News by Subject Atmospheric Science

If the agricultural sector fails to adapt better to climate change, food production is set to fall - 10% by mid-century and 25% by 2100 - affecting the supply of a growing world population. Adaptation strategies exist and are available, but they need to be applied: the study by an international team of researchers from Boston University, Ca' Foscari University of Venice and the CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change.

Pine Island Glacier's ice shelf lost about one-fifth of its total area between 2017 and 2020, in three dramatic collapses. Meanwhile the glacier sped up by 12%. The rest of the ice shelf, the authors say, could disappear much sooner than previous studies had suggested.

Most of Asia, Europe, North America and South America have never experienced heatwave conditions that would prohibit electric fans from being a safe, effective and clean alternative to air conditioning, according to a new study.

Soot particles from oil and wood heating systems as well as road traffic can pollute the air in Europe on a much larger scale than previously assumed. The evaluation of the sources during a measuring campaign in Germany showed that about half of the soot particles came from the surrounding area and the other half from long distances. This underlines the need to further reduce emissions of soot that is harmful to health and climate.

The study represents the first systematic attempt to investigate whether a climate future with net-zero carbon emissions is not only possible but also plausible. They conclude that the efforts need to be far more ambitious. The results imply that global surface warming of less than 1.7° Celsius by 2100 is not plausible, but nor is a rise of more than 4.9 degrees.

On February 7, 2021, a massive slide in the Uttarakhand region of India led to the destruction of two hydropower generating facilities and left over two hundred people dead or missing. A self-organized coalition of fifty-three scientists came together in the days following the disaster to investigate the cause, scope, and impact of the flood and landslide. The researchers suggest that climate change is contributing to such events happening more frequently.