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12 April 2017
One-fifth of world’s population depends on food imports
Countries unable to feed their growing populations are increasingly importing food to meet demand, a new study finds. Nearly half of the world’s population lives in areas where imports compensate for food scarcity and one-fifth of the world now depends upon these imports to survive, according to the new study.
2 March 2017
Study improves forecasts of summer Arctic sea ice
Each year, as sea ice starts to melt in the spring following its maximum wintertime extent, scientists still struggle to estimate exactly how much ice they expect will disappear through the melt season. Now, a new NASA forecasting model based on satellite measurements is allowing researchers to make better estimates.
27 January 2017
Global flood risk could increase five-fold with a 4-degree C temperature rise
A new report looks at flood risk and economic damages under different global warming scenarios with temperature increases of 1.5 degrees Celsius, 2 degrees Celsius and 4 degrees Celsius. It concludes that, if global temperatures rise by 4 degrees Celsius, the flood risk in countries representing more than 70 percent percent of the global population and global GDP will increase by more than 500 percent.
11 July 2016
Climate tipping points: What do they mean for society?
The phrase “tipping point” passed its own tipping point and caught fire after author Malcolm Gladwell’s so-named 2000 book. It’s now frequently used in discussions about climate change, but what are “climate tipping points”? And what do they mean for society and the economy?
17 June 2016
Study: Waste heat major source of national warming
“This is a major source of climate change that has not been looked at,” said John Murray of The Open University in Milton Keynes, England and lead author of the new study accepted for publication in Earth’s Future, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. “Any kind of energy consumption generates heat” Murray said.
23 February 2016
Dubai construction alters local climate
The climate of Dubai is quickly growing less hospitable, according to authors of a new study.
10 February 2016
How stable is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet?
A future warming of the Southern Ocean caused by rising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere may severely disrupt the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which would raise sea levels by several meters, according to new research. A temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) would be enough to initiate irreversible melting of the ice sheet, the new study found.
15 December 2015
One Million Icequakes
Nestled in the Arctic is a glacier like no other. This glacier quakes once a minute creating seismic events that rattle the earth—more frequently than scientists have ever seen. Understanding why these icequakes are so common may help researchers predict future ice flow, a process that propels climate-driven sea level rise.
Restoring white Arctic will fall to future generations who never knew it
Scientists and policymakers have discussed for decades how to slow the rate of global warming and melting Arctic ice—most recently at the Paris talks—but few have discussed how to restore the ice after it is lost. That task will likely fall to future generations who not only grew up without a white Arctic but may have conflicting interests in keeping it blue, according to an analysis presented on Monday by scientists at the 2015 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
9 September 2014
Global food trade may not meet all future demand, new study indicates
As the world population continues to grow, by about 1 billion people every 12 to 14 years since the 1960s, the global food supply may not meet escalating demand – particularly for agriculturally poor countries in arid to semi-arid regions, such as Africa’s Sahel, that already depend on imports for much of their food supply.
A new study, published online in the American Geophysical Union journal, Earth’s Future, examines global food security and the patterns of food trade that – until this analysis – have been minimally studied.
GeoSpace is a blog on Earth and space science, managed by AGU’s Public Information staff. The blog features posts by AGU writers and guest contributors on all sorts of relevant science topics, but with a focus on new research and geo and space sciences-related stories that are currently in the news.