Preliminary data from two Arctic cruises suggest that rising temperatures are already causing substantial amounts of methane to be released from beneath the ocean floor. But catastrophic gas leaks, like those believed to have occurred 55 million years ago, are unlikely, scientists say.
As this year's Atlantic hurricane season becomes ever more violent, scientists have come up with the firmest evidence so far that global warming will significantly increase the intensity of the most extreme storms worldwide.
A research vessel embedded in the thinning Arctic sea ice has a front-row seat for the cryospheric show of the century. Quirin Schiermeier reports from Darnley Bay, Canada.
The humble bucket turns out to be at the bottom of a perplexing anomaly in the climate records for the twentieth century. The time series of land and ocean temperature measurements, begun in 1860, shows a strange cooling of about 0.3
Scientists have decried the decision by two German universities to pull the plug on field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops, calling it a "disgraceful' interference with scientists' freedom to research.
A unique drilling project in the western Ross Sea has revealed that Antarctica had a much more eventful climate history than previously assumed. A new sediment core hints that the western part of the now-frozen continent went through prolonged ice-free phases
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has grossly underestimated the challenges of reducing and stabilizing greenhousegas emissions, according to an influential group of climate-policy experts.
In parts of the world already facing unreliable food supplies, an uncertain climate adds to the future stress for soils, plants and people. March 20, 2008
Climate change, growing populations and political concerns are prompting governments and investors from California to China to take a fresh look at desalination. March 20, 2008
