Atmospheric methane levels surged in 2020, a new report from NOAA shows, accelerating an increasing trend, alarming scientists, and possibly auguring a vicious cycle of global heating. NOAA also announced global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are higher than at any point in the last 3.6 million years. “It is very scary indeed,” Euan Nisbet, professor […]
By Stuart Braun The melting of the polar ice caps has often been portrayed as a tsunami-inducing Armageddon in popular culture. In the 2004 disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow, the warming Gulf Stream and North Atlantic currents cause rapid polar melting. The result is a massive wall of ocean water that swamps New York […]
Scientists say the planet is facing its “sixth mass extinction” and human activity is to blame. But as ecosystems change at unprecedented rates, predicting what future life on Earth could look like may seem unimaginable. Understanding history’s worst mass extinction event could provide insight on what lies ahead — and offer a warning if global […]
By Gero Rueter Proven technologies for a net-zero energy system already largely exist today, according to a report published Tuesday by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The report predicts that renewable power, green hydrogen and modern bioenergy will shape the way we power the world in 2050. Adopting such solutions would set world leaders […]
The Amazon rainforest likely emits more greenhouse gases than it absorbs, a first-of-its-kind study has found. The study, published in Frontiers in Forests and Global Change on Thursday, is the first to consider emissions other than carbon dioxide, such as methane from floods and cattle, and black carbon from forest-clearing fires. “Cutting the forest is […]
Smoke from wildfires may be more harmful to public health than other sources of particulate matter air pollution, according to a new study. The research, published in Nature Communications on Friday, found that wildfire smoke could be up to 10 times more harmful than other sources of air pollution, such as from vehicles or industry. […]
Lockdown measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic had the added benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by around seven percent, or 2.6 billion metric tons, in 2020. This is the largest emissions reduction that has ever been recorded. But to reach the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to well below […]
By Brett Wilkins While some mainstream environmental organizations welcomed Tuesday’s introduction of the CLEAN Future Act in the House of Representatives, progressive green groups warned that the bill falls far short of what’s needed to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis—an existential threat they say calls for bolder action like the Green New Deal. The latest […]
As bitcoin’s fortunes and prominence rise, so do concerns about its environmental impact. The process of mining the cryptocurrency is enormously energy intensive, so much so that it consumes more electricity in a year than Argentina or the Ukraine, according to the latest data from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index. Its energy hunger even […]
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