Science Nutshell: Climate Change Will Make Lightning Strikes 50% More Frequent

As global warming continues, the frequency of lightning strikes over the United States will increase at a rate of 12±5% per degree Celsius.

Science Nutshell: Ocean Temperatures Higher Than Expected

Temperature readings from the southern hemisphere suggest that previous measurements dating back to 1970 may have been inaccurate, leading to the full extent of global warming to be underestimated.

Climate change, where've you been?

Obligatory picture of ice

Something quite peculiar happened at the Labour Party Conference this year. Whilst every political commentator scathed at the lack of the word 'deficit' in Ed Milliband's closing speech, nobody picked up that the phrase 'climate change' had been uttered in mainstream politics. 

Science Nutshell: Carbon Weather

An article recently published in New Scientist has highlighted the growing success in linking extreme weather events to the human contribution on climate change.

Science Nutshell: CryoSat Measures Bleak Future For Antarctic Ice

"New research undertaken by ESA at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany, has shown the rate at which the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica are melting to be 500 cubic kilometres of ice per year."

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Science Nutshell: Australia’s drying up because of our greenhouse gas emissions

"The southwest of Australia is currently in the midst of a dramatic decline in rainfall. Since 2000, Perth has received less than a quarter of the average water flow into its reservoirs when compared to the annual average between 1911 and 1974. As well as this, there is been a 20% decline in winter rain since the 1960s in the same area, and average annual rainfall is expected to drop 40% compared to the mid-20th century."

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Science Nutshell: NASA launches Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2

"Last week, NASA launched its first dedicated carbon dioxide observing spacecraft. Named The Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), the craft is a direct replacement for the original Orbiting Carbon Observatory built in 2009. The original craft had the unfortunate fate of failing to detach from its rocket at launch, crashing into the Indian Ocean after briefly leaving the Earth’s atmosphere."

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