The home-wrecking storms and floods that swept Europe last year affected 413,000 people, a report has found, as fossil fuel pollution forced the continent to suffer through its hottest year on…Continue readingDeadly floods and storms affected more than 400,000 people in Europe in 2024
Tag: warming
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Global Monitoring Laboratory on Monday released data showing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 3.75 parts per million in 2024. That…Continue readingIs the planet losing one of its best ways to slow climate change?
Nearly 2 million hectares of forests suitable for endangered koalas have been destroyed since the iconic species was declared a threatened species in 2011, according to analysis for Guardian Australia. The…Continue readingRevealed: nearly 2m hectares of koala habitat bulldozed since 2011 – despite political promises to protect species
A National Science and Technology Council and Ministry of Environment report projected that Taiwan could stop experiencing winters by 2060 due to climate change. Taiwan summers could extend to over 150…Continue readingClimate change could erase winters in Taiwan by 2060
The winter growth period for sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is now over, with levels at a record low. The winter ice extent on 21 March 2025 was lower than…Continue readingLowest levels on record for Arctic winter sea ice
The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate. The world…Continue readingClimate crisis on track to destroy capitalism, warns top insurer
The latest deadline for countries to submit plans for slashing the greenhouse gas emissions fueling climate change has passed. Only 15 countries met it—less than 8% of the 194 parties currently…Continue readingOnly 15 countries have met the latest Paris agreement deadline. Is any nation serious about tackling climate change?
Today, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published its annual State of the Climate report, which found heat records kept being broken in 2024. It’s likely 2024 was the first year to…Continue readingSahara flooding, Amazon tributaries drying, warming tipping over 1.5°C—2024 broke all the wrong records
The WMO’s report on 2024, the hottest year on record, sets out a trail of destruction from extreme weather that took lives, demolished buildings and ravaged vital crops. More than 800,000…Continue readingMore than 150 ‘unprecedented’ climate disasters struck world in 2024, says UN
The study, published in The Journal of Climate Change and Health, reveals alarmingly high levels of anxiety, depression, and hopelessness among adolescents in one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable regions. In…Continue readingClimate change fueling mental health crisis in areas most affected by climate crisis
The natural process of locking away carbon dioxide (CO2) appears to be in decline—and climate change will accelerate as a result, a University of Strathclyde study warns. Researchers found that the…Continue readingClimate change ‘will accelerate’ owing to decline in natural carbon storage, says study
The studies were conducted independently by researchers in Europe and Canada. They tackled the same basic question: is a year above 1.5°C global warming a warning sign that we’re already crossing…Continue readingEarth is already shooting through the 1.5°C global warming limit, two major studies show
Fires that have razed 90,000 hectares of Tasmanian wilderness, including parts of the famous Overland walking track, could burn for weeks as firefighters battle to contain blazes in remote terrain. By…Continue readingTasmania fires destroy huge swath of wilderness and could ‘burn for weeks’
For the past few years, scientists have watched, aghast, as global temperatures have surged — with both 2023 and 2024 reaching around 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial average. Two new…Continue readingScientists have a new explanation for the last two years of record heat
U.N. officials have for several years reminded countries of a crucial looming opportunity to improve the planet’s climate trajectory — by submitting new national-level plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The…Continue readingMost of the world’s big polluters just blew off a major climate deadline
Last month was the hottest January on record, blitzing the previous high and stunning climate scientists who expected cooler La Niña conditions to finally start quelling a long-running heat streak. The…Continue readingJanuary smashes heat record, surprising scientists
Greenland has been behind approximately 14 mm of sea level rise since 1992. This is due to increased melting from the ice surface in response to warmer air temperatures, and increased…Continue readingCracks in Greenland Ice Sheet grow more rapidly in response to climate change
Both the North and South Pole regions have warmed by some three degrees Celsius compared to late 19th-century levels, much faster than the global average. The US National Snow and Ice…Continue readingArctic sea ice levels second lowest on record for January
An international group of scientists, led by King’s College London, has revealed how continued global warming will lead to more parts of the planet becoming too hot for the human body…Continue readingHalf a degree rise in global warming will triple area of Earth too hot for humans
Temperatures at the north pole soared more than 20˚C above average on Sunday, crossing the threshold for ice to melt. Temperatures north of Svalbard in Norway had already risen to 18˚C…Continue readingTemperatures at north pole 20˚C above average and beyond ice melting point
The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said the international 2˚C limit is “dead”. A new analysis by Hansen and…Continue readingClimate change limit of +2˚C is ‘dead’, says renowned climate scientist
The UK is not prepared for the impact of climate breakdown, fire chiefs have said, as they called on the government to take urgent action to protect communities. It said fire…Continue readingFire chiefs warn UK is not prepared for climate crisis impacts
In North America and Europe, scientists have long warned bird numbers are falling. As cities and farms expand, forests around them become fragments, animal habitats shrink, pollution contaminates rivers, pesticides and…Continue readingIn the most untouched, pristine parts of the Amazon, birds are dying. Scientists may finally know why.
A third of the Arctic’s tundra, forests and wetlands have become a source of carbon emissions, a new study has found, as global heating ends thousands of years of carbon storage…Continue readingA third of the Arctic’s vast carbon sink now a source of emissions
The international team, led by Cardiff University researchers, show how southern migration of the westerly winds and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) towards the pole during periods of past global warming…Continue readingPast climate shifts altered Southern Ocean currents and carbon exchange: Study warns it may be happening again
Climate breakdown drove the annual global temperature above the internationally agreed 1.5˚C target for the first time last year, supercharging extreme weather and causing “misery to millions of people”. The average…Continue readingHottest year on record sent planet past 1.5˚C of heating for first time in 2024
The 2024 Global Water Monitor Report was produced by an international team of researchers from universities in Australia, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany and elsewhere. The team used data from thousands of…Continue readingClimate crisis ‘wreaking havoc’ on Earth’s water cycle
By David Spratt at Climate Code Red If an unexpected leap in the global average temperature in 2023 was described by one scientist as “gobsmackingly bananas”, are there even words to…Continue readingA(nother) year of scientific shock and awe
Texas and 10 other Republican-led states are suing BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard, alleging they conspired to curtail coal supplies to further “a destructive, politicised environmental agenda”. The federal antitrust lawsuit…Continue readingRepublican US states sue BlackRock for ‘destructive’ green agenda
Citigroup on Tuesday said it was quitting the world’s largest climate alliance for banks, the latest sign corporate America may retreat from climate goals during Donald Trump’s second term as US…Continue readingCiti says it will exit UN-backed global climate pact
The world has endured a “decade of deadly heat”, with 2024 capping 10 years of unprecedented temperatures, the UN has said. The UN’s climate and weather agency, the World Meteorological Organisation…Continue readingWorld endures ‘decade of deadly heat’ as 2024 caps hottest years on record
Before the two-year marine heat wave that ended in 2016, Alaska had an estimated 8 million common murres — a quarter of the world’s population — spread across abundant colonies in…Continue readingScientists just confirmed the largest bird-killing event in modern history
The Arctic tundra is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by frequent wildfires that are turning it into a net source of carbon dioxide emissions after millennia of acting as a carbon…Continue readingArctic tundra is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs
An area of land nearly a third larger than India has turned from humid conditions to dryland in the past three decades. Drylands are areas where 90% of the rainfall is…Continue readingDrylands now make up 40% of land on Earth, excluding Antarctica
A biologist at the University of Connecticut has found evidence that up to a third of all species alive today could go extinct by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions are not…Continue readingMeta-analysis of current global warming impacts suggests a third of all species could be extinct by 2100
Japan has recorded its warmest autumn since records began 126 years ago. “This year was 1.97 degrees Celsius higher than usual… making it the hottest autumn since 1898, when statistics began,”…Continue readingJapan witnesses warmest autumn on record
A new study led by researchers from ETH Zurich and Vrije Universiteit Brussel and published in The Cryosphere provides the most comprehensive projections to date, projecting the future of over 200,000…Continue readingGlobal glacier melt: Major mass loss expected by 2100
The research, led by the University of Bristol and published in Nature, compares for the first time how tiny ocean organisms called plankton responded when the world last warmed significantly in…Continue readingIce Age plankton model suggests sea life will struggle to survive future global warming
A new study published today in Nature Geoscience by Dr. Andrew Jarvis at Lancaster University and Professor Piers Forster at the University of Leeds shows that humans may have already caused…Continue readingHumans have already caused 1.5°C of long-term global warming according to new estimates
A distinguished international team of scientists on Tuesday issued the starkest warning yet that human activity is pushing Earth into a climate crisis that could threaten the lives of up to…Continue reading‘We Are Afraid’: Scientists Issue New Warning As World Enters ‘Uncharted Climate Territory’
All over Europe alarm bells are ringing over the state of winter snow sports and fears for the future. In France, the ski resorts of Alpe du Grand Serre and Grand…Continue readingFears for future of ski tourism as resorts adapt to thawing snow season
Only about one-third of Europe’s surface water is in good health or better, a report has found, despite an EU target first set for 2015 to bring all bodies of water…Continue readingOnly one-third of Europe’s surface water qualifies as good or better
More than half the world’s food production will be at risk of failure within the next 25 years as a rapidly accelerating water crisis grips the planet, unless urgent action is…Continue readingGlobal water crisis leaves half of world food production at risk in next 25 years
The overwhelming majority of young Americans worry about the climate crisis, and more than half say their concerns about the environment will affect where they decide to live and whether to…Continue readingOverwhelming majority of young Americans worry about climate crisis
Warm water fueled amazingly rapid intensification that took Milton from a minimal hurricane to a massive Category 5 in less than 10 hours. It weakened, but quickly bounced back, and when…Continue readingHere’s what has made Hurricane Milton so fierce and unusual
The Amazon rainforest could be reaching an irreversible tipping point beyond which it will decline until “we’re just left with scrub,” conservationists have warned. WWF’s biennial Living Planet report said the…Continue readingAmazon rainforest near tipping point partly driven by UK consumers, WWF says
We are seeing unprecedented rapidly intensifying tropical storms such as Hurricane Helene in the eastern United States and Super Typhoon Yagi in Vietnam. Unprecedented fires in Canada have destroyed towns. Unprecedented…Continue readingUnprecedented peril: Disaster lies ahead as we track towards 2.7°C of warming this century, researchers warn
Some kind of overshoot of 1.5˚C is increasingly being seen as inevitable by scientists and policymakers. This new study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, cautions against “overconfidence” in such a…Continue readingStudy warns of ‘irreversible’ climate impacts from overshooting 1.5˚C
An international coalition led by Oregon State University scientists concludes in its annual report published in BioScience that the Earth’s worsening vital signs indicate a “critical and unpredictable new phase of…Continue readingClimate report warns of escalating crisis, urges immediate action as UN summit nears
Many of Earth’s “vital signs” have hit record extremes, indicating that “the future of humanity hangs in the balance”, a group of the world’s most senior climate experts have said. More…Continue readingEarth’s ‘vital signs’ show humanity’s future in balance
A large French Alpine ski resort has announced it is to close, citing a lack of funds to become a year-round destination, as low- and medium-altitude mountain areas around Europe struggle…Continue readingLarge French Alpine ski resort to close in face of shrinking snow season
A report from the Environment Agency and Cefas shows Atlantic salmon stocks in England and Wales have dropped to their lowest level since records began in 1997. Once common across the…Continue readingSalmon numbers in England and Wales last year were lowest on record
Plant cover across the Antarctic peninsula has soared more than tenfold over the last few decades, as the climate crisis heats up the icy continent. Analysis of satellite data found there…Continue readingAntarctica is ‘greening’ at dramatic rate as climate heats
Wildfires are burning through the carbon budget that humans have allocated themselves to limit global heating, a study shows. The authors said this accelerating trend was approaching – and may have…Continue readingWildfires are burning through humanity’s carbon budget
A year ago, Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil’s top climate scientists, was a rare voice of optimism about the future of the planet. The 73-year-old, one of the top experts on…Continue readingFires taking Amazon closer to ‘point of no return’: Expert
Hurricane Helene’s death toll has surpassed 150 as searchers use helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hike through wilderness to reach isolated homes. Crews were still trudging through knee-deep muck…Continue readingMore than 150 dead after Hurricane Helene dumps over 40tn gallons of rain
In July 2024, global temperatures reached unprecedented levels, breaking historical records with an average of 17.16°C. This extreme heat has led soil water to evaporate, leaving the vegetation and biodiversity more…Continue readingGlobal drought threatens food supplies and energy production
Hurricane Helene caused deadly and destructive flooding when it swept through the Southeast on Sept. 26–29, 2024. Across a broad swath of western North Carolina, where the worst flooding occurred, the…Continue readingWhy are so many historically rare storms hitting the Carolinas?
A team of Earth scientists from the Center for Marine Environmental Studies, the University of Tokyo, The Australian National University, Matsuyama University, Kyoto University, and Shimane University, has found, via a…Continue readingNew assessment suggests Anthropocene started in the 1950s
The timeline, published Thursday in the journal Science, is the most rigorous reconstruction of Earth’s past temperatures ever produced, the authors say. It shows the intimate link between carbon dioxide and…Continue readingScientists have captured Earth’s climate over the last 485 million years. Here’s the surprising place we stand now.
Bureau of Meteorology data showed average temperatures across the nation in August were 3.03˚C above the long-term average, easily beating the previous 2.56˚C record set in 2009. The 2024 winter also…Continue readingAustralia sweats through hottest August on record with temperatures 3˚C above average
The time has come to accept that climate policy has failed, and that the 2015 landmark Paris agreement is dead. We let it die by pretending that we could both continue…Continue readingThe overshoot myth: you can’t keep burning fossil fuels and expect scientists of the future to get us back to 1.5°C
A world where global mean surface temperature has increased 3°C will be characterized by widespread and intense heat stress, extreme weather events, ruptured and unproductive marine and terrestrial ecosystems, broken food…Continue readingEarth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just & sustainable future
US oil and gas facilities are pumping out four times more planet-warming methane gas than estimated by regulators. Data published by the Environmental Defense Fund on Wednesday estimates leaks, flaring and…Continue readingUS emissions of planet-warming gas far exceed estimates
Global emissions of methane, a powerful planet-heating gas, are “rising rapidly” at the fastest rate in decades, requiring immediate action to help avert a dangerous escalation in the climate crisis, a…Continue readingGlobal methane emissions rising at fastest rate in decades
A combined team of Earth scientists and climate specialists at the University of California San Diego and the National Center for Atmospheric Research has found via modeling that geoengineering projects such…Continue readingMarine cloud brightening models show unexpected consequences of geoengineering
Constraining the relationship between temperature and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (pCO2) is essential to model near-future climate. Here, we reconstruct pCO2 values over the past 15 million years (Myr), providing…Continue readingContinuous sterane and phytane δ13C record reveals a substantial pCO2 decline since the mid-Miocene
Australians are among the most sceptical around the world that climate disruption is being caused by humans and that the costs of tackling it will be less than that of its…Continue readingOnly 60% of Australians accept climate disruption is human-caused, global poll finds
May 2024 was the warmest May on the books, marking a full year of record-high monthly temperatures, NASA scientists found. Average global temperatures for the past 12 months hit record highs…Continue readingNASA analysis confirms a year of monthly temperature records
A Northern California city council voted early Wednesday morning to cancel the nation’s first outdoor experiment into the potential to limit global warming by altering cloud behavior. The five-member Alameda City…Continue readingCalifornia city votes to block solar geoengineering experiment
Delhi city officials asked schools to shut with “immediate effect” due to the blistering heat, according to a government order quoted by the Hindustan Times Tuesday, cutting short the term by…Continue readingIndia shuts schools as temperatures soar
The air quality in San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, as been classified as the most polluted on the American continent due to forest fires and weather conditions aggravated…Continue readingHonduran city’s air pollution is almost 50 times higher than WHO guidelines
More than a third of the Amazon rainforest is struggling to recover from drought, according to a new study that warns of a “critical slowing down” of this globally important ecosystem.…Continue readingMore than third of Amazon rainforest struggling to recover from drought, study finds
It’s so hot in Mexico that howler monkeys are falling dead from the trees. At least 83 of the midsize primates, who are known for their roaring vocal calls, were found…Continue readingMonkeys ‘falling out of trees like apples’ in Mexico amid brutal heatwave
Migratory fish populations have crashed by more than 80% since 1970, new findings show. Populations are declining in all regions of the world, but it is happening fastest in South America…Continue readingMigratory freshwater fish populations ‘down by more than 80% since 1970’
Two Just Stop Oil protesters have smashed the glass around Magna Carta at the British Library. The Rev Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, a retired biology teacher, targeted the…Continue readingTwo Just Stop Oil protesters attack Magna Carta’s glass case
Hunger and disease are rising in Latin America after a year of record heat, floods and drought, a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has shown. The continent, which is…Continue readingDisease and hunger soar in Latin America after floods and drought, study finds
April was the Earth’s 11th consecutive month of record-breaking heat, with warmer weather already sweeping across Asia and a hotter-than-usual summer expected in Europe. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service…Continue readingWorld extends run of heat records for an 11th month in a row
“The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is hanging by a thread,” said the official spokesperson for António Guterres, the UN secretary general. “The battle to keep 1.5C alive will…Continue reading‘The stakes could not be higher’: world is on edge of climate abyss, UN warns
A massive new review of ancient atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels and corresponding temperatures lays out a daunting picture of where the Earth’s climate may be headed. The study covers geologic records spanning…Continue readingA New 66 Million-Year History of Carbon Dioxide Offers Little Comfort for Today
Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5˚C (4.5˚F) above preindustrial levels this century. Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative…Continue readingWorld’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5˚C target
The climate emergency is already here. Even just 1˚C of heating has supercharged the planet’s extreme weather, delivering searing heatwaves from the US to Europe to China that would have been…Continue reading‘Hopeless and broken’: why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair
In recent years, Antarctica has experienced a series of unprecedented heat waves. On 6 February 2020, temperatures of 18.3°C were recorded, the highest ever seen on the continent, beating the previous…Continue readingClimate change is speeding up in Antarctica
The annual State of the Climate report by the UN weather and climate agency confirmed preliminary data showing 2023 was by far the hottest year ever recorded. And last year capped…Continue readingPlanet ‘on the brink’, with new heat records likely in 2024: UN
England has experienced its wettest 18 months since records began in 1836, leaving farmers struggling to plant crops in waterlogged fields and transport networks disrupted by flooding. Climate change has exacerbated…Continue readingEngland drenched after the wettest 18 months since records began in 1836
Six leading international datasets used for monitoring global temperatures and consolidated by WMO show that the annual average global temperature was 1.45 ± 0.12 °C above pre-industrial levels (1850-1900) in 2023.…Continue readingWMO confirms that 2023 smashes global temperature record
Geologists on an international subcommission recently voted down a proposal to formally recognize that we have entered the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch representing the time when massive, unrelenting human impacts…Continue readingViewpoint: What the Anthropocene’s critics overlook, and why it really should be a new geological epoch
Months of record breaking temperatures and the El Niño weather phenomenon pushed the heating up of the world’s oceans to a new peak in February, scientists said. Oceans cover 70 percent…Continue readingCarbon emissions and El Nino push oceans to record temperatures