A new and worrying way that large ice sheets can melt has been characterized by scientists for the first time. The research focuses on how relatively warm seawater can lap at…Continue readingNew tipping point discovered beneath the Antarctic ice sheet
Tag: climate impact
At least 97% of corals on a reef in the Great Barrier Reef’s north died during one of the worst coral bleaching events the world’s biggest reef system has ever seen,…Continue reading‘Most of it was dead’: scientists discover one of Great Barrier Reef’s worst coral bleaching events
The frequency and intensity of extreme wildfires has more than doubled worldwide over the past two decades as human activity has warmed the planet. The intensity of the 20 most extreme…Continue readingExtreme wildfires doubled over past two decades: Study
Regional authorities in Brazil on Monday declared a state of emergency as the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands, faces “out of control fires,” according to a decree. The surge of…Continue reading‘Out of control fires’ in Brazil wetlands spark state of emergency
Local sea level has risen about a foot in the last 80 years, with 8 inches of that total in the last 30 years, the Herald reported in May. The second…Continue readingRemember they said Miami would be under water? A preview of the future
Government scientists say rising seas driven by climate change are drowning Bangladesh’s densely populated coast at one of the fastest global rates, and at least a million people on the coast…Continue readingSea swamps Bangladesh at one of world’s fastest rates
May 2024 was the warmest May on the books, marking a full year of record-high monthly temperatures, NASA scientists found. Average global temperatures for the past 12 months hit record highs…Continue readingNASA analysis confirms a year of monthly temperature records
Exposure to extreme weather events can make people more aware of environmental changes; however, it remains unclear how such events influence politicians’ behaviour. Combining supervised learning algorithms on over 260,000 press…Continue readingExtreme weather events do not increase political parties’ environmental attention
Authorities in India are investigating whether a faulty sensor may have been behind a reading that showed temperatures in Delhi soaring past 50 degrees for the first time, amid a scorching…Continue readingDelhi heatwave: officials investigating if temperature of 52.9˚C due to faulty sensor
Bangladeshi weather experts said Tuesday that a deadly cyclone that carved a swath of destruction was one of the quickest-forming and longest-lasting they’d experienced, blaming climate change for the shift. Cyclone…Continue readingDeadly Bangladesh cyclone one of longest seen
Waves wash over abandoned homes in a Mexican village slowly being swallowed by the sea—a symbol of the climate change effects being felt by the major fossil fuel producer. The school…Continue readingSubmerged homes, heat waves fuel Mexico climate angst
A study conducted by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil and reported in an article published in Nature Communications shows that the Cerrado, Brazil’s savanna biome, is…Continue readingDrought in the Brazil’s Cerrado is the worst for at least seven centuries, study shows
Dozens of rivers and streams in Alaska are turning rusty orange, a likely consequence of thawing permafrost, a new study finds. The Arctic is the fastest-warming region in the globe, and…Continue readingWarming climate is turning rivers rusty with toxic metals
Mountain rivers in the US state of Colorado are going rusty and the warming climate is to blame, according to research. An increase in toxic heavy metals has also been observed…Continue readingWarming climate is turning rivers rusty with toxic metals
The seemingly “never-ending” rain last autumn and winter in the UK and Ireland was made 10 times more likely and 20% wetter by human-caused global heating, a study has found. More…Continue reading‘Never-ending’ UK rain made 10 times more likely by climate crisis, study says
Rangelands cover 80 million square kilometers—more than half the land surface of earth. Mostly natural grasslands used by livestock and wild animals to graze, they also include scrubland, mountain plateaus, deserts…Continue readingDemise of rangelands ‘severely underestimated’: Report
In the last 80 years, sea level rise has risen about a foot, with 8 inches of that total in the last 30 years, said Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate…Continue readingSea levels are starting to rise faster: Here’s how much South Florida is expecting
Delhi city officials asked schools to shut with “immediate effect” due to the blistering heat, according to a government order quoted by the Hindustan Times Tuesday, cutting short the term by…Continue readingIndia shuts schools as temperatures soar
More than a third of the Amazon rainforest is struggling to recover from drought, according to a new study that warns of a “critical slowing down” of this globally important ecosystem.…Continue readingMore than third of Amazon rainforest struggling to recover from drought, study finds
It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees. At least 83 of the midsize primates, who are known for their roaring vocal calls, were found…Continue readingMonkeys ‘falling out of trees like apples’ in Mexico amid brutal heatwave
Today’s rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase is 10 times faster than at any other point in the past 50,000 years. Previous research showed that during the last ice age, which…Continue readingChemical analysis of natural CO₂ rise over the last 50,000 years shows that today’s rate is 10 times faster
Hunger and disease are rising in Latin America after a year of record heat, floods and drought, a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown. The continent, which is…Continue readingDisease and hunger soar in Latin America after floods and drought, study finds
April was the Earth’s 11th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, with warmer weather already sweeping across Asia and a hotter-than-usual summer expected in Europe. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service…Continue readingWorld extends run of heat records for an 11th month in a row
“The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is hanging by a thread,” said the official spokesperson for António Guterres, the UN secretary general. “The battle to keep 1.5C alive will…Continue reading‘The stakes could not be higher’: world is on edge of climate abyss, UN warns
A massive new review of ancient atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels and corresponding temperatures lays out a daunting picture of where the Earth’s climate may be headed. The study covers geologic records spanning…Continue readingA New 66 Million-Year History of Carbon Dioxide Offers Little Comfort for Today
The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas…Continue readingRecord-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere
Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5˚C (4.5˚F) above preindustrial levels this century. Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative…Continue readingWorld’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5˚C target
The climate emergency is already here. Even just 1˚C of heating has supercharged the planet’s extreme weather, delivering searing heatwaves from the US to Europe to China that would have been…Continue reading‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair
Firefighters and local residents battled a massive wildfire on the outskirts of Nepal’s capital Thursday as the Himalayan republic endures a severe fire season authorities have blamed on a heat wave.…Continue readingNepal battles raging wildfires across the country
Pakistan has experienced its “wettest April since 1961”, receiving more than twice as much rain as usual for the month, the country’s weather agency has said. April rainfall was recorded at…Continue readingPakistan records ‘wettest April’ in more than 60 years
Overpowering floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains are continuing to sweep southern Brazil, killing at least 56 people and forcing tens of thousands out of their homes, the government said.…Continue reading‘It’s going to be worse’: Brazil braces for more pain amid record flooding
California in North America has ended up being at the frontline of the climate crisis in recent years, lurching between extreme drought and excessive rain. To understand what might have triggered…Continue readingWhat’s driving California’s extreme weather?
A new study presents the first large-scale analysis of fire patterns in West and Central Africa’s wet, tropical forests. The number of active fires there typically doubled over 18 years, particularly…Continue readingWildfires in wet African forests have doubled in recent decades, large-scale analysis finds
Extreme heat has gripped much of south and south-east Asia over recent weeks, killing dozens of people, forcing millions of students to miss school and destroying crops. In Thailand, at least…Continue reading‘Inside an oven’: sweltering heat ravages crops and takes lives in south-east Asia
The gentle roar of the ocean lulled Indian mother-of-two Banita Behra to sleep each night, until one day the encroaching tide reached her doorstep. Behra is among hundreds of people from…Continue readingThe Indian villagers who lost their homes to the sea
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet has been losing mass in recent decades, contributing to global sea level rise. If it were to melt entirely, global sea levels would rise by around…Continue readingFeedback loop that is melting ice shelves in West Antarctica revealed
Europeans are suffering with unprecedented heat during the day and are stressed by uncomfortable warmth at night. The death rate from hot weather has risen 30% in Europe in two decades,…Continue readingEurope baked in ‘extreme heat stress’ pushing temperatures to record highs
In past bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef, the southern region has sometimes been spared worst of the bleaching. Not this time. This year’s intense underwater heat has triggered the…Continue readingMore than coral: The unseen casualties of record-breaking heat on the Great Barrier Reef
From April 1 to April 5, temperatures in Mali exceeded 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) and peaked at a record 48.5˚C in the western city of Kayes. Ranked among the…Continue readingMalians struggle to cope after deadly heat wave
Trees more than a century old are barely alive. Some of these giant jarrahs might survive, but some won’t. It’s a scene that’s being replicated in forests and coastal shrublands spanning…Continue readingWestern Australia’s eucalypt forests fade to brown as century-old giant jarrahs die in heat and drought
The UK faces food shortages and price rises as extreme weather linked to climate breakdown causes low yields on farms locally and abroad. Record rainfall has meant farmers in many parts…Continue readingUK facing food shortages and price rises after extreme weather
The deadly protracted heatwave that filled hospitals and mortuaries in the Sahel region of Africa earlier this month would have been impossible without human-caused climate disruption, a new analysis has revealed.…Continue readingLethal heatwave in Sahel worsened by fossil fuel burning
At least 65 people have died in storm-related incidents including lightning in Pakistan, officials said, with rain so far in April falling at nearly twice the historical average rate. “In April,…Continue readingLightning, downpours kill 65 in Pakistan, as April rain doubles historical average
Huge tailbacks snaked along six-lane expressways after up to 254 millimeters of rain—about two years’ worth—fell on the desert United Arab Emirates on Tuesday. The storms hit the UAE and Bahrain…Continue readingDubai reels from floods chaos after record rains
Global heating has pushed the world’s coral reefs to a fourth planet-wide mass bleaching event that is on track to be the most extensive on record, US government scientists have confirmed.…Continue readingGlobal heating pushes coral reefs towards worst planet-wide mass bleaching on record
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which stretches for some 2,300km (1,429 miles) off the country’s northeastern coast, is suffering its worst bleaching event on record. The extent of the bleaching was revealed…Continue readingAustralia’s Great Barrier Reef suffers worst bleaching on record
The levels of the crucial heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere reached historic highs last year, growing at near-record fast paces, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Carbon dioxide,…Continue readingHeat-trapping carbon dioxide and methane levels in the air last year spiked to record highs again
Thousands of schools in the Philippines have stopped in-person classes due to unbearable heat. In Indonesia, prolonged dry weather has caused rice prices to soar. In Thailand’s waters, temperatures are so…Continue readingSchools close and crops wither as ‘historic’ heatwave hits south-east Asia
On 18 March, 2022, scientists at the Concordia research station on the east Antarctic plateau documented a remarkable event. They recorded the largest jump in temperature ever measured at a meteorological…Continue reading‘Simply mind-boggling’: world record temperature jump in Antarctic raises fears of catastrophe
A searing heatwave that struck west Africa in February was made 4˚C hotter and 10x more likely by human-caused global heating, a study has found. The heat affected millions of people…Continue readingWest Africa heatwave was supercharged by climate crisis
In recent years, Antarctica has experienced a series of unprecedented heat waves. On 6 February 2020, temperatures of 18.3°C were recorded, the highest ever seen on the continent, beating the previous…Continue readingClimate change is speeding up in Antarctica
The annual State of the Climate report by the UN weather and climate agency confirmed preliminary data showing 2023 was by far the hottest year ever recorded. And last year capped…Continue readingPlanet ‘on the brink’, with new heat records likely in 2024: UN
On the border with New Hampshire and Massachusetts – about 35 miles north of Boston – is Salisbury, a coastal town and popular summer destination for tourists. But for those who…Continue readingMassachusetts town grapples with sea rise after sand barrier fails
England has experienced its wettest 18 months since records began in 1836, leaving farmers struggling to plant crops in waterlogged fields and transport networks disrupted by flooding. Climate change has exacerbated…Continue readingEngland drenched after the wettest 18 months since records began in 1836
Six leading international datasets used for monitoring global temperatures and consolidated by WMO show that the annual average global temperature was 1.45 ± 0.12 °C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) in 2023.…Continue readingWMO confirms that 2023 smashes global temperature record
Geologists on an international subcommission recently voted down a proposal to formally recognize that we have entered the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch representing the time when massive, unrelenting human impacts…Continue readingViewpoint: What the Anthropocene’s critics overlook, and why it really should be a new geological epoch
A skeleton lies exposed to the elements as turquoise Caribbean waters lap the shores near a shattered tomb—a grisly reminder that the Colombian city of Cartagena is slowly being swallowed by…Continue readingColombia’s Caribbean jewel slowly sinking as sea waters rise
Rain used to be rare in most parts of the Arctic: the polar regions were, and still are, usually too cold and dry for clouds to form and absorb moisture. When…Continue readingRain Comes to the Arctic, With a Cascade of Troubling Changes
The temperature was minus 45 degrees F when Uuganaa, a 27-year-old nomad with a wife and two children, woke to the howling winds outside his “ger,” a felt-covered traditional Mongolian dwelling.…Continue readingIn Mongolia, a Killer Winter Is Ravaging Herds and a Way of Life
Months of record breaking temperatures and the El Niño weather phenomenon pushed the heating up of the world’s oceans to a new peak in February, scientists said. Oceans cover 70 percent…Continue readingCarbon emissions and El Nino push oceans to record temperatures
The Great Barrier Reef is in the grip of a mass coral bleaching event driven by global heating – the fifth in only eight years – the marine park’s government authority…Continue readingFifth mass coral bleaching event in eight years hits Great Barrier Reef, marine park authority confirms
The quest to declare the Anthropocene an official geological epoch has descended into an epic row, after the validity of a leaked vote that apparently killed the proposal was questioned. The…Continue readingQuest to declare Anthropocene an epoch descends into epic row
Many traditional Malaysian fishermen have found themselves increasingly affected by the climate crisis, which is changing weather patterns that have long governed when and where they can fish. Such fishermen are…Continue readingClimate change pushes Malaysia’s coastal fishermen away from the sea
In January, the average temperature hit a record, “exceeding 3.8C (38.8F) above normal for the period 1991-2020,” said Houcine Youaabed, the head of communications for the meteorological department. It is the…Continue readingMorocco winter breaks heat records
There’s enough water frozen in Greenland and Antarctic glaciers that if they melted, global seas would rise by many feet. What will happen to these glaciers over the coming decades is…Continue readingAn 80-mph (129kph) speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse
While ice cover across the Great Lakes – a network of five freshwater lakes about the size of the United Kingdom – has been declining since the early 1970s, this year…Continue readingVanishing ice and snow: record warm winter wreaks havoc across US midwest
Dr Stuart Rowland, a retired principal research scientist who worked for NSW Fisheries for 36 years and remains a mentor to scientists in the agency, says there is a conflict within…Continue reading‘The river has been destroyed’: expert says agriculture has overshadowed science in the Murray-Darling Basin
A blanket of smog covers Milan, empty reservoirs bake in Sicily and wine production is down in Piedmont as a lack of rain across Italy exacerbates pollution and sparks droughts. Gas-guzzling…Continue readingLack of rain leaves Italy gasping
Ocean currents are driven by winds, tides and water density differences. In the Atlantic Ocean circulation, the relatively warm and salty surface water near the equator flows toward Greenland. During its…Continue readingOnce melting glaciers shut down the Gulf Stream, we will see extreme climate change within decades
The European Drought Observatory’s map of current droughts in Europe shows the entire Spanish Mediterranean coast in bad shape, with red areas indicating an alert similar to those in north Africa…Continue readingWhat will Spain look like when it runs out of water? Barcelona is giving us a glimpse
Greenland is part of the Arctic region. It is the world’s biggest island, around 836,330 sq miles in size (2.1 million sq km). Most of the land is covered by ice…Continue readingGreenland’s ice sheet is melting and being replaced by vegetation
The Amazon rainforest could approach a tipping point, which could lead to a large-scale collapse with serious implications for the global climate system. A new Nature study by an international research…Continue readingAmazon rainforest at a critical threshold: Loss of forest worsens climate change
The devastating drought in the Amazon River Basin that reported in October has continued into Northern Hemisphere winter, which is the heart of the wet season in the southern part of…Continue readingWhat’s causing the Amazon’s ongoing record drought?
AMOC, which encompasses part of the Gulf Stream and other powerful currents, is a marine conveyer belt that carries heat, carbon and nutrients from the tropics towards the Arctic Circle, where…Continue readingAtlantic Ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ tipping point
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have uncovered the first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the end of…Continue readingIce cores provide first documentation of rapid Antarctic ice loss in the past
The new chief of the World Meteorological Organization said it looks to her that the rate of human-caused climate change is accelerating and that warming has triggered more Arctic cold outbreaks…Continue readingNew UN weather agency chief says rate of global warming is speeding up
Limiting average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels has been the gold standard for climate action since at least the 2015 Paris Agreement. A…Continue readingNew study says the world blew past 1.5˚C four years ago
There’s no precedent in at least five centuries for how hot and dry the West has been in the last two decades, new research asserts using analysis of tree rings. The…Continue readingUS West’s ‘hot drought’ is unprecedented in more than 500 years
Chile began two days of national mourning Monday for at least 122 victims of a raging wildfire, as the search continued for the missing and survivors picked through the scorched remains…Continue readingChile mourns 122 killed in wildfire inferno, searches for missing
In a warming climate, meltwater from Antarctica is expected to contribute significantly to rising seas. For the most part, though, research has been focused on West Antarctica, in places like the…Continue readingCurrently stable parts of East Antarctica may be closer to melting than anyone has realized
The global mean temperature in September 2023 was 0.93° C warmer than the 1991–2020 average, breaking the previous record set in 2020 by a margin of 0.5° C. This was the…Continue readingThe jump in global temperatures in September 2023 is difficult to explain by natural climate variability alone
Through the process of photosynthesis, trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere to produce new growth. Yet, under stressful conditions, trees release CO2 back to the atmosphere, a process called photorespiration. With…Continue readingTrees struggle to ‘breathe’ as climate warms
The world’s main system for warning about heat stress on the planet’s coral reefs has been forced to add three new alert categories to represent ever-increasing temperature extremes. Underlying the warning…Continue reading‘Literally off the charts’: global coral reef heat stress monitor forced to add new alerts as temperatures rise
The World Meteorological Organisation confirmed on Tuesday that continental Europe recorded in 2021 its highest ever temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 Fahrenheit), and warned that new extremes were expected. The…Continue readingUN confirms Europe hit record high temperature in 2021
Located in West Bengal state in eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh, the Sundarbans forest system is a cluster of low-lying islands and represents the largest mangrove ecosystem in the world. It…Continue readingThe Sundarbans dilemma: Islands swallowed by water, and nowhere else to go
The climate crisis turned the drought that struck the Amazon rainforest in 2023 into a devastating event, a study has found. The drought was the worst recorded in many places and…Continue readingDevastating drought in Amazon result of climate crisis
Rainfall has been lower than the average in Catalonia for the past three years, with the drought lasting more than twice as long as the previous dry spell of 2008, the…Continue readingHeavens remain shut over Catalonia as three-year drought persists
“Chronic arsenic poisoning from drinking water … is a real problem, not a theoretical exercise,” said the lead researcher, Dr Seth Frisbie, an emeritus professor of chemistry at Norwich University, in…Continue readingClimate crisis to increase cancer risk for tens of millions of people in Bangladesh