Peatland fires in Indonesia, which can be exacerbated by El Niño, release a huge amount of carbon dioxide.Credit: Sigit Prasetya/NurPhoto via Getty As a climate scientist who studies land and ocean temperature records, I start each day by pulling observations and forecasts of the El Niño weather pattern from 14 leading models into a real-time
Glaciers shape the landscapes of Spitsbergen, an island of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.Credit: Arterra/Sven-Erik Arndt/UIG/Getty As warnings about a potential ‘mega’ El Niño grab headlines and spread through social media, communicators face a familiar challenge: how to persuade people to pay attention to climate risks — and act. Fighting climate change takes
Hartmann, J. et al. Enhanced chemical weathering as a geoengineering strategy to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide, supply nutrients, and mitigate ocean acidification. Rev. Geophys. 51, 113–149 (2013). Article ADS Google Scholar Renforth, P. The negative emission potential of alkaline materials. Nat. Commun. 10, 1401 (2019). Article ADS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Knapp, W. J.
Weeping willow trees are found in many cities globally.Credit: avada/Alamy Across Beijing, millions of weeping willows and poplar trees turn the megacity into a green metropolis. But compounds released by these trees are becoming a major contributor to air pollution1, finds a study. Beijing is not alone. Many trees planted in urban areas — species
Researchers are racing to determine the impact of rising sea surface temperatures on fragile marine ecosystems.Credit: Armando Babani/Getty The world’s oceans are on the brink of setting an all-time heat record, reaching temperatures that could roil marine ecosystems and sap the ocean’s ability to take up carbon dioxide from the air. “It just spells trouble
El Niño is back with a vengeance. A mammoth patch of warm water is growing in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is giving four-in-five odds that the disruptive climate phenomenon will turn into a “very strong” event by the end of the year. Some forecasters say this El
