Agence France-Presse: Millions of people in northern Europe are still battling snow and ice, wondering why they are being punished with bitter cold when - officially - spring has arrived and Earth is in the grip of global warming. Yet some scientists, eyeing the fourth year in a row of exceptionally harsh late-winter weather in parts of Europe and North America, suggest warming is precisely the problem. In a complex tango between ocean and atmosphere, warming is causing icy polar air to be displaced southwards, they...

National Geographic: When Louisiana Fisheries and Wildlife personnel discovered a dead bottlenose dolphin near Elmer's Island late last year, they figured it was another victim of the 2010 BP oil spill. So they were shocked when an onsite necropsy showed no signs of oil-related injury, or of bacterial infection, biotoxins, or disease-the most common causes of death in dolphins. Instead, the Louisiana officials found a tiny piercing on the right side of the dolphin's blowhole. That hole would later reveal the cause...

New Scientist: BATTEN down the hatches, western Europe. Come the end of the century, superstorm Sandys could be battering your beaches. Hurricanes usually form in the western tropical Atlantic and head north-west to the US. Occasionally they make it to Europe by piggybacking on the jet stream. To simulate future hurricanes, Reindert Haarsma of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in De Bilt and colleagues ran a detailed climate model for 2094 to 2098, assuming modest future greenhouse gas emissions....

Associated Press: A new national survey says 82 percent of Americans want to prepare now for rising seas and stronger storms from climate change. But most are unwilling to spend the money to keep the beach where it is. The poll by Stanford University found that only 1 in 3 people favored the government spending millions to construct big sea walls, replenish beaches or pay people to leave the coast. The options the majority preferred were making sure new buildings were stronger and reducing future coastal development....

Climate Central: Even the quickest glance at a graph of global temperatures makes it clear that the planet was warming sharply during the 1980s and 1990s. But while the 2000s were the hottest decade on record, the rate of warming slowed considerably after the turn of the current century -- even while human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions have continued to grow. The question that has lingered is where's all the extra heat going? The answer, according to a new paper in Geophysical Research Letters,...

Planet Earth: Certain tiny, ocean-dwelling creatures called foraminifera can survive in conditions similar to those caused by ocean acidification, say scientists. Elphidium excavatum The researchers, from Plymouth University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico, found the first evidence that some foraminifera can handle very low-pH conditions near seafloor vents in the Gulf of California. Carbon dioxide bubbles up through these vents, lowering the pH of the surrounding seawater and mimicking conditions...

Guardian: The new government in Greenland has slapped a moratorium on the granting of fresh offshore oil and gas drilling licences in the country's Arctic waters in a move which has been welcomed by Greenpeace but will disappoint the industry. The ban came as one of the Arctic drilling pioneers, the British company Cairn Energy, failed in a bid to keep an injunction on any protests organised against it by Greenpeace. A coalition agreement signed by prime minister Aleqa Hammond and others inside a newly...

Mongabay: In recent journeys to Madagascar, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, the Philippines, and French Polynesia, scientists from the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes and the University of Barcelona have discovered not only five new crustaceous species, but also the existence of a new genus in the family. Through use of molecular data and the form and relationship between structures of the animals, the experts were able to distinguish 5 distinctly new species out of the 6 they encountered. While the species...

ScienceDaily: New research from the Antarctic Peninsula shows that the summer melt season has been getting longer over the last 60 years. Increased summer melting has been linked to the rapid break-up of ice shelves in the area and rising sea level. The Antarctic Peninsula -- a mountainous region extending northwards towards South America -- is warming much faster than the rest of Antarctica. Temperatures have risen by up to 3 oC since the 1950s -- three times more than the global average. This is a result...

RedOrbit: Have you been experiencing the coldest spring weather in recent memory? It’s probably because of global warming. According to climate scientists, warmer than average temperatures have thrown a monkey wrench into global weather patterns by melting Arctic sea ice at record rates during the summer months. "Ironically ... as the ice pack retreats and the Arctic heats up, there`s a counteracting tendency in middle latitudes for colder winters, as well as hotter summers," said Stephen Vavrus, senior...

NJ Spotlight: People who were stunned and sobered by how much damage was caused by Hurricane Sandy ought to be even more worried about global climate change, which could cause up to $2 trillion in damage along the stretch of the Eastern Seaboard from Boston to Baltimore, according to a new report. “In the wake of Hurricane Sandy and Irene, the Northeast must double down on its commitment to lead the nation in reducing pollution that’s warming the planet and changing our climate,’’ said Doug O’Malley, author...

LA Times: Anyone forced to shovel their car out of a snowbank this winter might wonder just how it is a blizzard can occur in a warming climate. The answer, climate scientists say, may have to do with record sea ice losses in the Arctic. At a Tuesday news conference, several researchers said that warming conditions in the Arctic may be weakening jet stream currents and causing extreme weather systems to linger in northern mid-latitudes. "Ironically ... as the ice pack retreats and the Arctic heats...

National Public Radio: A bill put forward by Gov. Jay Inslee directing the state to figure out how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has passed both houses of the Legislature. The passage is a big step forward for the environmental lobby and the governor, who has championed clean energy. But there is still a lot of pushback in Olympia. The new law aims to help Washington reach goals on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that it passed five years ago by bringing emissions down to levels seen 1990, over the next seven...

Grist: What do you do when local opposition to an offshore wind farm project dries up, when the NIMBY crowd runs out of steam, when the federal government gives the green light and extends every permit and courtesy the law will allow, when the technology is tested and proven, and there’s nothing left to do but build it? Well, then you go looking for money – lots of it. After more than a decade of preparation, the Massachusetts wind energy company Cape Wind has done just that – and the results are looking...

BusinessGreen: A levy should be imposed on all ships visiting EU ports to cover the costs of recycling ships safely, Brussels lawmakers have said. The European Parliament's Environment Committee voted yesterday in favour of the scheme, along with proposed fines for owners of EU ships who sell vessels to be scrapped on beaches in developing countries. The draft regulation aims to reduce the adverse effects of careless scrapping, such as accidents, injuries or damage to human health and the environment, by...

Telegraph: The Marine Conservation Society tested 754 beaches at the end of last summer for sewage and dirt in the water. The number recommended for swimming was down by only 403, 113 fewer than the previous year. The remaining beaches could be dangerous for swimming at some point of the year because of sewage and other bacterial flowing into the sea. The Marine Conservation Society said the fall in water quality was down to one of the wettest summers on record last year. The rain and flooding led...

Energy Collective: A new study of ocean warming has just been published in Geophysical Research Letters by Balmaseda, Trenberth, and Källén (2013). There are several important conclusions which can be drawn from this paper. Completely contrary to the popular contrarian myth, global warming has accelerated, with more overall global warming in the past 15 years than the prior 15 years. This is because about 90% of overall global warming goes into heating the oceans, and the oceans have been warming dramatically. ...

ClimateWire: Ice loss in the Arctic may be fueling extreme weather like the frigid spring conditions lingering over much of the United States, scientists said yesterday. While no one weather pattern can be tied to climate change, the ongoing chill is consistent with global warming in the sense that diminishing sea ice could be changing the jet stream, they said. Could April repeat February? Scientists say rapidly melting ice in the Arctic may extend cold weather storms in the United States. New Englanders,...

Environment Health: The Olympia Planning Commission has finished its recommendations on the draft update of the city's comprehensive plan, an effort that has been years in the making. Planning Commission Chairman Jerry Parker gave the council a peek at some of the proposed regulations Tuesday night, but the full draft isn't expected to be released until May 20. Amy Buckler, a city planner, said city staff are working to have the plan ready for approval by the end of the year. It's up to the council to make the final...

Reuters: Balancing in small boats in choppy Antarctic waters, sometimes for hours and covered in ice, Australian researchers shot at endangered blue whales with an airgun to tag the giant creature with satellite tracking equipment. During a seven-week voyage the scientists from the Australian Antarctic Division tagged the world's largest creature and then tracked the rarely seen whales using sonar attached to special buoys to gain an insight into the threatened species. Little has been known up to now...