Scientists have characterized for the first time a new and disturbing way in which large ice sheets can melt. The research focuses on how relatively warm seawater can flow on the underside of land ice, which can accelerate the ice's movement into the ocean.

This process is not currently included in models that predict sea level rise, so the new results could offer a more accurate picture of how the world will change with global warming and how much coastal areas will have to adapt.

The findings, carried out by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), are published in the journal Nature Geoscience . (More on phys.org)

2023 was the warmest year on record. In the months of July and August, temperatures rose by 1.6°C above pre-industrial levels. This information raises questions about whether we have already violated the Paris Agreement, (more…)

"BRUTAL" EUROPE: After registering Europe's highest recorded temperature of 48.8°C in 2021, Sicily must again turn away tourists as "brutal heat" led to crops and livestock being slaughtered, the Times reported. Elsewhere in Europe, a forest fire near Athens forced dozens of people to leave their homes in Greece, Reuters reported. Officials said the fire was the result of arson and spread quickly in hot, dry conditions, the newswire added.

SOUTH ASIA: At least 110 people have died and 40,000 have suffered suspected heatstroke as the widespread and intense heat continues to lash 50 %s of northwest India, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported. Delhi recorded its highest minimum temperature in a 55-year-old record this week, with night temperatures not dropping below 35.2 degrees Celsius, The Hind reported. Reuters reported that a senior government official said "Indian cities have become heat traps" due to unbalanced urban growth that reduces water availability.

EAST ASIA: Meanwhile, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported that the nation "is experiencing more frequent and intense heatwaves due to global warming," according to China's National Climate Center. He added that the average start date of a heat wave has advanced by 2.5 days per decade. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that extreme weather continued in China this week, including deadly torrential rains and drought.

DEADLY PILGRIMAGE: In the Middle East, more than 1,000 Hajj pilgrims have reportedly died amid heatwaves in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, Sky News reported. Agence France-Presse reported that temperatures in Mecca reached 51.8C as around 1.8 million people took part in the "day-long, mostly outdoor" pilgrimage. She added that the death toll is expected to rise further as many continue to search for family members.

US OVEN: Tens of millions of people in the US were subject to dangerous heat warnings this week, as some cities faced record temperatures, the AP reported. The Guardian reported that around 80 % of the country's population were experiencing "the kind of heat not seen for decades", which brought extended periods of temperatures above 32.2C, "under a weather phenomenon known as the heat dome". (EMMA HANCOX, more at carbonbrief.com)

The Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network measures the atmospheric distribution and trends of the three main long-term drivers of climate change, carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ), methane (CH ₄ ) and nitrous oxide (N ₂ O), as well as carbon. (more…)

The event, which coincides with the Northern Hemisphere's summer solstice, seeks to raise global awareness of human-caused climate change, its cascading effects on our health and our homes, and what we as a society can do to ensure a sustainable future for humans. and places we like.

"WMO endorses the call for everyone to share the famous 'warming bands', a powerful visual representation of how global temperatures have risen since the Industrial Revolution," says WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo.

"The year 2023 was the warmest year on record globally. Extreme weather phenomena are more and more often observed all over the world. The need to address climate change has never been more urgent," he says.

Created by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate scientist Professor Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading, each stripe represents one year, with colors going from cool blue to warm red, representing the increase in temperature recorded over the last 150 years or more. (More on wmo.int)

The answers are so clear that even the United Nations (UN) was surprised: in a major survey with participants from all regions of the world, 86 percent demanded that countries and governments put their conflicts aside to work together to fight the global threat. climate change to reduce. "I think no one expected such a clear signal," the head of the United Nations Development Program UNDP, Achim Steiner, told the German public association ARD. UNDP, in cooperation with the University of Oxford, surveyed 75,000 representatively selected people in 77 countries. This included a good 9,300 people with no formal education. A good 1,200 of them were women over 60 – “one of the hardest groups to survey,” according to the UNDP. The findings across all education and income levels are clear across the globe: 80 percent of humanity would like their governments to do more to combat the climate crisis. (David Ehl, more at msn.com)

Carbon stored by plants globally is shorter-lived and more vulnerable to climate change than previously thought, according to a new study. (more…)

Global warming is costing lives, exacerbating health inequalities and leading to the spread of disease-carrying ticks and parasites across Europe, a major report says. The report reviewed hundreds of studies on the health effects of climate change – as well as measures being taken in response – in Europe. Climate and health researcher Rachel Lowe and her colleagues tracked 42 indicators, including indicators related to heat-related deaths, the spread of infectious diseases, and trends in health and climate change research. (Carissa Wong, more at nature.com)

Many studies look at the impact of climate change on forest fires. However, this study sought to understand the opposite – whether large fires also change the climate. "I wanted to learn how aerosols emitted by wildfires when they burn affect the weather," said study lead author and UCR doctoral student James Gomez.

To find his answers, Gomez analyzed the highest fire days and emissions from each fire season over the past 20 years. Of those fire days, he examined a subset that occurred when temperatures were lower and humidity higher. “I looked at abnormally cold or wet days during the fire season, with and without fires. That mostly removes the fire weather effects,” Gomez said.

Study published in journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics found that large fires did have an impact. On days when fires were burning, they made it hotter and drier than usual. Increased heat and dryness can then create favorable conditions for another fire. (Jules Bernstein, University of California - Riverside, more at phys.org)

To celebrate World Environment Day, this compilation brings together a diverse range of grants dedicated to tackling some of the most pressing challenges facing our planet. From fighting climate change to conserving biodiversity and promoting sustainable energy solutions, these grants offer a beacon of hope to individuals, organizations and communities trying to make a difference. Join us as we explore the transformative potential of these grants and the vital role they play in shaping a more resilient and sustainable future for all. (More on fundsforngos.org)

Sudden changes in complex systems such as the Earth's climate system are extremely difficult to predict. Researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) have now succeeded in developing a new method to predict such tipping points in advance.

They successfully tested the reliability of their method using one of the most severe sudden climate changes of the past: the shift of the once green Sahara to desert.

From the last Ice Age until about 6,000 years ago, the area now known as the Sahara Desert was a lush, green landscape teeming with life. This "African wet season" came to an abrupt end, turning this prosperous region into the dry land we see today. Technical (University of Munich, more at phys.org)

Many countries have experienced extremely hot weather recently, but most of the inhabited world will never be "too hot to live", especially in relatively dry climates. When it's hot outside in dry places, most of the time our body can cool itself by evaporating water and heat from the skin in the form of sweat.

However, there are places where it is sometimes dangerously hot and humid, especially where there are hot deserts right next to a warm ocean. When the air is humid, sweat doesn't evaporate as quickly, so sweating doesn't cool us down like it does in drier environments.

In parts of the Middle East, Pakistan and India, the summer heat can combine with the humid air that blows in from the sea, and the combination can be downright deadly. Hundreds of millions of people live in these regions, most of whom do not have access to indoor air conditioning. (Scott Denning, Colorado State University, more at theconversation.com)

Monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) are key to ensuring safe and long-term geological carbon storage. Seismic monitoring is a major MVA technique that uses seismic data to obtain the elastic properties of CO2-saturated rocks. Reliable accounting of CO2 in subsurface reservoirs and potential escape zones requires an accurate model of rock physical properties. However, the commonly used model, based on the conventional Biot-Gassmann equation, may substantially underestimate the effect of CO2 saturation on seismic waves, leading to inaccurate accounting. We are developing an accurate model of the physical properties of rocks with CO2 that takes into account the effects of the stress dependence of seismic velocities in porous rocks and the weakening of CO2 on the rock framework. We validate our model using Kimberlina-1.2 (a previously proposed geological carbon repository in California) and build time-lapse models of elastic properties using this new method. We compare the results with the results obtained using the conventional Biot-Gassmann equation. Our innovative approach shows larger changes in elastic properties than the Biot-Gassmann results. Using our model, the reduction in shear wave velocity observed in the laboratory can be replicated. This new model increases the accuracy of time-lapse modeling of elastic waves and enables reliable accounting of CO2 using seismic monitoring. (More on nature.com)

Today, the council formally adopted – the first of its kind – a regulation on the restoration of nature. The aim of this law is to introduce measures to restore at least 20 % of land and sea areas of the EU by 2030 and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050.

It establishes specific, legally binding goals and obligations for the restoration of nature in each of the mentioned ecosystems - from terrestrial to marine, freshwater and urban ecosystems.

The aim of the regulation is to mitigate climate change and the effects of natural disasters. It will help the EU meet its international environmental obligations and restore European nature. (More on consilium.europa.eu)

Today, representatives of the European Commission, the European External Action Service (EEAS) and the European Defense Agency (EDA) met with their colleagues from the US administration, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defense, the National Security Council and USAID. to discuss at director level the growing challenges posed by climate change and environmental degradation to peace, security and defense (see Annex with key participants).

Given the unprecedented threat that climate change and environmental degradation pose to global peace and security, this informal dialogue provided a platform to discuss the growing global risks and impacts of climate and natural crises from a "whole of government" perspective. The EU's integrated approach aims to solve this most complex problem through the coordinated involvement of EU support in development cooperation, humanitarian aid, climate and environmental measures, migration, energy security, civil-military missions and the development of military infrastructures. (More on eeas.europa.eu)

A group of leading academics is calling for the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to be extended beyond their 2030 target date and updated to take into account the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and with greater input from communities affected by the goals, among other recommendations. Halfway to the 2030 target completion date, many of the UN's ambitious 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are lagging or progressing too slowly due to the global economic slowdown due to the COVID disease and international conflicts. Ahead of the Future Summit in New York in September, the authors recommend extending the goals to 2050 and modifying them with an ambitious timeline and clarity on specific targets – such as those related to climate and “planetary health” (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, more at phys.org)

After the European elections, experts fear that important climate goals could be lost sight of. The European Scientific Advisory Committee on Climate Change is now calling for the fight against climate change to become a priority in the EU.

With regard to the reorganization in the EU after the European elections, the researchers urge compliance with the set climate goals. The European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change warned on Monday that climate targets remain extremely important in determining the EU's strategic priorities.

"This term will be a defining moment for European decision-makers," the chairman of the advisory committee, Ottmar Edenhofer, emphasized in a statement. Decisions in the coming years are of great importance for all generations and are in line with the EU's climate goals. (Whole article at gmx.at)

Climate change, caused primarily by human activity, represents an urgent global crisis that significantly damages nature and affects the lives of billions of people after (more…)

Protecting and effectively managing the oceans and seabed is key to combating climate change. The oceans have absorbed more than 90 percent of excess heat from global warming and at least 25 percent of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. They also store huge amounts of carbon, separating it from the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years. Coastal habitats such as mangroves, seagrasses, salt marshes and kelp forests have received much attention as natural climate solutions. In comparison, the sediments that line the sea floor have been largely ignored, even though they are estimated to contain far greater carbon stores than trees and soils on land. A major contributing factor has been the lack of reliable, high-resolution maps of seafloor carbon stocks. (Graham Epstein, University of Victoria and Julia K. Baum, University of Victoria, full article at greenpeace.org)

The EU has defined a clear framework for its climate change and energy policy until 2020. This framework includes (more…)