‘Techno-optimism’ may lead to reliance on unproven solutions at expense of societal changes needed

Back in 2022 I wrote about the long-term prospects for undoing Brexit and made two predictions.

Clean energy does not simply “add to” global energy use; it displaces fossil sources that would otherwise get built.

The injection of thermal energy comes amid an increasing rise in sea levels and continuing acidification

A leading U.S. climate researcher said Wednesday the world has a 10-year window of opportunity to take decisive action on global warming and avert a catastrophe.

Buy a cheap copy of Humanity's Moment: A Climate Scientist's... book by Joëlle Gergis. When climate scientist Jo lle Gergis set to work on the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ...

Global heating contributes to record, with a warmer atmosphere able to hold more water, scientists say

The strongest heat dome on the planet will soon tower 3.7 miles above Tennessee, drawing extreme heat and humidity into the central United States from the Gulf of Mexico.

Disentangling aerosol unmasking from cloud feedbacks in the CERES satellite record and what a darker Earth means for accelerating warming and the Solar Geoengineering debate.

More water vapor means more rocket fuel for extreme rain — so this record is not good news

Those who caused the climate crisis should help Africa harness its wind and sun, says Vanessa Nakate, a UN Unicef goodwill ambassador climate activist

Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, has emerged as a major force in UK politics in recent years – pushing…

Exclusive: Survey of hundreds of experts reveals harrowing picture of future, but they warn climate fight must not be abandoned

Rising global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels are transforming the world’s forests, wetlands and tundra to the point they are releasing emissions that could further worsen global heating by as much as 30%, a new study has found. As the world heats up, permafrost in the high latitudes is thawing, fiercer wildfires are burning in drying forests and wetlands and lakes are warming. All of these changes are themselves causing the release of planet-heating methane and carbon dioxide locked in trees and soils, therefore worsening the climate crisis, the paper states. While scientists have long known of these “feedback loops” that amplify the impact of direct pollution from burning coal, oil and gas, the emissions from natural sources are largely unaccounted for in climate projections. This additional heating is however significant, researchers found, with emissions from natural sources set to amplify global heating by 20% to 30% by the end of this century. This would add an estimated 0.2C to 0.4C to the global average temperature by this time, depending on the overall action taken by countries to combat the climate crisis. Even small fractions of temperature change across the global climate can greatly change the risk...

Green leader says ministers must stop ‘hiding the truth’ about threat to UK security from climate and nature crisis

Saline lakes are a diverse group of ecosystems that account for over 45% of the global lake water volume and 23% of global lake surface area1. Their high environmental diversity is partly rooted in the wide spectrum of salinities, ranging from brackish ecosystems (saline lakes are here defined2 as those with a salinity of > 1 g L−1) to saturated brines with ten times higher salt concentrations than oceans3. The often-unique character of individual lakes further emerges from differences in ion composition, extent of lake level variation, and desiccation frequency, which can be key factors shaping lake communities4,5,6. The vast majority of saline lakes, nonetheless, share a common denominator – a high sensitivity to climate and land-use changes in their catchment7 that turns them into sentinels of global and local environmental change8. The main reason for their sensitivity, which causes saline lakes to rank among the most threatened ecosystem types worldwide, is that nearly all saline lakes are terminal systems with no surface outflow9. Hence, lake water levels depend on a sensitive balance between water inflows and evaporation10. This sensitivity does not only drive large natural inter- and intra-annual variations in lake water levels, which can even cause seasonal desiccation,...

Record-shattering global temperatures across land and sea are the grim reality of climate crisis, and the reason we need an immediate transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energies.