Climate Change Archives

March 31, 2021March 31, 2021 by Matt Williams

Maybe Mars Didn’t Lose its Water After All. It’s Still Trapped on the Planet

Roughly 4 billion years ago, Mars looked a lot different than it does today. For starters, its atmosphere was thicker and warmer, and liquid water flowed across its surface. This included rivers, standing lakes, and even a deep ocean that covered much of the northern hemisphere. Evidence of this warm, watery past has been preserved all over the planet in the form of lakebeds, river valleys, and river deltas.

For some time, scientists have been trying to answer a simple question: where did all that water go? Did it escape into space after Mars lost its atmosphere, or retreat somewhere? According to new research from Caltech and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), between 30% and 90% of Mars’ water went underground. These findings contradict the widely-accepted theory that Mars lost its water to space over the course of eons.

January 30, 2021January 30, 2021 by Matt Williams

2020 Ties for the Hottest Year on Record

According to multiple sources – which includes NASA, the NOAA, the Berkeley Earth research group, and the Met Office Hadley Centre (UK) – global temperatures over the past few years have been some of the hottest on record. This is the direct result of anthropogenic factors like overpopulation, urbanization, deforestation, and increased greenhouse gas emissions (like carbon dioxide and methane).

According to a recent press release from NASA, in terms of global temperatures, 2020 was the hottest year on record – effectively tying it with 2016 (the previous record-holder). The release includes a dramatic video that illustrates average temperature increases since 1880 and the ecological crises that have taken place just this past year. This is yet another warning of how human agency is impacting the very systems we depend upon for our continued survival.

January 28, 2021January 28, 2021 by Matt Williams

Iceland is a Similar Environment to Ancient Mars

Mars is often referred to as “Earth’s Twin” because of the similarities the two planets have. In fact, Mars is ranked as the second most-habitable planet in the Solar System behind Earth. And yet, ongoing studies have revealed that at one time, our two planets had even more in common. In fact, a recent study showed that at one time, the Gale Crater experienced conditions similar to what Iceland experiences today.

Since 2012, the Curiosity rover has been exploring the Gale Crater in search of clues as to what conditions were like there roughly 3 billion years ago (when Mars was warmer and wetter). After comparing evidence gathered by Curiosity to locations on Earth, a team from Rice University concluded that Iceland’s basaltic terrain and cool temperatures are the closest analog terrain to ancient Mars there is.

September 29, 2020September 29, 2020 by Evan Gough

Climate Change is Making the Atmosphere Worse for Astronomy

climate change and observatories — Global climate change's effects will reach right up the skies, affecting such places as the VLTI in Chile. Courtesy ESO.

Modern astronomical telescopes are extraordinarly powerful. And we keep making them more powerful. With telescopes like the Extremely Large Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope seeing first light in the coming years, our astronomical observing power will be greater than ever.

But a new commentary says that climate change could limit the power of our astronomical observatories.

July 13, 2020July 13, 2020 by Evan Gough

This Giant Iceberg Has Been Sailing the Southern Seas for Three Years Now

The iceberg A-68A floating in open waters about 1050 km from its birthplace. It's been floating for three years. Image Credit: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2020), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

An iceberg that calved off of from a larger ice formation has spent three years floating on the ocean near Antarctica. The iceberg broke off of the Larsen Ice Shelf in mid-July 2017. It’s been battered and split up into three pieces, but it’s still going.

July 10, 2020July 10, 2020 by Evan Gough

Even If We Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tomorrow, it Would Take Decades for the Earth to Start Cooling Again

Our beautiful, precious, life-supporting Earth as seen on July 6, 2015 from a distance of one million miles by a NASA scientific camera aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory spacecraft. Credits: NASA

If—or hopefully when—we cut our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, we won’t notice much difference in the climate. The Earth’s natural systems take time to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. We may have to wait decades for the temperatures to drop.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it. It’s just that we have to temper our expectations a little.

May 25, 2020May 25, 2020 by Evan Gough

The Coast of Antarctica is Starting to Turn Green

A bloom of green algae on the snow on Anchorage Island, Antarctica. Image Credit: Davey et al, 2020

The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of Antarctica, and has the mildest climate on the continent. In January, the warmest part of the year, the temperature averages 1 to 2 °C (34 to 36 °F). And it’s getting warmer.

Those warm temperatures allow snow algae to grow, and now scientists have used remote sensing to map those algae blooms.

March 14, 2020March 16, 2020 by Evan Gough

Greenland and Antarctica are Losing Their Ice 6 Times Faster than in the 1990s

Floating ice at the calving front of Greenland's Kangerdlugssuaq glacier, photographed in 2011 during Operation IceBridge (Credit: NASA/Michael Studinger)

Is anybody listening?

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 by Evan Gough

According to NASA, 2019 Was the Second Hottest Year on Record

According to NASA and the NOAA, 2019 was the second hottest year on record. Image Credit: NASA/GISS

NASA and the NOAA just announced that 2019 was the second hottest year on record. It barely edged out 2016, the previous warmest year. And both 2019 and 2016 are part of the global warming trend: the last five years have been the warmest five years on record. And the last decade was the warmest decade.

November 22, 2019November 22, 2019 by Evan Gough

New Satellites Will Tell Us Exactly how Quickly the Oceans are Rising

One week's worth of data from NASA's Earth observing satellites show the rising sea level on Earth between Oct. 29 and Nov. 7, 2019. Areas in red show higher levels, while blue show the lowest. The joint U.S.-European Sentinel-6/Jason-CS mission will continue efforts to track sea level rise. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

One of the clearest signs of global warming, unless you live next to a glacier, are rising oceans. Now a joint mission involving the US and European countries is launching a pair of satellites to monitor the rising sea levels. The two satellites will monitor the oceans until 2030.