NEWSWORTHY
Environmentalists plan to launch a methane-sensing satellite
Fifty years ago, a NASA astronaut snapped a photograph from lunar orbit showing Earth rising above the moon, and it helped inspire an environmental movement. Now it is the environmentalists who are sending missions into space. The Environmental Defense Fund on Wednesday announced a plan to ...
World cities go dark as global Earth Hour climate campaign kicks off
The Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower, Tokyo's Skytree and Moscow's Red Square were among the world landmarks to go dark Saturday, as part of a global campaign to raise awareness about the impacts of climate change. Earth Hour, which started in Australia in 2007, ...
U.S. government scientists say ice covering the Arctic ocean reached its second-lowest extent on record this winter. For most of the winter, sea ice in the Arctic was at record lows, but cold March winds helped the ice expand just beyond the low set in ...
Harmful carbon emissions from energy rose in 2017 for the first time in three years, the International Energy Agency said Thursday, proof that the world's efforts to fight climate change are falling short. Strong economic growth pushed global energy demand up by 2.1 percent last ...
The past three years were the hottest on record and heat waves in Australia, freak Arctic warmth and water shortages in Cape Town are extending harmful weather extremes in 2018, the United Nations said on Thursday. Atlantic hurricanes and monsoon floods in India contributed to ...
Fewer new coal plants being built, but too many to meet Paris target, study says
The number of coal-fired power plants built worldwide fell steeply over the past two years, but emissions are too high to keep global warming within relatively safe levels, campaigners said on Thursday. The start of new builds dropped by 73 percent between 2015 and 2017, ...
Sri Lanka's capital moves to cut worsening flood risk
When heavy rain falls in the hills and plains west of Colombo — and in the city itself at the same time — Sri Lanka's capital drowns. As runoff from the west rushes into the Kelani River, which empties into the sea just north of ...
Coral reefs at risk of dissolving as oceans get more acidic: study
Coral reefs could start to dissolve before 2100 as man-made climate change drives acidification of the oceans, scientists said Thursday. Acidification will threaten sediments that are building blocks for reefs. Corals already face risks from ocean temperatures, pollution and overfishing. "Coral reefs will transition to net ...
How quickly humanity draws down greenhouse gases will determine whether sea levels rise half a meter or six times that, researchers reported Tuesday. "The trajectory of emissions in the next few decades will shape our coastlines in the centuries to come," said lead author Matthias ...
'Sinking' Pacific nation is getting bigger, showing islands are geologically dynamic: study
The Pacific nation of Tuvalu — long seen as a prime candidate to disappear as climate change forces up sea levels — is actually growing in size, new research shows. A University of Auckland study examined changes in the geography of Tuvalu's nine atolls and ...
Getting rid of massive subsidies for oil, gas and coal will not significantly curb carbon pollution or speed the transition to a greener global economy, researchers said Wednesday, challenging widely held assumptions. "Unfortunately, it is not the silver bullet many had hoped," they said in ...
Earth sweltered again in 2017 as the hottest year ever without an El Nino
Last year was the second or third warmest on record behind 2016, and the hottest without an extra dose of heat caused by an El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean, the United Nations said on Thursday. Average surface temperatures in 2017 were 1.1 degree ...
