About 50 million years ago, Earth experienced its warmest climate since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Global temperatures were more than 10°C higher than today, and atmospheric CO₂ concentrations reached around 1,600 parts per million. But what kept CO₂ levels so extraordinarily high for millions of years? An…
The year 2026 continues the protracted streak of exceptional global temperatures, melting ice and rising sea levels, with a very strong El Niño event set to unleash even more heat and extreme weather well into 2027, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). It highlights the knock-on…
A new study reveals a troubling consequence of climate change: Even as rainfall decreases, cities could face increasingly severe flooding. The study was led by Ph.D. student Raz Nussbaum and co-authored by Dr. Moshe Armon and supervised by professor Efrat Morin from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Satellite technology can increasingly track vessels across the world's oceans and has the ability to detect industrial fishing inside marine protected areas (MPAs). But new research has suggested that regulations governing these often vulnerable parts of our planet could be preventing global authorities from turning…
Geologists have uncovered new evidence that dramatic sea-level changes carved giant underwater canyons in South Australia's Flinders Ranges hundreds of millions of years ago, helping to create conditions that preserved some of the earliest complex life on Earth. The findings, led by Adelaide University, shed new light…
The COP31 climate talks kicked off Monday with an early fight over money as the U.N.'s chief urged world leaders to "get serious" about tackling the crisis after a year of devastating weather extremes.
On the outskirts of India's capital, a short motorbike ride through the urban area with the world's worst air pollution leaves salesman Kanwar Singh coated in toxic dust.
Researchers at the University of Tokyo have used a new type of radiocarbon analysis to study a sediment core taken from the Kumano Sea off the coast of Japan. This has revealed multiple "hidden" traces of previously unknown earthquakes in the Nankai Trough, where the country's next megaquake is expected to occur…
Glaciers are often thought of as unyielding blocks of ice that slowly carve out the landscape as they move downhill by gravity. But sometimes their slow crawl becomes a surge that sees them move orders of magnitude faster than their usual speed.
Humans collectively produce more than 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually just by turning food into energy, a 74% increase over three decades largely driven by population growth. Unlike fossil fuel emissions, however, the CO2 we exhale is part of the natural carbon cycle, and scientists say measuring it more…
Microplastics have been found in our bodies and the food we eat—and even in remote environments around the world, including seawater and ice in the Arctic. Despite their prevalence, little is known about how they move through the atmosphere. New CIRES-led research, which demonstrates a new method for sampling…
The extreme heat waves we have seen over the last few years may only serve as a preview of what is to come as a result of climate change. A new study led by researcher Philipp Aglas-Leitner from Freie Universität Berlin, published in Nature Communications, finds that future heat waves could last longer, impact larger…