Topics tagged with 'Science'

Australians shun climate-led diet changes

30 Nov 2022

Most Australians are refusing to say goodbye to meat despite a growing concern about climate change.

Land use change could improve climate, health, and food insecurity: research

29 Nov 2022

Growing more grains and vegetables could decrease greenhouse gas emissions, increase water quality, and solve looming food insecurity and health problems for millions of New Zealanders, according to new research from two National Science Challenges.

More flash floods set to hit Greater Wellington due to climate change

29 Nov 2022

A new report paints an alarming picture of climate impacts for Greater Wellington, with damaging downpours and potential floods becoming increasingly frequent, and seasonal rainfall likely to increase by up to 16% in some areas.

Cannabis plants could help in the fight against climate change

28 Nov 2022

A team of scientists from Hudson Carbon – a research center based in New York which studies carbon storage – cannabis plants could be the missing player in humanity’s fight against climate change, as hemp can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere more than twice as effectively as trees.

What “longtermism” gets wrong about climate change

24 Nov 2022

In his new book What We Owe the Future, William MacAskill outlines the case for what he calls “longtermism.” That’s not just another word for long-term thinking. It’s an ideology and movement founded on some highly controversial ideas in ethics.

Take climate-changing aerosols seriously, scientists say

23 Nov 2022

The dangerous impacts of aerosol changes on vulnerable regions should have been a priority at COP27 after climate policymakers agreed a breakthrough deal to support these parts of the world, scientists have claimed.

Tracking CO2 emissions from space could help support climate agreements

23 Nov 2022

A global network of ground-based CO2 measurements began in 1957 and now consists of over one hundred stations around the world. Accurate and precise measurements from these stations have revealed a lot about changes in global atmospheric CO2 and Earth’s overall carbon cycle, but we can’t place these stations everywhere on Earth.

A climate scientist’s personal reckoning

22 Nov 2022

By Adam Sobel - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | A decade ago, Hurricane Sandy changed New York City, forever. New Yorkers now viscerally understand our vulnerability in a way we didn’t before, and the barriers being built to protect us from future storms and sea level rise will reshape the city’s topography. But for me—a scientist who studies hurricanes and climate change, a New Yorker, and a human being—Sandy was a different kind of watershed moment.

New research reveals climate change origins of great barrier reef

15 Nov 2022

Media release - University of Canterbury | Sea-level changes caused by melting ice sheets hundreds of thousands of years ago triggered the formation of K’gari (Fraser Island) – the world’s largest sand island – and the creation of Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef, a new study has found.

Global carbon emissions at record levels with no signs of shrinking, new data shows

14 Nov 2022

Global carbon dioxide emissions from all human activities remain at record highs in 2022, and fossil fuel emissions have risen above pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis by an international body of scientists.

Belching lakes, mystery craters, ‘zombie fires’: How the climate crisis is transforming the Arctic permafrost

14 Nov 2022

Four years ago, Morris J. Alexie had to move out of the house his father built in Alaska in 1969 because it was sinking into the ground and water was beginning to seep into his home.

Growing rooftop spinach in CO2 recycled from building ventilation quadruples growth

10 Nov 2022

Researchers have grown a farm of rooftop vegetables bathed in the CO2-rich exhaust air from city buildings—a somewhat dystopian idea which nevertheless boosted plant growth by an incredible 400%.

Eight warmest years on record witness upsurge in climate change impacts

7 Nov 2022

The past eight years are on track to be the eight warmest on record, fuelled by ever-rising greenhouse gas concentrations and accumulated heat. Extreme heatwaves, drought and devastating flooding have affected millions and cost billions this year, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s provisional State of the Global Climate in 2022 report.

Climate change will force up to 113m people to relocate within Africa by 2050: new report

7 Nov 2022

Adapting to a world that is warmer than today is a huge undertaking, even if the most ambitious temperature ceiling is met. Increasing climate risks mean that millions of Africans could be uprooted or trapped where they are due to climate change.

Carbon removal mustn’t become a new frontier for injustice

7 Nov 2022

As preparations accelerate for the UN climate negotiations in Egypt, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), a largely under-acknowledged issue with widespread, widely varying implications, must be addressed.

What is blue carbon and why is it vital for mitigating Canada's carbon emissions?

7 Nov 2022

Marlow Pellatt spent time on Vancouver Island, taking samples of soil from deep underground and wading through water to understand the biodiversity in the area. To an onlooker, it may seem like he’s playing in mud, but he’s actually researching how important coastal ecosystems are in Canada’s fight against climate change.

Scientists look at biogas potential of partly digested grass

4 Nov 2022

Kiwi scientists are converting partly digested grass from the stomachs of slaughtered cattle into biogas, which they hope could be used to heat commercial greenhouses.

One third of glaciers in World Heritage Sites will disappear by 2050: new study

4 Nov 2022

A third of all glaciers in World Heritage Sites are on course to melt away by 2050, according to new research.

Half Rutherford Fellowships awarded to climate research

3 Nov 2022

Climate research is a major focus for New Zealand’s foremost scientists, with six of this year’s twelve Rutherford fellowships awarded to climate-related projects, to the tune of $4.8 million.

Whaling’s link to climate change

3 Nov 2022

Media release: Royal Society Te Apārangi | Whales can store vast amounts of carbon throughout their lifetime. When they die, they bring that carbon with them to the bottom of the sea, where they sustain the local food web or get buried, effectively trapping carbon for centuries to millennia.

Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average

3 Nov 2022

Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years – the highest of any continent in the world.

Climate change will produce more rainbows

3 Nov 2022

If you’ve ever been to Hawaii, you know it has an abundance of rainbows. And maybe it’s no surprise that researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have been studying rainbows.

Whanganui Awa’s legal personhood inspires scientists' call for recognition of rights of the Ocean

2 Nov 2022

Scientists arguing for the Ocean to be recognised as living being with intrinsic legal rights have cited the precedent of the Whanganui Awa in a recently published scientific article.

African scientists call for nature-based solution to climate crisis

1 Nov 2022

Harnessing Africa's vast natural resources, including tropical forests, coastal mangroves and peatlands, offers a cheaper and sustainable pathway to a greener and resilient future for the continent, scientists said on Monday.

96% of humans feel global warming: study

31 Oct 2022

Whether they realized it or not, some 7.6 billion people - 96 percent of humanity - felt global warming's impact on temperatures over the last 12 months, researchers have said.

Greenhouse gases reach a new record

28 Oct 2022

The three main greenhouse gases hit record high levels in the atmosphere last year, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday, calling it an "ominous" sign as war in Ukraine, rising costs of food and fuel, and other worries have elbowed in on longtime concerns about global warming in recent months.

What would climate scientists do with $100 million

21 Oct 2022

Who’s best placed to decide which climate tech is most likely to help save the world — and therefore deserves the most funding? Climate scientists are top of the list.

Ocean warming rates to quadruple by 2090 if climate change not mitigated: study

19 Oct 2022

A new comprehensive review of global ocean temperature data has allowed researchers to paint a clear picture of ocean warming since the 1950s, and predict future warming scenarios.

Tracing anthropogenically emitted carbon dioxide into the ocean

19 Oct 2022

Researchers labeled anthropogenically emitted carbon and tracked it with an ocean circulation model to determine whether it winds up in the sky or the sea.

Climate anxiety is spreading all over the planet

18 Oct 2022

If you’re feeling anxious about climate change, the common wisdom goes, there’s an antidote: Take action. Maybe you can alleviate your worries by doing something positive, like going to a protest, becoming an advocate for mass transit, or trying to get an environmental champion elected.

Future emissions from ‘country of permafrost’ potentially devastating

18 Oct 2022

By the end of this century, permafrost in the rapidly warming Arctic will likely emit as much carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as a large industrial nation, and potentially more than the U.S. has emitted since the start of the industrial revolution.

World needs to eat less meat: no two sides about it

17 Oct 2022

For years, the reality of climate change was presented in newspaper articles as an open debate. Coverage attempted to offer “both sides” a voice, including scientific experts alongside climate deniers (who often had financial interests in fossil fuels). That false balance has largely improved, with most media coverage on the topic acknowledging the role fossil fuels play in climate change.

CSIRO abruptly scraps globally recognised climate forecast programme

17 Oct 2022

Australia’s premier science organisation abruptly scrapped a fully-funded, globally recognised programme to predict the climate in coming years without consulting an advisory panel that had praised its “good progress” only weeks earlier.

"Sobering" report highlights climate impacts on NZ's marine environment

13 Oct 2022

A “sobering” new report highlighting marine heatwaves, acidifying oceans, sea level rise, and damaging storms, is a warning to reduce emissions faster, according to experts.

50% of Earth’s coral reefs face climate change threat by 2035

12 Oct 2022

Under a worst-case scenario, half of coral reef ecosystems worldwide will permanently face unsuitable conditions in just over a dozen years, if climate change continues unabated. That is one of the findings from new research published on October 11, in PLOS Biology by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers. Unsuitable conditions will likely lead to the corals dying off and other marine life will struggle to survive due to disruptions in the food chain.

Future heatwaves will lead to large ‘loss of life’, report warns

11 Oct 2022

Heatwaves will become so extreme in parts of Africa and Asia within decades that human life there will be unsustainable, a new report by the United Nations and the Red Cross has warned.

Climate change and deforestation may drive tree-dwelling primates to the ground, large-scale study shows

11 Oct 2022

A large-scale study of 47 species of monkeys and lemurs has found that climate change and deforestation are driving these tree-dwelling animals to the ground, where they are at higher risk due to lack of preferred food and shelter, and may experience more negative interaction with humans and domestic animals.

Methane blowout craters in Siberia are ‘canary in a coal mine for global climate’

11 Oct 2022

Gases released from methane craters on Siberia's Yamal and Gydan peninsulas as well as the immense amounts of carbon dioxide released from wildfires in the region can accelerate global warming, experts have warned.

Phantom forests: why ambitious tree planting projects are failing

7 Oct 2022

It was perhaps the most spectacular failed tree planting project ever. Certainly the fastest. On March 8, 2012, teams of village volunteers in Camarines Sur province on the Filipino island of Luzon sunk over a million mangrove seedlings into coastal mud in just an hour of frenzied activity.

Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine specie

7 Oct 2022

By Daniel G. Boyce - The Conversation | Climate change impacts marine life through a bewildering web of complex pathways.

Funding win for biotech startup aiming to reduce emissions with dairy alternatives

6 Oct 2022

Precision fermentation startup Daisy Lab is the first recipient of funding from a new initiative set up to reduce the failure rate of local social enterprises.

The world should fast track green energy. But not because of climate change

5 Oct 2022

A rapid transition to green energy is likely to save the world trillions of dollars compared to sticking with the current fossil fuel-based energy system, according to a new analysis.

NIWA predicts strengthening marine heatwave

4 Oct 2022

Climate change is continuing to influence Aotearoa New Zealand’s weather, with NIWA warning the coming marine heatwave could rival last year’s high temperatures, and the marine sector “should monitor the system closely”.

A Nord Stream disaster every day

4 Oct 2022

A half-mile wide maelstrom is swirling in the Baltic Sea as an estimated 300,000 metric tons of gas violently erupts from the sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines. Most of this gas is likely methane, a gas normally invisible to the eye that is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over 20 years. The swirling froth recalls Hurricane Ian, another catastrophe that’s just devastated Florida.

Scientists hopeful tiny ocean zooplankton will help tell if climate change targets are met

3 Oct 2022

Scientists have found some of the smallest animals in the ocean are having a big impact in the fight against climate change.

‘South Asia, Himalayan region witness 40% of all climate disasters’

3 Oct 2022

Bitcoin climate impact greater than gold mining, study shows

30 Sep 2022

Bitcoin is less “digital gold” and more “digital beef”, according to a study that suggests the cryptocurrency has a climate impact greater than that of gold mining and on the level of natural gas extraction or rearing cattle for meat.

Termite invasion could eat into NZ economy and environment

28 Sep 2022

As the planet heats, termites could move further out of the tropics, decaying more wood and releasing more carbon dioxide like "tiny cows", according to a new study in the journal Science.

Scientists urge top publisher to withdraw faulty climate study

28 Sep 2022

A fundamentally flawed study claiming that scientific evidence of a climate crisis is lacking should be withdrawn from the peer-reviewed journal in which it was published, top climate scientists have told AFP.

How could positive 'tipping points' accelerate climate action?

23 Sep 2022

As catastrophic climate change tipping points loom, could positive shifts toward green action also be speeding up?