A new study from scientists at the University of Bristol shows environmental change is happening at an unprecedented rate. (Copyright Randall Hyman Photography) A published in the journal Nature Geosciencesandconducted by researchers at the University of Bristol's Cabot Institute found that the pace ofenvironmental change is occuring faster now than at any other previous time in the Earth's history. "The rate of change was considerably slower in the past," lead author David Naafs told weather.com. Naafs and his research team...

California Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency Wednesday for a methane leak that has emerged from a mountain for months, making nearby residents sick. The natural gas leak started with an eruption at a storage well underneath a mountain on Oct. 23, 2015, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. Since then, about 80,000 metric tons of methane have leaked into the air, which, in addition to polluting the air with a greenhouse gas, has caused health problems for...

Pat Wesley Howard of Pulaski County, Kentucky posted this photo to The Weather Channel's Facebook page on Thursday night after sunset. One Kentucky woman got quite the surprise when she looked up into the sky and saw something unexpected: a shark swimming through the clouds. As a child, you likely spent many afternoons gazing up at the clouds to try to find shapes. But the shape in the photo above is actually formed by a gap in the clouds, known...

Sir David Attenborough's fascination with nature has translated to and inspired BBC viewers around the world. (Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images) Sir David Attenborough isn't just the voice behind all of our favorite nature documentaries, he's the voice behind conservationism as a whole. The British naturalist narrated the epic BBC series "Planet Earth," aided in the launch of the vast natural history project called ARKive, and has even had several newly discovered species named after him. His latest project has been an...

An iceberg broken off from a melting glacier floats in Lake Argentino, which holds runoff water from the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the third largest ice field in the world. A new study indicates icebergs may hold a key role in carbon trapping in the ocean. (Mario Tama/Getty Images) When icebergs enter the global warming debate, it's usually related to their melting — and resulting contribution to global sea-level rise. But a new study sheds light on another key climatic...

In his , President Barack Obama delivered a blow to climate change naysayers, bringing up the topic in his opening remarks and launching into a passionate defense of his efforts thus far. He took the issue a step further, placing climate change in the frame of business and innovation, urging the nation to look at it as a budding business venture. (White House) Below are quotes from Obama’s speech that address climate change and clean energy: - “Look, if anybody...

The photo above shows researchers tracking high-elevation snowfall at the National Science Foundation's Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research site in Colorado. Research from a team of scientists at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) suggest that an ongoing ice loss in the Rocky Mountains is shrinking glaciers and other icy terrain, an occurrence that could spell trouble for future water supplies. The research areaincludesthousands of alpine tundra, subalpine forest, talus slopes, glacial lakes and wetlands, according to a news release from...

Flying in a pollution-detecting airplane, UC Davis scientists were stunned to see just how much methane was leaking from an underground well at Aliso Canyon in Southern California. It's believed that the leaking well is spewing , pilot and UC Davis project scientist Stephen Conley said. That means about 80,000 tons of methane have been emitted from the leak since it was first reported on Oct. 23, 2015. “To put this into perspective, the leak effectively doubles the emission rate...

Fresh wild and farmed Loch Duart salmon filets are in San Francisco, California. To the north, climate change could cut First Nation fisheries stocks in half, a new study found. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Indigenous populations in coastal Canada could experience a 50-percent decline in their fishery catches, according to a new study. This could lead to future economic losses between $6.7 and 12 million in British Columbia annually by 2050. "Climate change is likely to lead to declines...

To fully understand the damage that's being done by a methane leak near Porter Ranch, California, all you have to do is watch the video above. The clip, shot by the Environmental Defense Fund, shows the greenhouse gas, invisible to the human eye, spewing into the air. According to the EDF, methane has in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide, which makes it a danger for our climate. The EDF has been keeping real-time data updating the public on just how...

Since 1997, the amount of man-made heat being absorbed into the seas has doubled, according to a study released Monday. It’s been long known by scientists that over 90 percent of man-made heat energy is absorbed into the world’s oceans, not the ground, and a rise in the ocean’s heat content has been closely watched in recent years. However, the new study, that uses ocean-observing data that ranges from the British research ship Challenger in 1870s to modern underwater monitors...

View of the bed of Jacarei river dam, in Piracaia, during a drought affecting Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Climate change mitigation beat out water shortage risks as the top global threat, according to a new report. (NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images) A survey from the World Economic Forum recently named a failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation as the most-pertinent global threat. Environmental concerns beat out the water crisis, weapons of mass destruction and more in the report, titled. The interconnectedness...

Months after the eruption of a storage well underneath a mountain in Southern California's Aliso Canyon, a continues to spew upwards of 100,000 pounds of methane into the air every hour. As the leak made residents of nearby Porter Ranch sick, California Gov. Jerry Brown on Jan. 6. The boundary of Southern California Gas Company property, where Aliso Canyon Storage Field is located. (David McNew/AFP/Getty Images) Leaks of the magnitude of the one in Aliso Canyon are not common, but...