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The long and rich life of tropical clouds: Understanding environmental...

Scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory uncovered another clue as to how tropical clouds live long and prosper. Moisture from the middle layer of the atmosphere, both before and after the...

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Ancient Indonesian climate shift linked to glacial cycle

Using sediments from a remote lake, researchers from Brown University have assembled a 60,000-year record of rainfall in central Indonesia. The analysis reveals important new details about the climate...

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The hidden history of rain: Plant waxes reveal rainfall changes during the...

Across the edges of the Indian Ocean, the amount of rainfall differs greatly. If it rains particularly hard in the Sumatran rain forest, the already arid region of East Africa is onset with drought....

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Warmest oceans ever recorded

"This summer has seen the highest global mean sea surface temperatures ever recorded since their systematic measuring started. Temperatures even exceed those of the record-breaking 1998 El Niño year,"...

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Study finds early warning signals of abrupt climate change

A new study by researchers at the University of Exeter has found early warning signals of a reorganisation of the Atlantic oceans' circulation which could have a profound impact on the global climate...

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Tracking marine plankton provides new information to reconstruct past climate

A new study from an international team of scientists uncovered new information about the tiny, globetrotting organisms commonly used to reconstruct past climate conditions. The findings can aid in...

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2012 Great Plains drought not caused by climate change

From May to July 2012, the Great Plains region of the western United States faced a powerful and unpredicted drought. Following 7 months of normal rainfall, the drought was one of the largest...

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Extreme weather events fuel climate change

When the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere rises, the Earth not only heats up, but extreme weather events, such as lengthy droughts, heat waves, heavy rain and violent storms, may become more...

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Global warming has increased risk of record heat, scientists say

Drought shriveled crops in the Midwest, massive wildfires raged in the West and East Coast cities sweltered. The summer of 2012 was a season of epic proportions, especially July, the hottest month in...

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Artificial lung to remove carbon dioxide—from smokestacks

The amazingly efficient lungs of birds and the swim bladders of fish have become the inspiration for a new filtering system to remove carbon dioxide from electric power station smokestacks before the...

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Achilles' heel of ice shelves is beneath the water, scientists reveal

New research has revealed that more ice leaves Antarctica by melting from the underside of submerged ice shelves than was previously thought, accounting for as much as 90 per cent of ice loss in some...

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Climate report struggles with temperature quirks (Update)

Scientists working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are struggling over how to address a wrinkle in the meteorological data that has given ammunition to global-warming skeptics: The heating...

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Climate: Growing certainties on warming and human role

Over the past 23 years, UN scientists have issued progressively stronger assertions about climate change.

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UN climate experts stress solidity of new report (Update)

Seeking to dispel any doubts over the credibility of their work, U.N. climate experts called their latest report an unbiased and reliable assessment of global warming as they presented it Monday to...

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Global warming is likely to increase severe thunderstorm conditions in US,...

In 2012, 11 weather disasters in the United States crossed the billion-dollar threshold in economic losses. Seven of those events were related to severe thunderstorms. New climate analyses led by...

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Temperatures to rise 0.3-4.8 C this century, UN panel says

A UN panel said Friday it was more certain than ever that humans were causing global warming and predicted temperatures would rise by 0.3 to 4.8 degrees Celsius (0.5-8.6 degrees Fahrenheit) this century.

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Climate panel: Warming 'extremely likely' man-made (Update 3)

Scientists now believe it's "extremely likely" that human activity is the dominant cause of global warming, a long-term trend that is clear despite a recent plateau in the temperatures, an...

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Researchers show limitations and side effects of large-scale climate...

Despite international agreements on climate protection and political declarations of intent, global greenhouse gas emissions have not decreased. On the contrary, they continue to increase. With a...

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UN climate report offers stark warnings, hope (Update)

Climate change is happening, it's almost entirely man's fault and limiting its impacts may require reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero this century, the U.N.'s panel on climate science said Sunday.

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Observers slam 'lackluster' Lima climate deal

A carbon-curbing deal struck in Lima on Sunday was a watered-down compromise where national intransigence threatened the goal of a pact to save Earth's climate system, green groups said.

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Climate connections

In common parlance, the phrase "global climate change" is often used to describe how present-day climate is changing in response to human activities. But climate has also varied naturally and sometimes...

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Scientists plan to use surfers to monitor the coastal environment

The coastal zone is hugely valuable in terms of social and economic benefits to humans, and as such is one of our most treasured environments, yet pressures from human activity and climate change are...

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Study describes how irrigation development modifies local and regional climate

With approximately 70 percent of all freshwater consumption worldwide used for agriculture, the reliance on large-scale irrigation development continues to spread and ultimately augments crop yields in...

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Researchers develop new way to measure crop yields from space

As Earth's population grows toward a projected 9 billion by 2050 and climate change puts growing pressure on the world's agriculture, researchers are turning to technology to help safeguard the global...

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Today's global climate models do not capture the effects of climate change on...

Island nations could be forgiven for feeling slighted. They already face the brunt of the effects of climate change: Rising sea levels, dwindling resources, threats to infrastructure and economic...

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Explosive renewables development can deliver on Paris

While some criticize the Paris climate target as impracticable, a team of scholars argues that it is - on the contrary - a triumph of realism. First, and most importantly, adhering to the Paris target...

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Warning from the past: Future global warming could be even warmer

Future global warming will not only depend on the amount of emissions from man-made greenhouse gasses, but will also depend on the sensitivity of the climate system and response to feedback mechanisms....

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Warming climate likely to have 'minor' impact on power plant output

Future climate warming will likely cause only minor cuts in energy output at most U.S. coal- or gas-fired power plants, a new Duke University study finds.

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Researchers unravel process for the formation of rainstorms

Violent thunderstorms can often cause torrential rain, which pose a threat for both humans and the infrastructure. Until now such extreme weather phenomena have been very poorly understood. However,...

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How anthropogenic forest fires may have impacted Earth's climate over 10 000...

Recently paleoclimatologist William Ruddiman suggested that humans may have had a significant impact on the Earth's climate already thousands of years ago—through carbon and methane emissions...

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