Before you do anything else, you might want to read a timeline of the most important events in the history of climate change science…

Science

SCIENCE

SCIENCE

The science clearly linking climate change to human activity has been confirmed repeatedly for over 50 years. To quote from NASA, “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.” 

During the same 50 years a fossil-fuel supported misinformation campaign has fought back, misleading the public and affecting the education of children and the legislation desperately needed. The IPCC (the United Nations) and the NCA (the US Federal Government) have issued report after report, often reporting that previous assessments had been too optimistic or that scientists had actually underestimated the pace and severity of the climate problem. 

Most of the leading scientific organizations throughout the world have issued public statements endorsing the position that climate change has been caused by human action.

In November, 2019, on the 40th anniversary of the world’s first climate conference, 11,000 scientists from 153 nations declared, in a Bioscience report, “clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency and that we must change how we live.” The scientists say the urgent changes needed include ending population growth, leaving fossil fuels in the ground, halting forest destruction, and slashing meat eating.

As you explore the different sections in SCIENCE, you will find that climate change has created a web of interconnected relationships that are compounding the consequences we face. 

Setting records for the number of storms and wildfires, the contiguous USA ranked fifth warmest during 2020, according to a report issued by the NCEI, published on January 8, 2021.

Looking for a searchable chronology of climate-change events dating from 1824  to the present? Look no further, thanks to the University of Maine’s Sharon Tisher.

CURRENT NEWS

2023 Worst Year On Record For Billion-Dollar Climate Disasters, NOAA Says

By Robert Hart 09/12/23
This year is already the worst year on record for billion-dollar climate disasters in the U.S., a report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said, as experts warn that extreme events are likely…
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‘Off-the-charts records’: has humanity finally broken the climate?

By Damian Carrington, Nina Lakhani and Others 08/28/23
The record-shattering heatwaves, wildfires and floods destroying lives in the US, Europe, India, China and beyond in 2023 have raised an alarming question: have humanity’s relentless carbon emissions finally pushed the climate crisis into a…
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UN climate panel chair: Paris agreement’s 1.5-degree target “a big ask”

By Andrew Freedman 08/16/23
Jim Skea, the new chair of the influential U.N. climate science panel, has doubts about the world's ability to meet the Paris Agreement's most ambitious temperature goal, but wants to make it easier for governments…
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August 2023 El Niño update: back to school

By Emily Becker 08/10/23
It’s that time again! And by “that time,” I mean the El Niño forecast update, of course. The chance that El Niño—the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (aka “ENSO”) climate pattern—will continue…
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‘Era of global boiling has arrived,’ says UN chief as July set to be hottest month on record

By Ajit Niranjan 07/27/23
The era of global warming has ended and “the era of global boiling has arrived”, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said after scientists confirmed July was on track to be the world’s hottest…
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Scientists detect sign that a crucial ocean current is near collapse

By Sarah Kaplan 07/25/23
The Atlantic Ocean’s sensitive circulation system has become slower and less resilient, according to a new analysis of 150 years of temperature data — raising the possibility that this crucial element of the climate system…
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Deadly global heatwaves undeniably result of climate crisis, scientists show

By Damian Carrington 07/25/23
The human-caused climate crisis is undeniably to blame for the deadly heatwaves that have struck Europe and the US in recent weeks, scientists have shown.
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Warming Could Push the Atlantic Past a ‘Tipping Point’ This Century

By Raymond Zhong 07/25/23
The last time there was a major slowdown in the mighty network of ocean currents that shapes the climate around the North Atlantic, it seems to have plunged Europe into a deep cold for over…
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Heat waves in U.S., Europe ‘virtually impossible’ without climate change, study finds

By Brady Dennis 07/25/23
The analysis by the World Weather Attribution network, a coalition of scientists that conducts rapid analyses to determine how the warming atmosphere influences extreme weather events, examined weather data and computer model...
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Is it really hotter now than any time in 100,000 years?

By Darrell Kaufman 07/21/23
As scorching heat grips large swaths of the Earth, a lot of people are trying to put the extreme temperatures into context and asking: When was it ever this hot before? Globally, 2023 has seen…
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Scientists say Canadian lake marks start of the Anthropocene

By Alison Snyder 07/12/23
Earth's 4.5 billion-year history is divided into geological epochs that each typically span millions of years. On Tuesday, scientists announced that sediment at the bottom of a lake in Ontario, Canada, contains key indicators that…
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To Help Cool a Hot Planet, the Whitest of White Coats

By Cara Buckley 07/12/23
Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University, didn’t set out to make it into the Guinness World Records when he began trying to make a new type of paint. He had a…
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KEY RESOURCES

Carbon Brief’s definitive guide to the entire IPCC sixth assessment cycle

03/24/23
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has now published the synthesis report of its sixth assessment report (AR6). This forms the final part of the sixth assessment cycle, which kicked off in 2015. The…

NOAA, Smithsonian and fed partners seeking suggestions to update key climate literacy guide

03/23/23
NOAA, as part of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), is requesting suggestions on structure, topics, and content to help update a key national climate literacy guide used by educators, policymakers, and scientists across…

Q&A: IPCC wraps up its most in-depth assessment of climate change

03/23/23
The final part of the world’s most comprehensive assessment of climate change – which details the “unequivocal” role of humans, its impacts on “every region” of the world and what must be done to solve…

AR6 Synthesis Report Climate Change 2023

03/20/23
This Synthesis Report (SYR) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) summarises the state of knowledge of climate change, its widespread impacts and risks, and climate change mitigation and adaptation, based on the peer-reviewed scientific,…

Berkeley Earth

01/13/23
Berkeley Earth is the only source of reliable, independent, non-governmental, and unbiased scientific data and analysis of the highest quality.

Climate Change 2021The Physical Science Basis Summary for Policymakers

08/02/22
This Summary for Policymakers (SPM) presents key findings of the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)1

Climate Time Machine

06/16/22
This visualization shows the annual Arctic sea ice minimum since 1979. At the end of each summer, the sea ice cover reaches its minimum extent, leaving what is called the perennial ice cover. The area…

Earth Observing Dashboard

06/08/22
Global environmental changes observed by NASA, ESA, and JAXA . Here you can browse the Earth Observation datasets and use the interactive features, including maps that compute simple analytics by drawing an area of interest.…

The Science of Climate Change Explained: Facts, Evidence and Proof

11/06/21
The science of climate change is more solid and widely agreed upon than you might think. But the scope of the topic, as well as rampant disinformation, can make it hard to separate fact from…

State of the Global Climate Observing System 2021

10/01/21
As the impacts of a warming climate become more evident, there is an ever-increasing demand for more detailed information on climate change, both to explain and project changes and to help planning and implementing adaptation…

Video: Global Warming from 1880 to 2020

07/06/21
Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, the year’s globally averaged temperature was 1.84…

Making climate impact science more accessible to the public: ISIpedia launch

06/18/21
Decision-makers on all levels are provided with a new tool to tackle the climate challenge. Data and explanations on global warming impacts – from floods to droughts - are made more accessible to the public…

How Scientists Are Using the International Space Station to Study Earth’s Climate

05/28/21
On Earth, we often look toward the sky, longing to know what resides in the rest of the universe. Meanwhile, 250 miles above our planet, the International Space Station is looking back.

Understanding Climate Change

02/26/21
JPL scientists study Earth’s changing climate, focusing on four broad themes: icy regions; the movement of water between sea, air, and land; greenhouse gas emissions and absorption; and our world’s ecosystems.

Climate at a glance

01/09/21
Look up monthly rankings for 1-12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 60-month time periods using this tool from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Less than 2 °C warming by 2100 unlikely

10/02/20
Our model is not a ‘business as usual’ scenario, but rather is based on data which already show the effect of emission mitigation policies. Achieving the goal of less than 1.5 °C warming will require carbon…

Reduced dividends on natural capital?

08/14/20
Natural capital provides the world’s population with a variety of critical services. These include ecosystem services (providing goods such as food, fiber, fuel, water, and wood), regulating environmental conditions (by controlling pollution, protecting against natural…

NOAA’s Weather and Climate Toolkit

06/11/20
NOAA's Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT) is free, platform independent software distributed from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The WCT allows the visualization and data export of weather and climate data, including Radar,…

Climate Impacts Group

06/11/20
The Climate Impacts Group provides a range of technical resources that can be used to help address climate impacts.

Climate Adaptation Science Centers

06/11/20
The CASCs develop data and tools that address the informational needs of natural and cultural resource managers.

Data Snapshots: Reusable Climate Maps

06/10/20
This visual catalog with convenient filtering options can help you find the climate data you need. How-to instructions can help you navigate data access tools.

THE WAR ON SCIENCE

04/25/20
Science is under siege. Anti-science groups and individuals seek to delegitimize, interfere with, and undermine facts and evidence that threaten their financial interests and ideological beliefs. Aggressive legal action, harassment, and even death threats are…

Greenhouse Gas Bulletin

01/16/20
The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Based on Global Observations through 2018

Climate Central

11/19/19
Extreme Weather Videos

A Look at 2018: Takeaway Points from the State of the Climate Supplement

12/30/19
A snapshot of salient events and trends affecting the global climate, the global oceans, the tropics, the Arctic, Antarctica, and regional climates.

Massachusetts raises 2050 waste reduction target, may expand organics ban

10/01/19
A new draft solid waste master plan from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) calls for a 30% reduction in annual disposal by 2030 and a 90% reduction by 2050. An estimated 5.7 million…

IPCC

01/31/19
The IPCC provides regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United…

World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency

11/11/19
Scientists have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic threat and to “tell it like it is.” On the basis of this obligation and the graphical indicators presented below, we declare, with…

Following are a series of videos, dating back to 1956, collected by Peter Sinclair.

CLIMATE DENIAL CROCK OF THE WEEK WITH PETER SINCLAIR

MORE NEWS

Is It Hot Enough Yet for Politicians to Take Real Action?

By Bill McKibben   07/11/23  
We’ve crushed so many temperature records recently—the hottest day ever measured by average global temperature, the hottest week, the hottest June, the highest ocean temperatures, the lowest sea-ice levels—that it would be easy to overlook…
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Earth is at its hottest in thousands of years. Here’s how we know.

By Scott Dance   07/08/23  
Observations from both satellites and the Earth’s surface are indisputable — the planet has warmed rapidly over the past 44 years. As far back as 1850, data from weather stations all over the globe make…
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The world just broke a stunning slew of heat records. Why right now?

By Bob Henson   07/07/23  
Mid-2023 seems destined to go down as a pivotal period in climate change history — a time when planet Earth seemed to go from a simmer to a full rolling boil in a matter of…
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Sir David Attenborough: How polar ship will help scientists study climate change

By Daisy Dunne   07/07/23  
Later this year, a state-of-the-art UK polar research ship – equipped with aquariums, a “moon pool” and 14 different laboratories – will sail to Antarctica to study little-known ecosystem processes that are vital to better…
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Something Was Messing With Earth’s Axis. The Answer Has to Do With Us.

By Raymond Zhong   06/28/23  
Around the turn of the millennium, Earth’s spin started going off-kilter, and nobody could quite say why. For decades, scientists had been watching the average position of our planet’s rotational axis, the imaginary rod around…
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Humans pump so much groundwater that Earth’s axis has shifted, study finds

By Mindy Weisberger   06/26/23  
Humans’ unquenchable thirst for groundwater has sucked so much liquid from subsurface reserves that it’s affecting Earth’s tilt, according to a new study. Groundwater provides drinking water for people and livestock, and it helps with…
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We’ve changed Earth’s spin by pumping groundwater

By Kelly Kizer Whitt   06/18/23  
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) made a surprising announcement on June 15, 2023. It said that Earth’s 8 billion humans have pumped so much groundwater that we’ve nudged our world’s spin. Groundwater withdrawal for agriculture,…
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Humanity’s groundwater pumping has altered Earth’s tilt

By Warren Cornwall   06/16/23  
While spinning on its axis, Earth wobbles like an off-kilter top. Sloshing molten iron in Earth’s core, melting ice, ocean currents, and even hurricanes can all cause the poles to wander. Now, scientists have found…
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World’s ‘carbon budget’ for key climate goal was halved in just three years

By Shannon Osaka   06/08/23  
The world has eliminated half of its remaining carbon budget to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial levels in just the last three years, scientists said Thursday.
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Orange Skies, Red Alerts and the Future

By Paul Krugman   06/08/23  
This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang — that is, a sudden, universal catastrophe — but with a series of smaller, more local catastrophes that keep getting bigger and more widespread.…
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Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere mark a near-record surge

By Amudalat Ajasa   06/05/23  
Despite rising awareness about global climate change and its devastating impacts, carbon dioxide levels keep treading in the wrong direction.
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A Paper That Says Science Should Be Impartial Was Rejected by Major Journals. You Can’t Make This Up.

By Pamela Paul   05/04/23  
Is a gay Republican Latino more capable of conducting a physics experiment than a white progressive heterosexual woman? Would they come to different conclusions based on the same data because of their different backgrounds? For…
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A mystery in the Pacific is complicating climate projections

By Bob Henson   04/24/23  
Nothing has a bigger influence on year-to-year variations in the global climate than the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, commonly called ENSO. And the tropical waters at the heart of ENSO aren’t behaving exactly as climate scientists…
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America’s Tornadoes Are Evolving, Fast

By Amanda Hoover   04/07/23  
The US is experiencing devastation from a flurry of tornadoes. At least five people died Wednesday when a tornado tore through southeastern Missouri. It followed six in New Jersey and one in Delaware that killed…
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Truly ‘Uncharted Territory.’

By Bill McKibben   04/02/23  
Sadly, Trump's arrest was not the biggest news story of the week. Last Thursday’s big news story was the indictment of Donald Trump, with banner headlines in all the papers that still print on paper.…
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Melting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050

By Graham Readfearn   03/29/23  
Melting ice around Antarctica will cause a rapid slowdown of a major global deep ocean current by 2050 that could alter the world’s climate for centuries and accelerate sea level rise, according to scientists behind…
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Abyssal ocean overturning slowdown and warming driven by Antarctic meltwater

By Qian Li, Matthew H. England and Others   03/29/23  
The abyssal ocean circulation is a key component of the global meridional overturning circulation, cycling heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients throughout the world ocean. The strongest historical trend observed in the abyssal ocean is warming…
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Why Optimism Can’t Fix Our Climate Politics

By Kate Aronoff   03/24/23  
The release of a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change this week has provoked a new round of discussion about how best to talk about the dire crisis it describes. Climate scientist…
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New IPCC Report: ‘Rapidly Closing Window of Opportunity’ to Reverse Climate Change

By Molly Taft   03/21/23  
We need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by more than half over the next decade in order to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, says a blockbuster new report. The next few…
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Climate Change Is Speeding Toward Catastrophe. The Next Decade Is Crucial, U.N. Panel Says

By Brad Plumer   03/21/23  
Earth is likely to cross a critical threshold for global warming within the next decade, and nations will need to make an immediate and drastic shift away from fossil fuels to prevent the planet from…
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Earth to hit critical warming threshold by early 2030s, climate panel says

By Brad Plumer   03/21/23  
A new U.N. report says it is still possible to hold global warming to relatively safe levels, but doing so will require global cooperation, billions of dollars and big changes.
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The IPCC’s Latest Climate Report Is a Final Alarm for Food Systems, Too

By Lisa Held   03/20/23  
The world’s top climate scientists are not pulling any punches in their latest assessment: The climate crisis is already affecting the world’s food supply and exacerbating hunger—and those impacts are going to get worse.
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The Guardian view on the IPCC warning: a last chance to save the planet | Editorial

03/20/23  
The world is only a few tenths of a degree away from the globally accepted goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. On current trends, we will shoot past the target within a…
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A clear message from science

By Somini Sengupta   03/20/23  
“There is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a livable and sustainable future for all (very high confidence).” This is the most striking sentence in a 37-page summary, issued today, of the latest…
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Scientists deliver ‘final warning’ on climate crisis: act now or it’s too late

By Fiona Harvey   03/20/23  
Scientists have delivered a “final warning” on the climate crisis, as rising greenhouse gas emissions push the world to the brink of irrevocable damage that only swift and drastic action can avert.
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‘It can be done. It must be done’: IPCC delivers definitive report on climate change, and where to now

By Frank Jotzo and Mark Howden   03/20/23  
The world is in deep trouble on climate change, but if we really put our shoulder to the wheel we can turn things around. Loosely, that’s the essence of today’s report by the Intergovernmental Panel…
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IPCC report: Climate solutions exist, but humanity has to break from the status quo and embrace innovation

By Robert Lempert and Elisabeth Gilmore   03/20/23  
It’s easy to feel pessimistic when scientists around the world are warning that climate change has advanced so far, it’s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. But as two of…
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UN report: Window for limiting global warming is closing

By Andrew Freedman   03/20/23  
A stark new U.N. climate change report warns that humanity stands at the precipice of a more dangerous world, but says it has the tools needed to pull back from the brink.
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World is on brink of catastrophic warming, U.N. climate change report says

By Sarah Kaplan   03/20/23  
The world is likely to pass a dangerous temperature threshold within the next 10 years, pushing the planet past the point of catastrophic warming — unless nations drastically transform their economies and immediately transition away…
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Summary report, 13–19 March 2023

03/19/23  
“Human activities, principally through emissions of greenhouse gases, have unequivocally caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching 1.1°C above 1850-1900 in 2011-2020. Global greenhouse gas emissions have continued to increase, with unequal historical and…
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Nations approve key UN science report on climate change

By Frank Jordans   03/19/23  
Governments gave their blessing on Sunday to a major new U.N. report on climate change, after approval was held up by a battle between rich and developing countries over emissions targets and financial aid to…
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The poignant music of melting ice: have a listen

By Grayson Haver Currin   03/16/23  
Scientists and musicians are recording the sounds of unfreezing water to document and predict the effects of climate change. Can their work help slow it, too?...
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NASA Awards Advance 3D Printing, Quantum Tech for Climate Research

03/16/23  
New technology is a key to helping NASA advance its long-term exploration goals for the benefit of all. To support its effort, the agency announced Thursday it will create two new institutes to develop technology…
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Climate change will impact everything everywhere all at once

By Christa Avampato   03/06/23  
Over the weekend, I read a disturbing article that quoted a potential presidential candidate who wrote, “We will keep fighting until we put a stop to ESG once and for all!”
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60 Scientists Call for Accelerated Research Into ‘Solar Radiation Management’ That Could Temporarily Mask Global Warming – Inside Climate News

By Bob Berwyn   02/27/23  
A scientific showdown over whether dispersing massive amounts of reflective particles high into the atmosphere could temporarily and safely mask global warming intensified this week, as a group of more than 60 researchers published a…
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A Basic Premise of Animal Conservation Looks Shakier Than Ever

By Emma Marris   02/22/23  
Sperm whales live in the remote open ocean. Or at least, that’s what scientists have long thought. The U.S. government’s 2010 recovery plan for sperm whales characterizes their range as “generally offshore.” A 2016 study…
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This Scientist Was Fired for Her Activism. She Says It’s Not Going to Stop Her

By Angely Mercado   01/26/23  
Last April, Tennessee-based soil scientist Rose Abramoff was arrested after chaining herself to a White House fence. She was one of about 1,000 scientists around the world who engaged in civil disobedience that week, organized…
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Department of Energy Announces $200 Million for Energy Earthshot Research Centers in support of the Energy Earthshots™

01/19/23  
Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $200 million for Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs). This funding, provided by the Office of Science, will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the…
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A Look Back: 2022’s Temperature Record

01/12/23  
2022 effectively tied for Earth’s 5th warmest year since 1880, and the last 9 consecutive years have been the warmest 9 on record. NASA looks back at how heat was expressed in different ways around…
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The last 8 years were the hottest on record

By Henry Fountain and Mira Rojanasakul   01/10/23  
The world remained firmly in warming’s grip last year, with extreme summer temperatures in Europe, China and elsewhere contributing to 2022 being the fifth-hottest year on record, European climate researchers said on Tuesday.
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Assessing the U.S. climate in 2022

01/10/23  
For the year, temperatures were above average from the West Coast to the Gulf of Mexico and from Florida to New England and into the Great Lakes. Florida and Rhode Island ranked fifth warmest while…
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Half of glaciers will be gone by 2100 even under Paris 1.5C accord, study finds

By Phoebe Weston   01/05/23  
If global heating continues at current rate of 2.7C, losses will be greater with 68% of glaciers disappearingHalf the planet’s glaciers will have melted by 2100 even if humanity sticks to goals set out in…
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Fossil Fuel Funding Fudges Climate Research

By Olivia Rosane   12/29/22  
Finding positive, scientifically sound solutions to the climate crisis is an urgent matter, so it should be encouraging to know that some of the world’s most prestigious research institutions are working on the problem. But…
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Fossil Fuel Funding Fudges Climate Research

By Olivia Rosane   12/29/22  
Finding positive, scientifically sound solutions to the climate crisis is an urgent matter, so it should be encouraging to know that some of the world’s most prestigious research institutions are working on the problem. But…
Read more

Scientists say Arctic warming could be to blame for blasts of extreme cold

By Scott Dance   12/23/22  
Research suggests that climate change is altering the jet stream, pushing frigid air down to southern climes more frequently. But the scientific jury is still out.
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NSF advances sustainable materials solutions and capabilities

12/19/22  
The U.S. National Science Foundation is accelerating convergence research across materials discovery and development as well as production and manufacturing to address challenges aligned to the manufacturing, reuse and recycling of critical materials and products.
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The inconvenient truth of global warming in the 21st century

By Ethan Siegel   12/10/22  
Based on data since 2000 alone, global warming is still occurring at a whopping 7-sigma significance. How hot will planet Earth get?
Read more

Newly-launched JPSS-2 satellite to help forecast climate change, track extreme weather

By Heather Brinkmann   11/10/22  
A new satellite made to help forecasters better predict extreme weather and monitor climate change is headed to space. The Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) launched aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket…
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Failure to slow warming will set off climate ‘tipping points’

By Henry Fountain   09/08/22  
As global warming passes certain limits, dire changes will probably become irreversible, the researchers said, including the loss of polar ice sheets and the death of coral reefs.
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Heat, Water, Fire: How Climate Change Is Transforming the Pacific Crest Trail

By Rowan Moore Gerety   08/31/22  
In the desert near Agua Dulce, north of Los Angeles, hikers along the Pacific Crest Trail who reached mile marker 502 encountered a cistern of water that smelled bad and tasted worse, with a dead…
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