SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY
Climate Summit Ends Without Binding Agreement
The international climate summit in Copenhagen, which ended last Friday, generated a number of headlines during the week. Media outlets that took stock of the conference over the weekend included the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.
In a related news story, the Boston Globe looked at the effects of solar activity on Earth's climate. The current "solar minimum" may be producing some "small but still important counteraction to climate change."
And a new poll last week indicated a widespread perception in the U.S. that there is much disagreement among scientists about global warming and that there is growing doubt among the public over what scientists say about the environment.
In other news, the New York Times continued its series on water with a look at the safety of the nation's drinking water. An investigation found that the 35-year-old Safe Drinking Water Act regulates only 91 contaminants out of an estimated 60,000 chemicals used in the U.S.
Meanwhile, researchers captured the eruption of a deep-sea volcano on video for the first time. The eruption, some 4,000 feet deep in the Pacific Ocean, was described as "a major geological discovery."
And new evidence suggests that the pocket of magma beneath Yellowstone Park is 20 percent bigger than previously estimated. A detailed model shows that a 45-mile-wide plume of hot, molten rock rises from at least 410 miles beneath Earth's surface.
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