On decadal timescales, the loss of Arctic ice favours the climate of the south-west of the United States - and California in particular - becoming drier on average, especially in winter. This phenomenon would also affect the climate of Spain and Portugal, favouring conditions of higher humidity in winter, although in this case the observed effect is weaker.

South Korea and Germany aim to transition to a climate neutral energy system. To do so, both countries must tackle scientific and technological challenges. At a joint symposium of the Korean Academy of Science and Technology (KAST) and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, experts discussed key topics relating to the energy transition. The joint paper summarising the findings, published today and titled “Navigating the Energy Transition in Korea and Germany”, examines scientific and technological challenges in the areas of solar technologies, hydrogen, batteries, grid management, and future energy sources, and includes recommendations for the energy transition in South Korea and Germany.

Cloudy areas over oceans are reflecting less sunlight to space than before

The Permian-Triassic mass extinction was caused by volcanic eruptions in what is now the Siberian Traps, releasing 100,000 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over a million years and killing off most animals, except for a few lineages — including the animals that would evolve, in the Late Triassic, into the earliest dinosaurs. Recovery took several million years. Now scientists have used modelling and plant fossils to follow the biosphere’s transition to 10 degrees of warming which eradicated tundra habitats and made polar regions temperate, helping us understand the consequences of this extreme climate change in deep time — and possibly even the consequences of our own CO₂  emissions.

An influx of salt from both land and sea and a warming world are condemning the world’s rivers, streams and estuaries to a “saltier future,” according to a new study led by University of Maryland GeologyProfessor Sujay Kaushal in collaboration with researchers from other institutions.

MIT aerospace engineers found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can safely operate there. 

The total number of satellites that can orbit in space is likely to decrease as greenhouse gases cause Earth’s upper atmosphere to contract.

Collective dissociation is preventing people from taking effective action to tackle the overwhelming climate emergency, research published in Cambridge Prisms: Global Mental Health has found.

The overwhelming scale and complexity of the climate emergency often leave individuals feeling powerless, leading to a sense of futility in their ability to effect meaningful change. Collective dissociation is a form of trauma processing, and it threatens the cooperation needed to address the climate emergency. Instead, it reinforces isolation and prevents objective assessment of a destructive reality.

Using a unique field site in the Negev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev geologists have presented the first-ever time-dependent record of drainage divide migration rates. Prof. Liran Goren, her student Elhanan Harel, and co-authors from the University of Pittsburgh and the Geological Survey of Israel, further demonstrate that episodes of rapid divide migration coincide with past climate changes in the Negev over the last 230,000 years (unrelated to present-day climate change).