Climate Science
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Looks like we might get a do-over Earth after all
A research team at Chile's La Silla Observatory has found a new crop of 50 exoplanets, at least one of which is in the "habitable zone" (i.e. an Earthlike distance from the sun). HD 85512 b is rocky instead of gaseous, big but not too big, and preliminary observations suggest an average surface temperature of a balmy 77 degrees F -- all of which make it a good candidate to be Earth Mark II. Phew, just in time! This one's almost worn out!
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New record low for arctic sea ice
Last week, sea ice coverage in the Arctic dropped to a new record low, according to data from the University of Bremen. It's the lowest since 1972, when we started observing sea ice via satellite, but it could well be the lowest in 8,000 years. And it's more than 10,000 square feet below the previous record, set in 2007.
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Kiss your snorkeling trip goodbye: We're wiping out coral
Environmentalists are always looking for allies who can blast away treehugger stereotypes. They should consider reaching out to the community of anyone who's ever gone snorkeling in a coral reef. (You remember that part of your Cancun vacation, don't you? It happened sometime between the margaritas and the … margaritas.) According to a new book called Our Dying Planet, humanity is on track to wipe out all coral reefs. No more bright, awesome fish and crazy plants. Ever.
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Fat lady sings: Gore gears up for 24 hours of climate reality [VIDEO]
Al Gore is going big in his fight against climate deniers, with "24 Hours of Reality" on Sept. 14. Opera singing may or may not be involved.
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As waves lap at their doorsteps, Alaskan islanders take on climate polluters
In Christine Shearer's book "Kivalina: A Climate Change Story," a tiny community threatened by rising seas takes major coal and oil companies to court.
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Meter-long king crabs invade Antarctic waters, eat everything
On the seafloors of Antarctic basins, the water has warmed by just 0.27 degrees C — but that’s enough to allow giant king crabs to take over the ecosystem and eat everything they find. These suckers are more than three feet across, and they're gobbling up sea urchins, sea lilies, sea cucumbers, and starfish. They're also messing with the make-up of the sea floor. Check out the (terrifyinggggg) video above: The crab looks like an invasive vehicle in a Star Wars movie that's launching a sneak attack on an unsuspecting, peaceful civilization.
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Critical List: Obama admin backs more solar projects; Kiribati president wants a new island
The Obama administration provided a loan guarantee to a SolarCity project that would put solar panels on 160,000 military homes — "the larger domestic residential rooftop solar project in history," Energy Secretary Chu said.
Rick Perry thinks he's a smart as Galileo. Or at least that some climate-denying scientists are.
So he’d be pretty irked to see yet more evidence that global warming is real, if he actually read newspapers. -
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This is what global warming looks like
Polar scientists visited a glacier to see how much ice it'd lost in two years due to global warming. The results were dramatic.
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The Onion nails core dilemma of tackling climate change
As individuals, how can we face the existential threat of climate change when we are continually reminded that everything we do -- the very act of living -- inexorably contributes to our own undoing? It’s sort of the world’s most angst-inducing question, which is why the Onion’s take on it is so genius.
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Firsthand accounts from inside Texas' raging inferno
Texas, which is rapidly turning into just the sort of desert we were promised it would soon be, has already seen a year of record-breaking drought and out-of-control wildfires. Now the flames are threatening residential areas, even the state capital itself.
