Methane: a powerful gas heating the planet
Climate talks often revolve around reducing the most dangerous greenhouse gas CO2.
Climate talks often revolve around reducing the most dangerous greenhouse gas CO2.
Environment
20 hours ago
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13
Since the 1990s, fast fashion has enabled everyday people to buy the latest catwalk trends. But the sheer volume of garments being whipped up, sold and soon discarded is contributing to a global sustainability crisis.
Social Sciences
Mar 17, 2024
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Global warming, the long-term warming of Earth's overall temperature, has greatly accelerated in the last 100 years due to human factors such as the burning of fossil fuels. Along with this trend, certain atmospheric phenomena ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 15, 2024
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In order to limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5°C, it is essential to drastically reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the atmosphere. This would mean not exploiting most of the existing coal, conventional ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 15, 2024
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Planet-heating methane released by the fossil fuel industry rose to near record highs in 2023 despite technology available to curb this pollution at virtually no cost, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday.
Environment
Mar 13, 2024
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2
Gas hydrates are great alternative energy sources but they could also harm us and the environment, note geologists from the University of the Philippines.
Earth Sciences
Mar 13, 2024
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1
Hydrogen (H2) is considered a possible alternative to fossil fuels, which are responsible for a large proportion of atmospheric emissions and global warming, but production costs must be lowered if it is to become a viable ...
Analytical Chemistry
Mar 13, 2024
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1
In our rapidly industrialized world, the quest for sustainable materials has never been more urgent. Plastics, ubiquitous in daily life, pose significant environmental challenges, primarily due to their fossil fuel origins ...
Polymers
Mar 13, 2024
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15
A skeleton lies exposed to the elements as turquoise Caribbean waters lap the shores near a shattered tomb—a grisly reminder that the Colombian city of Cartagena is slowly being swallowed by the sea.
Environment
Mar 13, 2024
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27
EU countries need to step up preparedness for global warming after 2023 burned its way into history books as the hottest year on record, European Commission officials said Tuesday.
Environment
Mar 12, 2024
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Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century and its projected continuation. Global surface temperature increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the last century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes that increasing greenhouse gas concentrations resulting from human activity such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation are responsible for most of the observed temperature increase since the middle of the 20th century. The IPCC also concludes that variations in natural phenomena such as solar radiation and volcanoes produced most of the warming from pre-industrial times to 1950 and had a small cooling effect afterward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by more than 45 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.
Climate model projections summarized in the latest IPCC report indicate that the global surface temperature will probably rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century. The uncertainty in this estimate arises from the use of models with differing sensitivity to greenhouse gas concentrations and the use of differing estimates of future greenhouse gas emissions. Some other uncertainties include how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most studies focus on the period up to the year 2100. However, warming is expected to continue beyond 2100 even if emissions stop, because of the large heat capacity of the oceans and the long lifetime of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, probably including expansion of subtropical deserts. The continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice is expected, with warming being strongest in the Arctic. Other likely effects include increases in the intensity of extreme weather events, species extinctions, and changes in agricultural yields.
Political and public debate continues regarding climate change, and what actions (if any) to take in response. The available options are mitigation to reduce further emissions; adaptation to reduce the damage caused by warming; and, more speculatively, geoengineering to reverse global warming. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. A small number of scientists dispute the consensus on global warming science.
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