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.
This visualization shows monthly global temperature anomalies (changes from an average) between the years 1880 and 2021. Whites and blues indicate cooler temperatures, while oranges and reds show warmer temperatures. As you can see, global temperatures have warmed from mainly human activities as time has progressed.
These temperatures are based on data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). Anomalies are defined relative to a base period of 1951 to 1980. The data file used to create this visualization can be accessed here.
By Brian K Sullivan Photo: David Ryder, Getty Images
Deadly floods are slamming the US Heartland. More than 2,000 miles away, dangerous heat is scorching the Pacific Northwest. The same phenomenon is to blame for both. A massive bend in the jet stream --…
By Joel Stronberg
In recent days Republicans in the US House of Representatives released the first of what will be a six-part policy platform on energy, climate, and conservation. The strategy was the work of the Energy, Climate,…
By Carol Rasmussen
On June 10, Las Vegas reached a record daily high temperature of 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius), and temperatures of the ground surface itself were higher still. NASA’s Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on…
By Julien Emile-Geay Chart: The Conversation/CC-BY-ND
By now, few people question the reality that humans are altering Earth’s climate. The real question is: How quickly can we halt, even reverse, the damage? Part of the answer to this question lies in…
By Adele Peters
The planet changes quickly: More than half a million acres are burning in New Mexico. A megadrought is shrinking Lake Mead. The Alps are turning from white to green. Development continues to expand, from cities…
By Sam Moore Photo: Sam Moore
That man is George Woodwell, and since 1985, the center he founded has been deeply involved in climate research and policy at home and abroad. Today, it employs nearly 100 scientists and staff, whose work…
By Fiona Harvey Photo: Courtesy of Dr Katharine Hayhoe
The world cannot adapt its way out of the climate crisis, and counting on adaptation to limit damage is no substitute for urgently cutting greenhouse gases, a leading climate scientist has warned.
By Casey Quackenbush Photo: Russell Cheyne/Reuters
Frustration, rage, terror, desperation: After decades of being ignored, scientists are resorting to more radical action to communicate the dire urgency of the climate crisis.
By Kasha Patel Photo: Charlie Riedel , AP
Since signing the Paris climate agreement in 2015, nations around the world have focused on one climate goal: limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels this century. But as…
By Matthew Siegfries & Others
A new discovery deep beneath one of Antarctica’s rivers of ice could change scientists’ understanding of how the ice flows, with important implications for estimating future sea level rise.
By Andrew Freedman Photo: Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached the highest levels on record for any calendar month during April, averaging 420 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since observations began in 1958, according…
By Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech
The protest came after a report from the UN stated humanity only has three more years to curb greenhouse gas emissions and avoid climate-related disasters...
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
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…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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…
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,…
06/11/20
The Climate Impacts Group provides a range of technical resources that can be used to help address climate impacts.
06/11/20
The CASCs develop data and tools that address the informational needs of natural and cultural resource managers.
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.
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…
01/16/20
The State of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere Based on Global Observations through 2018
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.
11/19/19
Extreme Weather Videos
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…
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…
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…
Following are a series of videos, dating back to 1956, collected by Peter Sinclair.
CLIMATE DENIAL CROCK OF THE WEEK WITH PETER SINCLAIR
By Lauren Sommer Photo: Scott Heins/Getty Images 09/09/21
With tens of thousands of people displaced by floods, wildfires and hurricanes this summer, researchers warn that the majority of untapped fossil fuels must remain in the ground to avoid even more extreme weather.
By Sahir Doshi Photo: Getty/Bonnie Jo Mount 08/25/21
No one is immune to the effects of the climate crisis—not even those responsible for its causes. Rising sea levels, record heat, unprecedented extreme weather disasters, and increasingly unstable environmental conditions are making it costlier…
By Sarah Kaplan Photo: Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean/AP 08/23/21
Then the weekend happened. More than 17 inches of rain fell in a single day on Saturday, overtopping the region’s many rivers and submerging places not previously considered floodplains within a matter of hours. Rice’s…
By Sujata Gupta Photo: Bruce Yuanyue Bi 08/18/21
On a sweltering summer afternoon almost a decade ago, Meenu Tewari was visiting a weaving company in Surat in western India. Tewari, an urban planner, frequently makes such visits to understand how manufacturing companies operate.…
By Rachel Ramirez 08/12/21
Slashing carbon dioxide emissions is critical to ending the climate crisis. But, for the first time, the UN climate change report emphasized the need to control a more insidious culprit: methane, an invisible, odorless gas…
By Justine Calma Photo: Brendan Smialowski/afp Via Getty Images 08/10/21
Across China and Western Europe in July, the amount of rain that might typically fall over several months to a year came down within a matter of days, triggering floods that swept entire homes off…
By Lauren Sommer and Ruth Talbot 08/10/21
More than 200 climate scientists just released a stark look at how fast the climate is warming, showing heat waves, extreme rain and intense droughts are on the rise. The evidence for warming is "unequivocal"…
By Damian Carrington Photo: Sébastien Bozon/AFP/Getty Images 08/09/21
“It is unequivocal.” Those stark three words are the first in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s new report. The climate crisis is unequivocally caused by human activities and is unequivocally affecting every corner of…
By Zoya Teirstein Photo: Patrick T. Fallon / Afp Via Getty Images 08/09/21
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, came out with its sixth annual climate change assessment on Monday. The IPCC report, which compiles all of the latest scientific research on climate change…
By Brad Plumer and Henry Fountain Photo: David Swanson/Reuters 08/09/21
Nations have delayed curbing their fossil-fuel emissions for so long that they can no longer stop global warming from intensifying over the next 30 years, though there is still a short window to prevent the…
By Jessica Corbett Photo: Josh Edelson , Getty Images 08/06/21
Ahead of next week's highly anticipated United Nations report on the climate emergency, 21 leading U.S. scientists on Friday urged President Joe Biden and federal lawmakers to "go big on climate action and to do so now."
By Andrew Freedman Photo: Sarah Grillo , Axios 07/19/21
The rapid succession of precedent-shattering extreme weather events in North America and Europe this summer is prompting some scientists to question whether climate extremes are worsening faster than expected.
07/13/21
Climate change is, arguably, the biggest environmental challenge the global population faces today. To address this major issue, decision-makers not only need accurate information on how our world is changing now, but also predictions on…
By Carolyn Gramling Photo: Santiago Urquijo 07/09/21
Trees are symbols of hope, life and transformation. They’re also increasingly touted as a straightforward, relatively inexpensive, ready-for-prime-time solution to climate change.When it comes to removing human-caused emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from…
Edited by: Aditi Gautam 07/05/21
More than 26 lawsuits have been filed in the US against oil companies for their role in climate change. The internal documents of these companies contain research data collected by their teams regarding the effect…
By William Brangham and Murrey Jacobson 06/23/21
A leaked draft report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints the starkest picture yet of the accelerating danger caused by human use of coal, oil, and gas. It warns of coming…
Photo: Pixabay.com 06/10/21
May was mild across much of the contiguous U.S.; heavy rainfall contributed to flash flooding across parts of the Gulf Coast
By Rachel Pannett Photo: Helynn Ospina 05/28/21
During a TED talk, Australian inventor Saul Griffith wanted to show his audience how much a person’s individual choices can affect the planet. The person, in this case, was himself.
05/24/21
We talk so much about how global warming is reshaping the present, and what the future might bring. But what did Earth's past look like. To celebrate hitting 10k subscribers, I'm looking ten thousand years…
By William J. Broad Photo: Amr Alfiki , New York Times 05/03/21
On the campaign trail, Joseph R. Biden Jr. vowed to unseat Donald J. Trump and bring science back to the White House, the federal government and the nation after years of presidential attacks and disavowals, neglect…
04/29/21
The Nobel Prizes were created to honor advances of “the greatest benefit to humankind.” They celebrate successes that have helped build a safe, prosperous, and peaceful world, the foundation of which is scientific reason.
By Laurie Goering 04/27/21
Widespread mistrust of science and disputes over basic facts, tied to growing political polarisation and disinformation campaigns, are undermining efforts to tackle climate change globally, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry warned.
By Doug Bostrom 04/26/21
On April 21 US House Representative Frank Lucas (3rd District, Oklahoma) transmitted an urgent inquiry to the White House concerning the abrupt reassignment of Dr. Betsy Weatherhead, out of her position as head of the Fifth United…
By YCC Team 04/22/21
Earth will soon have its own digital twin. Computer scientists and climate scientists have teamed up to create a virtual replica of the planet.
By Jonathan Lambert Photo: Petra Kaczensky 04/21/21
Water drives the rhythms of desert life, but animals aren’t always helpless against the whims of weather. In the American Southwest, wild donkeys and horses often dig into the dusty sediment to reach cool, crystal…
By Joeri Rogel 03/16/21
Five years ago, the United Nations Paris climate agreement set a ceiling for global warming at well below 2 °C, ideally 1.5 °C relative to pre-industrial levels. World leaders also agreed to balance greenhouse-gas emissions…
03/08/21
During February, the average contiguous U.S. temperature was 30.6°F, 3.2°F below the 20th-century average. This ranked as the 19th-coldest February in the 127-year period of record and was the coldest February since 1989. The winter…
02/22/21
The impacts associated with a temperature increase of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels would be severe. Such a rise could seem like a distant reality, but we may reach it sooner than you think. 1.5°C is the…
By Caitlin Hu Photo: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images 02/19/21
The United Nations released a report Thursday on the health of the planet that proposes a radical shift in the way mankind thinks about it.
By Elizabeth Weil Photo by Andrew White 01/25/21
A climate scientist spent years trying to get people to pay attention to the disaster ahead. His wife is exhausted. His older son thinks there’s no future. And nobody but him will use the outdoor…
Image Credit: Lori Perkins, Kathryn Mersmann, NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio 01/14/21
Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA.
By Bejamin Strauss 01/13/21
That’s why firing bullets from a gun is more dangerous than tossing them by hand. Why skydivers use parachutes. Why roads have speed limits. And why it’s critical to understand how quickly human activity will…
By Andrea Thompson Photo: Johannes Eisele, Getty Images 01/12/21
For the past four years, climate experts have watched with dismay as Donald Trump’s presidential administration has systematically weakened climate regulations, bolstered the use of fossil fuels that drive rising temperatures, and sidelined government climate…
By William J. Broad Photo: Eve Edelheit, The New York Times 01/05/21
For the past four years, climate experts have watched with dismay as Donald Trump’s presidential administration has systematically weakened climate regulations, bolstered the use of fossil fuels that drive rising temperatures, and sidelined government climate…
By Justin Rowlatt 01/01/21
Countries only have only a limited time in which to act if the world is to stave off the worst effects of climate change. Here are five reasons why 2021 could be a crucial year…
By Esprit Smith 12/21/20
Land ecosystems currently play a key role in mitigating climate change. The more carbon dioxide (CO2) plants and trees absorb during photosynthesis, the process they use to make food, the less CO2 remains trapped in…
By Scott Waldman Photo: SrA Jamie Titus/UPI/Newscom 10/05/20
The Trump administration is slow-walking a mandatory climate report by not seeking out scientists to work on it, says one of the authors of the last National Climate Assessment.
10/04/20
Is climate change reversible? Scott Pelley speaks with the "father of climate science" and others for an answer. Air Date: Oct 4, 2020
By Earth Institute 09/25/20
A newly funded project will investigate the forces that shaped the environments in which the ancestors of humans evolved, by exploring the relationships between tectonics, climate and mammal evolution in Kenya’s Turkana Basin.
By David Roberts 09/11/20
With heat waves, wildfires, intense hurricanes, and other extreme weather events in the headlines, the ravages of climate change have become undeniable and unavoidable. Who or what is responsible for this? It seems like a…
By Gabriel Popkin 08/12/20
Warming soils in the tropics could cause microbes to release carbon dioxide from storage. One scientist called the finding “another example of why we need to worry more.”
08/03/20
How much is temperature to blame when hospital visits surge during heat waves and cold spells? What role might adaptations like indoor heating and cooling systems play in blunting those effects? And, at what cost?…
By John Schwartz 07/22/20
New research has sharply narrowed the range of outcomes.
By Jeremy Deaton Photo: NASA 05/25/20
You may have heard about the hole in the ozone layer, which hovers over Antarctica. It has shrunk over time thanks to policies that...
By James Renwick Photo: sodar99 / Getty Images 05/15/20
By James RenwickClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you...
By Bob Berwyn Photo by Li Yang 05/04/20
A new study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows a "surprisingly narrow" human climate niche—between 52 degrees Fahrenheit to 59 degrees Fahrenheit. And it will shift geographically more in…
By Richard Schiffman Photo: Adrienne Grunwald for The New York Times 04/24/20
The good news is that the pandemic shows “science works.” The bad news? Global warming may be far more dangerous than a pandemic.
By Andrew Glikson 04/03/20
By Andrew Glikson At several points in the history of our planet, increasing amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have caused extreme global warming,...
By Olivia Rosane Photo: NASA 03/26/20
Emissions from the chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons used as refrigerants and aerosols didn't just burn a hole in the ozone layer. They also shifted the Southern Hemisphere's...
By Kristin Toussaint Photo: Goddard Media Studios/NASA 03/26/20
A three-dimensional portrait of methane concentrations around the world is helping researchers to understand the complex gas, which constitutes the second largest contributor to greenhouse gas...
