Doby Photography / NPR
Award-winning journalist Richard Harris has reported on a wide range of topics in science, medicine and the environment since he joined NPR in 1986. In early 2014, his focus shifted from an emphasis on climate change and the environment to biomedical research.
Harris has traveled to all seven continents for NPR. His reports have originated from Timbuktu, the South Pole, the Galapagos Islands, Beijing during the SARS epidemic, the center of Greenland, the Amazon rain forest, the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro (for a story about tuberculosis), and Japan to cover the nuclear aftermath of the 2011 tsunami.
In 2010, Harris reporting revealed that the blown-out BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico was spewing out far more oil than asserted in the official estimates. That revelation led the federal government to make a more realistic assessment of the extent of the spill.
Gavin Schmidt
Credits: NASA
In an effort to ensure effective fulfillment of the Biden Administrations climate science objectives for NASA, the agency has established a new position of senior climate advisor and selected Gavin Schmidt, director of NASAs Goddard Institute for Space Science in New York, to serve in the role in an acting capacity until a permanent appointment is made.
This position will provide NASA leadership critical insights and recommendations for the agencys full spectrum of science, technology, and infrastructure programs related to climate, said acting NASA Administrator Steve Jurczyk. This will enable the agency to more effectively align our efforts to help meet the administrations goals for addressing climate change.
The Energy 202: Biden creates new climate adviser role at NASA Dino Grandoni
with Alexandra Ellerbeck NASA is elevating one of its top climate scientists to a new role, a move meant to put greater focus at the space agency on studying the causes and consequences of global warming under President Biden. Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, will serve in the newly created position of senior climate adviser. He is being brought on in an acting capacity until NASA’s incoming administrator, who has yet to be named, makes a permanent appointment.
Study finds methane emissions from coal mines ~50% higher than previously thought
The amount of methane released into the atmosphere as a result of coal mining is likely approximately 50% higher than previously estimated, according to research presented at the recent annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The research was done by a team at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the US Environmental Protection Agency and others.
The higher estimate is due mainly to two factors: methane that continues to be emitted from thousands of abandoned mines and the higher methane content in coal seams that are ever deeper, according to chief author Nazar Kholod of PNNL.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio - Antarctic ice is melting, contributing massive amounts of water to the world s seas and causing them to rise - but that melt is not as linear and consistent as scientists previously thought, a new analysis of 20 years worth of satellite data indicates.
The analysis, built on gravitational field data from a NASA satellite system, shows that Antarctica s ice melts at different rates each year, meaning the models scientists use to predict coming sea level rise might also need adjusting. The ice sheet is not changing with a constant rate - it s more complicated than a linear change, said Lei Wang, assistant professor of civil, environmental and geodetic engineering at The Ohio State University and lead author of the analysis. The change is more dynamic: The velocity of the melt changes depending on the time.