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Over the past decade or so, a scientific debate has emerged around whether rapid Arctic warming could be affecting extreme weather in the mid-latitudes. Much of this work focuses on the jet stream – the narrow current of strong winds encircling the globe around 40-50 degrees North. The science is far from settled. The jet […]
With the novel coronavirus outbreak jamming the attention of news media and policymakers alike since mid-January, last year seems like a very long time ago. On 28 February, however, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released its annual “statistical communique” of preliminary data on the Chinese economy in 2019. This gives us a first […]
February 2020 was the UK’s wettest February on record in a series dating back to 1862. England, Wales and Northern Ireland all saw their wettest February on record, with Scotland seeing its second wettest. Overall, the UK had 209.1mm of rain which is 237% of the average for February. This exceeds the previous record of […]
The world’s land surface currently removes around 30% of all human-generated CO2 emissions, with tropical forests playing a major role in this “carbon sink”. Of particular importance are intact tropical forests, which, according to a landmark paper published in 2011, absorbed 15% of all human-generated CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2007. This research found that […]
This is an open letter to EU leaders at the European Commission, European Parliament and member states from 34 youth climate activists, including Greta Thunberg. The European Commission will release its proposal for the EU climate law on 4 March. Any climate law or policy that is not based on the current best available science […]
Once again, lives have been turned upside down by flooding across large parts of the UK, following the exceptional rainfall brought by storms Ciara and Dennis. With the flood event still unfolding, it is too early to fully assess its magnitude or severity. But we do know that many major rivers have reached their highest […]
Between its east and west ice sheets and its peninsula, Antarctica holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by around 60m. The West Antarctic ice sheet (WAIS) is a relatively small part, containing an amount of ice equivalent to 3.3m of sea level rise. Yet, most of it sits in a precarious position and […]
Last summer, the Amazon rainforest was in the news again for all the wrong reasons. Deforestation rates are on the rise under the leadership of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and 2019 brought the highest number of forest fires in almost a decade. For the global climate, this is a cause for concern. The Amazon plays […]
Across vast swaths of the northern hemisphere’s higher reaches, frozen ground holds billions of tonnes of carbon. As global temperatures rise, this “permafrost” land is at increasing risk of thawing out, potentially releasing its long-held carbon into the atmosphere. Abrupt permafrost thaw is one of the most frequently discussed “tipping points” that could be crossed […]
Generally, we think of climate change as a gradual process: the more greenhouse gases that humans emit, the more the climate will change. But are there any “points of no return” that commit us to irreversible change? The “Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation”, known as “AMOC”, is one of the major current systems in the world’s […]
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