Articles About Climate Change

Climate change isn’t new. A recent study found that it destroyed an ancient civilization approximately 4,000 years ago. The gradual eastward movement of monsoons across Asia at first supported the formation of the Harappan civilization in the Indus Valley by allowing large-scale agricultural production, then wiped out the civilization as water supplies disappeared.  This the initial […]

In a sign that global warming is a reality, a new study reveals that ice shelves in western Antarctica are melting at a faster pace than previously known. Data collected by a NASA ice-watching satellite show that the ice shelves are being eaten away from below by ocean currents, which have been growing warmer even […]

The Great Lakes winter ice cover has dropped dramatically over the past 40 years, according to a new report. On average, peak ice has fallen by 71 percent; Lake Michigan’s ice cover has shrunk even more than that. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) compared satellite photos dating to 1973.  Jia Wang, […]

Depending on who you listen to, 2011 was either the 11th warmest on record — that’s according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) — or the 9th — according to the National Aeronautic and Space Administration — NASA. According to scientists at NOAA, 2011 broke records for climate extremes, as much of the […]

The English wine industry – once something of a national joke – is coming into its own as climate change has raised temperatures in southern Britain an average of three degrees Fahrenheit between 1961 and 2006.  Today, Britain has approximately 400 commercial vineyards.  Sparkling wines are beating their French rivals in international competitions.  “We’ve noticed […]

An August 18 lightning strike in a northern Minnesota forest after an unusually hot summer started a month-long fire that brought a pall of smoke to Chicago nearly a month after the blaze started.  Driven by northwest winds, the fire in the 1.1 million acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness that straddles the Canadian border grew […]

As Hurricane Irene literally tore up the nation’s East Coast, leaving 42 people dead in 12 states in its wake, the question naturally arises about global warming’s role in the disaster.  In a year when spring tornadoes wreaked havoc on towns like Tuscaloosa, AL and Joplin, MO, and with the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) […]

Climate change and decreasing natural resources will put greater pressure on the world’s supply of food over the next several decades,  threatening millions of people with chronic hunger, according to a report from Oxfam International. The British-based charity says that the world’s food system is “broken,” and that food price increases have driven 44 million […]

It’s going to rain.  According to a study by climatologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Texas Tech University, temperatures in Chicago will continue rising over the next century, largely due to human emissions of heat-trapping gasses.  The strength of that warming trend and the impact it brings depends on the amount of […]

The long-feared specter of inflation is finally rearing its ugly head, as consumer prices rose by 0.5 percent in February, according to a report from the Department of Labor.  Take away food and gas prices and the increase was jut 0.2 percent.  “All signs indicate that, against the backdrop of a strengthening economy, inflation is […]