The perennial question of how clouds affect the Earth’s climate takes another twist, with one study expecting cooling and another the opposite.
With the help of satellite data, scientists have shown that low-level cloud cover in the tropics thins out as Earth warms. Because this cloud cover has a cooling effect on the climate, the two-degree warming target set by the Paris Agreement may arrive sooner than predicted.
The United Nations climate change conference held last year in Paris had the aim of tackling future climate change. After the deadlocks and weak measures that arose at previous meetings, such as Copenhagen in 2009, the Paris summit was different.
The State of the Climate in 2015 report, led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was released. Unfortunately, it paints a grim picture of the world’s climate last year.
After warming for nearly 50 years the Antarctic peninsula has begun cooling, though probably not for long, UK scientists say.
The dip in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during the Little Ice Age wasn’t caused by New World pioneers cutting a swathe through native American agriculture, as had been previously thought.
New mapping of one of the most remote areas in Antarctica has revealed regions deep within Earth’s largest ice sheet that are particularly prone to rapid melting.
Experts say the results of a study of ancient zooplankton fossils offer a warning about mass extinction events: There’s a tipping point, at which dramatic declines in populations begin.
Think of an Australian landscape and you’re unlikely to picture snow-capped mountains or alpine meadows. But that’s what you’ll find atop the peaks of the country’s southeastern corner.
Reconstruction of climate events long before the Ice Ages shows that failure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions could eventually lead to temperatures rising by up to 10 degrees.
The fossil fuel industry has spent many millions of dollars on confusing the public about climate change. But the role of vested interests in climate science denial is only half the picture.
Following record-high temperatures and melting records that affected northwest Greenland in summer 2015, a new study offers the first evidence linking melting in Greenland to the anticipated effects of a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification.
We’re not even halfway through the year but already you may have heard talk of 2016 being the hottest on record. But how can scientists be so sure we’re going to beat the previous record, set just last year?
New research illustrates that reactions of people, plants and animals to the changing climate are a key factor in unravelling the complexities of global warming.
Antarctica is already feeling the heat of climate change, with rapid melting and retreat of glaciers over recent decades. Ice mass loss from Antarctica and Greenland contributes about 20% to the current rate of global sea level rise.
Global temperatures for February showed a disturbing and unprecedented upward spike. It was 1.35? warmer than the average February during the usual baseline period of 1951-1980, according to NASA data.
Much has been written about the challenge of achieving the targets set out in the Paris climate agreement, which calls for global warming to be held well below 2? and ideally within 1.5? of pre-industrial temperatures.
Global sea level rose faster in the 20th century than in any of the 27 previous centuries, a new analysis shows.
Antarctica and Greenland may be two of the most remote places on Earth but what happens in both these vast landscapes can significantly impact on human activity further afield.
It’s official: 2015 was the warmest year on record. But those global temperature records only date back to 1850 and become increasingly uncertain the further back you go
As recently as 6,000 years ago the Sahara was green and fertile. We’ve found evidence of large rivers crossing the region, lined by flourishing settlements. Then suddenly things changed. Trees died and the land dried up. Soil blew away or turned into sand and those rivers were no more. In just a few centuries, the Sahara was transformed from a region similar to modern South Africa into the desert we know today.
The Paris climate conference will set nations against each other, and kick off huge arguments over economic policies, green regulations and even personal lifestyle choices. But one thing isn’t up for debate: the evidence for climate change is unequivocal.
“Climate science isn’t settled” is a particular favourite, still repeated by various Republican presidential candidates as an excuse for inaction on global warming.