Climate Change Research in Geobase and GeoRef

Thursday, March 31, 2016

For years, scientists have used mineral, sediment and ice layers, deposited intermittently throughout geologic time, to track the global climate record. These can come from caves, lakes, the oceans and ice sheets. But over the course of the last decade a new method has been developed that presents an opportunity for geoscientists to assess global climate history in almost any arid landscape.

EARTH: Crippling Heat Stress Projected by Midcentury in Densely Populated Regions

This issue, EARTH Magazine explores the world's top weather-related killer: exposure to extreme heat. Humans' response to extreme heat leads to heat stress, an illness related to the body's inability to cool itself. Humidity plays a crucial role, because as humidity increases, the ability of sweat to evaporate and cool the body decreases.

EARTH: A Long Layover on the Bering Land Bridge

In 2013, researchers uncovered the graves of two infants laid to rest about 11,500 years ago outside of what is now Fairbanks, Alaska. Researchers understood that these graves represented some of the earliest human migrants to North America, but were they more closely related to their Asian ancestors, or the modern-day residents of North and South America? Using mitochondrial DNA analysis of the infants, what could we learn about our own human history?

EARTH: How to Feed 11 Billion People

The challenge of feeding our planet's growing population is one of critical importance - it will perhaps be the most important challenge of the 21st century. As the human population continues to rise, geoscience is informimg experts, suggesting major shifts in agriculture must be taken to prevent rampant food insecurity by the year 2050.

EARTH: Owl Pellets Bridge Ancient and Modern Ecosystems

In a Utah cave, paleontologists are exploring the fossil record preserved in owl pellets since the Pleistocene glaciation. The fossils in the pellets are giving the scientists a glimpse of how the ecosystems have changed over time both from natural variation and more recent changes brought on by human settlement.

Senate Committee hears testimony on America's role in the UN Climate Conference

On July 8, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee heard testimony on the Administration’s plans for the 2015 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris. As part of the conference, the Obama Administration intends to commit America to reducing carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2025.

EARTH: Flames Fan Lasting Fallout from Chernobyl

In the years following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster, forest fires billowed plumes of contaminated smoke, carrying radioactive particles throughout Europe on the wind. Now, researchers fear that a shift to a hotter, drier climate in Eastern Europe could increase the frequency of these fires.

EarthComm Earth System Evolution: Climate Change and Your Community Activity 6

Here you will find resources to help educators and their students brainstorm the ways that global warming might influence the Earth; list ways that global warming might affect your community; design an experiment on paper to test your ideas; explain some of the effects of global warming that computer models of global climate have predicted; understand positive and negative feedback loops and their relationship to climate change; evaluate and understand the limitations of models in studying climate change through time.

EarthComm Earth System Evolution: Climate Change and Your Community Activity 5

Here you will find resources to help educators and their students compare data to understand the relationship of carbon dioxide to global temperature; evaluate given data to draw a conclusion; recognize a pattern of information graphed in order to predict future temperature; understand some of the causes of global warming.

American Geosciences Institute

climate change