Until now the fossil fuel industries have not had to account for the full costs to society of their products. Billions of dollars in climate-related expenses have been hidden inside the budgets for disaster recovery, health programs, national security and numerous other accounting sleights of hand that shield the rippling financial impacts of climate change from...
The floods, droughts, wildfires and extreme heat sweeping the globe are offering a dose of the climate future that scientists have warned about for decades — and all the ways the world is not ready. From a nearly depleted federal disaster fund to state insurance markets that are faltering under the weight of multiple catastrophes, extreme weather is testing the ability of...
recent study led by a University College London researcher, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, reveals that climate change could suddenly thrust species beyond critical thresholds as they encounter unanticipated temperatures within their geographic habitats. The study forecasts the timeline and locations where species worldwide may be subjected to potentially dangerous temperature changes due to climate change. The research team...
The US says it will not “under any circumstances” pay reparations to developing countries hit by climate change-fuelled disasters. Climate envoy John Kerry made the remarks at a Congress hearing before flying to China to discuss the issue. Some countries want major economies – which produce the most greenhouse gases – to pay for past...
The color changes reflect significant shifts in essential marine ecosystems. The ocean’s color has changed significantly over the last 20 years, and the global trend is likely a consequence of human-induced climate change, report scientists at MIT, the National Oceanography Center in the U.K., and elsewhere. In a study appearing today in Nature, the team writes...
Record global temperatures on July 3 kicked off the hottest week ever recorded as intense heat waves gripped the planet. Climate scientist Friederike Otto, of London’s Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, called the heat “a death sentence for people and ecosystems.” Yet, the next day, a political journalist in the United Kingdom, Isabel Oakeshott,...
The streets, sidewalks and roofs of cities all absorb heat during the day, making some urban areas up to six degrees Fahrenheit hotter than rural ones during the day—and 22 degrees F hotter at night. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as the city heat diffuses downward, beneath the surface. And basements, subway...
High in the Austrian Alps, hundreds of construction workers toil in a huge underground project aimed at storing hydropower as climate change has reduced the country’s water-dependent electricity production. Austria draws more than 60% of its electricity output from the renewable energy source, compared to a global average of 16%, with more than 3,100 dams...
Warmer temperatures are transforming Europe into the perfect habitat for ticks carrying CCHF, a deadly virus which in the worst cases results in death. A deadly disease spread by ticks and usually found in the Balkans, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East could soon spread across Europe as climate change pushes the insects to move up through...
Earth’s average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, the third such milestone in a week that already rated as the hottest on record and what one prominent scientist says could be the hottest in 120,000 years. But it’s also a record with some legitimate scientific questions and caveats, so much so that the National...