Climate Change
It's real. It's happening. It's accelerating. And it's our fault. Human activity — particularly the production of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel emissions — is reshaping our planet, effecting rapid environmental change at a rate never seen before. Global temperature averages are creeping upward, seas are warming, rising and becoming more acidic, and extreme weather events such as droughts, wildfires, floods and powerful storms are more commonplace. Here's where you'll find the latest on the effects of climate change, and the measures that scientists, world leaders and innovators are taking to reduce our harmful impact on the planet and mitigate the damage already done.
Latest about Climate Change
Breach of key global warming threshold 'inevitable' as carbon emissions hit record high
By Ben Turner published
At the current emissions level, there is a 50% chance that global warming will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius consistently in about seven years, new research suggests.
Michael Mann: Yes, we can still stop the worst effects of climate change. Here's why.
By Michael E. Mann published
Opinion Opinion: State-of-the-art climate models show warming stops once we stop emitting carbon. That means there's still time to stop the worst impacts of climate change.
Which islands will become uninhabitable due to climate change first?
By Meg Duff published
Climate change is raising sea levels, and many low-lying islands are at risk. But determining which communities will be first to leave is impossible to answer.
The 'safe' threshold for global warming will be passed in just 6 years, scientists say
By Sascha Pare published
New research suggests we have just six years left to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, and two decades to keep temperatures below the 2 C threshold in the Paris Agreement.
This was the hottest summer ever recorded on Earth
By Aimee Gabay published
June through August 2023 were the hottest three months ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Did the Tonga eruption cause this year's extreme heat?
By Patrick Pester published
The 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption may have contributed to this year's heat, but it's not causing climate change.
We could be 16 years into a methane-fueled 'termination' event significant enough to end an ice age
By Sascha Pare published
Methane emissions from tropical wetlands have been soaring since 2006 and accelerating at the same breakneck speed as when Earth's climate has flipped from a glacial to an interglacial period.
'The stage was now set for the birth and growth of desert dunes': How the Sahara turned from a vast forest to the arid landscape we see today
By Martin Williams published
"A very remarkable series of events took place during the late Miocene between 5.96 and 5.33 million years ago."
15 unexpected effects of climate change
By Carissa Wong published
From shrinking goats to a dimmer Earth, here are some of the lesser-known impacts of rising global temperatures.
19 'mass extinctions' had CO2 levels we're now veering toward, study warns
By Sascha Pare published
The research looked at peaks in biodiversity loss and their relationship with atmospheric CO2, finding 50 events over the last 534 million years that can be considered mass extinctions.
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