Articles written by seth borenstein
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EXPLAINER: Why the South gets more killer tornadoes at night
Forget "The Wizard of Oz." Tornadoes are causing far more deaths and destruction east and south of Kansas these days. And they're often doing it in the dark of night. Tuesday night's deadly tornado that struck the New Orleans area is the ideal...
Scientists explore Thwaites, Antarctica's 'doomsday' glacier
A team of scientists are sailing to "the place in the world that's the hardest to get to" so they can better figure out how much and how fast seas will rise because of global warming eating away at Antarctica's ice. Thirty-two scientists on Thursday...
Study: Winter tornadoes to get more powerful as world warms
Nasty winter tornadoes — like the deadly ones last week that hit five states — are likely to be stronger and stay on the ground longer with a wider swath of destruction in a warming world, a new study shows. The combination of a longer and wider...
Nations compromise on coal to strike UN climate agreement
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Almost 200 nations accepted a compromise deal Saturday aimed at keeping a key global warming target alive, but it contained a last-minute change that watered down crucial language about coal. Several countries, including...
China, US pledge to increase cooperation at UN climate talks
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The world's top carbon polluters, China and the United States, agreed Wednesday to increase their cooperation and speed up action to rein in climate-damaging emissions, signaling a mutual effort on global warming at a time...
Globe bounces back to nearly 2019 carbon pollution levels
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — The dramatic drop in carbon dioxide emissions from the pandemic lockdown has pretty much disappeared in a puff of coal-fired smoke, much of it from China, a new scientific study found. A group of scientists who track...
Reports: Health problems tied to global warming on the rise
Health problems tied to climate change are all getting worse, according to two reports published Wednesday. The annual reports commissioned by the medical journal Lancet tracked 44 global health indicators connected to climate change, including heat...
Physics Nobel rewards work on climate change, other forces
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics Tuesday for work that found order in seeming disorder, helping to explain and predict complex forces of nature, including expanding our understanding of climate change. Syukuro Manabe...
Study: Warmer Arctic led to killer cold in Texas, much of US
Warming of the Arctic caused by climate change has increased the number of polar vortex outbreaks, when frigid air from the far north bathes the central and eastern United States in killer cold, a study finds. The study in the journal Science...
Global sizzling: July was hottest month on record, NOAA says
Earth sizzled in July and became the hottest month in 142 years of recordkeeping, U.S. weather officials announced. As extreme heat waves struck parts of the United States and Europe, the globe averaged 62.07 degrees (16.73 degrees Celsius) last...
Want to pretend to live on Mars? For a whole year? Apply now
Want to find your inner Matt Damon and spend a year pretending you are isolated on Mars? NASA has a job for you. To prepare for eventually sending astronauts to Mars, NASA began taking applications Friday for four people to live for a year in Mars...
'Code red': UN scientists warn of worsening global warming
Earth is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a "code red for humanity." "It's...
New theory: Earth's longer days kick-started oxygen growth
Scientists have a new idea for how Earth got its oxygen: It's because the planet slowed down and days got longer. A study published Monday proposes and puts to the test the theory that longer, continuous daylight kick-started weird bacteria into prod...
Bug experts seeking new name for destructive gypsy moths
Bug experts are dropping the common name of a destructive insect because it's considered an ethnic slur: the gypsy moth. The Entomological Society of America, which oversees the common names of bugs, is getting rid of the common name of that critter...
Can ET see us? Study finds many stars with prime Earth view
Feeling like you are being watched? It could be from a lot farther away than you think. Astronomers took a technique used to look for life on other planets and flipped it around — so instead of looking to see what's out there, they tried to see...
Ice shelf protecting Antarctic glacier is breaking up faster
A critical Antarctic glacier is looking more vulnerable as satellite images show the ice shelf that blocks it from collapsing into the sea is breaking up much faster than before and spawning huge icebergs, a new study says. The Pine Island Glacier's...
Carbon dioxide levels hit 50% higher than preindustrial time
The annual peak of global heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air has reached another dangerous milestone: 50% higher than when the industrial age began. And the average rate of increase is faster than ever, scientists reported Monday. The National...
Study blames climate change for 37% of global heat deaths
More than one-third of the world's heat deaths each year are due directly to global warming, according to the latest study to calculate the human cost of climate change. But scientists say that's only a sliver of climate's overall toll — even more...
Grim western fire season starts much drier than record 2020
As bad as last year's record-shattering fire season was, the western U.S. starts this year's in even worse shape. The soil in the West is record dry for this time of year. In much of the region, plants that fuel fires are also the driest scientists...
Study: Climate change added $8 billion to Sandy's damages
Climate change-triggered sea level rise added $8 billion in damage during 2012's Superstorm Sandy, one of nation's costliest weather disasters, a new study said. During Sandy — a late fall freak combination of a hurricane and other storms that...
Satellites show world's glaciers melting faster than ever
Glaciers are melting faster, losing 31% more snow and ice per year than they did 15 years earlier, according to three-dimensional satellite measurements of all the world's mountain glaciers. Scientists blame human-caused climate change. Using 20 year...
Forecast for spring: Nasty drought worsens for much of US
With nearly two-thirds of the United States abnormally dry or worse, the government's spring forecast offers little hope for relief, especially in the West where a devastating megadrought has taken root and worsened. Weather service and agriculture...
Back in Paris pact, US faces tougher climate steps ahead
WASHINGTON (AP) — World leaders welcomed the United States' official return to the Paris climate accord Friday, but politically trickier steps lie just ahead for President Joe Biden, including setting a tough national target in coming months for...
Scientists decry death by 1,000 cuts for world's insects
The world's vital insect kingdom is undergoing "death by a thousand cuts," the world's top bug experts said. Climate change, insecticides, herbicides, light pollution, invasive species and changes in agriculture and land use are causing Earth to...
Study: Warming already baked in will blow past climate goals
The amount of baked-in global warming, from carbon pollution already in the air, is enough to blow past international agreed upon goals to limit climate change, a new study finds. But it's not game over because, while that amount of warming may be...