Category: Climate & Earth

For nearly 90% of Earth’s history, our planet’s atmosphere contained almost no oxygen, making it completely uninhabitable for humans and most modern life forms. Then, around 2.5 billion years ago, something remarkable happened: Earth’s atmosphere began to fill with oxygen in what scientists call the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). This atmospheric revolution changed our planet’s chemistry and paved the way for complex life.

But this wasn’t a sudden change. Before the GOE, Earth’s atmosphere occasionally experienced temporary “whiffs” of oxygen—mysterious spikes that came and went. What caused these oxygen previews has puzzled scientists for years. Now, researchers from the university of Tokyo have found a surprising answer: massive volcanic eruptions.

Volcanoes: Unlikely oxygen producers

In a study published in Communications Earth & Environment, scientists showed how enormous volcanic eruptions known as Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) could have triggered these temporary oxygen events. Their computer models revealed that intense volcanic periods could have caused oxygen increases lasting several million years.

But how could volcanoes, which release carbon dioxide and other gases, lead to more oxygen? The answer involves a chain reaction through Earth’s early systems.

When these enormous eruptions occurred, they released vast amounts of carbon dioxide, warming the planet. This warming increased the breakdown of continental rocks, releasing phosphorus into the oceans. This phosphorus fed photosynthesizing microbes, which produced oxygen as a byproduct.

“Activity of microorganisms in the ocean played a central role in the evolution of atmospheric oxygen. However, we think this would not have immediately led to atmospheric oxygenation because the amount of nutrients such as phosphate in the ocean at that time was limited,” says professor Eiichi Tajika from the University of Tokyo, in a statement. “It likely took some massive geological events to seed the oceans with nutrients, including the growth of the continents and, as we suggest in our paper, intense volcanic activity.”

Ancient rocks tell the tale

These findings explain puzzling evidence found in rocks like the Mt. McRae Shale in Australia. Deposited around 2.5 billion years ago, this rock contains elevated levels of elements like molybdenum and rhenium, which point to a temporary oxygen increase. This oxygen spike would have lasted between several million to 11 million years, matching what the models predict.

The evidence for these oxygen whiffs isn’t limited to one location. The original research paper notes that the whiff event recorded in Mt. McRae Shale coincided with redox-sensitive element enrichment in the Klein Naute Formation in South Africa. This suggests these oxygen increases may have been widespread phenomena rather than isolated local events.

This makes sense based on our understanding of how Earth’s surface was evolving at this time. The late Archean period was a time of significant planetary change. Continents were growing, volcanic activity was reshaping the surface, and life was evolving new metabolic capabilities.

“Understanding the whiffs is critical for constraining the timing of the emergence of photosynthetic microorganisms,” says visiting research associate Yasuto Watanabe. “The biggest challenge was to develop a numerical model that could simulate the complex, dynamic behavior of biogeochemical cycles under late Archean conditions.”

The continental connection

In December 2024, astronomers in Chile spotted a new asteroid streaking through the sky, which they named 2024 YR4. What’s significant about this 100-meter-wide space rock is that it has a small chance of hitting Earth in 2032.

Since its discovery, the asteroid’s probability of an impact with our planet has gone all over the place. At one point, the risk rose as high as 3.1%. This may not sound like a lot, until you realize that that is a 1 in 32 chance of collision.

As of February 24, 2025, the European Space Agency’s (Esa) Near Earth Object Centre predicts the collision probability to be just 0.002%, which is a 1 in 50,000 chance – a huge difference. So why is there such a huge variability in these predictions? And is there really a need to be concerned?

Asteroids are leftover remnants from the formation of the solar system, mostly rock, but also metallic, or icy bodies that tend to live in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

Space agencies like NASA and ESA independently monitor and track over 37,000 near-Earth asteroids (NEAs). These NEAs are those that come within 1.3 astronomical units distance of Earth, where 1 astronomical unit is the average distance between the Earth and Sun. Around 1,700 objects are considered to have an elevated risk because they make a relatively close approach to Earth at some point in the future. They are said to have a non-zero probability of colliding with our planet.

Now it’s estimated that 44,000 kilograms of space rock hits our planet every year, but most of it is dust or sand-grain-sized particles that will burn up in the atmosphere, creating the beautiful streaks in the sky that we know as shooting stars.

Rarely do these objects make it to the Earth intact as a meteorite and it’s even rarer to have a cataclysmic impact, like the 10km wide object that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The last major asteroid event in recent history was the 18m-wide meteorite that hit Chelyabinsk in Russia in 2013.

The fireball turned night into day and released an estimated 500 kilotons of energy (equivalent to 500,000 tonnes of TNT) as it explosively broke apart in our atmosphere. Around 1,500 people were injured – many through the sonic waves shattering windows.

Current estimates for 2024 YR4 suggest it to be up to 100m in size. It is capable of releasing about 7.8 Megatons of energy (equivalent to 7.8 million tonnes of TNT explosive), which is much more than Chelyabinsk. If such an asteroid were to hit the centre of London you could expect over 2 million fatalities. But the effects would be felt over a larger area.

The impact would have a “thermal radiation radius” of 26 km. Within this radius, the heat from the impact would be so intense it would cause third-degree burns. So despite the small probabilities, there’s no question that this asteroid should be monitored and tracked closely.

NASA has also reported a very small chance that 2024 YR4 could collide with the Moon instead. This would pose no threat to people on Earth, but would generate a sizeable impact crater on our planet’s only natural satellite.

No simple answers

Tracking an asteroid turns out to be more complex than you might think. Unlike stars and galaxies, asteroids don’t emit light so are notoriously difficult to spot. This faintness likely contributed to why 2024 YR4 4 eluded detection up until so recently.

In addition, the shape of the asteroid, and its albedo – which measures how reflective the asteroid is – is still highly uncertain, further complicating the prediction of its future path. The albedo of the asteroid not only tells us about the composition of the asteroid, but can inform us of interactions with the Sun.

A darker asteroid will absorb more light, heating up any gases within the asteroid. When released, these gases can act like jet thrusters, altering the trajectory of the asteroid. A more reflective asteroid, might incur more radiation pressure from the Sun. This pressure can actually push it in another direction to the one it was previously going in.

The current estimates of YR4’s albedo are between 0.05 – 0.25, with 0 being completely matte, and 1 being completely reflective, so the margin of uncertainty is wide. As you might expect, the shape of the asteroid will also affect the direction in which these forces act and the resulting trajectory of the object.

Current trajectory estimates assume a spherical asteroid, with a typical density for an S-type asteroid (a common type of rocky asteroid). The asteroid 2024 YR 4 has very little chance of being spherical (that shape tends to be seen in bigger objects with stronger gravity) and we don’t know what exactly it’s made from. Future observations, potentially including those from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), aim to refine our understanding of the asteroid’s shape.

However, past discrepancies between predictions of the comet 67P, as seen by the Hubble telescope from far away, versus its actual shape captured by the Rosetta spacecraft, which explored it up close, demonstrate the limitations of our predictions.

Spectral imaging (which measures different colors of light to give an indication of composition) will hopefully allow us to better understand what type of material is on the surface of the asteroid and whether there could be volatile gases hiding beneath it that could affect its future path.

Given that the projected Earth impact is a mere seven years away, the window for sending a spacecraft to try and divert it away from our planet, as successfully demonstrated by NASA’s Dart mission in 2022, is rapidly closing. While other options such as detonating a nuclear weapon near the asteroid to deflect its path remain theoretically possible, they come with significant risks and ethical considerations. For instance, instead of diverting the asteroid, a nuclear explosion could break it into two or more pieces, which could then collide with Earth in distinct locations.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/asteroid-2024-yr4-earth-collision-odds/

CHILLING new telescope photos of the “city killer” asteroid hurtling towards earth at 30,000mph have been released.

The chance of the space rock smashing into Earth when it loops around in 7 years’ time is estimated at a 1-in-48 chance – or just over two per cent.

The striking new images of asteroid YR4 2024 were captured by a space telescope in Chile on February 7, and show it in the most detail yet.

They were taken through the lens of the Gemini South Telescope – a powerful, 26-foot device in the Andes that specialises in staring deep into space.

Bryce Bolin, a NASA astronomer involved in the photo operation, told Space.com: “Only a few asteroids have been studied like this.”

The grainy images show 2024 YR4 as a bright white smudge against the night sky.

The rock was around 37 million miles from Earth when it was snapped.

Photographing a fast-moving object from such a distance is incredibly difficult, and required the team’s full expertise.

Bryce explained that they “took 12 200-second long exposures in the Red Band [the wavelength of red light] and tracked the motion of the asteroid”.

He said the task was difficult because the asteroid was relatively faint – meaning it could only be picked up using a very large telescope.

Another challenge was presented by the moon, which was 70 per cent full.

The moon’s illumination caused background lighting that made it even harder to see the asteroid.

Physicists will be keeping a close eye on YR4 over the next seven years as it cycles through its orbit around the sun, and are eager to learn as much about it as they can.

They currently believe it is between 40m and 100m across, and if it hits earth could produce an impact equivalent to 8 megatons of TNT.

The “city-killer” name comes from scientists’ prediction that the blast would blow a crater the size of a city into the Earth’s crust.

A terrifying simulation has been produced showing the devastating impact it could have.

The day of potential collision has been calculated as December 22, 2032 – just before Christmas.

There’s also a 0.3 per cent chance that the asteroid could smash into the moon, rather than our planet.

David Rankin, an operations engineer for the University of Arizona, said that if the moon was hit we would be able to see the strike with our own eyes.

He said: “There is the possibility this would eject some material back out that could hit the Earth, but I highly doubt it would cause any major threat.

“It would be very visible from Earth.”

Bryce said that, despite the chance of danger, he finds YR4 “to be extremely exciting” due to “the scientific potential of studying such a small asteroid in high detail”.

He added that this could be the final “chance we have to observe the asteroid from Gemini” before it approaches again in 2028.

The rock is expected to fade around mid-March, making it more difficult to detect from the ground, but passes nearby Earth around once every four years.

Source : https://www.the-sun.com/tech/13562947/chilling-new-telescope-photos-city-killer-asteroid/

Holding long-term global warming to two degrees Celsius — the fallback target of the Paris climate accord — is now “impossible,” according to a stark new analysis published by leading scientists.

Led by renowned climatologist James Hansen, the paper appears in the journal “Environment: Science and Policy for Sustainable Development” and concludes that Earth’s climate is more sensitive to rising greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought.

Compounding the crisis, Hansen and colleagues argued, is a recent decline in sunlight-blocking aerosol pollution from the shipping industry, which had been mitigating some of the warming.

An ambitious climate change scenario outlined by the UN’s climate panel, which gives the planet a 50 percent chance of keeping warming under 2C by the year 2100, “is an implausible scenario,” Hansen told a briefing Tuesday.

“That scenario is now impossible,” said Hansen, formerly a top NASA climate scientist who famously announced to the US Congress in 1988 that global warming was underway.

“The two degree target is dead.”

Instead, he and co-authors argued, the amount of greenhouse gases already pumped into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels meant increased warming is now guaranteed.

Temperatures will stay at or above 1.5C in the coming years — devastating coral reefs and fueling more intense storms — before rising to around 2.0C by 2045, they forecast.

They estimated polar ice melt and freshwater injection into the North Atlantic will trigger the shutdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) within the next 20-30 years.

The current brings warmth to various parts of the globe and also carries nutrients necessary to sustain ocean life.

Its end “will lock in major problems including sea level rise of several meters — thus, we describe AMOC shutdown as the ‘point of no return,'” the paper argued.

The world’s nations agreed during the landmark Paris climate accord of 2015 to try to hold end-of-century warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Scientists identified the threshold as critical to preventing the breakdown of major ocean circulation systems, the abrupt thawing of boreal permafrost, and the collapse of tropical coral reefs.

The 1.5C target has already been breached over the past two years, according to data from the EU’s climate monitoring system Copernicus, though the Paris Agreement referred to a long-term trend over decades.

Source : https://www.ibtimes.com/top-climate-scientist-declares-2c-climate-goal-dead-3762361

President Donald Trump once again withdrew the United States from the Paris climate deal on Monday, removing the world’s biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.
The move places the United States alongside Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only countries in the world outside the 2015 pact, in which governments agreed to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

It reflects Trump’s skepticism about global warming, which he has called a hoax, and fits in with his broader agenda to unfetter U.S. oil and gas drillers from regulation so they can maximize output.
Trump signed the executive order withdrawing from the pact in front of supporters gathered at the Capital One Arena in Washington.
“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off,” he said before signing the order.

“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said.
China said it is concerned about the announcement, citing climate change as a common challenge faced by all humankind.
“No country can stand aloof from it, nor can any country do it alone,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said at a regular news briefing on Tuesday.
Guo said that China has been consistent in addressing climate change, and will actively respond to the challenges and jointly promote global green and low-carbon transformation.

Despite the withdrawal, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is confident that U.S. cities, states and businesses “will continue to demonstrate vision and leadership by working for the low-carbon, resilient economic growth that will create quality jobs,” said associate U.N. spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino, in a written statement.
“It is crucial that the United States remains a leader on environmental issues,” she said. “The collective efforts under the Paris Agreement have made a difference but we need to go much further and faster together.”

The United States has to formally notify U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres of its withdrawal, which – under the terms of the deal – will take effect one year later.
The United States is already the world’s top producer of oil and natural gas thanks to a years-long drilling boom in Texas, New Mexico and elsewhere, fueled by fracking technology and strong global prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

SECOND U.S. WITHDRAWAL

Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the Paris deal during his first term in office, though the process took years and was immediately reversed by the Biden presidency in 2021. The withdrawal this time around is likely to take less time – as little as a year – because Trump will not be bound by the deal’s initial three-year commitment.
This time could also be more damaging to global climate efforts, said Paul Watkinson, a former climate negotiator and senior policy advisor for France.
The U.S. is currently the world’s second-biggest greenhouse gas emitter behind China and its departure undermines global ambition to slash those emissions.
“It will be harder this time because we are in the thick of implementation, up against real choices,” Watkinson said.
The world is now on pace for global warming of more than 3 C by the end of the century, according to a recent United Nations report, a level scientists warn would trigger cascading impacts such as sea level rise, heat waves, and devastating storms.
Nations have already been struggling to make steep cuts to emissions required to lower the projected temperature increase, as wars, political tensions and tight government budgets push climate change down the list of priorities.
Trump’s approach cuts a stark contrast to that of former President Joe Biden, who wanted the United States to lead global climate efforts and sought to encourage a transition away from oil and gas using subsidies and regulations.
Trump has said he intends to unwind those subsidies and regulations to shore up the nation’s budget and grow the economy, but has said he can do that while ensuring clean air and water in the United States.
Li Shuo, an expert in climate diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the U.S. withdrawal risks undermining the United States’ ability to compete with China in clean energy markets such as solar power and electric vehicles.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/trump-withdraw-paris-climate-agreement-2025-01-20/

Climate change didn’t start the wildfires that are ravaging Los Angeles County this week. But the big swings in weather patterns that have accelerated over the past two decades serve as rocket fuel that intensifies the flames and spreads the devastation.

Environmental experts and scientists warn that Southern Californians will have to come to grips with hard truths in the wake of the horrific firestorms in Malibu, Pacific Palisades and Altadena. The scope of the damage will have an impact on every industry that operates in the region – and no amount of velvet ropes, basement bunkers or private firefighting brigades will spare Hollywood.

“This is not going to go away tomorrow,” says Debbie Levin, who has served as the CEO of the Environmental Media Association for 25 years. “We’re still going to have climate change. We’ve had an industrial world since the early 1900s, so this has been going on for 100-plus years into our atmosphere, and we’re dealing with it now. For some reason, there’s still a blindness when it comes to the questions of how local communities need to deal with it.”

Wildfires are a natural and even necessary part of the region’s desert ecosystem. The pain and suffering for humans is magnified by more than a century of expanded residential development in areas that are prone to fire, mudslides, drought as well as unpredictable amounts of rain and snow. And all of this is made worse by the effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere driving climate change around the globe.

“Here’s the paradox: Climate change is humanly induced and is making the fire season far worse,” says Stephanie Pincetl, a professor at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and founding director of the school’s California Center for Sustainable Communities. “Although we always have had a fire season — these places have burned in the past — the extreme weather has become accelerated. Hotter hots, dryer dries, wetter wets, colder colds.”

The situation that erupted in Los Angeles’ hot spots was sadly predictable, she adds.

“The combination of very, very dry vegetation and extremely strong winds meant that any ignition that occurred in that ecosystem would spread very rapidly,” Pincetl says.

Monalisa Chatterjee, a professor of environmental science at USC, echoed Pincetl’s sentiments.

Fierce Santa Ana winds are normal for Southern California, in part because the region has an unusual combination of mountain ridges that run both north and south and east and west. But even for Santa Ana conditions, the 80- and 90-mile-an-hour winds registered in this week’s hot spots are unprecedented. The early January timing of these Santa Ana conditions is also unexpected. As one expert put it, the situation that erupted on Jan. 7 was essentially a hurricane but with fire instead of rain.

“Santa Ana wind events happen in this place quite often, but of this magnitude — this is an unprecedented event that we are experiencing,” Chatterjee says.

The extremes in Southern California weather conditions over the past few years have wreaked havoc. In 2021 and 2022, the Los Angeles area was pounded by heavy rainfall, which put vegetative growth on hillsides, canyons and woodland areas on steroids. Drought conditions that returned in 2023 and 2024 turned those areas into dried-out tinderboxes just waiting to ignite.

“Every type of extreme situation has overlapped in this one moment,” Chatterjee says.

For scientists and activists, the fact that climate change has become a highly politicized issue in the U.S. is infuriating in times of crisis. Pincetl and Chatterjee both decried the blame game that ensued this week amid the anguish and loss. The problem is bigger than the capabilities and resources of any one fire department.

“You simply cannot have enough firefighters on the ground to contain something that is so violent, and with the winds that we experienced. And there’s starting to be all the finger-pointing. ‘Oh, it was DEI at the fire department,’” Pincetl says. “Or, ‘The fire department didn’t have enough money.’ Even if the fire department had had more money, there would not have been enough resources to fight these fires. It was not [immediately] containable. We just need to be more accepting of the fact that we have unleashed forces that are beyond our control. And the real finger-pointing that should be taking place is at the oil companies and the continued reliance on fossil energy, which is disturbing the climate.”

The destruction from this week will be felt throughout the region for years, possibly even decades. It should serve as a wake-up call.

“I think that we will discover through this process that there are opportunities to try to come to grips with a changing climate that were not there before,” Pincetl says. “Maybe we will not be rebuilding some of the most egregiously risky houses.”

The EMA’s Levin sees this moment as an opportunity to rally an intellectual approach to mitigating future risk – if the political will is there among local leaders.

“The houses in Malibu on the ocean side, they’re not going to be able to be rebuilt. There’s been such erosion from what’s gone on in the climate that the Coastal Commission will not let them build,” Levin observes.

Unfortunately, the political debate around climate change and policy decisions that affect businesses and homeowners will make the process of recovery and long-term risk mitigation more difficult. “People start blaming the wrong things. I fear that we will hear more about, ‘Why weren’t the services better?’ and ‘Why isn’t my insurance covering me?’ conversation,” Levin says.

Chatterjee points to the long-term increase in non-native flora and fauna in the region. Plants, grasses and trees that aren’t naturally found in desert climates tend to burn faster and at higher temperatures, while native plants are generally more resilient.

“In many cases, we have moved far away from native species which are fire resistant and therefore did not burn so much and are able to survive, even if there’s high temperatures and fires,” Chatterjee says. “But then we have moved to invasive species that may be more beautiful. We put them in our area because they look pretty. But from a fire perspective, they are very bad because they burn easily and then help with the spreading of the fire.”

One of the immediate concerns is the danger of a massive amount of pollutants flying through the air and seeping into the ground. Modern homes are full of plastics, chemicals and other synthetic materials that emit toxins when burned. That’s why residents of the most affected areas are under orders to boil water before consuming any of it.

“We have so many things that are not natural in our houses. We have so much plastic in our house, and we have different kinds of chemicals,” Chatterjee explains. “When all of those things burn, and those things also get converted into ash, all that toxic material goes into our air that we end up breathing, so it ends up exposing us to a lot of things. It breaks it up, burns down, which makes it even more toxic, and then it’s released into the environment.”

Levin firmly believes that Hollywood and storytelling can play a role in helping the general public understand the practical realities of climate change. The EMA has advocated for years that writers and producers seek out hopeful stories that demonstrate how incremental change – such as banning the use of plastic shopping bags, which the EMA strongly supported — can make a difference. There is no shortage of apocalyptic visions of the future. It’s high time for a climate scientist hero or two to be showcased in TV and film in ways that can educate and inspire.

“You’ve got the climate disaster movies and TV shows that show how bad it can be,” Levin says. “But they usually don’t address what we need to do now. And that’s a problem because if it’s all catastrophic, people turn off or see it as a threat to people who don’t believe in climate change.”

Pincetl and Chatterjee assert that a series of decisions are on the horizon for Southern California residents as well as political and business leaders. This week’s firestorm is likely to convince some people to leave the Golden State entirely.

“We cannot stop climate change because there’s so much greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. So we have to make some decisions,” Pincetl says. “Are we going to continue to create the conditions for even greater climate perturbations and continue to try to push the status quo of our lifestyles through work arounds? Or are we going to face the fact that the world has changed, and we have to change the way we build and where we build, and the way we get around and so on? I just don’t see any other way around this.”

Source : https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/climate-change-fuels-la-devastating-wildfires-1236272286/

Delhi AQI Today: The Union government’s Centre for Air Quality Management on Monday decided to reimpose Stage 4 curbs under GRAP in the National Capital Region.

Delhi woke up to an ‘severe’ category air quality on Tuesday, with the overall AQI at 421 at around 8 am, according to the central government’s Sameer app, which provides hourly updates on the National Air Quality Index.

The Air Quality Index (AQI) of other cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) was no better, with Greater Noida recording an AQI of 398, while Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram were 382, 380 and 356, respectively. Faridabad (258) had the best air quality in the region.

AQI at several monitoring stations in Delhi at 8 am
Alipur: 454

Anand Vihar: 467

Ashok Vihar: 459

Aya Nagar: 355

Bawana: 467

Burari Crossing: 449

CRRI Mathura Road: 431

Delhi Technological University: 448

Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range: 402

Dwarka (Sector 8): 429

IHBAS (Dilshad Garden): 320

ITO: 436

Jahangirpuri: 468

JLN Stadium: 414

Lodhi Road: 312

Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium: 428

Mandir Marg: 415

Mundka: 436

NSIT Dwarka: 289

Najafgarh: 358

Narela: 446

Nehru Nagar: 463

North Campus (Delhi University): 437

Okhla (Phase 2): 435

Patparganj: 447

GRAP 4 curbs return

In view of the worsening air quality, the Union government’s Centre for Air Quality Management (CAQM) reimposed anti-pollution curbs under Stage 4 of its Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP), effective immediately, across NCR.

At 9 pm on Monday, Delhi’s AQI had reached 399, and crossed the 400 mark by 10 pm, prompting an emergency meeting of the CAQM, where officials decided to bring back restrictions under Stage 4 of GRAP.

Source : https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/delhis-air-quality-severe-at-over-420-as-grap-4-returns-check-area-wise-aqi-101734402389156.html

When it comes to climate change, a new study finds that our fear over the planet’s health may be “greatly overestimated.” For the first time, researchers have found oceans help cool global temperatures more than anyone previously thought.

Specifically, sulfur gas produced by marine life emits a second compound that significantly cools the planet. The discovery will help create more accurate climate models and provide another tool to slow global warming.

With almost three-fourths of Earth covered by oceans, the waters capture and redistribute the Sun’s heat. The latest study in Science Advances shows the process goes much deeper than that. The oceans also create sulfur gases that create particles to cool the Earth, such as brightening clouds that reflect heat.

The new compound released from sulfur gas is known as methanethiol. It has not been detected before because it is extremely hard to measure. Additionally, much research has been done on warmer oceans, while polar oceans are the emission hotspots. Microscopic plankton living on the seas’ surfaces emit a type of sulfur gas known as dimethyl sulphide. This gas is the one responsible for the stinky smell in shellfish.

Once sulfur gas reaches the atmosphere, it oxidizes and produces small particles called aerosols. These aerosols reflect solar radiation back into space, lowering the heat on Earth.

Plankton also releases methanethiol. The authors quantified the amount of methanethiol released into clouds over the Southern Ocean and observed an even greater cooling effect. The cooling impact on the climate is bigger than expected and works the opposite of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which absorb heat.

“This is the climatic element with the greatest cooling capacity, but also the least understood. We knew methanethiol was coming out of the ocean, but we had no idea about how much and where. We also did not know it had such an impact on climate,” says Dr. Charel Wohl, a researcher at the University of East Anglia’s Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, in a media release. “Climate models have greatly overestimated the solar radiation actually reaching the Southern Ocean, largely because they are not capable of correctly simulating clouds. The work done here partially closes the longstanding knowledge gap between models and observations.”

The authors note that the new research helps create more accurate climate models, refining their understanding of the ocean’s role in cooling the planet. These models include those that predict what would happen to the Earth when the global temperature rises by 1.5 ºC or 2 ºC, with results influencing current climate change policies.

The researchers grouped up all measurements of methanethiol in seawater and added them to measurements made in the Southern Ocean and the Mediterranean coast. Using seawater temperature collected from satellite data, they then used statistics to calculate their results. Yearly, methanethiol increases marine sulfur emissions by 25%.

“It may not seem like much, but methanethiol is more efficient at oxidizing and forming aerosols than dimethyl sulfide and, therefore, its climate impact is magnified,” says Dr. Julián Villamayor, a researcher at the Blas Cabrera Institute of Physical Chemistry in Spain.

The team also added marine methanethiol emissions to a climate model to measure their effects on the planet’s radiation. The impact is more visible in the Southern Hemisphere, where there are more oceans and fewer humans burning fossil fuels. While sulfur aerosols are important in cooling the planet, the authors note that human behavior will determine whether the planet continues to warm.

Source : https://studyfinds.org/climate-change-oceans-cooling/

This year will be the world’s warmest since records began, with extraordinarily high temperatures expected to persist into at least the first few months of 2025, European Union scientists said on Monday.
The data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) comes two weeks after U.N. climate talks yielded a $300-billion deal to tackle climate change, a package poorer countries blasted as insufficient to cover the soaring cost of climate-related disasters.

C3S said data from January to November had confirmed 2024 is now certain to be the hottest year on record, and the first in which average global temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.
The previous hottest year on record was 2023.
Extreme weather has swept around the world in 2024, with severe drought hitting Italy and South America, fatal floods in Nepal, Sudan and Europe, heatwaves in Mexico, Mali and Saudi Arabia that killed thousands, and disastrous cyclones in the U.S. and the Philippines.

Scientific studies have confirmed the fingerprints of human-caused climate change on all of these disasters.

Last month ranked as the second-warmest November on record after November 2023.
“We’re still in near-record-high territory for global temperatures, and that’s likely to stay at least for the next few months,” Copernicus climate researcher Julien Nicolas told Reuters.
Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change.

Cutting emissions to net zero – as many governments have pledged to eventually do – will stop global warming from getting worse. Yet despite these green pledges, global CO2 emissions are set to hit a record high this year.
Scientists are also monitoring whether the La Nina weather pattern – which involves the cooling of ocean surface temperatures – could form in 2025.
That could briefly cool global temperatures, though it would not halt the long-term underlying trend of warming caused by emissions. The world is currently in neutral conditions, after El Nino – La Nina’s hotter counterpart – ended earlier this year.

Source : https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/2024-will-be-hottest-year-record-eu-scientists-say-2024-12-09/

Vivek Menon, founder of Wildlife Trust of India and Councillor IUCN, said the jump in the number in the last few years was also because of a major push in getting trees as taxa listed in red list and the work done by many groups to red list trees

Bengaluru: As many as 301 species of plants in India — trees to grass — have joined the list of various threatened categories assessed between 2020 and 2024, taking the total number of species in such a position to 762, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Two species have been classified extinct in the last three years.

The IUCN on Monday published its update to the list of threatened species across the world, stating that a majority of the world’s trees have been listed on the red list for the first time. “At least 16,425 of the 47,282 species assessed (across the world) are at risk of extinction,” the Union said.

Since 1998, 3,501 plant species have been assessed in India of which 762 (21per cent) species were found to be facing varying degrees of threats. The data analysed by DH showed that there were 154 species classified “critically endangered” just below the stage of “extinction in the wild”.

There were 282 “endangered” species facing “very high risk of extinction in the wild”, 239 species were “vulnerable” at high risk of unnatural extinction and 86 were “near threatened” close to being endangered in future.

Vivek Menon, founder of Wildlife Trust of India and Councillor IUCN, said the jump in the number in the last few years was also because of a major push in getting trees as taxa listed in red list and the work done by many groups to red list trees. It is not solely because more trees are being deforested.

For instance, Limnophila limnophiloides, an aquatic plant recorded in a wetland in Pune back in 1918, has never been found despite extensive search. Similarly, Hopea shingkeng, which grew in the foothills of the Himalayas, has also been declared extinct.

Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/environment/in-5-yrs-301-indian-plants-enter-threatened-list-3254241

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) predicts that Delhi’s daily average AQI will remain in the ‘very poor’ category in the upcoming days due to unfavourable weather conditions. The CAQM has implemented stage two of the anti-pollution plan.

With the air quality index (AQI) in Delhi worsening in the past few days, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has invoked stage two of the anti-pollution plan GRAP this morning.

As per the real-time data provided by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the AQI in Delhi at 8 am was recorded at 317, which falls under the “very poor” category.

According to a forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the daily average AQI of Delhi is expected to stay in the ‘very poor’ category in the coming days owing to unfavourable meteorological and climatic conditions.

Under stage two of the GRAP or the Graded Response Action Plan, there will be restrictions on the use of coal and firewood as well as diesel generator sets in the Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR).

Mechanical sweeping and water sprinkling on identified roads will also be carried out on a daily basis, and dust control measures will be enforced at construction and demolition sites.

Further, traffic personnel will be deployed at congestion points, vehicle parking fees will be increased to discourage private transport and additional bus and metro services will be started.

People have been advised to use public transport and minimise the use of personal vehicles.

The death toll in Gujarat due to rain-related incidents has risen to 28, after days of incessant downpours and waterlogging have led to a flood-like situation across the state. 17,800 people have been evacuated from flood affected regions and according to Gujarat health minister Rushikesh Patel more than 5000 people were rehabilitated and over 12,000 people rescued till August 28 in Vadodara.

The India Meteorological Department has predicted that a cyclonic storm will develop off the coast of Gujarat on August 30, intensifying from the deep depression currently lingering over Saurashtra and Kutch.

Prime minister Narendra Modi had a telephone conversation with Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel and extended his full support with regards to rescue and relief operations in the state.

CM Patel posted on X, saying that prime minister also offered guidance on issues related to sanitation and public health in the flooded areas.

The India Meteorological Department has issued a red alert for the entire state, which is facing heavy rain due to a deep depression moving from East Rajasthan towards the Saurashtra region.

The Gujarat government has requested six columns of Army assistance for urgent relief operations due to severe flooding in several districts. The NDRF has rescued 95 people in the last two days, with hundreds being displaced from their homes or stranded due to the inundation.

Gujarat has till now received 105 per cent of its average annual rainfall, according to the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC). Several Saurashtra districts, especially Devbhumi Dwarka, Jamnagar, Porbandar and Rajkot, have experienced very heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/gujarat-rain-live-updates-imd-red-alert-death-toll-narendra-modi-flood-latest-news-today-29-august-2024-101724903978163.html

A large fissure has opened on the Reykjanes peninsula 2.42 miles (3.9km) wide. Lava is already spreading over a large area.

Police in Iceland have declared a state of emergency after a volcano erupted, forcing homes to be evacuated.

The eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula, in southwest Iceland, is the sixth outbreak since December.

Iceland’s meteorological office recorded increased seismic activity and earthquakes at the volcanic hill, Sundhnukar, days before the volcano erupted.

A large fissure has opened up nearby, at the Sundhnukagígar crater north of Grindavik, with lava flowing both east and west.

One estimate by the country’s Met Office suggests “the lava flow has travelled about 1km in 10 minutes”.

Experts also said the total length of the fissure was about 2.42 miles (3.9km) and had extended by 1 mile (1.5km) in about 40 minutes.

Recent studies showed magma accumulating underground, prompting warnings of new volcanic activity in the area south of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.

The local police chief for the area has declared a state of emergency.

The nature-based technology, biochar, could help save the planet. The work it takes to grow crops produces greenhouse gases that trap carbon in the atmosphere and would speed up the planet’s heating. New research finds biochar’s potential to eliminate large amounts of greenhouse gases could make farming more climate-friendly.

Biochar is a charcoal-like porous substance made by heating organic material — things like wood chips, crop residues, or even manure — in a low-oxygen environment. This process, called pyrolysis, transforms the material into a stable, carbon-rich substance that looks a bit like barbecue charcoal. But unlike the stuff you use for grilling, biochar has some remarkable properties when added to soil. The material is mainly used for crop production as a soil additive or to capture atmospheric carbon.

“When farmers grow their crops, they apply fertilizer and/or manure and use different kinds of machinery to till the soil,” says Raj Shrestha, a research associate in horticulture and crop science at The Ohio State University, in a statement. “In the process, greenhouse gases are produced and released into the atmosphere.”

In recent years, researchers have grown an interest in the technology because of the several agricultural and environmental benefits. Now the challenge is convincing farmers to adopt biochar in their farming practice. One way is to steer the conversation on how it can help extend soil life.

“If we can convince farmers that converting biomass to biochar is good for the long-term sustainability of soils, the economy, and good for the environment, then we’ll be able to see wide adoption of this technology,” Shrestha says.

In the study, the researchers reviewed over 200 field studies worldwide that examined the impact of biochar application in agriculture and the release of gases such as nitrous oxide, methane, and carbon dioxide. All three are heat-trapping gases that majorly contribute to Earth’s warming atmosphere.

Findings showed the amount of biochar in the soil mattered in whether it decreased or had no change in gas emissions. Generally, using biochar in the field reduced the amount of nitrous oxide in the air by 18 percent and methane by 3 percent. On the other hand, biochar did little by itself to change carbon dioxide emissions. Mixing biochar with commercial nitrogen fertilizer or other organic materials like manure or compost did help with reducing carbon.

Source: https://studyfinds.org/biochar-farming-climate-change/?nab=0

Expert panel formed by state govt has warned that several pockets of the town are sinking due to man-made and natural causes. Locals say report did not factor in Tapovan tunnel.

Dehradun: An expert panel set up by the Uttarakhand government has found that several pockets of Chamoli district’s Joshimath town — a gateway to the Badrinath shrine, the Hemkund Sahib gurdwara, the popular hill station of Auli, and the India-China border — are sinking due to both man-made and natural factors. As a result, the government will be putting together an action plan that may include a construction ban as well as relocation of local residents from “unsafe” areas, ThePrint has learnt.

The panel’s report points to ‘ground subsidence’ — a gradual settling or sudden sinking of the earth’s surface due to removal or displacement of subsurface materials — that has induced structural defects and damage observed in almost all wards of Joshimath. ThePrint has accessed the report.

The committee comprising scientists and geologists was formed on the recommendation of the Chamoli district magistrate in July following repeated complaints from the local populace about sinking areas and deep cracks appearing on the buildings.

“Although the government is yet to receive the report, going by the information provided by the committee members, a solid action plan will be put in place on engineering aspects as well as relocation of people from unsafe locations in Joshimath town,” state disaster management secretary Ranjit Kumar Sinha told ThePrint.

Source: https://theprint.in/environment/parts-of-joshimath-town-sinking-uttarakhand-govt-may-go-for-construction-ban-relocation/1134269/