Climate News
World Meteorological Organization Says Rapid Changes in Cryosphere Demand Urgent, Coordinated Action
The World Meteorological Organization will elevate the cryosphere to one of its top priorities, given the increasing impacts of diminishing sea ice, melting glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost and snow on sea level rise, water-related hazards and water security, economies and ecosystems.
More than any other region, children in the East Asia and Pacific region are having to survive multiple, often overlapping climate and environmental hazards and shocks, according to the latest UNICEF regional report ‘Over the Tipping Point’. The report highlights the urgent need to invest in climate-smart social services and policies to protect children.
Planet Labs PBC, a provider of daily data and insights about Earth, recently announced its partnership with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Space Agency, to build a regional satellite data-driven loss and damage atlas for climate change resilience.
New research shows that the 1987 global treaty, designed to protect the ozone layer, has postponed the occurrence of the first ice-free Arctic by as much as 15 years.
Global temperatures are likely to surge to record levels in the next five years, fueled by heat-trapping greenhouse gases and a naturally occurring El Niño event, according to a new update issued by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Human-caused climate change made April’s record-breaking humid heatwave in Bangladesh, India, Laos and Thailand at least 30 times more likely, according to rapid attribution analysis by an international team of leading climate scientists as part of the World Weather Attribution group. The study also concludes that the high vulnerability in the region, which is one of the world’s heatwave hotpots, amplified the impacts.
The natural water reservoirs which support all life and much of human endeavors on Earth are being drained quicker than any previous predictions. Climate change and abusive water management are to blame.
If there was any doubt that the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro was behind the most devastating destruction and slaughter of Amazon rainforest in history, new figures revealed since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office show the rate of deforestation has already plummeted.
A new study suggests there may be a built-in mechanism within the atmosphere that scientists could tap into to trigger faster elimination of harmful particulate and greenhouse gas emissions.
A weather station in Vietnam’s Hoi Xuan station recorded an indoor temperature of 44.1° C (111.38° F) on May 6, as the hottest ever recorded for that date. Summer will be hotter than ever as El Niño kicks in and the spectre of mass extinction looms larger.
Nine European politicians just signed a declaration to accelerate the development of the North Sea region as the “Green Power Plant” of the future. Good luck with that.
A new scientific paper revealed that global warming caused by the climate crisis have has caused losses of 7,560 billion tons of polar ice between 1992 and 2020.
A new study concludes that the many environmental poisons which exist within urban centers quickly move well beyond them and into natural ecosystems.
As climate change causes ocean temperatures to rise, one of Greenland's previously most stable glaciers is now retreating at an unprecedented rate, according to a new study.
Deadly heatwaves fuelled by climate change in 2022 made almost 90 percent of Indians more vulnerable to public health issues, food shortages and increased risks of death, a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge reported in PLOS Climate.
Research shows that by the end of the century the biggest rain and snow days will be 20% to 30% wetter than they are today.
Sea levels along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts have been rapidly accelerating, reaching record-breaking rates over the past 12 years, according to a new study led by scientists at Tulane University.
Human activities emit many kinds of pollutants into the air, and without a molecule called hydroxide (OH), many of these pollutants would keep aggregating in the atmosphere. How OH itself forms in the atmosphere was viewed as a complete story, but in new research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences report that a strong electric field that exists at the surface between airborne water droplets and the surrounding air can create OH by a previously unknown mechanism.
New research in the field of plant sciences has made significant advances towards understanding the underlying reasons behind why certain crops are better at generating more yield than others.
The breathtaking colors of reef-building corals come from photosynthetic algae that live inside the corals. A groundbreaking three-year study has found that viruses may increase their attacks on these symbiotic algae during marine heat waves.
According to a new study, once we emit about 1000 gigatons of carbon, much of the massive ice sheet will melt irreversibly. We’ve emitted 500 gigatons so far.
On March 6, 2023, Arctic Sea Ice levels reached what appear to be their maximum extent for the 2022-2023 winter season. That maximum extent is unfortunately well below average and the fifth lowest in history.
Continued warming of the climate would see a rise in the number and spread of potentially fatal infections caused by bacteria found along parts of the coast of the United States.
190 million children in 10 African countries are at the highest risk from a convergence of three water-related threats – inadequate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); related diseases; and climate hazards – according to a new UNICEF analysis.
The United Nations Secretary General set strong conditions for joining a global climate ambition summit in September, including ceasing all licensing and funding of new oil and gas development and halting expansion of existing oil and gas reserves. This price of entry puts the United States at risk of being shut out of the meeting.
A new scientific study by researchers from the University of Liège (Belgium) shows that rivers in the Andean mountains contribute 35% and 72% of riverine emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2 ) and methane (CH4 ) in the Amazon basin, the world's largest river. This study is published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
A new study is providing an unprecedented examination of oxygen loss on coral reefs around the globe under ocean warming. Led by researchers at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and a large team of national and international colleagues, the study captures the current state of hypoxia—or low oxygen levels—at 32 different sites, and reveals that hypoxia is already pervasive on many reefs.
Observations measured last week showed sea ice surrounding Antarctica at its lowest levels in the 44 years since such measurements began.
While the accumulated rain and snow of the last several weeks in California provided short-term respite from the regional drought, there was one victim which will take a long time to recover for the damage the storms brought with them.
Rutgers-led research finds biomineral structures formed by marine algae foment viral infection, contributing positively to capture CO2.
Despite everything we as humans may be doing to catapult the ecosystems of the world toward extinction, a new report on an amazing array of fish species first classified in 2022 shows precisely how fiercely the will to survive and evolve still lives on.
Getting hit with one hurricane is bad enough, but new research from Princeton University’s engineering school shows that back-to-back versions may become common for many areas in coming decades.
New research finds that ice-sheet-wide collapse in West Antarctica isn’t inevitable: the pace of ice loss varies according to regional differences in atmosphere and ocean circulation.
The European Union’s Copernicus climate monitoring service reported that last summer in Europe was the hottest in history. Predictions say this year is going to be far worse.
After previous waves delivered record-setting torrential rains to the west coast this past week, two more high-altitude rain chutes are scheduled to drench much of Northern California and parts of the southern region this weekend.
A report just-released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows 2022 was the third most expensive year in history for damages directly accountable to global heating, which we have inflicted upon ourselves.
A study led by Brown University researchers showed how melting ice water from massive glaciers can ultimately lead to droughts and flooding in East Africa and Indonesia.
16 cities and towns in Puerto Rico have sued the biggest names in the fossil fuel industry for causing climate change and lying about it.
The Biden-Harris regime announced proposed new rules this week that would limit methane leaks and flaring for drilling on federal and Tribal lands. While it will help, the proposal is far too timid to make much of a difference.
With ocean temperatures off the northeastern Australia coast once again having reached record highs, marine biologists fear the Great Barrier Reef may soon be exposed to another mass bleaching event by March 2023.
Multiple researchers have concluded the combination of the climate crisis and other reckless abuse of the planet’s resources is causing a mass extinction event of many thousands of species across our planet. A new study has revealed this may actually be the seventh such event in history, rather than just the sixth as originally understood.
Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute find new transport route for carbonaceous material from productive Arctic marginal seas to the deep sea. It is another means for releasing even more carbon into the oceans and eventually into the atmosphere as global heating progresses.
Rock coasts, which make up over half the world’s coastlines, could retreat more rapidly in the future due to accelerating sea level rise. This is according to new Imperial College London research that modelled likely future cliff retreat rates of two rock coasts in the UK.
El presidente electo de Brasil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, dijo el miércoles a una entusiasmada multitud en la conferencia climática de la ONU que combatirá la deforestación ilegal en la Amazonia. Fue especialmente simbólico porque fue el primer discurso de un presidente brasileño en las conferencias de la COP de la ONU desde que Lula asumió el poder.
An after-the-fact insurance program has been set up to provide emergency funds when countries which are unable to pay for climate damage themselves suffer catastrophic harm. It is woefully underfunded and insulting to the nations which are paying the price for global heating while the wealthy countries mostly ignore them.
A new report sponsored by the United Nations shows the cost to developing and emerging countries to adapt to and deal with the consequences of the climate crisis will be about $2.4 trillion a year as of 2030.
Scientists at Washington State University have created a unique “pretreatment” technique which they say makes it possible to convert 85% of the organic material in sewage sludge to biogas.
As the United Nations’ annual Conference of the Parties (COP27) on the climate crisis begins, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published news showing the last decade racked up eight of the hottest years in known human history.
Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years – the highest of any continent in the world. As the warming trend continues, exceptional heat, wildfires, floods and other climate change impacts will affect society, economies and ecosystems, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
It is just a provisional deal for now, but yesterday the member states of the European Union, the European Parliament, and the European Commission reached an agreement to ban all sales of internal combustion engine cars and vans by 2035. They probably didn't think it through.