A single sensor deployed on a light-rail public train could provide as much information about the city's carbon dioxide emissions as 30 stationary monitoring stations, at a fraction of the cost.
The most comprehensive database ever assembled of paleoclimate proxies that tell scientists about temperatures since the last ice age ended around 12,000 years ago has been released to the public.
Looking for a sustainable alternative to harvesting wild seaweed, a small California company partnered with a commercial oyster grower to test-farm native seaweeds. The crop reduced pollution and buffered local ocean acidification.
Global atmospheric carbon dioxide reached 405.0 parts per million (ppm) in 2017, a new record high. In the 1960s, the global growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide was roughly 0.6 ppm per year. Over the past decade, however, the growth rate has been closer to 2.3 ppm per year.
A saildrone observed the growth and decay of a bloom of ocean plants in the Alaskan Arctic in late summer 2017. Such blooms affect the rate of regional ocean acidification, which occurs as surface waters absorb human-produced carbon dioxide.
The oyster hatchery industry on the U.S. West Coast nearly collapsed when they were caught off guard by increasing acidity in the coastal waters. In Maine, an oyster grower is testing whether new NOAA-funded technology can prevent a repeat on the East Coast.
Plants on land have helped slow global warming by capturing nearly a quarter of the carbon dioxide that human activities release in an average year. But where is it all going?
Globally, carbon emissions from fires were near the long-term average in 2014, but North America's emissions were 70% higher than average.
Scientists estimated global average carbon dioxide concentration at 397.2 parts per million (ppm) in 2014, as the global growth rate of carbon dioxide continues to accelerate.
Restoring a healthy balance between sea otters and their sea urchin prey comes with a modest but meaningful bonus: halting the overgrazing of kelp forests and increasing their ability to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.