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For a few hours this weekend, you could almost cut the outrage with a knife, as reports leaked out that BP, whose Macondo oil well spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico last year, was looking for permission to resume drilling at 10 undersea locations in the Gulf (a complete [...]
The University of Michigan’s mascot is the wolverine—a pretty good symbol for teams that want to terrify their foes. Real wolverines are the largest members of the weasel family, about as big as a medium-size dog, with a reputation for strength and ferocity. But there aren’t any wolverines left in the Wolverine State. The last [...]
Clouds cool the planet by reflecting sunlight back into space. Clouds warm the planet by trapping heat. Both statements can be true, depending on what kind of clouds you’re talking about. Add to that the fact that some types of clouds might increase in a warming world and some might decrease, and it becomes clear [...]
This week* marks exactly one year since “Climategate” broke into the headlines, revealing, if nothing else, that at least some mainstream climate scientists were pretty fed up with what they saw as political attacks on the legitimate science they were trying to do. But for critics of conventional climate research, it was much more: the [...]
Who do you think is going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012? Sarah Palin? Mike Huckabee? Mitt Romney? It’s kind of a ridiculous question, actually, since almost anything could happen in the 18 months until the primaries begin. One of the candidates could, for example, be caught in an embarrassing scandal—or even [...]
OK, that was a tiny bit snarky, but you have to forgive me. The evidence of a warming planet has been around about 20 years now, and despite what you hear from some quarters about global cooling, that evidence has continued to strengthen. What’s important about a new report titled “State of the Climate in [...]
When TIME managing editor Henry Muller decided to boost the magazine’s environment coverage, he took the bold and highly visible step of naming Earth Planet of the Year in the January 2, 1989 issue. In order to generate a rich package of stories for that issue, Muller had Washington science correspondent Dick Thompson set up [...]
The current heat wave is about to moderate here on the U.S. east coast. Temperatures will “only” be in the 90’s for the next week or so, compared with the 100-plus we’ve been sweating profusely under . For those of us who write about climate, extreme weather events—not only heat waves, but also floods, droughts, [...]
Here’s a consequence of climate change you probably haven’t thought of. Space buffs know that Earth orbit is littered with junk, including defunct satellites, spent rocket boosters, and other random debris–about 11,500 objects bigger than 4 inches across, according to NASA’s Orbital Debris Program Office (it’s their graphic you’re looking at). It’s a worry: every [...]
If my primary care doctor suspected I had cancer, I’d certainly take it seriously; she’s a great physician. But she’s not an expert on cancer, so I’d go see an oncologist (that’s exactly what she’d tell me to do, of course). And I’d go out of my way to find one with the best possible [...]
