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The western spotted skunk, the 2-pound smelly creature, evolved more than a million years ago because of climate, according to new research. Adam Ferguson, the collections manager of mammals at the Field Museum in Chicago, is the lead author of a new study, published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, that examined how the spotted skunk can live in a variety of climates across the western United States and Mexico. "By analyzing western spotted skunk DNA, we learned that Ice Age climate change played a crucial role in their evolution," Ferguson said in a press release. "Over the past million...

Replacing half of the meat eaten worldwide with crickets and mealworms would cut farmland use by a third, substantially reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, researchers say. While consumers' reluctance to eat insects may limit their consumption, even a small increase would bring benefits, the team says. This could potentially be achieved by using insects as ingredients in some pre-packaged foods. Researchers say that replacing meat with crickets and mealworms could help tackle climate change. Using data collected primarily by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, scientists compared the environmental impacts of conventional meat production with those of alternative sources of...

When Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines in November 2013, it was, at the time, the strongest storm in history ever to make landfall. After the skies cleared, a second humanitarian disaster unfolded in a sports arena where thousands took shelter. An underground economy took root as women and girls were sold for food and scarce aid supplies, or trafficked into forced labor and sex work by recruiters offering jobs and scholarships. Kristine says she was sold to men every night; some of the men were foreign-aid workers, she believes. The men raped her, and took graphic pictures and videos. Kristine...

Winery owner Brent Helleckson’s hands flew among his budding grapevines, pruning off bits of cane as a spring breeze ruffled the plastic tape keeping the vines trellised to wires. On the other side of Western Colorado’s North Fork Valley, snow lingered on mountain peaks, a reminder of the wintery weather that circumscribes the vineyard’s operations. “In theory we’re done with frost now,” Helleckson said. “But I wouldn’t bet on it.” In a warming West, areas where wine grapes are growing at the limit of their cold tolerance may see a respite from frigid, plant-damaging winters. Warmer areas, meanwhile, including parts...

A slow-moving emergency is lapping at California’s shores – climate-driven sea-level rise that experts now predict could elevate the water in coastal areas up to 10 feet in just 70 years, gobbling up beach front and overwhelming low-lying cities. The speed with which polar ice is melting and glacier shelves are cracking off indicates to some scientists that once-unthinkable outer-range projections of sea rise may turn out to be too conservative. A knee-buckling new state-commissioned report warns that if nothing changes, California’s coastal waters will rise at a rate 30 to 40 times faster than in the last century. The...

Record-breaking heat is possible Saturday, potentially adding fuel to the fire for the People's Climate March on the National Mall. Thousands are expected to attend the march, including former Vice President Al Gore and actor Leonardo DiCaprio. And if you're thinking about going, be prepared to sweat. Highs of 86 to 91 degrees are expected Saturday, according to Storm Team4. The average high is just 71 degrees. Organizers say the event will get more political than last weekend's March for Science and Earth Day rally and will target Trump administration policies. "On the 100th Day of the Trump Administration, we...

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore is warning against massive geoengineering experiments that attempt to reverse climate change, arguing instead that the focus must remain on cutting emissions that are warming the planet. “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Mr. Gore told the TED Conference in Vancouver. Mr. Gore said such Band-Aids aren’t the solution. “We have to stop the pattern of behaviour that is creating this crisis,” said Mr. Gore, who was not on the TED program, but was called up from the audience. “There is a collision between human civilization as it’s presently organized, and the surprisingly fragile...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global warming's milder winters will likely nudge Americans off the couch more in the future, a rare, small benefit of climate change, a new study finds. With less chilly winters, Americans will be more likely to get outdoors, increasing their physical activity by as much as 2.5 percent by the end of the century, according to a new study in Monday's edition of the journal Nature Human Behaviour . Places like North Dakota, Minnesota and Maine are likely to see the most dramatic increases, usually the result of more walking. "It's a small little tiny silver lining...

WADI ABADAHBA, Oman – Deep in the jagged red mountains of Oman, geologists are drilling in search of the holy grail of reversing climate change: an efficient and cheap way to remove carbon dioxide from the air and oceans. They are coring samples from one of the world's only exposed sections of the Earth's mantle to uncover how a spontaneous natural process millions of years ago transformed CO2 into limestone and marble. As the world mobilizes to confront climate change, the main focus has been on reducing emissions through fuel efficient cars and cleaner power plants. But some researchers are...

As President Donald Trump looks to curb the government's enforcement of climate regulations, experts are concerned about how the action might impact public health. "The current federal political climate in the United States bodes ill for the future of the world's climate and by extension for the health of people around the world, Americans included," said Dr. Mona Soofaty, director of the program on climate and health at George Mason University's Center for Climate Change Communication. Soofaty helped prepare a report, released last month by the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, that mapped how climate change threatens the...

The past eight years have not been kind to people who dispute that the climate is changing. Leading scientists strengthened the case that the earth is warming and humans are at fault, while the Obama administration prioritized fighting its effects. As with so much else, the election of President Trump has ushered in a new day. Since taking office, Trump has moved to gut Obama's signature climate change regulations, signed executive orders to aid the fossil fuel industry and installed a critic of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as its head. And yet to some of the strongest opponents of...

2017 could be a record year for ticks and tick-borne illnesses according to one researcher who studies the arachnids in Alabama. "I would say this is going to be a very bad tick year because it was a very mild winter," said Tim Sellati, chair of Southern Research's Infectious Diseases Department. In addition, Sellati said a warming climate has let certain species of ticks expand their range and those changes are reflected in tick surveys in Alabama and other parts of the United States. "The winters are warmer and the ticks recognize this, they sense this change in their environment,"...

Not far from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, one expert after another warned Monday about the dangers that rising sea levels pose to Florida's coast. Not that surprising, except this was a Senate committee field hearing challenging the position shared by President Donald Trump and many Republicans in Congress that climate change isn't real. The site of the hearing -- just four miles from Trump's weekend getaway in Palm Beach -- was clearly intended to send a signal: Much of Florida's coastline could one day be underwater, including some of the President's own prized properties. "Today we sit at ground zero of...

China, Brazil, India and South Africa have urged industrialised countries to honour financial commitments made in Paris in 2015 to help developing countries fight against global climate change. Following a meeting in Beijing, climate change ministers from the "BASIC" bloc of four major emerging economies called on rich countries "to honour their commitments and increase climate finance towards the US$100 billion goal", and said more clarity was needed to "track and account for" those pledges. But the agreement has been plunged into uncertainty after U.S. President Donald Trump, who has questioned the scientific basis of global warming, last month proposed...

Turbulence can be an uncomfortable and unpleasant experience. And climate change is about to make it an increasingly common one, according to a new study. Using supercomputer simulations of the atmosphere, researchers at the University of Reading, in England, looked at the future of severe turbulence. "Our new study paints the most detailed picture yet of how aircraft turbulence will respond to climate change," Paul Williams, who undertook the research, said in a statement. "For most passengers, light turbulence is nothing more than an annoying inconvenience that reduces their comfort levels, but for nervous fliers even light turbulence can be...

Continuing to burn fossil fuels at the current rate could bring atmospheric carbon dioxide to its highest concentration in 50 million years, jumping from about 400 parts per million now to more than 900 parts per million by the end of this century, a study warns. Some research suggests that, if humans burned through all fossil fuels on Earth, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations could hit 5,000 parts per million by the year 2400. The new study speaks to the power of human influence over the climate. It suggests that after millions of years of relative stability in the absence of...

A bill that would prohibit discriminating against people based on their beliefs about climate change is up for a hearing in the Maine state capital. Republican Rep. Larry Lockman says his bill would prohibit the state from favoring or penalizing a person based on how they feel about climate change. It's up for a hearing on Thursday before the Legislature's Committee on Judiciary. Lockman says climate change doubters get treated like "heretics'' and they deserve to be protected. He also says his bill would protect people who feel strongly that climate change is real. Democrats and environmental groups in Maine...

Climate change is rapidly becoming a crisis that defies hyperbole. For all the sound and fury of climate change denialists, self-deluding politicians and a very bewildered global public, the science behind climate change is rock solid while the impacts – observed on every ecosystem on the planet – are occurring faster in many parts of the world than even the most gloomy scientists predicted. Given all this, it’s logical to assume life on Earth – the millions of species that cohabitate our little ball of rock in space – would be impacted. But it still feels unnerving to discover that...

The reason for the collapse of Mayan civilisation has been hotly debated, but now scientists claim they have an answer - climate change. Researchers believe that hot weather made the Mayans more aggressive and therefore likely to fight one another. As crops failed due to the rising temperatures leaders waged war for power which lit the fuse of their eventual demise around 900 AD, the study says. With crops levels low Mayan leaders could no longer rely on brash festivals or building projects to keep their sujects happy. So they resorted to power struggles and war instead which finished the...

A group of top House Democrats banded together Monday to condemn a political group for disseminating books skeptical of climate change to public high schools. "Lying to children about the world we live in to further corporate polluter profits is cruel," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee. "If climate deniers think our public schools are the right place for their propaganda, they need to be exposed in no uncertain terms." The group in question, the Heartland Institute, is a long-time climate change skeptic, and in recent weeks it has been emboldened by President Trump's...