What would the Earth be like if one fine day all the snow melted away?

Obviously, it would be a much warmer place. But what’s interesting is how much warmer, says Stephen Vavrus, an associate scientist at the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Working with computer-generated simulations, Vavrus found that in the absence of snow cover, global temperatures would likely spike by about eight-tenths of a degree Celsius. That increase represent

All through the ages, humans have dreamily gazed at those shape-shifting cotton-balls floating gently across the sky-the clouds.

Atmospheric scientists-Earth’s professional cloud-gazers–have learned a great deal about clouds over the decades, particularly with the advent of satellites during the 1960s and 70s. But despite years of research and the emergence of increasingly sophisticated tools, scientists are still at odds over one of the most basic issues of all: how t

As the future of Earth’s forests moved up the agenda at the United Nations Climate Change Conference – negotiating a post-Kyoto strategy to combat global warming – ESA and its national collaborators presented delegates with promising results from projects using satellites to identify wide-area forest retreat and expansion.

The planet’s climate is moving into uncharted territory, as our burning of fossil-fuels and clearances of forests release massive amounts of heat-trapping

As global populations swell, farmers are cultivating more and more land in a desperate bid to keep pace with the ever-intensifying needs of humans.

As a result, agricultural activity now dominates more than a third of the Earth’s landscape and has emerged as one of the central forces of global environmental change, say scientists at the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Navin Ramankutty, an assistant

By the early 20th century, loggers had harvested more than 90 percent of the forests covering the upper Great Lakes region. The legacy of that destruction continues to have a substantial impact on the environment, researchers say.

Nearly 70 years after this major disturbance, experimental forested plots in the current study have not returned to a point where they store as much carbon as the original stands. And researchers aren’t sure just how long it might take to return to

Two images from a radar satellite are often a lot better than one. These orbiting sensors see through wind, rain and darkness and have another unique strength: combine two or more radar images of the same site together and a new dimension of information becomes accessible, including signs of otherwise invisible millimetre-scale ground motion.

This technique is called radar interferometry, known as InSAR for short. ESA has been at the forefront of its development because the Agency has

The catastrophic tsunami that struck Indonesia and East Asia almost a year ago has done much to heighten the interest, research programs and preparations in the United States for events of this type, but experts say there are areas that need more attention and challenges yet to be met.

Dec. 26 will mark the first anniversary of the tsunami that claimed the lives of about 275,000 people and struck with waves up to 100 feet high, one of the deadliest disasters in modern history.

Against the backdrop of the Montreal Summit on global climate being held this week, an article on African droughts and monsoons, by a University of California, Santa Barbara scientist and others, which appears in the December issue of the journal Geology, underlines concern about the effects of global climate change.

Tropical ocean temperatures and land vegetation have an important effect on African monsoon systems, explains first author Syee Weldeab, a post-doctoral fellow in

The magnitude 9.2 earthquake that triggered a devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December of 2004 originated just off the coast of northern Sumatra, but an “energy pulse” – an area where slip on the fault was much greater – created the largest waves, some 100 miles from the epicenter. Seismologists have mapped these energy pulses for Sumatra and are trying to learn more about them to predict better when and where tsunamis may occur. They also hope these pulses will help them gain a more co

A unique European meeting for sustainable aquaculture development that confirmed the health benefits of seafood consumption.

More than 100 stakeholders met between 21st and 23rd November 2005 in a special European Workshop dedicated to sustainable aquaculture development, including consumer groups, sectoral representatives of European aquaculture, scientists and institutional interests.

Held in Ostend (Belgium), within the work programme of the “Consensus” project, th

The world’s largest mass extinction was probably caused by poisonous volcanic gas, according to research published today.

The research, published in the journal Geology, reveals vital clues about the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period, 250 million years ago, when mammal-like reptiles known as synapsids roamed the earth.

Many scientists had previously thought that an asteroid hitting the earth or a deep-sea methane release had caused the extinction, whi

Ebola virus (of the Filoviridae family) was first identified in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (ex- Zaire). It has been the source of several lethal epidemics in central Africa. Four subtypes exist, three of which rage on the African continent. The zaire subtype, the most dangerous for humans, was responsible for eight epidemics which have hit Gabon and the Republic of Congo since 1995. Infection by this subtype in humans is expressed by a violent haemorrhagic fever which in 80 % of cas

As a further demonstration of the depth of its commitment to tackling climate change, the European Commission has been behind today’s launch of the Technology Platform for Zero Emission Fossil Fuel Power Plants. This body will bring together energy companies, equipment suppliers, users, consumers, financial institutions, regulators, public authorities, researchers and civil society to develop common research goals, with the aim of a future where the use of power plants that emit no climate-damagi

Threats to freshwater fisheries and associated biodiversity largely unrecognized, authors state

Systematic overfishing of fresh waters occurs worldwide but is largely unrecognized because of weak reporting and because other pressures can obscure fishery declines, according to an article in the December 2005 issue of BioScience. Although the status of inland waters and their fish species should be of broad concern, threats to freshwater fisheries and associated biodiversity have rece

Unique results from the Aerosol Collector and Pyrolyser (ACP) and the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) have given scientists their first in situ chemical data on Titan’s atmosphere, including aerosols, chemical composition and isotopes.

Two of Titan’s key unknowns are the origin of the molecular nitrogen and methane in the atmosphere, and the mechanisms by which methane is maintained in the face of rapid destruction by photochemistry (chemical processes that are

The world’s largest mass extinction was probably caused by poisonous volcanic gas, according to research published today.

The research, published in the journal Geology, reveals vital clues about the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period, 250 million years ago, when mammal-like reptiles known as synapsids roamed the earth.

Many scientists had previously thought that an asteroid hitting the earth or a deep-sea methane release had caused the extinction,