Environment

Limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels requires reaching net zero emissions by the middle of this century. This means that, in less than three decades, we need to reverse more than a century of rising emissions and bring annual emissions down to near zero, while balancing out all remaining unavoidable emissions by

A “wet wipe island” the size of two tennis courts has formed in the Thames, causing the river as it flows through London to change course, according to The Times of London. Ministers have asked people to stop using wet wipes, and the government is considering banning those that contain plastic. Fleur Anderson, a Labour MP,

With researchers warning that limiting global warming to 1.5 °C is fast slipping from our grasp, we know it will take a mammoth effort to reach. But the scale of emissions reductions required is actually something we have already achieved before – quite recently and rather by accident. In 2020, global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell

On top of intensifying algal blooms and depleting oxygen, a new study reveals Earth’s bodies of freshwater are also evaporating at a greater rate than we realized. What’s more, “lake evaporation plays a larger role in the hydrological cycle than previously thought,” says ecologist Gang Zhao who was at Texas A&M University during the study.

Like its movie namesake, the horrific marine heatwave nicknamed the Blob destroyed much in its path during its peak, causing mass deaths of fish, birds, and many other marine animals, threatening fishing industries. Since then, the Blob has at least briefly reared its head twice, hinting at an underlying persistence to its cause. Now, researchers

The oceans are one of our planet’s most important carbon sinks, with currently around 39,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide locked away – that’s around 50 times more than what’s circulating in the atmosphere right now. However, we can’t rely on this carbon capture and storage to solve our climate crisis problem, because we’re producing too much

These days, peeing on your food plants may be considered a gross and wacky gardening hack, despite the practice having been proven beneficial for thousands of years. But our modern squeamishness has meant gardeners and farmers alike must resort to expensive fertilizers to provide their crops with the much-needed nutrients found free in our pee.

In many places around the world, grocery store produce aisles are a delightful array of colors, even in the depths of winter, when it feels like not much could grow outside. But this year-round variety has a real cost on the planet, with a new study finding that ‘food miles’ account for 19 percent of

A historic drought affecting Italy’s largest river has brought a World War II-era shipwreck to light. The Po River runs 405 miles (651.8 km) from the Cottian Alps to empty into the Adriatic Sea. It’s currently facing its worst drought in 70 years, which has caused a decades-old sunken ship to resurface. The Zibello, a

We biological beings are messy things, leaving bits of our former selves behind everywhere we go – even in the air. This trail of self includes various secretions like saliva, discarded waste. and our constantly shedding outer layers like dead skin cells – many of which contain our unique DNA signatures. Bugs are no exception. From spiders

Climate change is slowing down the conveyor belt of ocean currents that brings warm water from the tropics up to the North Atlantic. Our research, published today (June 6) in Nature Climate Change, looks at the profound consequences to global climate if this Atlantic conveyor collapses entirely. We found the collapse of this system –

If microplastics have boundaries, we don’t yet know what they are. We seem to find this microscopic trash everywhere we look, from the bottom of the ocean to Earth’s highest peak. We’re starting to figure out why. Beyond all the disturbing discoveries of microplastics turning up inside our bodies, we now know these tiny fragments

By now, few people question the reality that humans are altering Earth’s climate. The real question is: How quickly can we halt, even reverse, the damage? Part of the answer to this question lies in the concept of ‘committed warming,’ also known as ‘pipeline warming.’ It refers to future increases in global temperatures that will be

The Siberian tundra could disappear by the year 2500, unless greenhouse gas emissions are dramatically reduced.  Even in the best-case scenarios, two-thirds of this landscape – defined by its short growing season and cover of grasses, moss, shrubs and lichens – could vanish, leaving behind two fragments separated by 1,553 miles (2,500 kilometers), scientists recently predicted. And

Planting more crops isn’t the only way to feed a growing population. Cutting air pollution could go a long way towards increasing crop production while saving precious land and money, according to new research. If the world cuts the emissions of just one type of air pollutant in half, estimates suggest winter crops could yield

Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in May were 50 percent higher than during the pre-industrial era, reaching levels not seen on Earth for about 4 million years, the main US climate agency said on Friday. Global warming caused by humans, particularly through the production of electricity using fossil fuels, transport, the production of

This year in April, the Biden administration announced a renewed commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement. The goal is now to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. The target is ambitious, but it isn’t a pipe dream. According to a newly published analysis of existing climate models, it’s more than possible with strong

The famous snow-capped peaks of the Alps are fading fast and being replaced by vegetation cover – a process called “greening” that is expected to accelerate climate change, a study said Thursday. The research, published in Science, was based on 38 years of satellite imagery across the entirety of the iconic European mountain range. “We

Next time you go diving or snorkeling, have a close look at those wondrously long, bright green ribbons, waving with the ebb and flow of water. They are seagrasses – marine plants which produce flowers, fruit, and seedlings annually, like their land-based relatives. These underwater seagrass meadows grow in two ways: by sexual reproduction, which

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure”, according to a famous business mantra often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker. This can help explain why carbon emissions are under more scrutiny than ever as we ramp up our efforts to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change. For example, the “carbon footprint” – a way

The tiny floating organisms that supply our world with as much as a fifth of its oxygen will be in dire straights as our oceans acidify, new research suggests. The creatures, called diatoms, will be deprived of the silica building blocks they need to construct their protective shells, which come in all sorts of dazzling

Experts are warning that the Eastern US should prepare for another barrage of tropical storms this year. The 2022 Atlantic hurricane season is likely to be more active than average for the seventh year in a row, according to the latest prediction from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  There is a 70 percent chance that

When something’s messing with your insides and you feel like you’re going to hurl, the last thing you probably want to do is eat. Deer, caribou, and other ungulates (hoofed animals) experience a similar problem when infected by non-deadly parasites. It utterly sucks for them, but it turns out infections that put them off their

Scientists have documented a worrying trend in the rainforests of Australia: Tree lifespans have halved in the last 35 years, and it appears to be due to the effects of climate change on the ecosystems. With these forests acting as significant carbon sinks, the consequences for the planet could be devastating, creating a feedback loop

As air pollution decreases in the western Northern Hemisphere, several new climate simulations suggest tropical cyclones in the Atlantic may increase. The forecast is troubling, though not necessarily a surprise. When tiny aerosols like dust, soot, and sulfates are airborne, they create smog that can dim sunlight and cool Earth’s atmosphere and surface. Broadly speaking,

All heatwaves today bear the unmistakable and measurable fingerprint of global warming, top experts on quantifying the impact of climate change on extreme weather said Wednesday. Burning fossil fuels and destroying forests have released enough greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to also boost the frequency and intensity of many floods, droughts, wildfires, and tropical storms,

Large fish in the open sea have declined by at least 90 percent over the past century due to overexploitation. To pull fish like tuna, swordfish, and marlin back from the brink, scientists argue we need to protect their migration superhighways known as ‘blue corridors’. A recent study on the Pacific Ocean has mapped the

There is an even chance that global temperatures will temporarily breach the benchmark of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in one of the next five years, the United Nations warned Tuesday. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change saw countries agree to cap global warming at “well below” 2 °C above levels measured between 1850

Thousands of wild bird species are growing ill or dying from habitat loss, climate change, and overexploitation, according to new research. A new estimate from researchers around the world has found 48 percent of living bird species are known or suspected to have declining populations. That’s more than 5,000 species that face a risky future.

The oceans that surround us are transforming. As our climate changes, the world’s waters are shifting too, with abnormalities evident not only in the ocean’s temperature, but also its structure, currents, and even its color. As these changes manifest, the usually stable environment of the ocean is becoming more unpredictable and erratic, and in some

Throughout our planet’s history, Earth has fluctuated between a hothouse and an icehouse. Today, our home is supposed to be in a period of global cooling, but human emissions of greenhouse gasses are reversing that natural trend at a rapid and unprecedented rate. One of the last times Earth went from an icehouse to a

In a warmer world, rising sea levels could render many coastlines, beaches, and reef islands uninhabitable, or destroy them altogether. The 1.09℃ Earth has warmed since pre-industrial times has already heightened seas by 20 centimeters. But curiously, research shows some coastlines and even low-lying coral reef islands are actually growing rather than eroding in the

Climate change is throwing Earth’s water cycle severely out of whack. According to new satellite data, freshwaters are growing fresher and salt waters are growing saltier at an increasingly rapid rate all around the world. If this pattern continues, it will turbocharge rainstorms. The findings indicate a severe acceleration of the global water cycle – a

As you’ve no doubt noticed, there’s a worryingly large amount of plastic pollution, and scientists are working hard to find ways to use plastic without causing so much long-term damage to the environment around us. A new study outlines the use of a specially created enzyme variant that vastly reduces the time it takes to

By 2100, we could be heading towards a loss of life in our oceans that rivals some of the largest extinction events in Earth’s history – if we don’t continue to tackle the climate catastrophe, new modeling warns. But “it is not too late to enact the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions needed to avoid

Tiny parasites could be hitchhiking on microplastics floating in the ocean and then hopping to ocean life. Under laboratory conditions, researchers have shown three common germs – Toxoplasma gondii, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium – are more than capable of adhering to synthetic microbeads and microfibers. This may not be happening in the real world, but the

Each year on April 22 Google’s homepage marks the occasion of Earth Day. Most of the time, these interactive logos are a celebration of our planet and its ecosystems, but this year, after a particularly devastating international climate report, the Google Doodle has taken a stark turn. In 2018, the Earth Day doodle featured the

They help us put food on our tables through pollination and nutrient recycling. They break down and dispose of organic waste, and are food for many animals.  As renowned ecologist E.O. Wilson put it, “insects are the little things that run the world”. At least 87 of humanity’s major crops depend on them, but it’s

Clouds that form in the frosty air above Antarctica are different in the way that water and ice interact inside them, a new study reveals – and that in turn changes how much sunlight they reflect back into space, which is important for climate change models. Through a combination of modeling, satellite imagery and data

Despite accounting for only a small percentage of the world’s population, rich nations have a long history of over-extracting raw materials from the planet, and a new study highlights just how excessive and harmful this pattern of plunder really is. In an analysis looking back over almost 50 years of natural resource extraction across the

Humanity has less than three years to halt the rise of planet-warming carbon emissions and less than a decade to slash them by nearly half, UN climate experts said Monday, warning the world faced a last-gasp race to ensure a “livable future”. That daunting task is still – only just – possible, but current policies are leading

Most people have heard of a flash flood. ‘Flash droughts’, on the other hand, aren’t as familiar. Sadly, that may be about to change, as anomalous, sudden drought episodes are speeding up under the warmer conditions of climate change. A new analysis of flash droughts finds that droughts coming on suddenly seem to be striking

We know that global warming affects ocean currents in a variety of ways, but questions remain about exactly how this relationship works. A new study attempts to answer some of those questions. Scientists pored over data stretching back 66 million years over 293 sites, looking at gaps in sedimentary layers, known as hiatuses, to figure

National climate plans often fail to prioritize food systems, and a new report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food warns that’s a lost opportunity. If the world can change the way it produces, distributes, consumes, and disposes of food, estimates show we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10.3 billion

Our world is facing a huge challenge: we need to create enough high-quality, diverse and nutritious food to feed a growing population – and do so within the boundaries of our planet. This means significantly reducing the environmental impact of the global food system. There are more than 7,000 edible plant species which could be

Australia’s spectacular Great Barrier Reef is suffering “mass bleaching” as corals lose their color under the stress of warmer seas, authorities said Friday, in a blow widely blamed on climate change. The world’s largest coral reef system, stretching for more than 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) along the northeast coast of Australia, is showing the harmful

An Antarctic ice shelf larger than New York City – in an area previously thought to be stable – has collapsed. The shelf is relatively small, at 460 square miles, but its unexpected disintegration marks the first time in recorded history that East Antarctica has seen an ice shelf collapse, The Associated Press reported. “In this part

The United Nations said Wednesday it wanted the whole world covered by weather disaster early warning systems within five years to protect people from the worsening impacts of climate change. ​A third of the world’s people, mainly in the least-developed countries and developing small island states, are without early warning coverage, the UN said, with