Canada could remove more than five times its annual carbon emissions from the atmosphere by the end of the century by planting trees along the northern edge of its boreal forest, a new study suggests. In recent decades forests have slowly moved north in response to climate change — in particular the taiga area on … Read more
Carbon dioxide emissions from China have flatlined or fallen for 21 months, meaning the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter may have reached a global turning point sooner than expected. China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions dropped by 1% in the last quarter of 2025 and likely by 0.3% over the whole year, keeping them just beneath … Read more
Mass tree planting in China is turning one of the world’s largest and driest deserts into a carbon sink, meaning it absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it emits, new research reveals. The Taklamakan Desert (also spelled Taklimakan or Takla Makan) is slightly larger than Montana, stretching across about 130,000 square miles (337,000 square … Read more
The ocean soaked up more heat last year than in any year since modern measurements began around 1960, according to a new analysis published in Advances in Atmospheric Science. The world’s oceans absorb more than 90% of excess heat trapped in Earth’s atmosphere by greenhouse gas emissions. As heat in the atmosphere accumulates, heat stored … Read more
China’s efforts to slow land degradation and climate change by planting trees and restoring grasslands have shifted water around the country in huge, unforeseen ways, new research shows. Between 2001 and 2020, changes in vegetation cover reduced the amount of fresh water available for humans and ecosystems in the eastern monsoon region and northwestern arid … Read more
Consider your morning cup of coffee. Your kettle’s heating element — or flame on a stove — warms up water that you infuse with beans and pour into a mug. Maybe you get busy and the cup of joe sits there for a while, releasing its heat into the atmosphere of the room, until it … Read more
Trees of all sizes across the Amazon rainforest are getting fatter due to climate change, a new study shows. Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere have created a more resource-rich environment for plants in the Amazon, leading to an average 3.3% increase in the circumference of trees at their base every decade since … Read more
Our planet continues to warm because of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. The polar regions are especially vulnerable to this warming. Sea ice extent is already declining in both the Arctic and Antarctic. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting, and abrupt changes in both polar environments are underway. These changes have significant … Read more
A small municipality in southern Finland recently installed the world’s largest “sand battery” to supply the town’s heating. The new sand battery, designed by Polar Night Energy, is effectively a giant sandpit encased in a roughly 43 foot tall by 49 foot wide (13 by 15 meter) steel container. The sand is heated using closed-loop … Read more
Continents have lost so much water since 2002 that they have surpassed ice sheets as the biggest contributor to global sea level rise, a new study reveals. Almost 70% of this loss is due to unchecked groundwater extraction, which removes water from deep aquifers and eventually transfers it to the ocean, researchers found. Together with … Read more
