Feb. 16, 2022 – Nighttime fires have become more intense and more frequent in recent decades, as hot, dry nights are more commonplace, according to a new study led by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences’ (CIRES) Earth Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder. Forty years ago, cool, moist nights regularly provided […]
University of Colorado at Boulder
Posted inSci/Tech
Geologists dig into Grand Canyon’s mysterious gap in time
A new study led by CU Boulder reveals the complex history behind one of the Grand Canyon’s most well-known geologic features: A mysterious and missing gap of time in the canyon’s rock record that covers hundreds of millions of years. The research comes closer to solving a puzzle, called the “Great Unconformity,” that has perplexed geologists […]
Posted inEnviro
CU Boulder study: most print media report humans contribute to climate change but inaccuracies lurk in conservative outlets
Good news: Major print media in five countries have been representing climate change very factually, hitting a 90 percent accuracy rate in the last 15 years, according to an international study out today with CU Boulder and CIRES authors. Scientifically accurate coverage of man-made climate change is becoming less biased—headlining the idea that print media […]
Posted inCalifornia
Study: People are behind costly, increasing risk of wildfire to millions of homes in the U.S.
September 14, 2020 – People are starting almost all the wildfires that threaten U.S. homes, according to an innovative new analysis combining housing and wildfire data. Through activities like debris burning, equipment use and arson, humans were responsible for igniting 97 percent of home-threatening wildfires, a CU Boulder-led team reported this week in the journal Fire. Moreover, one […]
Posted inEnviro
Agriculture replaces fossil fuels as largest human source of sulfur in the environment
August 10, 2020 – A new paper out today in Nature Geoscience identifies fertilizer and pesticide applications to croplands as the largest source of sulfur in the environment—up to 10 times higher than the peak sulfur load seen in the second half of the 20th century, during the days of acid rain. As a result, CU Boulder […]
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Researchers take the ultimate Earth selfie
August 6, 2020 – Consider it Earth’s ultimate mirror selfie. In a new study, a team led by astrophysicist Allison Youngblood at CU Boulder set out to achieve something new in planetary photography: The group used the Hubble Space Telescope to try to view Earth as if it were an exoplanet—or a world orbiting a star […]
Posted inEnviro
Alaska is getting wetter. That’s bad news for permafrost and the climate
July 28, 2020 – Alaska is getting wetter. A new study spells out what that means for the permafrost that underlies about 85% of the state, and the consequences for Earth’s global climate. The study, published today in Nature Publishing Group journal Climate and Atmospheric Science, is the first to compare how rainfall is affecting permafrost thaw […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Ideologically extreme Facebook users spread the most fake news
June 24, 2020 – Facebook is a more fertile breeding ground for fake news than Twitter, and those on the far ends of the liberal-conservative spectrum are most likely to share it, according to new CU Boulder research. The paper, in the journal Human Communication Research, also found that people who lack trust in conventional media, […]
Posted inCalifornia
How the blob came back
April 22, 2020 – Weakened wind patterns likely spurred the wave of extreme ocean heat that swept the North Pacific last summer, according to new research led by the University of Colorado Boulder and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The marine heat wave, named the “Blob 2.0” after […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Physicians report high refusal rates for HPV vaccine in the U.S. and need for improvement
Sept. 16, 2019 – Despite its proven success at preventing cancer, many adolescents are still not getting the HPV vaccine. A new study from the University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus shows that physicians’ delivery and communication practices must improve to boost vaccination completion rates. Health care providers must also […]
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National emergency alerts potentially vulnerable to attack
June 21, 2019 – On October 3, 2018, cell phones across the United States received a text message labeled “Presidential Alert.” The message read: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” It was the first trial run for a new national alert system, developed by several U.S. […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Education may be key to a healthier, wealthier US
April 29, 2019 – According to the United States Department of Education, the U.S. high school graduation rate will reach an all-time high this year, which is good news for both our economy and health. Policy makers often use education policy to strengthen the workforce and boost earnings, productivity and employment. But earning a diploma […]
Posted inWorld
Study: When more women make decisions, the environment wins
March 22, 2019 – When more women are involved in group decisions about land management, the group conserves more—particularly when offered financial incentives to do so, according to a new CU Boulder study published this week in Nature Climate Change. The study, involving 440 forest users from three developing countries, sheds new light on the role gender quotas […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Fatal horizon, driven by acidification, closes in on marine organisms in Southern Ocean
March 11, 2019 – Marine microorganisms in the Southern Ocean may find themselves in a deadly vise grip by century’s end as ocean acidification creates a shallower horizon for life, new University of Colorado Boulder research finds. The modeling study, published today in the journal Nature Climate Change, forecasts that at current carbon dioxide emission […]
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New study finds US oil & gas methane emissions 60 percent higher than estimated
June 22, 2018 – The U.S. oil and gas industry emits 13 million metric tons of the potent greenhouse gas methane from its operations each year, 60 percent more than estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to a new study published yesterday in the journal Science. Significantly, researchers found most of the emissions […]
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NOAA finds rising emissions of ozone-destroying chemical banned by Montreal Protocol
May 16, 2018 – Emissions of one of the chemicals most responsible for the Antarctic ozone hole are on the rise, despite an international treaty that required an end to its production in 2010, a new NOAA study shows. Trichlorofluoromethane, or CFC-11, is the second-most abundant ozone-depleting gas in the atmosphere and a member of […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Personal care products contribute to a pollution ‘rush hour’
April 30, 2018 – When people are out and about, they leave plumes of chemicals behind them–from both car tailpipes and the products they put on their skin and hair. In fact, emissions of siloxane, a common ingredient in shampoos, lotions, and deodorants, are comparable in magnitude to the emissions of major components of vehicle […]
Posted inSci/Tech
Study: Hold Hands to Ease a Lover’s Pain and Your Brains Couple Up Too
March 2, 2018 – Reach for the hand of a loved one in pain and not only will your breathing and heart rate synchronize with theirs, your brain wave patterns will couple up too, according to a new study. The study, by researchers with CU Boulder and University of Haifa and published in the journal Proceedings of the […]
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Major Return on Investment from Improving Climate Observations
Nov. 8, 2017 – A well-designed climate observing system could help scientists answer knotty questions about climate while delivering trillions of dollars in benefits by providing decision makers information they need to protect public health and the economy in the coming decades, according to a new paper published today. The flip side is also true, […]
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Last remnant of North American ice sheet on track to vanish
March 21, 2017 – The last piece of the ice sheet that once blanketed much of North America is doomed to disappear in the next several centuries, says a new study by researchers at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and the University of Colorado Boulder. The Barnes Ice Cap, a Delaware-sized feature on Baffin […]