The US is formally back in the Paris climate agreement as of today. As one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters, it has a lot of work to do, with food security, health and safety at stake.
Machines using giant fans and filters can literally suck carbon dioxide out of the air. Sounds great – but the technology faces many challenges.
Global fossil fuel emissions dropped by about seven per cent in 2020 compared with 2019. But a rebound is likely to occur when lockdowns ease up unless COVID-19 recovery packages focus on ‘green recovery.’
(AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Several countries have made pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero by mid-century. But new research finds the remaining carbon budget will be depleted before we get there.
Col de Port, in the French Pyrenees.
Author provided
We think of mountains as remote and little affected by human activity. Unfortunately, the negative impacts of what we do has important implications for nature, wildlife and human society.
Climate models are likely underestimating the true severity of future warming in urban areas.
In a year tied for the warmest on record globally, the U.S. was hit with costly hurricanes, wildfires, storms and drought.
AP Photo/Noah Berger and Gerald Herbert
NOAA released its list of climate and weather disasters that cost the nation more than $1 billion each. Like many climate and weather events this past year, it shattered the record.
Cities occupy just 3% of the Earth’s surface, yet more than half the world’s population live in urban environments. We need nation-wide plans to keep our cities cool so no one gets left behind.
Tim Breitbarth, Swinburne University of Technology; Adam Karg, Swinburne University of Technology, and Kasey Symons, Swinburne University of Technology
A person who exercises, attends sporting events as a spectator and takes their kids to the oval or swimming pool will create 935 kg of CO₂ per year if using their car.
A snowy start to the day at Watlington station, King’s Lynn. December 18 2009.
Lewis Collard/Wikipedia
Training neural networks burns through a lot of energy. As the AI field grows, it’s working to keep its carbon foot print from growing with it.
Even if every country meets its commitments, the world will still be on track to warm by more than 3 degrees Celsius this century, a new UNEP report shows.
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
As he reaches the end of his five-year term, Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel reflects on his proudest achievements in the role - and why the biggest projects have been the most unexpected.
Hurricanes Sally and Paulette, Tropical Depression Rene, and Tropical Storms Teddy and Vicky were all active on Sept. 14, 2020.
NOAA
There were so many tropical storms in 2020, forecasters exhausted the list of names and started using Greek letters. And that’s only one reason 2020 was extreme.
Even within a species, animals will suffer climate change differently. For sharks, it pays to live in warmer waters.
President-elect Joe Biden picked former Secretary of State John Kerry, shown with him in 2015, to be U.S. climate envoy in the next administration.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Choosing former Secretary of State John Kerry as climate envoy is the first step. To regain trust, the U.S. will also have to take concrete actions to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions.
Global economic support for COVID-19 relief is providing an opportunity to kick-start a shift toward a green future.
Maksim Chernyshev/EyeEm via Getty Images
Over US$12 trillion of COVID-19 relief has been promised. If a small portion was put toward economy-boosting green investments, the world could get on track to avoid the worst of climate change.
It’s high time the international shipping industry radically curbed its emissions. The industry must set a net-zero target and adopt a realistic plan to meet it.
The Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia. The sheer number of seracs gives the impression that the glacier’s surface is covered in dragon scales.
Olivier Dangles/IRD
Olivier Dangles, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
The parable of the dragons underlines the need to apprehend glacier disappearance in a transdisciplinary way, to create a dialogue between the physical, ecological and philosophical sciences.