The ability of governments to implement climate policies effectively is the “most important” factor in the feasibility of limiting global warming to 1.5C, a new study says. By Ayesha Tanedon Carbon Brief The future warming pathways used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggest that holding warming to 1.5C is unlikely, but still possible, when considering the […]
You’ve probably heard people say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” There’s a lot of truth to that phrase, and it’s important to understand it as summer temperatures rise. Humidity doesn’t just make you feel sticky and uncomfortable – it also creates extra dangerous conditions on hot days. Together, too much heat and humidity […]
There’s an old joke about the fellow who has his left foot in a bucket of ice water and the right in a bucket of hot water, so that his overall temperature is average. That seems to apply to the climate during 2022’s northern summer of extremes: Overall, the planet was tied for only the […]
I’m standing at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, mesmerized by a mind-blowing scene of natural destruction. A milewide section of glacier front has fractured and is collapsing into the ocean, calving an immense iceberg. By Alun Hubbard, University of Tromsø The Conversation Seracs, giant columns of ice the height of three-story houses, are […]
Globally, July 2022 was the sixth-warmest July in the 143-year NOAA record. The year-to-date (January-July) global surface temperature was also the sixth-warmest on record. According to NCEI’s Global Annual Temperature Outlook, there is a greater than 99% chance that 2022 will rank among the 10-warmest years on record but only an 11% chance that it […]
The Earth is approximately 1.1℃ warmer than it was at the start of the industrial revolution. That warming has not been uniform, with some regions warming at a far greater pace. One such region is the Arctic. A new study shows that the Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the […]
Global warming doesn’t stop on a dime. If people everywhere stopped burning fossil fuels tomorrow, stored heat would still continue to warm the atmosphere. Richard B. (Ricky) Rood, University of Michigan The Conversation Picture how a radiator heats a home. Water is heated by a boiler, and the hot water circulates through pipes and radiators […]
A heat dome occurs when a persistent region of high pressure traps heat over an area. The heat dome can stretch over several states and linger for days to weeks, leaving the people, crops and animals below to suffer through stagnant, hot air that can feel like an oven. By William Gallus, Iowa State University […]
Flying over Antarctica, it’s hard to see what all the fuss is about. Like a gigantic wedding cake, the frosting of snow on top of the world’s largest ice sheet looks smooth and unblemished, beautiful and perfectly white. Little swirls of snow dunes cover the surface. Ted Scambos, University of Colorado Boulder The Conversation But […]
In 1938, a British engineer and amateur meteorologist made a discovery that set off a fierce debate about climate change. Scientists had known for decades that carbon dioxide could trap heat and warm the planet. But Guy Callendar was the first to connect human activities to global warming. By Sylvia G. Dee, Rice University The […]
The year 2021 will likely be one of the worst for glaciers in southern British Columbia, Alberta, Washington and Montana. Brian Menounos, University of Northern British Columbia The Conversation It started out OK. A weak La Niña arrived in the fall of 2020 and continued through the winter. La Niñas tend to favour cool conditions […]
The Arctic has long been portrayed as a distant end-of-the-Earth place, disconnected from everyday common experience. But as the planet rapidly warms, what happens in this icy region, where temperatures are rising twice as fast as the rest of the globe, increasingly affects lives around the world. Matthew Druckenmiller, University of Colorado Boulder; Rick Thoman, […]
The Arctic is often thought of as a cold, white and snowy region, but this image is rapidly changing. The Arctic is currently warming much faster than the rest of the planet and is experiencing rapid sea ice loss. Michelle McCrystall, University of Manitoba The Conversation As a climate scientist and modeller, I am interested […]
Fig. 1. Left: monthly global temperature anomalies. Right: Nino 3.4 temperature anomaly for past six years and 8 months, and NCEP forecast (green line). By Dr James Hansen and Dr Makiko Sato First the good news: NOAA’s newest prediction for the tropics has a deeper La Nina (Fig. 1, Right), which should keep global temperature […]
The Chagos Archipelago is one of the most remote, seemingly idyllic places on Earth. Coconut-covered sandy beaches with incredible bird life rim tropical islands in the Indian Ocean, hundreds of miles from any continent. Just below the waves, coral reefs stretch for miles along an underwater mountain chain. By Sam Purkis, University of Miami The […]