Scorching current heat waves "virtually impossible" without climate change, researchers say
CBSN
The fingerprints of climate change are all over the intense heat waves gripping the globe this month, a new study finds. Researchers say the deadly hot spells in the American Southwest and Southern Europe couldn't have happened without the continuing buildup of warming gases in the air.
These unusually strong heat waves are becoming more common, Tuesday's study said. The same research found the increase in heat-trapping gases, largely from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas has made another heat wave - the one in China - 50 times more likely and with the potential to occur every five years or so.
A stagnant atmosphere, warmed by carbon dioxide and other gases, also made the European heat wave 4.5 degrees hotter, the one in the United States and Mexico 3.6 degrees warmer and the one in China 1.8 degrees toastier, the study found.
Scientists say they've discovered the world's biggest coral, so huge it was mistaken for a shipwreck
Scientists say they have found the world's largest coral near the Pacific's Solomon Islands, announcing Thursday a major discovery "pulsing with life and color." The coral is so immense that researchers sailing the crystal waters of the Solomon archipelago initially thought they'd stumbled across a hulking shipwreck.