While the mainstream media has provided extensive coverage of El Nino and La Nina -- the warmer and colder phases of a perpetual oscillation in the surface temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean -- little attention has been paid to deep-water phases. Several recent publications in leading scientific journals (Science and Nature) are adding new dimensions to the link between large-scale ocean...

Climate change is something that is on the minds of many major non-governmental organizations and international think tanks. It has certainly not escaped the attention of the Organisation For Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), which has had a climate change group as part of their environment directorate for a number of years. Their work is meant "to assist countries to implement...

Our Changing Climate is part of a series of reports entitled Reports to the Nation On Our Changing Planet. This new publication was sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and published by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Our Changing Climate discusses the changing climate of the earth and how humans impact that change. Report topics include reasons...

University of Alberta biologist Stan Boutin and his research team have recently published findings that North American red squirrels exhibit genetic changes in response to a warming climate. This Web site contains a University of Alberta press release detailing this first-ever demonstration of genetic adaptation to global warming. With implications that extend far beyond the immediate research...

University of Alberta biologist Stan Boutin and his research team have recently published findings that North American red squirrels exhibit genetic changes in response to a warming climate. This Web site contains a University of Alberta press release detailing this first-ever demonstration of genetic adaptation to global warming. With implications that extend far beyond the immediate research...

While many have asked the question, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall?" fewer have asked, "How do you get to the South Pole?" One way might be to complete a doctorate in ecology, but for those with a computer and a connection to the Internet, this fine site from the Exploratorium in San Francisco will do quite nicely. Designed to celebrate the start of the International Polar Year, this site...

This current feature from NASA's Earth Observatory focuses on the use of a new type of vegetation measurement called the leaf area index (LAI). The four page article describes how trees moderate climate, and how scientists think the LAI will be useful in modeling global climate change. The text is written for a general audience and includes images showing what LAI data actually looks like. When...

This website gets serious about addressing climate change skepticism. Using only peer-reviewed research, John Cook, the Climate Communication Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, takes the time to seriously consider the doubts that people might have about the state of the earth's climate. Readers might like to start with the sidebar that addresses the ten most common climate myths,...

On January 22, 2001, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued perhaps the most comprehensive and dire report to date on global warming and climate change. Over three years in the making, the full report includes contributions from 123 lead authors and runs over 1,000 pages. The report finds that global temperatures could rise as much as 10.5 degrees over the next century and...

The IPCC was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess the available scientific, technical, and socio-economic information in the field of climate change. The IPCC site's offerings include special reports, technical papers, press releases, and information on its three Working Groups. Group III is investigating...