Recent studies have suggested that people who experience the impacts of hurricanes, catastrophic flooding or other severe weather events are more likely to believe in, and be concerned about, climate change in the wake of the disaster. But a new study by researchers at Duke University and the University of Colorado Denver (UCD) finds that…

A research team from U of T Engineering has developed a new electrochemical path to transform CO2 into valuable products such as jet fuel or plastics. The technology could significantly improve the economics of capturing and recycling carbon directly from the air. “Today, it is technically possible to capture CO2 from air and, through a…

The finding updates the geological evolution of the Arctic Ocean and could help revise predictions about the Arctic’s oil, gas and mineral wealth. By explaining the formation of the Arctic Ocean in the Western Hemisphere — known as the Amerasian Basin — the research provides more clues into the geological history of the rapidly changing…

The first thermodynamically-reversible chemical reactor capable of producing hydrogen as a pure product stream represents a “transformational” step forward in the chemical industry, the authors of a new study claim. The novel reactor, described today in the prestigious academic journal Nature Chemistry, avoids mixing reactant gases by transferring oxygen between reactant streams via a solid…

Although the devastating consequences of deforestation to plants and animal species living above the ground are well-documented, scientists and others need to better understand how soil communities respond to this deforestation to create interventions that protect biodiversity and the ecosystem. But that information has been lacking. A team of researchers led by Colorado State University’s…

The risk posed by rising seas may be even more dire than we thought. A provocative new study suggests that as Earth’s climate continues to warm and the planet’s ice sheets continue to melt, seas could inundate coastal cities around the world, submerging vast swaths of land and displacing almost 200 million people by the…

Native Americans’ use of fire to manage vegetation in what is now the Eastern United States was more profound than previously believed, according to a Penn State researcher who determined that forest composition change in the region was caused more by land use than climate change. “I believe Native Americans were excellent vegetation managers and…

Historic climate change events can have a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of a species, reveals a new study published in Current Biology. This unexpected finding emerged from an analysis of the alpine marmot’s genome. An iconic animal known to tourists and mountaineers, the alpine marmot is a large rodent exquisitely adapted to cold…

When a new, more aggressive strain of the pathogen that causes sudden oak death turned up in Oregon, scientists and stakeholders banded together to try to protect susceptible trees and the region’s valuable timber industry. Sudden oak death is a serious threat. Since 1994, the disease has killed millions of trees in California and Oregon….

Tropical forests are being deforested at an alarming rate to make way for agriculture and pastureland; the good news is that they can regrow naturally when the fields are abandoned. An international research team including participation from the University of Göttingen has found that regenerating wet and dry forests actually show opposite pathways. This implies…