Phys.org Earth Science

• The UK's international commitments on climate and nature could soon become law, and better protect the environment

  As climate and biodiversity scientists, we spend most of our lives trying to understand how our planet works and how best to address the environmental challenges of our times. Yet, for the past three years, many scientists around the UK, including the two of us, have been working on legislation and engaging with parliamentarians. We believe that many of the fundamental flaws in the way we tackle the current environmental crisis are due to missing pieces in national policies and laws.

• Extreme heat, flooding, wildfires: Colorado's formerly incarcerated people on the hazards they faced behind bars

  Incarcerated people in Colorado are exposed to climate-related extreme heat and cold, plus flooding and wildfires. Because they're unable to escape these hazards, their health suffers and some die.

• Nationwide patterns of severe events provide crucial data for hazard response and mitigation

  An understanding of the relationship between severe weather and power outages in our changing climate will be critical for hazard response plans, according to a study led by a researcher at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The study is published in the open-access journal PLOS Climate.

• Sleeping on beaches and staying social: How Australians kept cool in heat waves before modern technology

  The Black Friday bushfires which swept across southeastern Australia in January 1939 have been remembered as a deadly and traumatic event.

• How the oil industry and growing political divides turned climate change into a partisan issue

  After four years of U.S. progress on efforts to deal with climate change under Joe Biden, Donald Trump's return to the White House is swiftly swinging the pendulum in the opposite direction.

• AI enables innovation in glacier modeling and offers simulation of last Alpine glaciation

  Scientists at the University of Lausanne (UNIL) have used AI to massively speed up computer calculations and simulate the last ice cover in the Alps. Much more in line with field observations, the new results show that the ice was thinner than in previous models. This innovative method opens the door to countless new simulations and predictions linked to climate upheavals. The research is published in Nature Communications.

• Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene

  Los Angeles is burning, but it isn't alone. In recent years, fires have blasted through cities in Colorado, the southern Appalachians and the island of Maui, along with Canada, Australia, Portugal and Greece. What wasn't burned was smoked in.

• How Canadian cities could be leaders in the fight against waste

  Most of what we consume in Canada is neither recycled nor reused.

• Offshore wind farms could cause significant ecosystem, economic and human health risks

  The materials used to protect wind turbines from corrosion leach into the surrounding water, which could pose risks to ecosystems, seafood safety and human health, new research from the University of Portsmouth has found.

• Thawing permafrost helped trigger ancient Icelandic landslides, new research shows

  When glaciers and ice sheets melt, they can destabilize slopes and reactivate faults, which in turn can trigger landslides and reshape the surface of Earth over long periods of time. Researchers can monitor some locations in real time to determine which combinations of factors lead to landslides, but understanding what triggered landslides thousands of years ago is more difficult.

• Seismic study reveals ancient 'islands' deep within Earth's mantle

  Deeply hidden in Earth's mantle there are two huge "islands" the size of a continent. New research from Utrecht University shows that these regions are not only hotter than the surrounding graveyard of cold sunken tectonic plates, but also that they must be ancient: at least half a billion years old, perhaps even older.

• Here's what's causing the Great Salt Lake to shrink, according to study

  The Great Salt Lake, the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere, reached historic low levels in 2022, raising economic, ecological and public health concerns for Utah.

• Rare snow socks New Orleans as Arctic blast chills much of US

  Bitter Arctic air plunged more than half the United States into a deep freeze Tuesday, including New Orleans, where the heaviest snow in decades brought dangerous conditions to the famously festive Gulf Coast city.

• Brazil saw 79% jump in area burned by fires in 2024: monitor

  Wildfires in Brazil last year consumed a total area larger than all of Italy, a monitor reported Wednesday, as the country continues to battle blazes often set by farmers and ranchers illegally expanding their territory.

• Action urged over climate change's impact on hydropower and wildlife

  Scotland must do more to help hydropower facilities maximize their output and prevent negative impacts on wildlife in the face of the challenges posed by climate change, according to a new report.

• The ash left behind by the Los Angeles wildfires might be toxic, experts warn

  Toni Boucher threw up the first time she saw the charred remains of her home and neighborhood after this month's deadly Los Angeles-area wildfires. Now she wonders if it's worth it to go back to sift through the ashes and try to find her grandmother's wedding ring.

• Transforming China's food system: Researchers assess potential pathways for sustainability

  According to a study published in Nature Food, China's current trajectory is misaligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Researchers assessed potential pathways for achieving the SDGs in China by transforming its food system, focusing on dietary changes, climate change mitigation, ecological conservation, and socio-economic development.

• Extreme climate pushed thousands of lakes in West Greenland 'across a tipping point,' study finds

  West Greenland is home to tens of thousands of blue lakes that provide residents with drinking water and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Yet after two months of record heat and precipitation in fall 2022, an estimated 7,500 lakes turned brown, began emitting carbon and decreased in water quality, according to a new study.

• Melting temperature and phase stability of iron under core-like conditions shed light on Earth's geodynamics

  Iron is one of the main elements found in the Earth's inner core, which is characterized by extremely high temperatures and pressures. Determining how iron behaves in these extreme conditions could thus help to advance the current understanding of our home planet's structure and geodynamics.

• Women are seen as 'saviours' or 'victims' in climate change debates: Why this is a problem

  Certain stereotypes about women have become commonplace in climate and development literature. One example is that women are either represented as "saviors" who protect nature, or as "victims" more vulnerable to climate impacts than men and less equipped to cope.

• Nickel mining a serious concern for climate action, reveals study

  Land clearing for nickel mines is causing a more severe threat to the climate than initially thought, a study led by a University of Queensland researcher has found.

• New evidence suggests megaflood refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5 million years ago

  A study provides compelling new evidence that a colossal "megaflood" refilled the Mediterranean Sea, ending a period during which the Mediterranean was a vast expanse of salt flats. The research suggests the Zanclean Megaflood ended the Messinian Salinity Crisis, which lasted between 5.97 and 5.33 million years ago.

• Coral bleaching on Great Barrier Reef reaches 'catastrophic' levels

  A team of marine scientists from the University of Sydney has published the first peer-reviewed study documenting the devastating coral bleaching events that occurred on the southern Great Barrier Reef in early 2024.

• 'Extremely critical' risk as winds whip fire-weary Los Angeles

  Fire-weary southern California was buffeted Monday by dangerous winds, with forecasters warning of an "extremely critical" risk in a region already staggering from the devastation of horrifying blazes.

• Rain-triggered landslide kills 17 in Indonesia

  A landslide triggered by heavy rain on Indonesia's main island of Java has killed at least 17 people with nine others missing, disaster officials said on Tuesday.