar bear is widely accepted as the unofficial symbol of global warming. Most people would suggest that the poor, drowning, computer-generated creature from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth thrust the plight of the polar bear into the national consciousness. Soon after, with the birth of little Knut in a Berlin zoo, the world had a physical being of heartbreaking cuteness to associate with the problem, though the cub, far from the Dorian Gray of his species, is susceptible to the corruption of age, as are most adolescents.

It didn’t take long for Hollywood to cast them as honorable (and rational) warriors, who’d also star in their own features and rub elbows with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio. So when reports surfaced in 2006 that the shifting climate forced the bears into cannibalism, the public reacted with an outpouring of compassion rather than dismissing them as fearsome predators, as may have been the case in other circumstances. These days, 1993 seems a lifetime ago, when America was captivated by Coca-Cola’s dreamlike Arctic idyll.

Continue reading 'Protecting the polar bears...with oil!' >

Villagers in the Hindu Kush and Karakoram mountains have practiced "glacier growing" for centuries, according to local legend. Historically, snowmelt often hasn't provided enough water for crops or humans in the dry, high-altitude regions, so growing glaciers became crucial to survival. How did they do it? By combining "male" and "female" glaciers to grow the glaciers larger.

Before you laugh at what sounds like old-world witchcraft, consider this: Researcher Ingvar Tveiten from the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences seems to support the locals' methods of glacier farming. While only a few villages still have glacier-growing elders, if Tveiten can refine and disseminate these techniques for glacier growing, it could go a long way to alleviating problems caused by population growth and glacier retreat in the poverty-plagued mountains of Central Asia.

So how does it work? Local tradition believes that there are two types of glaciers: "male" glaciers are covered in soil or stones and move hardly if at all, while "female" glaciers are whiter, grow faster and yield more water. Tradition also dictates that in order to grow a glacier, you need equal amounts of both types of glaciers — just like the birds and the bees, only colder.

Continue reading 'How do you grow a glacier? Make a boy and a girl glacier get it on' >

From our friends at:

One of the most critical questions of global warming: how fast will sea levels rise? It’s a question the experts are eager to find answer for, as the rate at which some glaciers are melting away into the ocean has already doubled, far out pacing former estimates.

These videos animate one scary potential effect of climate change -- rising sea levels.

New York

Miami

Boston

Continue reading 'Global Warming & Rising Sea Levels: Videos of New York, Boston, Miami' >

We talk about global warming a lot here on 60 Second Science, mostly because, now that we're off the methadone, our anxiety levels are through the roof. We've blamed everything from wildfires to the government for Earth's ailing climate, but we think the UK's chief science adviser, Sir David King, is taking it a bit far:

"I was asked at a lecture by a young woman about what she could do and I told her stop admiring young men in Ferraris. What I was saying is you have got to admire people who are conserving energy and not those willfully using it."

Continue reading 'If only women weren't so shallow, this whole Global Warming thing would go away' >

Continue reading 'Smarmy animated flame illustrates the folly of 'voluntary' regulation of carbon emissions' >

Today's 60 Second Science Podcast is brought to you by The Toronto Maple Leafs:

Carbon Dioxide Changes Leaf Color Timing

Full transcript after the jump...

Continue reading 'Carbon Dioxide Changes Leaf Color Timing [podcast]' >

At a time when kids should be concerned about acne and a Spice Girls comeback, global warming tops the list of teenage worries.

A recent poll of 50,000 teenagers from 18 countries found that, even though many can not name the cause of the problem, today's teens believe global warming is a serious issue. (Except in North America, where one quarter of those polled aren't sure it's a concern.) For the majority, however, global warming won teen hearts over drugs, violence, and war.

Our future still looks a bit bleak. A staggering 20 percent of teens polled don't know what causes global warming, or how to prevent it.

Continue reading 'Teenagers worry about global warming but don't know why' >

Australian fruit bats could join polar bears and Ed Begley, Jr. as the next potentially imminent casualty of the coming global-warming apocalypse.

In January 2002, 3500 bats died from heat exhaustion, as temps across the eastern Australian coast rose to 43 °C, or 14 °C higher than normal. Researcher Stefan Klose of the University of Ulm in Germany estimates that if warmer temps continue, both grey-headed flying foxes and black flying foxes could face extinction sometime "this century."

Continue reading 'Australian fruit bats join ranks of species threatened by global warming; Batman sheds tears and says 'g'bye, mates'' >

Biodiesel, biodiesel, biodiesel: It's the alternative energy fuel on everyone's lips, and it's easy enough to make at home. This instructional video shows you exactly how, using just common vegetable oil, lye and methanol. The biodiesel you produce will work with existing diesel cars, burn cleaner, run smoother and even provide better lubrication. Check it:

Go Green! Homemade Diesel - video powered by Metacafe

Continue reading 'Video: Make your own biodiesel' >

The country may be neutral, but it's not safe from warming temperatures and the bugs that come with melting glaciers.

An Asian tiger mosquito, known for carrying deadly diseases, was discovered for the first time in northern Switzerland. Authorities have yet to determine whether the mosquito brought friends or whether it arrived solo.

Continue reading 'Mighty mosquito invades Switzerland over the Alps' >

Thanks to global warming, our future prospects for shreddin' sweet powder in the mountains don't look so good. But that ain't about to deter the scrappy Texans behind Bearfire Resort, a horribly-named artificial ski mountain set to open in the near future in the blizzard-challenged Ft. Worth, TX.

"But how will one ski year round in a locale not known for snow?" you might ask. Are you kidding? "Snow?" Hell you talkin' 'bout, grandpa? That's for has-beens and cheese weenies -- in the future, we shred Snowflex!

Continue reading 'Ski hill in Texas will use 'plastic' snow; surf break in Nebraska planned next' >

Polar bears are the best animal mascots to come along in, well, maybe ever; whales, lynxes and spotted owls should all fire their agents. Global warming is a great start, but I see big things for polar bears — you wanna be in pictures, kid? Polar bears are so cuddly that even if I was getting torn apart by one, I think I'd be yelling "you're ...sooo... cuuute...must.... give...savings ...to... IPCC...aaaaaghggh!" with my dying breath.

But ExxonMobil recently funded research into the impact of climate change on polar bear populations. The researchers, including Willie Soon of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, contradicted previous research and took a big dump on Al Gore's PowerPoint presentations by concluding that polar bears aren't threatened. The results were published as "viewpoint" and not peer-reviewed, which has naturally drawn the ire of the scientific community and the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology. From NewScientist:

If the polar bear is listed under the Endangered Species Act, steps to protect its habitat could directly hurt ExxonMobil's economic interests, subcommittee chair Brad Miller wrote in an open letter to the oil giant.

Continue reading 'Polar bears are fine, says Exxon-funded...astrophysicist?' >