The small mountain country of Bhutan is home to 700,000 people, many of whom rely on hydroelectric power that could be interrupted by the loss of the glaciers.
For the small country of Bhutan in the Himalayas, climate change means a high stakes spiral of melting glaciers and lost hydropower that India badly needs. A team of climatologists hiking high into the mountains are researching how global warming is affecting the glaciers and how Bhutan's challenge sheds light on the Earth's future climate.
Each year scientists at the cutting edge of climate research undertaken all across the world gather at the Comer Conference in Wisconsin to exchange their latest findings. With global warming becoming an increasingly urgent problem, many experts expressed concern with the lack of policy to address the science and with the way media has covered climate change.
Pioneer climate scientist Wallace Broecker equates taking global warming seriously to getting a regular check-up. In medicine, people understand the value of preventative care—eating well to prevent obesity and diabetes, for example. But when it comes to climate care, “nobody wants our medicine,” he said.
Scientists and ethicists say we need action now to curb climate change - an ethical obligation to prevent widespread human suffering and death. They call for respecting
the dignity of others, preserving the world as we
know it for future generations and averting the loss of hundreds of species.
Courtesy of Ancient Kauri Kingdom
The largest Kauri log found whole in New Zealand, measuring 72 feet long and weighing 120 tons. Trees like these store troves of climate data in their annual rings.
Jonathan Palmer, one of the world’s leading experts on tree rings, has a strange calling. He chases the corpses of ancient trees throughout New Zealand bogs and probes their annual growth rings for clues of climates past.
As news of record sea ice loss in the Arctic made headlines this fall, some of the world’s top climate scientists met in Wisconsin to talk about the latest in climate change research and the accelerating pace of melting glaciers and global warming.
Warming the Earth just one degree overall brings huge changes, say postdoc scientists Aaron Putnam of Columbia University and Sean Birkel of the University of Maine.
For those of us torn between concern for a warming globe and a lifestyle that relies on spewing the greenhouse gases responsible for warming it, Klaus Lackner has a solution. Suck it up.
Video:
Gap between climate urgency and policy action
