Science News for Writers

This is the sort of trend or prediction that any author or screenwriter should be aware of, at least in my opinion. We as a species have a fascination with potential disasters dating from the days of Dante's Inferno and earlier.  Why do we find such possibilities so intriguing?  From future wars to natural disasters to the Christian Second Coming to zombies to ecological disasters, it seems that books and movies dealing with worst case scenarios find a ready market. In fact, one of my favorite novels is Nevil Shute's 1957 "On The Beach", a book that chronicles the last days of a small group of Americans and Australians waiting to die after global nuclear war.  Adapted by writer John Paxton, a film version of the story starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire and Anthony Perkins was released in 1959. The way Mr. Shute handled the topic was to focus on the people involved, with very little in the way of catastrophe suitable for big screen special ...

Credit: L. Tan This is an inscription from 1891 found in Dayu Cave. It reads: On May 24th, 17th year of the Emperor Guangxu period (June 30th, 1891 CE), Qing Dynasty,  the local mayor, Huaizong Zhu led more than 200 people into the cave to get water. A fortuneteller named Zhenrong Ran prayed for rain during a ceremony. What is the effect of climate change of the short-term?  As this story points out, social instability, attacks on government, starvation, even cannibalism. What could be the effect of long-term climate change?  We appear to be in the early stages of change and conflict.  It's real on all continents as people are starting to leave areas of the greatest effect - drought, heat waves and so on - and moving toward the Poles.  Follow international news, and you'll find stories almost daily of people crossing to Europe from Africa, fleeing not just political repression but the lack of food.  I leave the details to the writer'...

www.pinterest.com You gotta love this photo found on Pinterest.  One happy cat. This climate update indicates where we are on global warming, one of the nine critical Earth systems being impacted by human activity, one of four systems critically impacted.  For a review of the latest science on all nine systems, click on the link The Global Environment below. *  *  *  *  * International report confirms:  2014 was Earth’s warmest year on record Climate markers continue to show global warming trend In 2014, the most essential indicators of Earth's changing climate continued to reflect trends of a warming planet, with several markers such as rising land and ocean temperature, sea levels and greenhouse gases -- setting new records. These key findings and others can be found in the State of the Climate in 2014 report released online by the American Meteorological Society (AMS). For State of the Climate in 2014 maps, images and highlig...