(National Science Foundation) If you’d like to cool off fast in hot summer weather, take a dip in a newly discovered ocean current called the North Icelandic Jet (NIJ).

(DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) New computer modeling work in the journal Climatic Change shows that by 2100, if society wants to limit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to less than 40 percent higher than it is today, the lowest cost option is to use every available means of reducing emissions. This includes more nuclear and renewable energy, choosing electricity over fossil fuels, reducing emissions through technologies that capture and store carbon dioxide, and even using forests to store carbon.

(DOE/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory) New computer modeling work in the journal Climatic Change shows that by 2100, if society wants to limit carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to less than 40 percent higher than it is today, the lowest cost option is to use every available means of reducing emissions. This includes more nuclear and renewable energy, choosing electricity over fossil fuels, reducing emissions through technologies that capture and store carbon dioxide, and even using forests to store carbon.

(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center) The NASA National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project (NPP) climate and weather satellite has successfully passed all environmental testing with the recent completion of thermal vacuum testing at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp’s production and test facility in Boulder, Colo.

(Ohio State University) A new study aimed at refining the way scientists measure ice loss in Greenland is providing a “high-definition picture” of climate-caused changes on the island. And the picture isn’t pretty. In the last decade, two of the largest three glaciers draining that frozen landscape have lost enough ice that, if melted, could have filled Lake Erie.

(University of California – Santa Barbara) Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have developed new methods for studying how environmental factors and climate affect giant kelp forest ecosystems at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales.

(Ohio State University) A new study aimed at refining the way scientists measure ice loss in Greenland is providing a “high-definition picture” of climate-caused changes on the island. And the picture isn’t pretty. In the last decade, two of the largest three glaciers draining that frozen landscape have lost enough ice that, if melted, could have filled Lake Erie.

 Event date: 2-7 August 2009

 Location: Zeeland, the Netherlands

 Organizer: WISE: World Information Service on Energy

 Topic: Climate change

 This summer WISE organizes a Summer School for young adults with an above average interest in the public debate on climate change and future energy supply. During one week, the participants will be educated on climate change and nuclear energy.

 More information about the event

The climate is changing! But how does that affect nature? New research challenges traditional perceptions of contemporary climate as sole determiner of richness of species.

An international research team led by Professor Carsten Rahbek from Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, questions traditional beliefs that contemporary climate alone determines richness of species, that is, how life is distributed on earth. The current issue of Science magazine highlights the research in Editor’s choice.

The research team argues that contemporary climate apparently only affects the geographical biodiversity of a few of the most widespread species – species that are rarely threatened by extinction. Evolutionary history, on the contrary, seems to play a major role for the dispersion of the majority of species – including rare and endangered species. Science magazine uses this research to emphasise once again that long-term strategies is necessary to preserve the earth’s biodiversity.

Professor Carsten Rahbek agrees and says: “The research mentioned in Science shows that climatic impact on the distribution of biodiversity is different from what we used to think. It is very likely that contemporary climate has an effect on individual species, but not in the way commonly believed”.

The result stems from analyses of almost 3,000 bird species (app. one third of the world’s species), conducted by the research team at the Danish Center for Macroecology, located at the Department of Biology. The research was mentioned in Science – not only because of its remarkable result – but because the results are based on a whole new ‘type’ of statistical models, which for the first time has made it possible to test the impact of climate on the distribution of life directly.

Contact: Professor Carsten Rahbek: phone: 3532 1030, e-mail: crahbek@bi.ku.dk