Global temperature anomalies relative to the 1880-1920 baseline, based on the GISS analysis. Graphic: Hansen, et al., 2024

Hansen: Comments on global warming acceleration, sulfur emissions, observations – “Acceleration of global warming is now hard to deny”

By James Hansen, Pushker Kharecha, and Makiko Sato 16 May 2024 (Columbia University) – Global temperature (12-month mean) is still rising at 1.56°C relative to 1880-1920 in the GISS analysis through April (Fig. 1). [Robert Rohde reports that it is 1.65°C relative to 1850-1900 in the BerkeleyEarth analysis.] Global temperature is likely to continue to […]

Research into Southern California’s history of ocean dumping was spurred by the discovery of mysterious and corroded barrels dumped off the coast of Los Angeles. Photo: David Valentine / ROV Jason

DDT found in deep-sea fish raises troubling concerns for food web – “Nothing is untouched”

By Rosanna Xia 6 May 2024 (Los Angeles Times) – For several years now, one question has held the key to understanding just how much we should worry about the hundreds of tons of DDT that had been dumped off the coast of Los Angeles: How, exactly, has this decades-old pesticide — a toxic chemical spread across […]

Low water levels at the Miguel Aleman dam in May 2024. Photo: Luis Antonio Rojas / The Washington Post

Mexico City’s water “Day Zero” may come even for the wealthiest residents – “No one could have foreseen this would happen in the city”

By Kasha Patel 25 May 2024 MEXICO CITY (The Washington Post) – Raquel Campos’ water issues started in January, when her condo building’s manager sent residents a message saying that the city hadn’t delivered water to its cistern. Four days later, taps in the upscale residence went dry. Campos has lived in the wealthy Polanco […]

A vendor selling used remote controls for various home appliances takes a nap in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sunday, 28 January 2024. Photo: Jae C. Hong / AP Photo

E-waste is overflowing landfills, rising five times faster than formal recycling – At one sprawling Vietnam market, workers recycle some of it – “We are currently generating e-waste at an unprecedented rate”

By Aniruddha Ghosal and Jae C. Hong 2 May 2024 HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) – Dam Chan Nguyen saves dead and dying computers. When he first started working two decades ago in Nhat Tao market, Ho Chi Minh City’s biggest informal recycling market, he usually salvaged computers with bulky monitors and heavy processors. […]

Approximate depths of subsurface activities. Median (31 m) and 95th (130 m) percentile of water wells (Jasechko & Perrone, 2021); minimum depth of CCS in sedimentary basins (800 m) (Benson & Cole, 2008); shallow limit of oil and gas development (including injection and disposal; 600 m) (Lemay, 2008); geothermal (>2,000 m) (Nardini, 2022). The upper temperature limit for life (80–121°C) (Bar-On et al., 2018; Magnabosco et al., 2018) approximately corresponds to the lowest temperatures required for geothermal power generation (Nardini, 2022; Tester et al., 2021). Circulation of meteoric water occurs up to depths of a few km (McIntosh & Ferguson, 2021) but fluxes are small below 500 m and residence times range from tens of thousands to millions of years (Ferguson et al., 2023; Jasechko et al., 2017; Warr et al., 2021). Graphic: Ferguson, et al., 2024 / Earth’s Future

Human activities have an intense impact on Earth’s deep subsurface fluid flow – “We know more about the surface of Mars than we do about water, rocks, and life deep beneath our feet”

By Niranjana Rajalakshmi 23 April 2024 (University of Arizona) – The impact of human activities – such as greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation – on Earth’s surface have been well-studied. Now, hydrology researchers from the University of Arizona have investigated how humans impact Earth’s deep subsurface, a zone that lies hundreds of meters to several […]

Daily global sea surface temperatures, 1981-2024. Data: Climate Reanalyzer, Climate Change Institute at the University of Maine, based on data from NOAA Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) Data through 8 April 2024. Graphic: The New York Times

Ocean heat has shattered records for more than a year. What’s happening?

By Delger Erdenesanaa 10 April 2024 (The New York Times) – The ocean has now broken temperature records every day for more than a year. And so far, 2024 has continued 2023’s trend of beating previous records by wide margins. In fact, the whole planet has been hot for months, according to many different data […]

Spatial distribution of the total number of exposed days in 995 California ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTA) from 2006 to 2019 under the main analysis definition for climate hazards (85th percentile for extreme heat and 15 μg/m3 for wildfire PM2.5). (A) Compound exposure, (B) extreme heat alone, and (C) wildfire smoke alone. Gray color represents excluded ZCTA that has a population of ≤1000 or lacks any exposed day (extreme heat alone, wildfire smoke alone, or both). Graphic: Chen, et al., 2024 / Science Advances

Extreme heat, wildfire smoke harm low-income and nonwhite communities the most – “It’s really important to highlight this social injustice aspect of climate change”

By Dorany Pineda 2 February 2024 LOS ANGELES (AP) – Extreme heat and wildfire smoke are independently harmful to the human body, but together their impact on cardiovascular and respiratory systems is more dangerous and affects some communities more than others. A study published Friday in the journal Science Advances said climate change is increasing the frequency […]

Top: Zonal-mean sea surface temperature (SST) (12-month running-mean) relative to 1951-1980 base period. Bottom: Zonal-mean surface temperature (12-month running-mean) relative to 1951-1980. Graphic: Hansen, Sato, and Kharecha, 2024

Global warming acceleration: hope vs. hopium – “The increase is not due to a brightening Sun, it is due to a darkening Earth”

By James Hansen, Makiko Sato, and Pushker Kharecha 29 March 2024 (Columbia University) – Accumulating evidence supports the interpretation in our Pipeline paper: decreasing human-made aerosols increased Earth’s energy imbalance and accelerated global warming in the past decade. Climate sensitivity and aerosol forcing, physically independent quantities, were tied together by United Nations IPCC climate assessments that rely […]

Smoke rises from a warehouse fire, owned by French recycling group SNAM, which houses lithium batteries in Viviez, north of Toulouse, France, 17 February 2024 in this image obtained from social media. Photo: Adeba / REUTERS

Fire at French lithium battery recycling plant under control after two days – 900 metric tons of lithium batteries may have burned

By Geert De Clercq and Ingrid Melander 19 February 2024 PARIS (Reuters) – A fire at a battery recycling plant in southern France is under control, though burning, the local firefighters service said on Monday, two days after the blaze began. The fire broke out in a warehouse containing 900 metric tons of lithium batteries […]

Aerial view of an illegal gold mine surrounding Yanomami Indigenous huts in Yanomami Indigenous land, Brazil, 10 January 2024. Photo: Ueslei Marcelino / REUTERS

Gold miners bring fresh wave of suffering to Brazil’s Yanomami – “This is war because people are dying. Hundreds of Yanomami have died in the humanitarian crisis, and they are Brazilians too.”

By Ueslei Marcelino and Anthony Boadle 18 January 2024 (Reuters) – Brazil is losing the upper hand in its battle to save the Yanomami Indigenous people, who are dying from flu, malaria, and malnutrition brought into their vast, isolated Amazon rainforest reservation by resurgent illegal miners. A year after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva […]

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