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Earth Has Become Brighter, but No One Is Sure Why

Reversing a decades-long trend toward "global dimming," Earth's surface has become brighter since 1990, scientists are reporting today.

The brightening means that more sunlight - and thus more heat - is reaching the ground. That could partly explain the record-high global temperatures reported in the late 1990's, and it could accelerate the planet's warming trend ... New York Times

Yellowstone Rated High for Eruption Threat

The Yellowstone caldera has been classified a high threat for volcanic eruption, according to a report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

Yellowstone ranks 21st most dangerous of the 169 volcano centers in the United States, according to the Geological Survey's first-ever comprehensive review of the nation's volcanoes ... Yahoo! News

Report: British Flora Faces Extinction

Fewer British fields are bursting into yellow each summer, with 20 percent of native flora species declining at rates that put them at risk of extinction ... Yahoo! News

The frost report

Hamish Pritchard spends his days exploring glaciers in the Antarctic - from an office in Cambridge. Thank goodness. It's armchair glaciologists like him who could save the world from global warming ... Independent

900,000-year-old ice may destroy US case on Kyoto

An Italian expedition to the Antarctic has taken a sample of ice which is more than 900,000 years old and could give scientists evidence of past climate changes which would discredit global warming doubters.

The ice core, which is double the age of previous samples, will show how much carbon dioxide there was in the atmosphere during previous warm and cold phases in the climate and whether the current concentrations caused by burning fossil fuels are likely the lead to catastrophic global warming later this century ... Guardian Unlimited

Dolphins, Seals at Home in London's Reborn River

Fifty years ago London's River Thames was so polluted that it was declared biologically dead. Now the river that flows through the heart of Europe's largest city is awash with wildlife – a triumph worth noting today, Earth Day 2005.

More than 130 seals have been spotted in the Thames since last August, according to the Zoological Society of London. Bottlenose dolphins have been seen upstream of London Bridge. And last summer the first sea horse was recorded in the Thames estuary in 30 years.

With 120 fish species, hundreds of thousands of birds, and a thriving fishing industry, the river now ranks among the cleanest metropolitan tideways in the world ... National Geographic News

Antarctic glaciers show retreat

The glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula are in rapid retreat.

A detailed study reported in Science magazine shows nearly 90% of the ice bodies streaming down from the mountains to the ocean are losing mass ... BBC NEWS

Sea-level records reveal surprising choppiness

Fresh analysis shows that levels changed even between ice ages.

A new reconstruction of past changes shows that the level of the oceans varied more dramatically during between ice ages than was previously thought, implying that the global climate during these intervals was not as stable as most scientists think.

One of the best ways to document the rising and falling of the oceans over time is by coral dating. Coral thrives in shallow waters with plenty of sunlight; as sea level rises, however, coral grows in stacks from the murky sea floor, forming terraces to reach the rays nearer the surface ... news @ nature.com

Evidence of short-term changes in sea level found in coral record

Study using new method of dating corals reveals that sea level is more variable over shorter periods of time than previously thought, according to a study published by Science ... EurekAlert!

Underwater Bot Roams the Seas

Oceangoing underwater robots are the new fish in the sea scientists are using to explore Earth's final frontier. The water bots are gathering data that could provide valuable insights into climate change and other environmental concerns.

Spray, one of these new autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs, left Bermuda in late March. It will head to New England to explore the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic before returning to Bermuda sometime in July. The voyage will be the first long-distance round-trip mission undertaken by the 6-foot-long craft ... Wired News