My Climate Change News

VOX -Environment

The reckless policies that helped fill our streets with ridiculously large cars

Cars, you might have noticed, have grown enormous. Low-slung station wagons are all but extinct on American roads, and even sedans have become an endangered species. (Ford, producer of the iconic Model T a century ago, no longer sells any sedans in its home market.) Bulky SUVs and pickup trucks...

Skeptical Science

Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here endless subplots definitely depend upon one central element in the unfolding drama of our grand physics accident: the dominant story mechanic is that we're changing Earth's climate. This leads...

High temperatures across the US have the potential to increase risks for drought, wildfires, and hurricanes. The United States could be in for another scorcher this summer, per a new study from the National Weather Service (NWS). And that could mean more extreme weather events - as well as...

PHYS.ORG - Earth

As the sun sets on another scorching Yangon day, the hot and bothered descend on the Myanmar city's parks, the coolest place to spend an evening during yet another power blackout. A wave of exceptionally hot weather has blasted Southeast Asia this week, sending the mercury to 45 degrees Celsius...

Skeptical Science

Sea ice forms during the Antarctic winter and retreats during the warmer months. Such freeze-thaw cycles have no impact on sea levels since they happen within the ocean. However, Antarctic land ice has seen a net decrease, resulting in a significant increase in fresh water flowing into the sea....

PHYS.ORG - Earth

NASA hears from Voyager 1, the most distant spacecraft from Earth, after months of quiet

NASA has finally heard back from Voyager 1 again in a way that makes sense. The most distant spacecraft from Earth stopped sending back understandable data last November. Flight controllers traced the blank communication to a bad computer chip and rearranged the spacecraft's coding to work...

There was ostensibly nothing illegal about the plume of sulfates approaching Clermont County, Ohio’s drinking water wells in 2019. When consumed, sulfates can cause diarrhea and dehydration. Worse, experts view it as an indicator of other, more dangerous chemicals present in the groundwater. And...

Officials Celebrate a New Power Line to Charge Up the Energy Transition in the Southwest

SALOME, Ariz. - While a power line in a remote corner of the desert Southwest might seem like an unusual attraction for national leaders, the completion of a new high-voltage transmission line that will enhance the electric grid in Arizona and California drew both Secretary of the Interior Deb...

Climate Change (United Nations - Playlist)

Plastic Crisis in Trinidad & Tobago: How Pollution Threatens Water and Food Chains | United Nations

Trinidad \u0026 Tobago has a culture of plastic. Plastic pollution blocks rivers, chokes oceans and makes its way into the food chain as microplastics. It’s a global environmental crisis, and Small Island Developing States are especially vulnerable.

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by producer Aynsley O’Neill with Maggie Thomas, the special assistant to the president for climate in the White House. At an Earth Day event in Virginia just outside of Washington, D.C....

PHYS.ORG - Technology

Scientists are shaking up lithium extraction with a different kind of chemistry

When people think of chemistry, the image that typically comes to mind is a variety of colored liquids in beakers, flasks, and test tubes in a lab. But in actual practice, chemistry can involve materials in all states: liquids, gases, and even solids. Scientists at the Critical Materials...

PHYS.ORG - Biology

Species living closely together in symbiosis is far older and way more common than you might think

One of the most common symbiotic relationships is between various species of algae and fungi, or between cyanobacteria (commonly known as blue-green algae though it's not algae) and fungi. These paired species take the form of lichens. The term symbiosis was first used in the 19th century to...

PHYS.ORG - Biology

The first glow-in-the-dark animals may have been ancient corals deep in the ocean

In a new study, scientists report that deep-sea corals that lived 540 million years ago may have been the first animals to glow, far earlier than previously thought. "Light signaling is one of the earliest forms of communication that we know of—it's very important in deep waters," said...

Huffington Post

The Biden administration has finalized a major rule change that raises the bar for real estate developers who want newly built homes to qualify for U.S. government-backed loans, laying the groundwork for a massive overhaul in the way Americans build houses. Regulators issued a final...

PHYS.ORG - Earth

Scientists discover higher levels of CO2 increase survival of viruses in the air and transmission risk

Lead author Dr. Allen Haddrell, Senior Research Associate in Aerosol Science at the University's School of Chemistry, said, "We knew SARS-CoV-2, like other viruses, spreads through the air we breathe. But this study represents a huge breakthrough in our understanding of exactly how and why that...

VOX -Environment

The biodiversity crisis, explained More than five years ago, the world’s top climate scientists made a frightening prediction: If the planet warms by 1.5 degrees Celsius, relative to preindustrial times, 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs globally would die off. At 2°C, that number jumps to more...

Washington Post - Climate and Environment

How groups execute the new plan could mean the difference between saving what’s left on Florida’s 360-mile-long coral reef and another summer of catastrophic loss.

In Florida, swaths of coral paint a colorful landscape across the ocean floor and serve a key role in its ecosystem. But last summer, amid the longest marine heat wave in decades, many were scorched - drained of color and their survival left in question. It’s a scenario becoming much more...

PHYS.ORG - Technology

A framework to compare lithium battery testing data and results during operation

Existing methods to estimate the amount of Li in batteries rely on capacity measurements, describing how much charge a battery can hold, and coulombic efficiency values, which indicate how much charge a battery retains during cycles. Yet these measurements are not always accurate, as they do not...

Medical experts often call heat a “silent killer” because many people don’t notice the signs of heat stress until it is too late. But as climate change accelerates, the impacts of excessive heat are deafening. Last year, there were nearly 120,000 emergency room visits for heat-related illnesses...