Climate Research | Columbia News

El Niño and a Pathogen Killed Costa Rican Toad,
Study Finds

Monteverde golden toad disappeared from Costa Rica Pacific coastal forest in the late 1980s. (Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Scientists broadly agree that global warming may threaten the survival of many plant and animal species; but global warming did not kill the Monteverde golden toad, an often cited example of climate-triggered extinction, says a new study. The toad vanished from Costa Rica’s Pacific coastal-mountain cloud forest in the late 1980s, the apparent victim of a pathogen outbreak that has wiped out dozens of other amphibians in the Americas.

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Global Environment Index Downgrades U.S. and China

The 2010 Environmental Performance Index, produced by environmental experts at Yale University and Columbia’s Earth Institute, was released at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Study Shows the Past Decade Was the Warmest Ever

Temperature changes 2000-2009 relative to the 1951-1980 mean. Warmer areas in red, cooler blue. The largest increases occurred in the Arctic and part of the Antarctic. (Image credit: NASA)

The decade 2000-2009 was the warmest since modern recordkeeping began, and 2009 was tied for the second warmest single year, according to a new analysis by the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.