Pure Science

Cosmos

As the remaining carbon budget to limit global warming to 1.5°C dwindles – expected to run out in just 6 years – a new Nature Communications study has found that greenhouse gas emissions from tourism have been growing faster than global...

Cosmos

Climate change is putting the future of some seals at risk as icebergs on which they depend become smaller, and the movements of the ice in the oceans change. Recent research in the Johns Hopkins Glacier and Inlet in Alaska has revealed...

Cosmos

The May 2024 heatwave in Mexico City. Credit: Gerardo Vieyra/picture alliance via Getty Images Heat-related deaths – on the rise from climate change – are generally thought to threaten older adults the most. But a study of Mexican data...

Cosmos

Considering the globe as a whole, high clouds and cloud-free scenes result in warming of the Earth’s atmosphere, as less energy escapes into space than arrives from the sun. For low clouds, it’s the opposite, so their decline leads to...

Cosmos

As our climate changes, natural disasters follow. Agricultural systems are being disrupted, with crop failures becoming all too common. Owen Cumming wonders what might be left for us to eat in a climate-changed future. Entire fields of...

Cosmos

Lacking the drama of storm or fire, droughts often go under-noticed in the pantheon of natural disasters. But they’re extremely destructive, with wide-ranging effects – from long-term changes to a continent’s water ecology, through to...

Cosmos

In what appears to be very good news for a hungry planet, agricultural productivity seems set to help meet the needs of a growing global population, which is expected to reach a peak of around 10.3 billion in the mid-2080s. The analysis of...

Cosmos

New research has identified several regions of the globe where heatwaves are increasing at a rate far higher than state-of-the-art climate models have been projecting.  These regions include eastern Australia, central China, Japan,...

Cosmos

New research has found at least 257 million people now live in places where climate warming could cause dengue incidence to double in the next 25 years in Asia and the Americas Mild cases of dengue may be asymptomatic or cause fever and...

Cosmos

The deadly impact of climate change bringing more intense marine heatwaves and cyclones to the Great Barrier Reef has been revealed by initial results from the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences’ (AIMS) Long-Term Monitoring Program...

Cosmos

A melting iceberg photographed on the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkiye’s 7th Antarctic expedition, May 2023. Credit: Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Geoengineering – always a controversial topic – has been...

Cosmos

Dr Matthew Adeleye and Professor David Bowman (right), co-authors on the current paper. Credit: Simon Haberle Ancient pollen and charcoal remains uncovered from islands north of Tasmania (Lutruwita) suggest that human fire management...

Cosmos

Chemists have made a substance that can absorb carbon dioxide at the high temperatures used in industrial processes, like cement or steel-making. The study, published in Science, could eventually help to lower the emissions of these...

Cosmos

Drone image of the mangrove dieback on HDh. Neykurendhoo in the Maldives. Credit: Maldives Resilient Reefs An extreme rise in sea levels driven by the Indian Ocean Dipole have caused some Maldivian islands to lose more than half of their...

Cosmos

Graph of global fossil fuel CO2 emissions. Source: Friedlingstein et al 2024; Global Carbon Project 2024 Global fossil fuel emissions are projected to reach a new record of 37.4 billion tonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide this year – a growth...

Cosmos

The conference stadium in Baku, Azerbaijan, which is hosting the UN’s COP29 Conference. Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images A week after former president Donald Trump again won office in the USA, the world’s countries are gathering to talk...

Cosmos

Map of the 4.3 million direct city-to-city flights recorded in 2023 and assessed in the study. Credit: Stefan Gössling et al. Private jets are emitting millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide each year – and the number is growing...

Cosmos

Valencia, Spain, 2 November 2024: Credit: Pablo Blazquez Dominguez / Stringer / Getty Images Nations are not doing enough to address the rising impacts of climate change the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) latest Adaptation...

Cosmos

Scientists have found the first geochemical evidence of the slushy planet – the period when high carbon dioxide levels led to rapid melting after “snowball Earth”. An artist’s illustration of a ‘snowball Earth’. Credit: NASA More than 700...

Cosmos

Aedes aegypti. Credit: boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images Larvae of the mosquito responsible for spreading diseases such as dengue, yellow fever and Zika grow faster when exposed to a certain kind of bacteria, according to new research in...

Cosmos

Two new studies published in the past week have presented new tools to help cities across the globe adapt to the increasing threat of dangerous heat. The first, published in the journal Proceedings of the of the National Academy of...

Cosmos

Credit: Nathan Lewis / Getty Images Shrub cover across southeastern Australia halved after the arrival of Indigenous populations, according to a new study. The study, published in Science, attributes the change to cultural burning...

Cosmos

The world is striving to reach net-zero emissions as we try to ward off dangerous global warming. But will getting to net-zero actually avert climate instability, as many assume? Our new study examined that question. Alarmingly, we found...

Cosmos

Significant acceleration in the upper-ocean circulation of the equatorial Pacific Ocean over the past 30 years is impacting global weather patterns, according to a new study. West-east near-surface current trend between 1993–2022. The...

Cosmos

Giant clams (Tridacna gigas), found in the waters around Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Islands, have been declared critically endangered according to a new assessment. Its overall population has fallen 84% in the past century....

Cosmos

Lake Geneva. Credit: L. Toshio Kishiyama/Getty Images A new study has uncovered the missing science behind why some lakes around the world emit such large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2). Lakes are unlikely sources of substantial amounts...

Cosmos

Drought and bushfire smoke affecting Melbourne, 2019. Credit: Charlie Rogers / Getty Images More extreme heat events, a drier south and a wetter north, drier streams, a longer fire season, fewer tropical cyclones and less snow. All of...

Cosmos

A woman wading through floodwater in Sylhet, north-eastern Bangladesh, in 2022. Credit: K M Asad/Getty Images A new report in the influential Lancet medical journal finds people around the world are facing imminent, record-breaking threats...

Cosmos

A destroyed sunflower crop in Anduze, France, in August 2022. The region was wracked by drought and heatwaves. Credit: Patrick Aventurier / Getty Images The 2022 heatwaves in Europe saw record-breaking temperatures and a surge in...

Cosmos

A study of ancient volcanism shows that dinosaurs took over the Earth about 200 million years ago because they thrived in the cold. This challenges long-standing theories that heating of the Earth was the principal impact on evolution of...

Cosmos

From left to right: Professor John Prins, Professor Steve Wesselingh, Gillian Mason, Professor Michael Kidd, and Professor Jon Karnon at the AAHMS 2024 Annual Meeting. Credit: Imma Perfetto What’s keeping Australia’s health researchers...

Cosmos

Old-growth Antarctic beech trees in Queensland. Credit: Oliver Strewe / Getty Images Following a “disappointing” inaugural Nature Positive Summit in Sydney, a team of researchers say that current laws are not sufficient to achieve the...

Cosmos

Ocean floor off the coast of Perth, Western Australia. Credit: Abstract Aerial Art / Getty Images Disturbed seabeds could be a potent source of carbon dioxide pollution, according to a new study. The research, published in Estuarine,...

Cosmos

Credit: Cimmerian/Getty Images A public health physician and planetary health expert says that healthcare workers now have a “duty of care to both their patients and the planet”. “We have to change our mindset in healthcare, because...

Cosmos

Researchers in Berkeley, California have created a new material they believe might hold the key to capturing carbon from the atmosphere more cheaply and efficiently.   Carbon capture technologies exist but mostly only work well for...

Cosmos

Ice core samples collected in Greenland, spanning 120,000 years of climate history, reveal abrupt “tipping points,” related to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation which plunged Earth into the last ice age. Drainage system on...

Cosmos

New global research has revealed that people don’t want developing countries left out of the climate change debate. Climate change brought about by the burning of fossil fuels is largely driven by the wealthiest nations, while the burden –...

Cosmos

Marine biologists have challenged the claim that lack of food is driving a population crash in killer whales in the Pacific Ocean saying boat noise may be the issue. Killer whales (Orcinus orca) frequent the waters of British Columbia and...

Cosmos

Drying climates spell danger for amphibian species already on the decline. New research shows that global warming of 2°C would result in 6.6% of habitats crucial for frogs and toads dry up. A temperature rise of 4°C could see 33% of frog...

Cosmos

The time taken for ecosystems to respond to the effects of climate change can vary, but a new study shows that, for grasslands that biodiversity change can happen in almost real time. “Climate change does have consequences for our...

Cosmos

Credit: Vicente Méndez / Getty Images High-tech textiles might be a smart way to reduce the toll on humans in heating cities. Some, based on lotus leaves, might even repel rain. A new paper published in Science Bulletin highlights several...

Cosmos

In some positive news, a big and broad study has found that 7 of Europe’s most common forest trees have adapted to major climatic shifts and protected their genetic diversity. Forest by River Kitkajoki in Finland. Credit: REDA&CO /...

Cosmos

In 2023, almost a year’s worth of rain fell over ten days in parts of northwestern Australia, leading to catastrophic flooding in the town of Fitzroy Crossing and surrounds. The rainfall was linked to a tropical cyclone, but there were...

Cosmos

Tam Pà Ling cave in Laos. Credit: Vito Hernandez. Scientists are revealing new details at a cave site in northeastern Laos which contains some of the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. Tam Pà Ling cave has been...

Cosmos

Drilling contractors at CO2CRC’s Otway International Test Centre attaching fibre optic cable to the outside of the casing of CRC-3, CO2CRC’s injection well for Stage 4. The fibre optics will be used to detect seismic signals and measure...

Cosmos

A new report out today says the world is on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster; quoting the United Nations Environment Programme, it says the global temperature will rise by 2.7°C by 2100. According to NASA, the mean temperature...

Cosmos

Villa Independencia, which saw the Valparaiso megafire pass through in February 2024. Credit: Jose Veas/NurPhoto via Getty Images While the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change operates on cycles that take most of a decade to ensure...

Cosmos

A coal mine in Newcastle, New South Wales. Credit: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg / Getty Images An international team of scientists has warned the world is on “the brink of an irreversible climate disaster”. Their annual report – the 2024 State...

Cosmos

A global study has found that whale sharks will be 15,000 times more likely to collide with ships by the end of the century due to climate change. The study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Credit: Dan Burton / Publisher...

Cosmos

Antarctica, known as the White Continent, is going green. Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey analysed satellite data of the Antarctic Peninsula and found that vegetation cover has increased more than 10-fold over the past 40...