During ice ages, ice sheets like the one in Greenland have covered much of Earth’s surface.
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The Earth has had at least five major ice ages, and humans showed up in time for the most recent one. In fact, we’re still in it.
NASA
Global warming is changing the high-altitude autumn winds over southeast Australia, which means less rain and trouble for air travel.
Jason O'Brien / AAP
One weather configuration has been responsible for record-breaking downpours in Australia, South America, and South Africa this year.
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Even some climate change scientists who sit on the IPCC think the organisation needs a rethink.
Jason O'Brien / AAP
When bad weather stops moving, the outlook can get dire for the areas in its path.
Weather and climate extremes are already here, and communities will have to adapt.
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An author of the report explains the damaging effects climate change is already having and why adaptation is essential.
Kev Gregory
Spoiler: lots more floods.
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Climate models from the 1970s and 80s stand up incredibly well when compared with actual warming trends.
Deforestation in Sierra Leone, 2013.
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This increases the risk of disastrous flash flooding in the region’s coastal cities.
Carla, a climate researcher photographed for one of the projects, says: “No, I don’t feel hope. I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel.”
Neal Haddaway
Scientists experience diverse, complex, and often contrasting emotions about the fate of the planet.
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We simulated the desert planet to find out.
A rainy day in Baffin Island, northern Canada.
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Some Arctic regions will see more rain than snow decades earlier than previously thought, say scientists.
Closing time at COP26.
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Yes COP26 fell short, but we still have reasonable odds of limiting global warming to 2°C.
Grayson Cooke
Clouds are central players in climate change, and ‘Path 99’ reveals them in a new light using data discarded by scientists.
A small increase in average temperature means a much bigger increase in the risk of severe droughts.
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Many scientists now think 3°C of warming is likely.
The near future may be similar to the mid-Pliocene warm period a few million years ago.
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What climate changes in the distant past can tell us about the near future.
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Is Dune scientifically plausible? We ran a climate model to find out.
Syukuro Manabe and his colleague Joseph Smagorinsky in 1972.
Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Labor / EPA
A 1967 study by Nobel-winner Syukuro Manabe changed climate science forever
The Earth’s weather and climate interactions form one of the most complex systems imaginable.
NASA/Joshua Stevens/Earth Observatory via Flickr
Modern climate and weather models can predict what the weather will be next week and what the climate may be in 100 years. They would not exist without Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi.
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Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann have won the Nobel prize in physics for their climate modelling research.
The aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Barataria, Louisiana, US.
EPA-EFE/Dan Anderson
Rapid attribution studies reveal climate change’s influence on the weather, but they’re expensive and time-consuming.
Climate change made the devastating flooding in Belgium, Germany and other European countries in July 2021 more likely.
Anthony Dehez/Belga/AFP via Getty Images
A new attribution study finds human-caused climate change made Europe’s July floods more likely. What about Tennessee’s flooding? An atmospheric scientist explains how scientists make the connection.
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IPCC reports are often used as legal tool for bringing the powerful to account. And the more Australia’s governments and businesses lag on climate change, the more litigation we’re likely to see.
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IPCC authors go beyond the headlines to explain how 1.5°C warming is measured – and why there’s still reason to hope, and act, if Earth exceeds that limit.
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Nerilie Abram , Australian National University ; Andrew King , The University of Melbourne ; Andy Pitman , UNSW Sydney ; Christian Jakob , Monash University ; Julie Arblaster , Monash University ; Lisa Alexander , UNSW Sydney ; Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick , UNSW Sydney ; Shayne McGregor , Monash University , and Steven Sherwood , UNSW Sydney
An article in the eminent US magazine Science has triggered debate over whether scientists should use climate models. Here’s what you should know about climate models ahead of today’s IPCC report.