More snow falling on Antarctica puts pressure on ice sheets, pushing them into the ocean, and actually increasing ice loss and sea levels, a new study suggests.

This is on top of Antarctica's already out-of-control melting: It has lost 1,320 gigatons of ice since 1992.

But because global warming allows the air to hold more moisture, precipitation increases in some areas. This precipitation, in the form of snow is increasing ice mass in certain areas of Antarctica.

Some researchers have suggested that increased snowfall over the ice sheet could slow the ice loss.

While it's true that some areas of the ice sheet are indeed gaining mass (and so has the center of Greenland, where ice depth has been steadily increasing about two inches per year over the past decade) this doesn't mean it will help stop the melt.

"We now know that snowfall in Antarctica will not save us from sea-level rise," says study researcher Anders Levermann, of Potsdam University and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Their study was published today, Dec. 12, in the journal Nature.

Using simulations the researchers were able to model the effect of the increased precipitation. They found that future ice loss is increased up to three times due to the weight of the extra snow. The snow is placing a massive amount of pressure on top the ice sheets, breaking them, and pushing them out to sea where they melt into the world's oceans even faster.

"Sea level is rising — that is a fact. Now we need to understand how quickly we have to adapt our coastal infrastructure; and that depends on how much CO₂ we keep emitting into the atmosphere," Levermann said in a press release from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

This could have an impact on the reliability of our sea-level rise predictions, which impact several low-lying areas of coastal land and could put some islands underwater. The most recent projections by the United Nations' climate change panel report that sea levels are rising at an annual rate of 0.12 inches per year. This most recent study may have to increase sea level rise predictions which have already been increased since the IPCC calculated the rise at 0.08 inches per year in 2007.

SEE ALSO: FACT: Antarctica And Greenland Are Melting

SEE ALSO:  Greenland Is Losing 200 Billion Tons Of Ice Every Year

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The World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, announced the four winning technologies of its first annual Climate Solver China Awards today.   

The innovations are designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, but they must also fill a real market need so that enough people would purchase the product to have a measurable impact.  

One of the winning technologies is a refrigeration system that uses waste heat, instead of electricity, to power the cooling system of appliances like air conditioners, ice makers, and freezers. Waste heat is just what it sounds like. It's energy produced from the use of energy — like from diesel engine exhaust, generators, or industrial steam — that would otherwise go to waste if no other application was found.  

The invention, called the Thermal-Chemical Absorption Refrigeration System, comes from Wuhan Yunhe Dingyu Refrigeration Science & Technology Co., Ltd and is already found in the air conditioners, ice makers, and freezers of some fishing boats — using heat from the motor to cool things down. 

Refrigeration eats up lots of electricity and produces a large amount of carbon emissions as a result. It also uses dangerous and toxic chemicals. Yunhe's energy-efficient technology would cut CO2 emissions by 15.33 million tons by the year 2022 "if distributed to 50 percent of the Chinese market for refrigeration powered by marine diesel and vehicle engine exhaust gas alone," the WWF writes in a statement.

Sounds cool. Literally.  

SEE ALSO: China Is Killing Its Most Important Animals

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With the temperature at a balmy midsummer -17C, drilling has started in Antarctica in an attempt to find evidence of life under a sheet of ice two miles (over 3km) thick.

The scientists and engineers from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) hope to find signs of life in the pitch black, intensely cold, nutrient poor, and pristine waters of Lake Ellsworth, which lies deep below sea level and has been isolated from the rest of the world for at least 100,000 years, but probably much longer.

By the weekend sediment and water samples may tell them if life on Earth is possible in such extreme conditions – and they will be just as interested if they learn it is not, and that they have found the limits of life.

"We are about to explore the unknown and I am very excited that our mission will advance our scientific understanding of Antarctica's hidden world,"said Prof Martin Siegert from the University of Bristol.

"Right now we are working round the clock in a cold, demanding and extreme location – it's testing our own personal endurance, but it is entirely worth it."

The scientists started drilling a little late, but at this time of year have unlimited daylight to work in. The programme manager, Chris Hill, spent the day shovelling snow to fill the three tanks, each holding 30,000 litres and heated to 90C, which they need to operate the drill.

The preparatory work began on Monday, using sterilised hot water to hollow out a cavity 300 metres down in the ice, accessed by two bore holes. One hole will be used to pump in or remove water to create pressure in the other hole equalling the pressure of the lake far below, and stop either water from the lake rising, or drilling water spilling down into it.

Once they have got through to the lake level, using the specially designed high pressure hot water drill, a process expected to take three days, they will have just 24 hours to retrieve water and sediment samples, using a titanium probe and a sediment corer – also specially designed to work in such extreme conditions – before their drill holes freeze over again.

The temperature has ranged between -15C and -20C, but wind chill on Wednesday made it feel like -27C.

"This is a huge, but delicate operation," said the lead hot-water drilling engineer, Andy Tait from the BAS. "Although hot-water drilling technology has been used extensively by scientists in the past, this is the first time we've ever attempted to go through 3km of solid ice – this will be the deepest borehole ever made this way."

The probe, designed and built at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, is five metres long, and has more than 3,000 individual components. The sediment corer, designed and built by BAS and Durham University, in partnership with the Australian firm UWITEC, can remove a plug up to three metres long.

The scientists are taking elaborate precautions to avoid contaminating the site. All the equipment, 100 tonnes altogether, has been transported in sterile packaging, and is being sterilised again using a four-stage chemical wash, and hydrogen peroxide vapour. The water is being treated in a four-stage filtration system, and finally with UV light.

The lake, like hundreds of others in Antarctica, was formed when heat from the planet's interior melted the base of the glacier.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

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Doomsayers who believe the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, base their prediction on the end of the 5,125-year-long cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar. 

But what will the end of days look like?

There are a range of theories about how our planet will be destroyed. 

Although scientists say there's nothing to worry about, we thought you should be aware of some of the ways Earth might meet its doom.

Earth will collide with a massive rogue planet.

Believers in the Nibiru Cataclysm think Earth will collide with the rogue planet Nibiru, also called Planet X.

If a planet of this size was speeding toward us, "it would be the brightest thing in the sky," NASA scientist David Morrison tells ABC News. While he's likely exaggerating, there's no way researchers would miss a planet in our solar system. I mean, heck, we can even see rogue planets 100 light years from Earth.

An "alignment of planets" will cause a total blackout.

In this apocalyptic event, the planets align in a way that creates a total blackout on Earth.  

"There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible,"writes NASA. 

A massive asteroid will destroy Earth.

In this scenario an asteroid more massive than the one that wiped out the dinosaurs will smash into Earth.

Although a newly discovered 120-foot-wide asteroid that zipped between us and the moon earlier this week may have raised some hairs, astronomers are certain that no threatening space rocks will slam into us in 2012.

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Some people believe gay people make a choice to be gay, while others believe they were born that way.

No "gay gene" has been found to explain homosexuality, but a recent analysis published by The Quarterly Review of Biology suggests a new theory: The trait could be due to changes in the regulation of genes in the womb, and not the genes themselves, and could be passed down from parent to child.

Studies clearly show that homosexuality runs in families, with an increased rate among siblings and the maternal uncles of gay men, so naturally many people think there must be some "gay gene" or combination of genes that controls the behavior. 

But, if there were a "gay gene" identical twins should be more likely to have the same sexual identities, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Some theories have stated that being gay is all psychological, and others posit possible evolutionary advantages of the behavior. 

The problem? Evolutionarily, a gay gene would be a dead end, since gay people are less likely to have children of their own. At the same time, about 8 percent of people are gay, so the trait is somehow getting passed on. The big question is how. 

William Rice, from the University of California in Santa Barbara, and his colleagues think they've answered that question with their new theory.  

Starting in the womb

In biology classes we are normally taught that if an embryo has an XX chromosome it will develop into a girl, and if it has an XY chromosome it will develop into a boy. Genes on the Y chromosome trigger the formation of testes which release testosterone and kick start male development.

This is too simplified, though, since female embryos are also exposed to testosterone in the womb. The researchers think that the development of sex differences could be regulated through epigenetics, the name for modifications to the genome that cause changes to how and when genes are expressed.

Researchers think that these modifications, which researchers call "epi-marks" are temporary switches that may protect sex-related genes in females from being over exposed to testosterone, and their absence would make male embryos more sensitive to testosterone. The researchers think these hormones could control whether a fetus develops as "masculine" or "feminine" and potentially impact sexual preferences.

A question of heritability

These epigenetic modifications can change over time, and are erased at conception, so they aren't usually passed down through the generations. But recent research indicates that some modifications are actually sometimes retained in offspring.

One study mentioned in the review showed that certain epigenetic modifications in male mice feminized their brain and behavior, and these changes were passed on to their offspring.

So, the theory goes that a woman possesses epigenetic traits that made her react to hormones in a typically "female way"— and if they were to pass to her son they could potentially interfere with his normal male development by making his genes react to hormones the way a female's genes would. The same goes for a man passing on his epigenetic traits to his daughter, which would expose her to testosterone in a "male way."

So, the researcher's theory goes that these epigenetic modifications would be useful to the parent, and only infrequently make their way to the second generation and cause "abnormal" fetal development — so they would still be useful evolutionarily.

Environmental factors could influence epigenetics, and frequently do, so they also play a role in when or how often these epi-marks get passed on.

Just a theory

"We've found a story that looks really good," study researcher Rice told the US News And World Report. "There's more verification needed, but we point out how we can easily do epigenetic profiles genome-wide. We predict where the epi-marks occur, we just need other studies to look at it empirically. This can be tested and proven within six months. It's easy to test. If it's a bad idea, we can throw it away in short order."

Rice's theory isn't based on actual experiments, just a review of previous studies, others are quick to point out. We also have no idea what genes these epigenetic modifications would be modifying, how they would be added or removed, or what would make them more or less likely to be passed from parent to offspring.

"The study provides a very interesting, but as yet untested, genetic mechanism for the evolutionary maintenance of human homosexuality," Nathan Bailey, a researcher at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who was not involved in the research, told Popular Science. "We are going to have to wait until more evidence is in, but I do think it would be exciting to know whether epi-marks contribute to the expression of sexual orientation in humans."

Others were bolder:

Leonid Kruglyak, a researcher from Princeton Universitytweeted"Since it keeps showing up: Rice et al. "study"http://bit.ly/TX42Xl is only a model; offers no evidence against genetics or for epigenetics."

SEE ALSO: New Study Suggests That Female Fish Get Turned On By Gay Males

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When in September the Arctic sea ice that freezes and melts each year shrank to its lowest extent ever recorded and then contracted a further 500,000 sq km, the small world of ice scientists was shocked.

This was unprecedented, yet there was nothing unusual about the meteorological conditions in the Arctic in 2012, no vast storms to break up the ice, or heatwave to hasten the retreat.

Only widespread warming of the atmosphere could have been responsible for less ice growth during the winter and more ice melt during the summer, the scientists concluded.

It was, said the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), just one of dozens of major physical events in 2012 that convinced many people that the extremes have become normal.

The most dramatic event was possibly hurricane Sandy, which swept through the Caribbean and up the east coast of the United States, leaving hundreds dead and thousands without power or shelter.

But just a few weeks later it was possibly surpassed in strength by super-typhoon Bopha, which roared across Mindanao in the Philippines killing at least 900 people and leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

Typhoons aren't unusual in the Philippines or the US, but both of these were well outside their normal timescale and location.

Officially, said the WMO, the first 10 months of 2012 were the ninth-warmest since records began in the mid-19th century, with early months cooled by a La Niña weather event in the Pacific. In addition, 2012 broke the record for carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere.

Governments saw records tumble almost every season. According to Nasa, it's now been 28 years since the globe experienced temperatures cooler than the 1951-1980 average. Globally, 10 of the 11 hottest years have now been in the last 11 years.

The US was on course to experience by far its hottest year on record. Nearly 15,000 new daily heat records were set and Europe had its warmest spring ever recorded.

Heatwaves, droughts, floods and hurricanes battered vulnerable countries. "The danger signs are all around. One-third of the world's population lives in countries with moderate to high water stress; land degradation affects 1.5 billion people. Ice caps are showing unprecedented melting, permafrost is thawing, sea levels are rising. The abnormal is now the new normal," said UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

Former US vice-president Al Gore backed this up: "Every night on the news now, practically, is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation."

"Far-reaching changes [are] taking place on Earth's oceans and biosphere. Climate change is taking place before our eyes and will continue to do so as a result of the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have risen constantly and again reached new records," said Michel Jarraud, head of the Geneva-based WMO.

"Natural cooling events such as La Niña do not alter the underlying long-term trend of rising temperatures due to climate change as a result of human activities," he added.

But the climate sceptics hit back, saying hysteria was fuelling fears of nonexistent man-made climate change. "The promoters … have essentially declared that manmade climate change will cause many bad weather events to happen. And since bad weather events always happen, there is no shortage of 'proof' of their predictions," said Marc Morano of Climate Depot.

"They can always claim every bad weather event as evidence of their correctness. There is no way anyone can falsify the global warming claims now because any weather event that happens 'proves' their case, despite the fact that the current weather is neither historically unprecedented, nor unusual," he added.

Nevertheless, the US government's official drought monitor showed nearly two-thirds of the continental US (65.5%) to be in unprecedented "moderate to exceptional drought" by 25 September. Severe drought conditions hit Russia and Siberia during June and July.

In China, Yunnan and south-western Sichuan provinces experienced severe drought during winter and spring. Northern Brazil witnessed the worst drought in 50 years, and the April–October precipitation total in Australia was 31% below normal.

Many parts of western Africa and the Sahel, including Niger and Chad, suffered serious flooding between July and September because of a very active monsoon. Exceptional floods hit Nigeria and parts of southern China experienced their heaviest rainfall in the last 32 years. Devastating monsoon floods hit Pakistan during September.

Only the number of cyclones worldwide was around normal. But, said the WMO, there was some evidence that they were more intense.

This article originally appeared on guardian.co.uk

SEE ALSO: 16 Irrefutable Signs That Climate Change Is Real

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Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced that the southern part of the British Antarctic Territory has been named Queen Elizabeth Land in honour of the Diamond Jubilee, during a Royal visit to the Foreign Office.

Queen Elizabeth Land is a 169,000 square mile chunk of the British Antarctic Territory.

It is twice the size of the UK and makes up almost a third of Britain’s claim on the polar continent

William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, announced the gift as he gave the Queen a guided tour of the Foreign Office.

He said: “As a mark of this country’s gratitude to the Queen for her service, we are naming a part of the British Antarctic Territory in her honour as ‘Queen Elizabeth Land’."

“The British Antarctic Territory is a unique and important member of the network of fourteen UK Overseas Territories.

To be able to recognise the UK’s commitment to Antarctica with a permanent association with Her Majesty is a great honour.”

The Queen has been on the throne for the entire time that Britain’s claim on the Antarctic, which was made in 1908, has been known as British Antarctic Territory.

It is the second time a part of the Antarctic has been named after the Queen; in 1931 the Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson discovered part of East Antarctica which he named Princess Elizabeth Land.

Queen Elizabeth Land will be marked on all British maps in future, the Foreign Office said.

SEE ALSO: FACT: Antarctica And Greenland Are Melting

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Well folks, we did it!

After a 25-year ban, California sea otters are now free to float along the entire coast without being captured and hauled back to Northern California.  

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended its “Southern Sea Otter Translocation Program” on Tuesday, Dec. 18, which forbid otters from paddling south of Point Conception — where the Santa Barbara Channel meets the Pacific Ocean — to the Mexican border.  

The "No-Otter" Zone was established in 1987 as a way to manage dwindling otter populations. The adorable-faced marine mammal once numbered 16,000-strong until they were hunted to near extinction, mostly for fur, at the beginning of the 20th century.

Out of fear that an environmental disaster, like an oil spill, might wipe out what was left of the mainland population, 140 otters were moved to California's San Nicolas Island in hopes of building a backup population. An otter-free zone was also set up as a concession to commercial fisherman who bemoaned the animal's impact on shellfish stocks (otters really like to eat sea urchin, crab, clams, mussels and sails). 

Environmentalists have long opposed the otter-free zone because it messes with otters' regular feeding and swimming habits. It's simply not natural.  

Beyond that, the relocation plan didn't work and the otter-free ban was hard to enforce. Otters, being typical otters, were oblivious to the "no-crossing" line and those shoved onto San Nicolas preferred the mainland to their remote island home. 

"All but about 11 of the 140 otters swam away from San Nicolas Island and back to their home waters,"Amy Larson of KSBW.com writes.  

“Trying to tell a marine mammal to stay on one side of an imaginary line across the water was a dumb idea,” Steve Shimek, executive director of the Otter Project told Larson. 

The Environmental Defense Center sued the federal government in 2009 to get the translocation program overturned.  

Meanwhile, the California sea otter population is making a slow recovery. There are 2,792 otters along the coast, according to the latest count by the U.S. Geological Survey. 

The good news: As of yesterday, otters across California are swimming as free animals.    

SEE ALSO: The Most Famous Wolf In The World Has Been Killed By Hunters

SEE ALSO: China Is Killing Its Most Important Animals

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Cover your mouth when you cough!

We’ve all learned the hard way that microbial organisms, from bacteria to viruses, can be transported by air.

But the extent to which organisms exist in the Earth’s atmosphere is only now becoming clear.

There is good evidence that bacteria (or bacterial spores) can help nucleate water condensation, seeding clouds and encouraging precipitation.

It has been speculated that this could even form part of a bacterial life-cycle, lofting organisms into the air, transporting them, and bringing them back to earth for fresh pastures.

There’s also growing evidence for just how widespread airborne microbial ‘ecosystems’ might be. Scientists in Austria have found bacteria in cloud droplets at 10,000 feet as well as clear signs that these microbes are not just passengers — they’re actually growing and reproducing in-situ in the super-cooled water environment.

This suggests that clouds are quite literally another habitat for life on Earth, and with an average covering of 60% of the planetary surface represent a pretty major ecosystem.

Now a new study finds that dust plumes in the troposphere are carrying over 2,000 distinct species from Asia to North America – right across the Pacific Ocean. Some of these organisms are fungal, but at least 50% are bacterial, and make the trans-planetary journey in only 7-10 days when storms loft them as high at ten miles into the atmosphere.

This might not seem so surprising, we know that single-celled organisms occupy almost every niche on the planet. However, it does seem that the Asian microbes represent a distinct population that’s usually only a trace on the continental USA – but when the wind blows their numbers on the western hemisphere definitely increase significantly.

This means that there is real mixing of species going on, a microbial pollution that may have consequences for all manner of things, including local ecosystem function and even disease.

It’s fascinating stuff. This kind of transportation must have been going on across all three to four billion years of life on Earth, leading us to wonder exactly what role it may have played in maintaining the global biosphere.

It’s also food for thought in considering the potential ecosystems of Mars, a place where planet-wide dust storms regularly loft particles high into the atmosphere.

SEE ALSO: Microbiologists Will Watch As Bacteria Take Over This Hospital

SEE ALSO: 16 Great Reasons To Love Your Body's Bacteria

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A 25-year federal ban that kept sea otters from swimming into Southern California waters was quashed yesterday. Otters are now free to roam the entire coastline without being trapped and sent back north.  

Here's how we imagine otters around the globe reacted to the joyous news.   

Joy to the world. 

Hugs all around.  

Carrots taste better as a free otter.  

Did I hear that right?

VICTORY!

Oh. em. gee. 

Win. 

Oh. Snap. 

BONUS: We came across this terrific photo of otters mid-celebration after posting our list and couldn't resist adding it to the line-up. So, here you go. 

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A line of storms is working its way through Alabama and with it bringing reports of a possible tornado in parts of Mobile, The Weather Channel reported Thursday morning.

No one was injured in the tornado but some buildings were damaged. According to the National Weather Service, the tornado touched down about 7 miles east of Mobile's airport.

The Weather Channel's Mike Bettes tweeted this dramatic picture of a car flipped over at a dealership in Mobile by the tornado:

"This combination will maintain the threat of severe thunderstorms and possibly a few more tornadoes through tonight," weather.com meteorologist Nick Wiltgen said.

The National Weather Service's Weather Forecast Office posted Thursday morning a pretty long local storm report, detailing all of the damage in Mobile.

"Severe damage to residences and businesses" on some streets, as well as downed trees and flipped furniture truck have been reported so far.

Two banks, a medical center, multiple homes, and a hotel have been damaged, with all damage likely caused by the tornado, Bettes posted on his Facebook page.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch earlier today for the following counties:

Autauga Baldwin Bibb Butler Chilton Choctaw Clarke Conecuh Coosa Covington Crenshaw Dallas Elmore Escambia Greene Hale Lowndes Marengo Mobile Monroe Montgomery Perry Pickens Sumter Tallapoosa Tuscaloosa Washington Wilcox.

The watch is set to expire at noon CST.

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A new map that divides the world's vertebrates into 11 biogeographic realms is the biggest update to a 19th century version, and one of the most important maps for our understanding of global biodiversity.  

The map was published online today, Dec. 20, online in the journal Science. 

The original map was created by naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1876. He divided the world into six zoogeographic regions that were mostly separated by continent. The new map is the first to look at both evolutionary relationships and geographic information to depict the distribution of life on Earth.  

To create the new map, Ben Holt, of the University of Copenhagen, and his colleagues gathered information on 21,037 vertebrate species including amphibians, birds and non-marine mammals. Holt was able to divide to world into 20 distinct zoogeograpahic regions with types of vertebrates only found in that particular region, or few others, and 11 larger realms.

The realms with similar colors contain similar species. Those with different colors have few groups of animals in common. 

"[The map] has major conservation significance in light of the on-going biodiversity crisis and global environmental change," study researcher Jean-Philippe Lessard, of McGill University in Canada, said in a press release. "Whereas conservation planners have been identifying priority areas based on the uniqueness of species found in a given place, we can now begin to define conservation priorities based on millions of years of evolutionary history."

Check out the updated map below: 

For reference, this is Wallace's orginal map:

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The storm surge Hurricane Irene brought to New York’s coastal community of Breezy Point in 2011 left Gretchen Ferenz Fox's home untouched.

But a little over a year later, Sandy was different.

This storm flooded the basement of her family home, destroying its contents, and rising up to the first floor.

The wall and sand berm, a raised barrier, around the house, the sandbagged windows, and basement renovations meant to keep water from seeping in — nothing stopped it.

"The house was flooded, the entire basement was submerged in floodwaters and sewage, because we have septic systems in the neighborhood," Fox said.

"We had a false sense of security, when we didn't suffer any water into the home from Irene, that the storm [Sandy] would not be any worse."

Others fared even worse. Fire destroyed more than 100 homes; floodwater and winds amplified the destruction on the western end of the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens, N.Y., where Fox, her husband and their son live year round. [On the Ground: Hurricane Sandy in Images]

A rare storm

On Oct. 29, Sandy, a hybrid hurricane-winter storm, made landfall, bringing an unprecedented storm surge to The Battery at the southern tip of Manhattan. The 11.9-foot (3.6 meters) surge received a boost from the high tide, creating a storm tide as high as 13.88 feet (4.2 m).

When measured against projected storm tides caused by hurricanes, Hurricane Sandy's surge was nearly off the charts. By comparison, a 500-year hurricane would bring about a 10.2-foot (3.1 m) storm tide, according to research that looked at the future of hurricane-caused flooding for New York City.

The devastation it wrought revealed New York City's, and the region's, vulnerability to an extreme event. But Sandy was only one of a series of events that have highlighted a global need to better understand and prepare for rare, extreme natural disasters, said Tom O'Rourke, an infrastructure and natural hazards expert.

Lessons learned from disasters

Hurricane Katrina, the Tohoku earthquake and the nuclear disaster it triggered, as well as the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand also provided vivid illustrations of the need. Their lessons are myriad.

For instance, when assessing risk, officials may fail to properly take evidence of past events into account, or they may bungle the response to a disaster — two factors that contributed to the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant after the tsunami hit. Or existing protection systems, like those intended to keep New Orleans dry when Katrina hit in 2005, may fail on a massive scale.

Or unanticipated dynamics can make what should have been a moderate event into a devastating one, as happened in Christchurch, New Zealand, O'Rourke related during a presentation in Manhattan on Dec. 12.

False confidence contributes to the lack of preparation. Engineers have had success dealing with more common, less dramatic natural events, he said.

The cost? Lives, expensive damage and lost options for the future.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster, for example, has affected attitudes toward nuclear power, not only in Japan but also in other countries, such Germany and Switzerland, he told an audience. This has ramifications for efforts to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, as nuclear energy is considered a low-carbon energy source.

And there are geopolitical consequences as well. If Japan turns away from nuclear power and begins to import natural gas, this will put them in competition with other nations, such as China.

"This event really did change the future, and it changed the future significantly enough that it took away some of our options," O'Rourke told LiveScience.

Climate change is expected to aggravate the dangers from certain types of events by, for example, raising sea levels. 

Rethinking the future

Fox and her husband purchased their home five years ago, after moving from Brooklyn. Only half a block from Jamaica Bay and two-and-a-half blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, the house also gave them the chance to live in close proximity to nature, in a community within the National Park Service's Gateway National Recreation Area.

"We thought about the risks and never in my wildest dreams would I have considered a storm of this magnitude and the impacts that it had on us," she said.

But afterward, moving was never an option. The family is now focused on rebuilding and helping their neighbors do the same. Her husband, Tom Fox, has received funding on behalf of residents on their block for an environmentally friendly demonstration project called Rebuilding Breezy Green. [Save the Planet? 10 Bizarre Solutions]

The Foxes bought their home intending to retire there; she is 53 and he is 65. But after Hurricane Sandy, they saw how the older residents of the community had to rely on family members or volunteers to rebuild for them, the Foxes realized they may not be able to stay in the home they love as they age.

"We just imagined if one of us were living alone and had the burden of cleaning up and rebuilding. That might be too much to bear in our elderly years," she said. "It's emotionally difficult to think about that."

Fox, who works for Cornell University's Cooperative Extension program, attended O'Rourke's talk last week, which was hosted by the Structural Engineers Association of New York and by the New York-Northeast Chapter of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute.

Preparing better

After detailing the dynamics that turned extreme natural events into disasters, O'Rourke offered some solutions.

It is impossible to upgrade everything at once, so local communities must prioritize, and assess which infrastructure is critical, or as O'Rourke put it, "too big to fail." Then, designs must be made to address possible, not just probable scenarios, by asking questions, such as, "If the water comes over the sea wall, what do we do?" he said. 

Important upgrades, such as replacing old pipes with more resilient high-density polyethylene, become much more realistic when done piecemeal over time.

To make all of this possible, leaders must be engaged, engineers and planners must talk with one another, and communities must tap into private money to make these very expensive changes happen, he said.

Fox said O'Rourke's presentation gave her the opportunity to step outside her personal experience and to think about the disaster in a bigger context.

"I would hope we would all learn and not Band-Aid our problems and our weak links," Fox said, adding that instead, communities should use an event like Sandy as an opportunity to better prepare for the future.

SEE ALSO: A Full On The Ground Look At Hurricane Sandy's Local Devastation

SEE ALSO: Sandy Could Be The Second Costliest Hurricane In History

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A new study indicates that global warming may actually benefit Arctic animals and ecosystem, by expanding their ranges and increasing biodiversity in the area as warmer-climate species move north.

The research was published yesterday, Dec. 20, in the Journal PLoS ONE.

Smithsonian.com reported:

Scientists found that, in most cases, global warming will actually give a boost to Arctic and subarctic life. Looking at 61 mammal species that currently inhabit high-latitude Europe the scientists found that, under climate conditions forecast for the year 2080, the majority of the species will see their ranges expand. They found that warming will actually bring in more species from further south, increasing biodiversity in the region. And, even in their worst-case scenario, they expect at most one species to go extinct: the Arctic fox. But, they suspect that this worst-case scenario is just that, a nightmare scenario unlikely to unfold.

The researchers, from Umea University in Sweden, note that these cold-weather loving species that live in the Arctic are used to having to cope with a wide range of climactic conditions — they are relatively hearty creatures. One important conservation measure we need to make, though, is to ensure they have the habitat they need, and the ability to move around so they can adjust to changing conditions.

There's already evidence that the iconic white bear has been moving onto land more and more. They do use the sea ice while hunting seals (their main food source) and as it's disappearing they will need to adapt their hunting styles to survive.

Sadly, there will be serious effects of climate change in other areas of the globe, including droughts and extreme weather events.

SEE ALSO: 16 Irrefutable Signs That Climate Change Is Real

SEE ALSO: How Climate Change Makes Species Go Extinct

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The volcanic peaks of Oahu in the Hawaiian island chain are dissolving from the inside, and will one day become flat, new research from Brigham Young University shows. 

Although soil erosion is typically associated with flattening mountains, geologists found that Oahu's Koolauand and Waianae mountains are dissolving within because of groundwater that washes sediment away.  

The study was recently published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

The good news is that the dramatic change won't take place for another 1.5 million years. Until then, because of plate tectonics, the island will be pushed northwest and slowly but steadily rise in elevation, according to a statement from the university.  

This growth will negate the influence of weathering, but "the force of groundwater will eventually triumph and the island will begin its descent to a low-lying topography," according to Brigham researchers.  

SEE ALSO: Hike The 2,000-Mile Trail That Most People Never Finish

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The West Antarctic Ice Sheet, whose melt may be responsible for 10 percent of the sea-level rise caused by climate change, is warming twice as quickly as previously thought, a study said Sunday.

A re-analysis of temperature records from 1958 to 2010 revealed an increase of 2.4 degrees Celsius (36.3 degrees Fahrenheit) over the period -- three times the average global rise.

The increase was nearly double what previous research had suggested, and meant this was one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth, according to paper co-author David Bromwich of the Byrd Polar Research Center.

"Our record suggests that continued summer warming in West Antarctica could upset the surface balance of the ice sheet, so that the region could make an even bigger contribution to sea-level rise than it already does," he said.

Scientists believe the shrinking of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is responsible for about 10 percent of global warming-related sea-level rise, which if unchecked threatens to flood many coastal cities within a few generations.

The sheet, a huge mass of ice up to four kilometres (2.5 miles) thick that covers the land surface and stretches into the sea, is melting faster than any other part of Antarctica.

Data records kept at Byrd Station in the central West Antarctic had been incomplete.

Since being established in 1957, the research station has not been consistently occupied and has seen frequent power outages, especially during the long polar night, when its solar panels cannot recharge.

Bromwich and a team from several US-based research institutions used weather data from different sources to plug holes in the Byrd data and corrected calibration errors.

The updated log was published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

"Aside from offering a more complete picture of warming in West Antarctica, the study suggests that if this warming trend continues, melting will become more extensive in the region in the future," said Bromwich.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 had projected sea level rise of 18 to 59 centimetres (seven to 23 inches) worldwide by the year 2100.

But a study by the US National Research Council said in June the actual rise could be two to three times higher, with polar ice-cap melt speeding up the process.

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So we survived the 2012 Mayan Apocalypse.

That's great news. 

But don't get too comfortable. There are loads of global doomsday predictions still floating about, including a "fiery end" planned for 2013, according to Rowdydow's End of the World Notification Service. 

The website provides a list of all upcoming end-of-the-world events.

Need to know when to stock up on canned goods or splurge on a post-Apocalyptic truck? 

Check out a screenshot of the schedule below, and visit rowdydow for more information.

SEE ALSO: 14 Ways The World Could REALLY Come To An End

SEE ALSO: 10 Foods That Will Last Forever In The Post-Apocalyptic World

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A blizzard warning spanning over 730 miles from New York to Arkansas has been issued by the National Weather Service, it's headed through the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, and Northeast.

Total snowfall in the 6 to 12 inch range will carpet downstate Illinois through central Indiana and northern Ohio, The Weather Channel reports:

The heaviest snow totals, in excess of 1 foot, are expected from northeast Ohio into northwest Pennsylvania, western and central New York, into northern New England.

It's not just snow that is the concern.  Freezing rain and sleet - with potentially significant ice accumulations - will spread from parts of southern Ohio and the central Appalachians into central and northeast Pennsylvania, south-central New York and, perhaps, western New England through Wednesday night and early Thursday.

The National Weather Service's winter weather desk is currently forecasting somewhere between 12 and 18 inches of snow to hit between western New York and all the way up to Maine. A quarter to a half of inch may fall over northeast PA and southeast New York.

The Weather Channel says the storm that has already started should continue through Friday morning. Cities like Rochester and Buffalo, New York may wake up to over a foot of snow. They've named the storm Euclid.

Already raging

The storm has already devastated the nation's midsection with a record of 34 tornadoes reported in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday. At least 100 homes, businesses damaged by storms in Mobile, Ala., CNN is reporting. 

There have been three dead, damages to homes and other buildings, quarter-sized hail in Lousiana, numerous accidents, including a 21-vehicle pile-up in Oklahoma, and canceling more than 1000 flights.

At least eight states issued blizzard warnings Tuesday, including Mississippi. Over 280,000 people are still without power including 71,000 people in northeast Arkansas that has been hit with 30mph winds and a forecast of up to 10 inches of snow.

"Conditions don't look quite as volatile over a large area as we saw on Christmas day but there will be a risk of tornadoes, some of them could be rather strong, across eastern portions of North Carolina and the northeastern part of South Carolina," says Bill Bunting from the National Weather Service's Severe Storms Prediction Center, reports ABC news.

SEE ALSO: More Than 1,000 Flights Have Been Canceled As Blizzards Move East

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In Christmas day, more than 34 tornadoes were reported in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. At least 100 homes and businesses were damaged by storms in Mobile, Ala., CNN is reporting. 

The video below shows one of those tornadoes tearing through a Walgreens drug store in Mobile, Alabama. From the video description on YouTube:

Just released Footage. Walgreens Pharmacy on Government St. at the loop in Mobile Alabama when a tornado struck the area on Christmas Day. Footage shows both outside and inside of business. Watch as customers scramble to safety. A Tornado struck this same area just five days prior to this Christmas day Tornado.

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Sea turtles do the cutest things. In this video posted to Reddit, a friendly sea turtle pays a surprise visit to a diver. At first, the diver pushes the curious animal away with a big shove to its belly. But the turtle persists. The diver quickly comes around and starts to pet its head. Enya's "Boadicea" provides some nice background music during the entire encounter.  

Researcher Lisa Belskis, a marine biologist for NOAA's Southeast Fisheries Science Center, tells us that the the turtle in this video is an adult or maturing male hawksbill turtle. 

The behavior is not unheard of, although it is less typical.  

"There have been many anecdotal reports of male hardshell sea turtles approaching divers attempting to mount them, particularly during breeding season," Belskis wrote us in an email. "From my personal experience I have found that most often turtles go about their everyday business and ignore divers. If divers notice a nearby turtle it will likely stay still as if hoping its camouflage is working and if pursued by a diver they tend to flee." 

Sea turtles are generally known as solitary animals — which also makes them difficult to study. As a result, a lot is still unknown about sea turtle behavior. 

SEE ALSO: These Great New Species Were Just Discovered

SEE ALSO: Otters Are Now Free To Invade Southern California

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