In The Year 2080, Your City Will Feel Like It’s 500 Miles Away

When you’re older, your home town will feel different. That’s true for everybody. But for people living today, the changes will be impossible to ignore. We usually measure climate change in terms of rising temperatures. But scientists say there’s another way of thinking about it: spatial displacement.   In a study from 2019, researchers found … Read more

Russian gas: EU will cut Russian gas imports by two thirds in 2022

The EU launched a new energy strategy to reduce the use of Russian gas imports just as the UK announced it would phase out such imports, and the US imposed a ban as well Environment 8 March 2022 By Adam Vaughan Pipes at a gas treatment facility in Russia Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images The … Read more

Amazon Rainforest Nearing Tipping Point Faster Than Predicted, Scientists Warn

Hammered by climate change and relentless deforestation, the Amazon rainforest is losing its capacity to recover and could irretrievably transition into savannah, with dire consequences for the region and the world, according to a study published Monday.   Researchers warned that the results mean the Amazon could be approaching a so-called “tipping point” faster than … Read more

Extremely Hot, Humid Weather Could Kill a Person Far More Easily Than We Thought

The human body might not cope with nearly as much heat and humidity as theory predicts. One of the first studies to directly assess humid heat stress among young people has found that when humidity is at an absolute max, the upper limit of human adaptability is just 31°C (87 °F).   That’s four degrees … Read more

Satellites are critical to fighting the climate crisis, scientists say

Space remains a vital resource in studying climate change on our own planet. On Monday (Feb. 28), the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the second piece of its latest climate report. (The first piece was published in August 2021August and the third will be released in April). The report details how … Read more

Fix the Planet newsletter: 5 takeaways from the IPCC climate report

By Adam Vaughan People walking by the ruins of the village of Vilar PAULO NOVAIS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock This is Fix the Planet, the weekly climate change newsletter that reminds you there are reasons for hope in science and technology around the world. To receive it in your inbox, sign up here. It may have been overshadowed by Russia’s … Read more

Hurricanes: Climate change may mean Atlantic has fewer tropical storms

Global warming might increase the number of tropical cyclones in other parts of the world but reduce them in the Atlantic due to weakening circulation Environment 3 March 2022 By Michael Le Page Satellite image of large hurricanes brewing in the Atlantic Ocean NASA/Joshua Stevens   In parts of the world, tropical cyclones could become … Read more

News at a glance: Relaxed U.S. mask guidance, kids’ COVID-19 vaccine, and Facebook’s ‘F’ on climate misinformation | Science

COVID-19 CDC relaxes guidance on wearing masks in public The often-acrimonious U.S. debate over wearing masks entered a new phase last week when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) loosened its guidance and suggested about 70% of the population could jettison them. The turnabout comes as the Omicron wave ebbs and scientists consider … Read more

New ways to suck up methane can buy us vital time in the climate fight

Remove a billion tonnes of methane from the air and we could cool Earth by 0.2°C, extending the window of opportunity to remove carbon dioxide before it is too late Technology 2 March 2022 By Katharine Sanderson Graham Carter The warming of our planet is usually blamed on carbon dioxide, but there is another major … Read more

What Biden Said–and Didn’t Say–on Climate During the State of the Union

President Biden used his first State of the Union address to reset his administration after a year of inflation and crises at home and abroad that has left him with nearly record-low approval ratings. But Biden did little to restart his stalled climate agenda. He spoke only briefly about climate change—talking about it roughly as … Read more