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On the basics, the science of climate change is pretty straightforward. Carbon dioxide released into the air—whether through the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation or other natural causes—adds to the greenhouse effect, which traps more solar energy in the atmosphere and warms the planet. But just how this will happen—how fast and exactly how the [...]
This week we learned that bad planning in the face of climate change isn’t a particularly new phenomenon: the Vikings did it too. The collapse of the Norse settlements in West Greenland was caused, in part, by the Vikings’ poor adaptation to cooler conditions and extensive sea ice over 1,000 years ago, which severely affected [...]
One of the most pressing predictions that must be made in climate science concerns the rate of polar melting. As they warm—and the Arctic and Antarctic regions have heated up faster than most of the rest of the planet—the glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica are melting and flowing into the ocean, which then raises sea [...]
