A global study of major crops has found that farmworkers are being increasingly exposed to combinations of extreme heat and humidity during planting and harvest seasons that can make it hard for them to function. Such conditions have nearly doubled across the world since 1979, the authors report, a trend that could eventually hinder cultivation. […]
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Posted inSci/Tech
1,000 Years of Tree Rings Confirm 2021 Heat Wave Was Unprecedented
In summer 2021, a stunning heat wave swept western North America, from British Columbia to Washington, Oregon and beyond into other inland areas where the climate is generally mild. Temperature records were set by tens of degrees in many places, wildfires broke out, and at least 1,400 people died. Scientists blamed the event largely on […]
Posted inCalifornia
A slow-motion section of the San Andreas fault may not be so harmless after all
February 28, 2022 – Most people have heard about the San Andreas Fault. It’s the 800-mile-long monster that cleaves California from south to north, as two tectonic plates slowly grind against each other, threatening to produce big earthquakes. Lesser known is the fact that the San Andreas comprises three major sections that can move independently. In all […]
Posted inEnviro
Reduced US air pollution will boost rainfall in Africa’s Sahel, says study
May 22, 2017 – Falling sulfur dioxide emissions in the United States are expected to substantially increase rainfall in Africa’s semi-arid Sahel, while bringing slightly more rain to much of the U.S., according to a new study in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. Pollution filters placed on coal-fired power plants in the United States […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Water Is Streaming Across Antarctica
April 24, 2017 – In the first such continent-wide survey, scientists have found extensive drainages of meltwater flowing over parts of Antarctica’s ice during the brief summer. Researchers already knew such features existed, but assumed they were confined mainly to Antarctica’s fastest-warming, most northerly reaches. Many of the newly mapped drainages are not new, but […]