Not Your Grandpa's RV: This Roving Lab Tracks Air Pollution

Richard Harris — Sat, 18 May 2013 09:18:00 +0000

If you're driving down the road someday and you come across a camper with a 50-foot periscope sticking up into the sky, you just might have crossed paths with Ira Leifer. His quirky vehicle is on a serious mission. It's sniffing the air for methane, a gas that contributes to global warming.

Leifer is an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Go Fish (Somewhere Else): Warming Oceans Are Altering Catches

Richard Harris — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:06:00 +0000

Climate change is gradually altering the fish that end up on ice in seafood counters around the world, according to a new study.

"The composition of the [global] fish catch includes more and more fish from the warmer areas, and cold-water fish are getting more rare, because the temperatures are increasing," says Daniel Pauly at the University of British Columbia, a co-author of the study.

'Dangerous Territory:' Carbon Dioxide Levels Reach Iconic High

Richard Harris — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:27:00 +0000

Earth's atmosphere is entering a new era. A mountaintop research station that has been tracking carbon dioxide for more than 50 years says the level of that gas in our air has reached a milestone: 400 parts per million.

That number is one of the clearest measures of how human beings are changing the planet.

Could An 'Artificial Leaf' Fuel Your Car?

Richard Harris — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 21:28:00 +0000

It's easy to feel dispirited about climate change because the challenge of dealing with it seems so overwhelming. But Miguel Modestino is actually excited about the challenge. He's part of a large team hoping to make an artificial leaf — a device that would make motor fuel from sunlight and carbon dioxide rather than from fossil fuels.

Modestino grew up in Venezuela, a nation whose economy is based on oil and gas.

This Scientist Aims High To Save The World's Coral Reefs

Richard Harris — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:45:00 +0000

Most scientists find a topic that interests them and keep digging deeper and deeper into the details. But Ken Caldeira takes the opposite approach in search for solutions to climate change. He goes after the big questions, and leaves the details to others.

We caught up with Caldeira on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where he was conducting an experiment to measure how coral reefs are coping with increasing acidity in the world's oceans. People are causing this change by burning fossil fuels and putting carbon dioxide into the air.

Coal And Coral: Australia's Self-Destructive Paradox

Richard Harris — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 10:17:00 +0000

NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels.

Scientists Use Antacid To Help Measure The Rate Of Reef Growth

Richard Harris — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:58:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 4: Richard catches up with one of the gurus of climate science out on the reef.
Ken Caldeira loves a challenge, and he has a big one right under his feet. He's standing on an expanse of coral reef out in Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

It's 'Birds Gone Wild' Out On Australia's Heron Island

Richard Harris — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:35:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 3: Waiting for a boat to the next island, Richard meets some rowdy birds.
Weeds are not a true category of plant. A weed is simply a plant that's growing where a person wishes it weren't.
That came to mind when I heard the story of the buff-breasted rail, out on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

On Australia's Great Barrier Reef, There's A Turf Battle Raging

Richard Harris — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 14:49:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 2: The good news is life could get better for seaweed.
Picture a coral reef and the first things likely to come to mind are brilliantly colored fish swimming among stout branches of coral. Let your mind wander a bit more and you might imagine some sea turtles, stingrays and sharks.
Seaweed? Not so much.

Australia's Heron Island: A Canary In The Coal Mine For Coral Reefs?

Richard Harris — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000
NPR Science Correspondent Richard Harris traveled to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to find out how the coral reefs are coping with increased water temperature and increasing ocean acidity, brought about by our burning of fossil fuels. Day 1: Richard gets a hefty dose of bad news.
I've seen the future, and it isn't pretty.
That's a tough sentence to write because the setting for this unhappy discovery is spectacular. Heron Island sits in tropical turquoise waters about 25 miles off the northeast coast of Australia.

Traces Of Anxiety Drugs May Cause Fish To Act Funny

Richard Harris — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 20:34:00 +0000
Many of the drugs we take aren't actually digested — they pass through our bodies, and down through the sewer pipes. Traces of those drugs end up in the bodies of fish and other wildlife. Nobody's sure what effect they have.
Now, a paper being published in Science magazine finds that drugs for anxiety drugs — even at these very low levels — can affect the behavior of fish.
This particular story starts with some fish that live in a creek just downstream from a sewage treatment plant in southern Sweden.

Did North Korea Test A 'Miniature' Nuclear Bomb?

Richard Harris — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:09:00 +0000
North Korea's latest nuclear weapons test is much more powerful than the previous two, according to estimates made by instruments that measure seismic waves from the blast. It's about the size of the bomb that devastated Hiroshima in World War II.
But it's not so easy to verify the claim that the nuclear explosive has also been miniaturized.

Could Some Midwest Land Support New Biofuel Refineries?

Richard Harris — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:11:00 +0000
Millions of acres of marginal farmland in the Midwest — land that isn't in good enough condition to grow crops — could be used to produce liquid fuels made from plant material, according to a study in Nature.

Drilling Rig's Thick Hull Helps Prevent Oil Spill

Richard Harris — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 07:38:00 +0000
A Shell Oil drilling rig has been pulled of the rocks, where it washed up a week ago during a storm. It has been towed to a bay where divers will inspect it for damage. The incident raises questions about the oil company's controversial plans to continue exploring for oil in the Arctic Ocean this summer.

The Year Of The Higgs, And Other Tiny Advances In Science

Richard Harris — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 08:00:00 +0000
It's a year-end tradition to cobble together a list of the most important advances in science. But, truth be told, many ideas that change the world don't tend to spring from these flashy moments of discovery. Our view of nature — and our technology — often evolve from a sequence of more subtle advances.
Even so, chances are good that this year's list-makers will choose the discovery of the Higgs boson as the most important discovery of 2012.
The Higgs is a long-sought building block of the universe. It finally put in an appearance at an accelerator in Europe.

In Calif. Gold Country, A Rush That's Out Of This World

Richard Harris — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:58:00 +0000
On the crisp, clear morning of April 22, a 50-ton asteroid slammed into the Earth's atmosphere and shattered into countless pieces. Remarkably, they rained down onto Sutter's Mill, Calif., the exact spot where gold was discovered back in 1848, triggering the gold rush. And so follows a story of serendipity and scientific discovery.
"I was out on my hillside burning some branches and so forth, and I heard this sonic boom," says Gold Country resident Ed Allen. "It wasn't just one boom.

Land Creatures Might Not Have Come From The Sea

Richard Harris — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 21:57:00 +0000
Cartoonists have found many clever ways to depict the conventional wisdom that complex life evolved in the sea and then crawled up onto land. But a provocative new study suggests that the procession might be drawn in the wrong direction. The earliest large life forms may have appeared on land long before the oceans filled with creatures that swam and crawled and burrowed in the mud.
This story is told from fossils that date from before an extraordinary period in Earth history, called the Cambrian explosion, about 530 million years ago.

At Doha Climate Talks, Modest Results At Best

Richard Harris — Fri, 07 Dec 2012 22:17:00 +0000
United Nations climate talks ran into overtime on Friday night, as diplomats pressed for whatever small advantage they could achieve.
As usual, the talks, which are being held in Doha, Qatar, involve closely interwoven issues. They include the usual wrangling over money, as well as early efforts in a multiyear process that is supposed to result in a new climate treaty.
Part of that involves finding a graceful way to phase out the Kyoto treaty, which has not proved to be a successful strategy for dealing with a warming planet.
This is the 18th round of climate talks.

Greenland, Antarctic Ice Is Melting Faster

Richard Harris — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:03:00 +0000
Superstorm Sandy sparked a lot of interest in rising sea levels when it swept across the Northeast last month and flooded parts of the coast. Over the next century, more water — and higher sea levels — could come from melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica. How much has been unclear.
But now scientists have developed a much clearer view of how quickly that ice has been melting over the past two decades.

Climate Politics: It's Laugh Lines Vs. 'Not A Joke'

Richard Harris — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 18:00:00 +0000
Scientists view climate change as one of the world's most pressing long-term problems. But the issue has barely surfaced in the U.S. presidential race. President Obama has taken steps to address climate change during his time in office.

Nobel Physics: Close Enough For Government Work

Richard Harris — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 23:15:00 +0000
You wouldn't be surprised to learn that a laboratory run by the U.S. Department of Commerce is working on more precise methods to measure stuff.
However, you might not expect it to be at the cutting edge of the mind-bending world of quantum physics. But on Tuesday, David Wineland became the fourth employee at the National Institute for Standards and Technology, a federal lab, to win a Nobel since 1997.

Big Quakes Signal Changes Coming To Earth's Crust

Richard Harris — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 07:38:00 +0000
On April 11 of this year, an extraordinary cluster of earthquakes struck off Sumatra. The largest shock, magnitude 8.7, produced stronger ground-shaking than any earthquake ever recorded. And it surprised seismologists by triggering more than a dozen moderate earthquakes around the world.
The quakes are also a sign of big changes to come in the Earth's crust.
But chances are you don't remember the April 11 quake off Sumatra.

As Arctic Ice Melts, So Does The Snow, And Quickly

Richard Harris — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 21:39:00 +0000
Arctic sea ice is in sharp decline this year: Last week, scientists announced that it hit the lowest point ever measured, shattering the previous record.
But it turns out that's not the most dramatic change in the Arctic. A study by Canadian researchers finds that springtime snow is melting away even faster than Arctic ice. That also has profound implications for the Earth's climate.
Springtime snowmelt matters a lot: It determines when spring runoff comes out of the mountain to fill our rivers.

Arctic Ice At Lowest Level In Decades

Richard Harris — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:18:00 +0000
Transcript
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep.
RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
And I'm Renee Montagne.
Here's some troubling news. Ice covering the Arctic Ocean has melted more dramatically this year than ever before. This year's loss of ice has exceeded the previous record by an area the size of Texas. NPR's Richard Harris reports.
RICHARD HARRIS, BYLINE: The summer melt of Arctic ice is becoming more and more pronounced over the past few decades, but this year it has proven to be extraordinary.

'Astonishing' Arctic Ice Melt Sets New Record

Richard Harris — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 21:52:00 +0000
Arctic sea ice has melted dramatically this summer, smashing the previous record. The Arctic has warmed dramatically compared with the rest of the planet, and scientists say that's what's driving this loss of ice.
To be sure, ice on the Arctic Ocean always melts in the summer. Historically, about half of it is gone by mid-September. But this year, three-fourths of the ice has melted away, setting a dramatic new benchmark.
"It didn't just touch the record, it really drove right through it," says Ted Scambos at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, at the University of Colorado.

When Heat Kills: Global Warming As Public Health Threat

Richard Harris — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 19:09:00 +0000
The current poster child for global warming is a polar bear, sitting on a melting iceberg. Some health officials argue the symbol should, instead, be a child.
That's because emerging science shows that people respond more favorably to warnings about climate change when it's portrayed as a health issue rather than as an environmental problem.
Epidemiologist George Luber at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the most obvious risk from a warming world is killer heat.

As Temps Rise, Cities Combat 'Heat Island' Effect

Richard Harris — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 07:19:00 +0000
More than 20,000 high-temperature records have been broken so far this year in the United States. And the heat is especially bad in cities, which are heating up about twice as fast as the rest of the planet.
High temperatures increase the risk of everything from asthma to allergies, and can even be deadly.

Romney's Energy Plan Doubles Down On Fossil Fuels

Richard Harris — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:34:00 +0000
Mitt Romney outlined an energy plan Thursday that would guide his Republican presidency. It focuses heavily on expanding the supply of fossil fuels. The presumptive nominee said the U.S., Mexico and Canada together could reach energy independence by 2020.
But the plan makes no mention of climate change and would end subsidies for cleaner sources of energy, such as wind and solar.
Romney unveiled the energy plan at a campaign stop in New Mexico, where he fought the wind as he showed flip charts of his policy.

Humans' Role In Antarctic Ice Melt Is Unclear

Richard Harris — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 20:34:00 +0000
Ten years ago, a piece of ice the size of Rhode Island disintegrated and melted in the waters off Antarctica. Two other massive ice shelves along the Antarctic Peninsula had suffered similar fates a few years before. The events became poster children for the effects of global warming. But a new study finds that the story isn't quite so simple.
There's no question that unusually warm air triggered the final demise of these huge chunks of ice.

Growing Pains: Nations Balance Growth, Power Needs

Richard Harris — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 07:27:00 +0000
It may take some time to pinpoint the exact cause of India's massive blackouts last week, but the underlying issue for India and many other parts of the developing world is that supply is struggling to keep up with the growing demand for power — an imbalance that can affect the reliability of electric grids.
Power grids have a tough job.