Languages

Effects of Global Warming

English

100,000 people have left federal science agencies since President Trump returned to the White House which Censors Science including Global Warming

Kate Marvel, a widely known climate scientist and author, has resigned from her position at NASA, citing the Trump administration’s attacks on climate science in the United States.

Dr. Marvel, who trained as an astrophysicist before turning to the Earth’s atmosphere, said in an interview that the administration’s actions made it impossible to remain at an agency that she loved.

“It wears you down after a while,” said Dr. Marvel, who announced her resignation on Tuesday. “None of my internally funded science projects were funded. I wrote a couple other proposals, which, as far as I know, have fallen into a black hole.”

Bethany Stevens, a NASA spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about Dr. Marvel’s resignation, saying “it would be inappropriate for the agency to comment on personnel matters.”

Dr. Marvel joins an estimated 95,000 employees who have left federal science agencies through layoffs, retirements or resignations since Mr. Trump returned to the White House last year. Of those, an estimated 10,000 held doctorate degrees in the sciences.

UN Climate Report states Earth is Out of Balance and faces Dangerous Warming

The Earth is out of balance.

That’s the message from a United Nations report released late Sunday that looked at how much energy from the sun is absorbed by the Earth or reflected back into space.

Researchers found the gap between the two is the biggest since measurements began in 1960, meaning more of the sun’s heat energy is now staying on Earth. And that energy imbalance is heating up the oceans, atmosphere, and frozen regions of the world, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Global Climate report.

Ashkay Deoras, a research scientist at Britain’s National Center for Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading, likened the planet to a heated room with the windows closed.

“If you open the window, naturally, you will allow the hot air to escape,” said Dr. Deoras, who was not associated with the report. “But now what is happening is that, because of all these greenhouse gases, they are just trapping more and more heat. The planet is just not getting a chance to cool down.”

In previous reports, the U.N.-based meteorological organization documented changes in each element of the Earth’s system, such as surface temperatures, ocean heat, melting glaciers and sea level rise. This year, the authors, who include climate scientists and meteorologists, examined shifts on a wider scale.

Humans Are Speeding Extinction and Altering the Natural World at an ‘Unprecedented’ Pace - 2019

WASHINGTON — Humans are transforming Earth’s natural landscapes so dramatically that as many as one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction, posing a dire threat to ecosystems that people all over the world depend on for their survival, a sweeping new United Nations assessment has concluded.

The 1,500-page report, compiled by hundreds of international experts and based on thousands of scientific studies, is the most exhaustive look yet at the decline in biodiversity across the globe and the dangers that creates for human civilization. A summary of its findings, which was approved by representatives from the United States and 131 other countries, was released Monday in Paris. The full report is set to be published this year.

Its conclusions are stark. In most major land habitats, from the savannas of Africa to the rain forests of South America, the average abundance of native plant and animal life has fallen by 20 percent or more, mainly over the past century. With the human population passing 7 billion, activities like farming, logging, poaching, fishing and mining are altering the natural world at a rate “unprecedented in human history.”

Birds Aren’t Just Declining. They’re Declining Faster - 2026.

Scientists studying data collected over more than three decades found accelerating losses. Their research offers clues about the causes.

Birds in the United States are not only declining, but they are declining faster, especially in areas with intensive agriculture, according to new research. Overall drops in bird population, measured from 1987 to 2021, were sharpest in warm and warming areas, suggesting that climate change may play a role.

The study, published on Thursday in the journal Science, shows only correlation with intensive agriculture and temperature, not causation. It does not factor in other circumstances that may be affecting birds along migratory routes or while they are overwintering. But it adds to an ever more robust body of evidence that birds — one of the best measured families of animals on Earth, and a sentinel for the health of other species — are not OK.

Whatever the specific drivers, the accelerating losses make sense given society’s focus on economic growth, which often comes at a cost to the natural world, said Peter P. Marra, an ornithologist and dean at Georgetown University who specializes in bird populations and was not involved with the new research.

“The American dream turns into the American nightmare as we start to look at what we’re doing to biodiversity and systems that we depend on as humans,” he said.

Intense Mediterranean Sea heatwave raises fears for marine life - July 2025

Warmer water at the seaside might sound nice for your holiday dip, but recent ocean heat in the Mediterranean Sea has been so intense that scientists fear potentially devastating consequences for marine life.

The temperature of the sea surface regularly passed 30C off the coast of Majorca and elsewhere in late June and early July, in places six or seven degrees above usual.

That's probably warmer than your local leisure centre swimming pool.

It has been the western Med's most extreme marine heatwave ever recorded for the time of year, affecting large areas of the sea for weeks on end.

The heat appears to be cooling off, but some species simply struggle to cope with such prolonged and intense warmth, with potential knock-on effects for fish stocks.

To give you some idea of these temperatures, most leisure centre swimming pools are heated to roughly 28C. Competitive swimming pools are slightly cooler at 25-28C, World Aquatics says.

Children's pools are a bit warmer, recommended at 29-31C or 30-32C for babies, according to the Swimming Teachers' Association.

Such balmy temperatures might sound attractive, but they can pose hidden threats. Harmful bacteria and algae can often spread more easily in warmer seawater, which isn't treated with cleaning chemicals like your local pool.

2024 - Warming Caribbean Seas

The Caribbean has been unusually warm. That’s not a good thing.

Will the recent trend toward a harsher climate continue?

In the tropical Caribbean Sea region, it’s typically warm and humid on land but rarely endlessly hot — relatively stable water temperatures promote conditions that don’t often change drastically day-to-day or even month-to-month.

But that climate norm has been turned on its head over the past two years, with record-breaking heat that ramped up in the spring of 2023 and has continued unabated since; conditions fueled by human-caused climate change. Many places including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and others in the archipelago set heat records in 2023 only to see them overturned last year.

An unusually powerful and resilient marine heat wave contributed to keeping the region toasty. But it wasn’t the only factor.

Major report connects the world's environmental challenges - 2024

Major report connects the world's environmental challenges

Getty African elephants at a watering hole with a fire in the distance

Issues like climate chante, biodiversity and water are all interlinked, the report says

Climate change, nature loss and food insecurity are all inextricably linked and dealing with them as separate issues won't work, a major report has warned.

30 % + of Species could go extinct if warming is not checked.

How many species could go extinct from climate change? It depends on how hot it gets.

 

Two Kea birds, Arthurs Pass South Island New Zealand. The species is listed as threatened in that country and climate change is among the reasons their numbers are in danger.

Two Kea birds, Arthurs Pass South Island New Zealand. The species is listed as threatened in that country and climate change is among the reasons their numbers are in danger.

 

To consider how climate change could cause some extinctions, imagine a tiny mountain bird that eats the berries of a particular mountain tree.

That tree can only grow at a specific elevation around the mountain, where it's evolved over millennia to thrive in that microclimate. As global temperatures rise, both the tree and the bird will be forced to rise too, tracking their microclimate as it moves uphill. But they can only go so far.

Can Warming Still be Held to + 1.5 ° Centigrade - 2024 ?

Countries agreed to try to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Is that still possible?

An iceberg floats off the coast of Illulisat, Greenland. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting rapidly, and that melt will accelerate as the Earth heats up. The melting of Greenland's ice sheet is the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise. (The largest contributor is water expanding as it warms.)

An iceberg floats off the coast of Illulisat, Greenland. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting rapidly, and the risks of drastic melting increase as the Earth heats up. The melting of Greenland's ice sheet is the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise. (The largest contributor is water expanding as it warms.)

The primary focus of international climate negotiations this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, is how to pay for the costs of cutting global climate pollution and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Climate change: Satellite maps warming impact on global glaciers

Baltoro

Glaciers are not easy targets for any type of satellite to measure mass loss over time


Scientists have obtained their best satellite assessment yet of the status of the world's glaciers.

Europe's Cryosat satellite tracked the 200,000 or so glaciers on Earth and found they have lost 2,720bn tonnes of ice in 10 years due to climate change.

That's equivalent to losing 2% of their bulk in a decade.

Monitoring how quickly glaciers are changing is important because millions of people rely on them for water and farming.

Pages

Email Addresses