The hidden warming challenge in climate action
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 19-Jun-2026 00:15 ET (19-Jun-2026 04:15 GMT/UTC)
A study published in Science Bulletin, based on a plausible global emissions scenario for 2 °C aligned with China’s net-zero pathway, reveals a hidden warming challenge in climate action: aerosols co-reduced with greenhouse gases will gradually diminish their masking effect on global warming, potentially making it difficult to curb the current rate of warming over the next two decades.
Over the past two decades ENSO, a climate pattern in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that includes El Niño and La Niña, has been the dominant driver of total water storage extremes at the global level. What’s more, the researchers found that ENSO has a synchronizing effect on water storage extremes across continents.
Kevin Milner has been honored with the Seismological Society of America’s 2026 Charles F. Richter Early Career Award for his wide-ranging, globally adopted research that has become central to seismic hazard analysis modeling.
A comprehensive 40-year study (1981–2020) of 587 major Chinese lakes reveals that urbanization is a key driver of accelerated lake warming. The warming rate was 58.3% higher in the densely populated southeast compared to the northwest. Lakes in urbanized areas warmed 33.3% faster than those in non-urbanized regions. Researchers note that urbanization alters how climatic factors contribute to lake warming.