Author Archive

USDA Climate Head: Global Warming To Bring More ‘Miserable Days’

U.S. News and World Report: The director of the United States Department of Agriculture's Climate Change Program said Wednesday that global warming will cause an increase in the number of "miserable days" over the next several years. William Hohenstein said that the "misery index," a measure of temperature and humidity, will continue to get higher in many parts of the country, especially the southwest. He said the number of days with temperatures above100 degrees will increase. With it, farmers might face increasingly difficult...

Study: Global Warming Can Be Slowed By Working Less

U.S. News and World Report: Want to reduce the effects of global warming? Stop working so hard. Working fewer hours might help slow global warming, according to a new study released Monday by the Center for Economic Policy and Research. A worldwide switch to a "more European" work schedule, which includes working fewer hours and more vacation time, could prevent as much as half of the expected global temperature rise by 2100, according to the analysis, which used a 2012 study that found shorter work hours could be associated...

Report: Climate Change Causes Plants to Flower Historically Early

U.S. News and World Report: Dozens of flowering plants have gradually begun blooming earlier as average temperatures rise. Spring has, well, sprung, earlier than ever in the past few years. A new study suggests global warming is causing dozens of flower species to bloom more than a month earlier than they did in the past. According to the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE Wednesday, dozens of flowering plants in Massachusetts and Wisconsin have gradually begun blooming earlier as average temperatures creep up....

Report: Generation X Doesn’t Care About Climate Change

U.S. News and World Report: Even with most of the country mired in a historic drought, a spate of storms that left millions without power in the mid-Atlantic, and seemingly more frequent natural disasters, people have better things to worry about than global warming, according to a new study of Generation X-ers. And they're beginning to think about global climate change even less. Just two percent of those aged 37 to 40 said they follow climate change "very closely," a 50 percent drop from 2009. More than half said they follow...

Are frogs rapidly facing extinction?

U.S. News and World Report: If you happen to see a frog hopping around in your back yard, take a good look-- it might not be around for much longer. Ecologists are increasingly warning that due to habitat destruction, widespread infectious disease and climate change, amphibians are facing "extinction in real time." As many as 40 percent of amphibious species, which include frogs, salamanders and newts, could be facing "imminent extinction," according to David Wake, a researcher at the University of California Berkeley. ...