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Droughts in California are mainly controlled by wind, not by the amount of evaporated moisture in the air, new research has found. The research increases the understanding of how the water cycle is related to extreme events and could eventually help in predicting droughts and floods.

The findings were published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, on June 30. The research increases the understanding of how the water cycle is related to extreme events and could eventually help in predicting droughts and floods, said lead author Jiangfeng Wei, a research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Jackson School of Geosciences.

"Ocean evaporation provides moisture for California precipitation but is not the reason for droughts there, although the ocean evaporation is slightly lower during droughts," Wei said.

The recent trend of increasing Antarctic sea ice extent -- seemingly at odds with climate model projections -- can largely be explained by a natural climate fluctuation, according to a new study led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

The study offers evidence that the negative phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO), which is characterized by cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific, has created favorable conditions for additional Antarctic sea ice growth since 2000.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, may resolve a longstanding mystery: Why is Antarctic sea ice expanding when climate change is causing the world to warm?

Los científicos en el MIT y en otras partes han identificado las "primeras huellas de mejora" de la capa de ozono en la Antártida, publicadas hoy en la revista Science.

El equipo encontró que el agujero de ozono de septiembre ha reducido en más de 4 millones de kilómetros cuadrados (alrededor de la mitad del área de EEUU) desde el año 2000, cuando el agotamiento del ozono estaba en su apogeo. El equipo también demostró por primera vez que esta recuperación se ha ralentizado un poco, a veces, debido a los efectos de las erupciones volcánicas de año en año. En general, sin embargo, el agujero de ozono parece estar en un camino de sanación.

Those orange tree patches pictured aren’t harbingers of winter. They are dying or dead trees in California, most likely the result of pine beetle forest damage.

It’s hot now in much of the golden state, and as temperatures continue to rise, something else is happening: Trees are dying in unprecedented numbers.

A recent U.S. Forest Service aerial detection survey revealed a record 66 million dead trees in southern Sierra Nevada. What we’re left with is a breeding ground for wildfires in a state where wildfires are already rampant—particularly this time of year.

40 million trees died statewide from 2010 to October 2015, but an additional 26 million trees died in California since October 2015.

Vermont pronto será el primer estado de la nación que requerirá etiquetas de los alimentos modificados genéticamente (OMG). Su ley de etiquetado de transgénicos, la primera aprobada en la nación, entra en vigor el 1 de julio. Maine y Connecticut posteriormente han aprobado sus propias leyes de etiquetado de transgénicos. Pero no entrarán en vigor hasta que los estados vecinos pasan una legislación similar