Go Carbon Neutral with the Climate Change Institute

The title of this post might seem like a truism, but for about a decade some people have claimed the opposite, and many people have spent much time and effort trying to understand why. Much of that effort was wasted. A decade ago, Nature Geoscience published Cohen et al (2014), a review paper on potential connections between the Arctic warming and extreme events (which has been…

Go Carbon Neutral without paying large fees and commissions Carbon Offset Sales a division of the Climate Change Institute Each Carbon Offset Certificate is for One Tonne of Carbon removed from the atmosphere. Enough to fill 500 fire extinguishers or 8 swimming pools, with the same weight as 400 bricks. Verra & Gold Standard Highest Certification Standards Carbon offset certificates finance projects that slow down the…

UNSW Sydney researchers have made an important breakthrough that could transform photovoltaic technology, making solar cells more environmentally friendly, cost-effective and efficient. The scientists, from UNSW’s School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, managed to achieve a best-ever efficiency of 13.2% for high bandgap kesterite solar cells. While kesterite is a naturally occurring mineral, it can also be artificially created at low cost by combining copper,…

This webinar will detail recent efforts in proton exchange membrane-based low temperature electrolysis degradation, focused on losses due to simulated start-stop operation and anode catalyst layer redox transitions. Ex situ testing indicated that repeated redox cycling accelerates catalyst dissolution, due to near-surface reduction and the higher dissolution kinetics of metals when cycling to high potentials. Similar results occurred in situ, where a large decrease in cell…

As more and more consumers are pushing businesses to become environmentally sustainable, many are looking at packaging as a way to reduce waste and emissions. Plastic packaging has been the norm for many decades due to it being inexpensive, hygienic, and easily accessible. However, with 34.5 million tons of plastic generated each year, the adverse effects of plastic packaging far outweigh its uses, and it’s time…

Accurately measure and record a company’s carbon footprint This will assist in measuring the emissions of an organisation using internationally recognised GHG Accounting Standards To see the full program: click here (password required) These tutorials and resources are provided to enable organisations to conduct a GHG emission survey and carbon footprint calculation. It can be done by the company’s own staff without the delay involved in engaging…

Firefighters have been rescuing people stranded on their balconies and rooftops after Storm Boris triggered flooding and landslides in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. Two people were reported missing in Traversara, a hamlet in Ravenna province, and about 1,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. Storm Boris has battered parts of Italy after causing havoc in eastern and central EuropeTwo missing and 1,000 evacuated…

Models that analyze what is driving up the temperature all too often omit specific sources, or when included, models all too often downplay their contribution. Accordingly, policies that are promoted based on such models are all too often ineffective or even counter-productive. Methane is all too often referred to as ‘natural gas’ originating from wetlands, swamps, cows and pigs, as if calling methane ‘natural’ implied that human…

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Powerful Santa Ana winds and dry conditions contributed to the rapid spread of several brush fires in the county. Read More…

An innovative tech collaboration is helping to finesse a low-cost rubbish recycling process that relies on the insatiable appetite of black soldier fly larvae. Biotech company ARC Ento Tech, based on the NSW Central Coast, is helping to process landfill in the state by using the larvae of this common fly to eat the organic waste that’s part of mixed solid waste. Once all the organic…

Europe’s climate service said on Friday that 2024 was the hottest calendar year on record and the first in which average temperatures exceeded the key limit of 1.5C above pre-industrial times, raising the importance of efforts to protect people from dangerous impacts. The confirmation – widely trailed before the announcement – came as wildfires made worse by drought conditions rampaged across Los Angeles, causing at least…

In the past few years, the topic of climate change has worked its way into every area of our lives, and rightfully so. As we push closer to the irreversible effects of climate change and the ever-looming 2°C, companies, governments, and individuals are looking for every possible way to mitigate emissions. Carbon offsetting was first conceptualized in 1989, but has been gaining traction in recent years….

The Marshall Project and the Prison Journalism Project asked incarcerated reporters to document the impact of extreme heat on their facilities. Their stories reveal the brutal realityAfter a summer of record-breaking temperatures, scientists predict that 2024 could end up being the hottest year on record. For people in US prisons and jails – who often lack access to even the most basic cooling measures – conditions…

Oil spills can pollute large volumes of surrounding water – thousands of times greater than the spill itself – causing long-term economic, environmental, social and ecological damage. Effective methods for in situ capture of spilled oil are thus essential to minimize contamination from such disasters. Many oil spill cleanup technologies, however, exhibit poor hydrodynamic stability under complex flow conditions, which leads to poor oil-capture efficiency. To…

Weatherization programs can help. As the leaves turn and the temperature drops, many people worry about the cost of home heating. Ariel Drehobl of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy says that for low-income families, it can cause stress around figuring out how to pay your bills and a tradeoff between keeping your heat on and being able to afford other necessities like food,…

Global sea ice area was 13.00 million km² on February 9, 2025, a deviation (1981-2000 base) of -5.75 σ and the lowest area on record, as illustrated by the image below, adapted from seaice.visuals.earth.What is the difference between sea ice area and extent? Extent is the total region with at least 15% sea ice cover. Extent can include holes or cracks in the sea ice and…

The temperature in the Tropics (23.5°S-23.5°N, 0-360°E) reached a new record high on April 24, 2024 of 27°C (or 80.6°F). The image below shows the monthly temperature anomaly over the past few years through March 2024, when the anomaly reached a record high of 1.448°C (or 2.606°F).  Note that the anomaly in the top image is calculated from 1979-2000 as a base, while anomalies in the above image…

UN endorsed projects that slow down the rate of global warmingBuying time for the world to make the transition to low-emission economies. Projects have different standards, such as Verra and Gold Standard, and are subject to a rigorous certification and verification process, and must submit regular updates and reports. To be certified, projects must have verifiable attributes. AdditionalityThe project is justified and the the carbon emission…

The 2024 global average surface temperature was 1.55°C above the 1850-1900 average, according to WMO’s consolidated analysis of six datasets.  [ click on images to enlarge ] Differences between datasets are mainly due to the ways temperatures are measured, e.g. ERA5 measures the temperature of the air above oceans, whereas NASA and NOAA measure the surface temperature of the water, which is lower. There can also be…

Death toll rises to at least 24 as first identifications emerge of Los Angeles residents killed in firesCalifornians: have you been affected by the wildfires?At least 24 people have died in the wildfires surging across the Los Angeles area, the largest of which are burning about 25 miles west and north of downtown, plunging the second-largest city in the US into shock and fear.On Friday, officials…

A newly launched sustainability trade show and multi-stream conference, named NET ZERO EXPO, has been designed to showcase tools and solutions for businesses, councils, property developers and households to cut emissions, reduce energy costs, prepare climate reports and meet evolving customer expectations. The event will run twice in Australia in 2025: first in Sydney on 27–28 August, then in Melbourne on 16–17 September. “We want the…

The news from California is clear, but we don’t want to see it. It’s too confounding, big, complex. But we can sense the dangerWhen I send anxious texts to friends in Los Angeles – friends who have been evacuated or who are waiting to leave , friends escaping a fire zone, wondering if their life’s work has been destroyed, worrying about the smoke’s effect on an…

Home to huge expanses of biodiverse forest and endemic species, Colombia’s battle against deforestation is crucial, and it is one of the top environmental concerns of the country. Recovering from political and economic instability, more people have been relocating into rural areas and clearing land for agriculture, mining, and more,  greatly increasing Colombia’s rates of deforestation. Studies have found that there was a “46 percent rise…

There’s nothing quite like an Aussie-style Christmas lunch or dinner — fresh seafood, roast meats, vibrant salads and summertime desserts enjoyed with family and friends. For many, it’s a day to indulge and savour every delicious bite — but it can also provide us with an opportunity to reflect on how we can consume more sustainably. With the majority of food waste in Australia coming from our homes…

On March 15, 2024, the daily average carbon dioxide (CO₂) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, was 427.93 parts per million (ppm), as illustrated by the image below, adapted from NOAA.  This is the highest daily in situ average in the NOAA record at Mauna Loa, which is the more remarkable since the annual CO₂ maximum is typically reached in May, so even higher values are likely to…

GS1 Australia has entered into a partnership with the Product Stewardship Centre of Excellence (the Centre) with the intention of speeding a transition to a circular economy. The two not-for-profit organisations will pool their resources to foster innovation, enhance product stewardship and drive the development of sustainable practices across industries in Australia. Peter Carter, General Manager of Public Policy & Government Engagement at GS1 Australia, said…

An ethical oil startup has taken out KPMG’s $100,000 Nature Positive Prize — part of an annual Challenge run by KPMG to boost inventive environmental problem-solving. The successful startup, NSW-based Levur, is dedicated to finding innovative ways to replace unsustainable animal and plant oils for a variety of consumer products. The company was formed in reaction to the devastation wrought by the palm oil industry on…

Congratulations humanity! For the first time in recorded history we have breached 2C above preindustrial levels!  (Glacecakes Tumblr) 

Zimbabwe is planning to ramp up its use of coal and gas to meet its energy needs after the worst drought in decades dried out the water supply to the hydropower plant, which powers the country. As a result, the Southern African nation is failing to meet its power demand, the government wrote in a new climate plan to cut emissions by 2035 submitted to the…

A pioneer wind turbine tower design is set to be put on trial south of Adelaide in a novel research collaboration between Flinders University and startup company VAWT-X Energy. Supported by state and federal funding, the research team constructed and tested a 6 KW vertical wind turbine prototype to install at a field site on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The low-maintenance two-bladed helical vertical axis wind turbine design comprises a rotor with…

There is a need to make climate science more agile and more responsive, and that means moving (some of it) from research to operations. Readers here will know that the climate science community has had a hard time giving quantitative explanations for what’s happened in climate over the last couple of decades. Similarly, we are still using scenarios that were designed more than a decade ago…

The precise geometry of the protected area encompassing an iconic New Zealand volcano is unmistakable from space. Read More…

Boral has unveiled new carbon-reducing technology at its Berrima Cement Works, with Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen officially opening the upgraded facility on 4 December. Located in the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales, Berrima Cement Works supplies 40% of cement in NSW and the Australian Capital Territory. The site is strategically important both for the company and Australia’s manufacturing capability. The…

 Climate Choir Melbourne supporting Extinction Rebellion protestors at their sit down on the busiest intersection in Melbourne City, Australia. The police were very restrained. Are they in agreement with the protestors? They do have family of their own.  

The older and newer cities of the Greater Cairo region look very different at night when viewed from above. Read More…

The year 2024 has officially been declared the warmest year globally, with average temperatures surpassing 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time. This historic announcement was made by the Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union’s Earth observation program, on Friday. The declaration comes amid raging wildfires in Los Angeles, California—an escalating disaster exacerbated by climate change. The unprecedented heat of 2024 was largely driven…

Rapid progress in the use of machine learning for weather and climate models is evident almost everywhere, but can we distinguish between real advances and vaporware? First off, let’s define some terms to maximize clarity. Machine Learning (ML) is a broad term to distinguish any kind of statistical fitting of large data sets to complicated functions (various flavors of neural nets etc.), but it’s simpler to…

To protect the climate, most coal, oil, and natural gas must be left in the ground, a recent study reported. In the 2015 international Paris Climate Agreement, nearly every country agreed to try and limit global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) and preferably closer to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures.  Achieving these goals will require dramatic…

Sunspots In a cataclysmic alignment, the next El Niño threatens to develop while sunspots are higher than expected. Sunspots are expected to reach a peak in the current cycle in July 2025.The image below (top part), adapted from NOAA, shows the observed values for the number of sunspots for cycle 25, through August 2024, as well as the values predicted by NOAA (red line). [ click…

Pollution from microplastics – small plastic particles less than 5 mm in size – poses an ongoing threat to human health. Independent studies have found microplastics in human tissues and within the bloodstream. And as blood circulates throughout the body and through vital organs, these microplastics reach can critical regions and lead to tissue dysfunction and disease. Microplastics can also cause functional irregularities in the brain,…

Yet the young people that we work with @Solutions_for_the_planet in the landlocked cities of Bradford, Inner City London and Birmingham have a strong bond and passion towards the worlds oceans and how they can help to clean them of pollution. As Tom Franklyn a primary school teacher in Inner City said: “We’re never going run to out of inner-city children, but we are going to run out of…

Plastic products have been marketed to us as innocuous items of convenience. Plastic bags, food containers, candy wrappers, packaging of all kinds, meant to make life easier on the go, or to protect our purchases from damage. A cheap and forgettable addition to our increasingly cluttered lives. But of course, these petrochemical by-products are far from harmless and they have now been produced in such abundance…

Firefighters and police in Rondônia battle fires intensified by both the climate crisis and a criminal assault on the rainforestThe occupants of the vinyl-coated military tents at this remote jungle camp in Brazil’s wild west compare the hellscape surrounding them to catastrophes old and new: the extinction of the dinosaurs, the bombardment of Gaza, the obliteration of Hiroshima during the second world war.“It’s as if a…

Since 2022, Shell has sold more than 20 cargoes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as “carbon neutral” under a new industry-led standard. Climate Home News and Dialogue Earth can now reveal that this scheme has relied in part on “phantom” carbon credits that failed to cut emissions as claimed. The energy giant shipped the fossil fuel to buyers in East Asia and beyond, some of whom…

I feel like I am safe in saying that we are not thriving on our changing planet – and we will not in the coming decadesMy house in Altadena burned down in the wildfires on Wednesday. It all happened quickly. On Tuesday around 7pm, my wife and daughters went to a hotel as a precaution. I left the house with the dogs when the mandatory evacuation…

In my 20 years of work experience, I have never felt so passionate and committed to promoting sustainable development. I started my professional career under the premise of making things more sustainable and more profitable. As a businessman, this business model has allowed me to understand that doing the right thing generates even more profitability for a company. And as a citizen, contributing to the benefit…

With Donald Trump, a notorious climate change sceptic, poised to enter the White House for a second term, the climate world – from officials to campaigners and business executives – is bracing for the impact of his presidency. Trump, a Republican business mogul who has called climate change a “scam”, has made no secret about his intentions. From plans to withdraw the US from the Paris…

Algae!!!…Green, gooey, slimy, messy, smelly, unpleasant…All these words come to mind when I hear the word “Algae”.  What if I told you algae has the power to revolutionize the world today. Oh yes! There is an “Algae Revolution” and it is quite fascinating.  Just imagine yourself, walking into a coffee shop with your own bag of kelp (an algae) and leaving with your hot coffee in…

Around the world, sustainability has made its way to the forefront of everyone’s mind, including businesses. As governments and consumers push companies to improve their sustainability efforts, it can be challenging to keep up with the demand of the oftentimes expensive changes that sustainability requires. Luckily, advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, are helping businesses monitor and improve their facilities to not only improve environmental consciousness,…

The Rev Sue Parfitt has lost right to conduct religious ceremonies after her arrest at a Just Stop Oil demonstrationAn 82-year-old retired priest has spoken of her pain at losing her right to conduct religious ceremonies because of her participation in Just Stop Oil protests.The Rev Sue Parfitt was arrested in May after allegedly causing damage to the glass around Magna Carta at the British Library…

By Liu Lican China’s first Biennial Transparency Report on Climate Change was released last week, and the country confirmed it has yet to peak its carbon emissions. The report, submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), discloses China’s greenhouse gas inventory in 2020 and 2021. It showed that total greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, including that from land use,…

Oscar Berglund is a senior lecturer in international public and social policy at the University of Bristol and Tie Franco Brotto is a PhD candidate at the University of Bristol’s School for Policy Studies. Climate and environmental protest is being criminalised and repressed around the world. The criminalisation of such protest has received a lot of attention in certain countries, including the UK and Australia. But…

🌍 Who We Are: The Climate Change Institute is a global platform dedicated to providing free resources and tools for individuals and businesses to measure, reduce, and offset their carbon emissions. By offering accessible solutions, we empower people to take actionable steps toward achieving carbon neutrality and combating climate change. 💡 Measure Your Carbon Footprint Understanding your impact on the environment is the first step toward…

From melting ice caps to dying forests and thawing permafrost, the risk of ‘abrupt and irreversible changes’ is much higher than thought just a few years ago. Humans are playing Russian roulette with Earth’s climate by ignoring the growing risk of tipping points that, if passed, could jolt the climate system into “a new, less habitable ‘hothouse’ climate state,” scientists are warning ahead of the annual…

How Climate Change Will Impact Global Supply Chains Global supply chain issues have hit the news recently as the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the true vulnerabilities of global supply chains dependencies and sourcing relationships. As a result, it has become abundantly clear that we cannot take global production for granted. COVID is not the only global event threatening supply chains. As climate change continues to…

Governments should promise in their next round of climate plans, due by early next year, not to build any new coal-fired power stations and to shut down existing ones early, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said. Speaking on Monday at an old London coal power plant-turned-shopping centre, IEA head Fatih Birol said he would be “very happy” to see new NDCs (Nationally…

Brice Böhmer is climate and environment lead at Transparency International. As the dust settles after COP29, a feeling of despondency and betrayal has set in. But amid the inevitable post-mortem, the international climate community must ask itself: are we really that surprised?  This is the third year running that a repressive petrostate has hosted COP, and the second where the summit – intended to help reduce…

by Andrew Glikson What further evidence do the inhabitants of planet Earth need to have to convince them the liveable climate, the lungs of the Earth, is sharply deteriorating, species are dying, the mere failure of a computer chip or of a human neuron are capable of terminating civilization, that the powers that be are leading to one of the greatest mass extinction in the history…

Riverina Oils, a NSW canola oil producer, has partnered with Australian renewable energy retailer Flow Power to power its operations with solar energy. Flow Power described the new solar installation as its largest behind-the-meter project, adding that it set a new standard for renewable energy use in the manufacturing of Australian products. Located in the agricultural hub of the Riverina region in Bomen, NSW, the plant —…

Following the US exit from the Paris climate agreement in January, Argentina’s government, under President Javier Milei, is evaluating whether to follow suit – but analysts say leaving the global accord would be legally tricky and could damage relations with some of the country’s key trading partners and donors. Earlier this month, right-wing populist leader Milei told French news magazine Le Point he was considering quitting…

The temperature in the Tropics (23.5°S-23.5°N, 0-360°E) reached a new record high on April 24, 2024 of 27°C (or 80.6°F). The image below shows the monthly temperature anomaly over the past few years through March 2024, when the anomaly reached a record high of 1.448°C (or 2.606°F).  Note that the anomaly in the top image is calculated from 1979-2000 as a base, while anomalies in the above image…

Around the world, sustainability has made its way to the forefront of everyone’s mind, including businesses. As governments and consumers push companies to improve their sustainability efforts, it can be challenging to keep up with the demand of the oftentimes expensive changes that sustainability requires. Luckily, advances in artificial intelligence, or AI, are helping businesses monitor and improve their facilities to not only improve environmental consciousness,…

There are moments in history when we are called to pause, to reflect, and to ask ourselves: What does it mean to resist? What does it mean to rise? Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise has long been a source of inspiration for those of us who refuse to be broken by oppression. It is more than just a poem—it is a declaration, a shield, and…

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, reported a daily average carbon dioxide (CO₂) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, of 428.63 parts per million (ppm) on April 26, 2024, as illustrated by the image below.  This is the highest daily average on record at Mauna Loa, which is the more remarkable since the annual CO₂ maximum is typically reached in May, so even higher values are…

Unbearable heat and worsening storms prompt residents of states such as Florida to move elsewhereAs a Rust belt town of 65,000 people in eastern Indiana, Muncie may not be the most exciting place in the world. It doesn’t have beaches, year-round warm weather or much in the way of cosmopolitanism.But for Laura Rivas, a cybersecurity engineer formerly of North Miami Beach, Florida, Muncie is perfect. Continue…

Several plumes billowed from Los Angeles-area fires in the days after their ignition. Read More…

A report produced by World Weather Attribution (WWA) and Climate Central finds that 2024 was quite a year for extreme weather events fuelled by climate change. Several trends manifested and strengthened throughout the year, with extreme weather dominating from the beginning to the end, which scientists say is the warmest ever recorded. The impacts are pretty staggering, with the analysis finding that the climate crisis contributed…

President Joe Biden has announced a US target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66% below 2005 levels by 2035, with White House officials saying the new goal can be achieved even if climate-change sceptic Donald Trump tries to roll back the country’s climate-action agenda. With just a month to go until President-elect Trump takes office, the outgoing administration called its updated Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)…

Since January 5, 2025, vehicles are being tolled to enter the Congestion Relief Zone in Manhattan South, New York, under the Congestion Pricing Program of the City of New York.On February 19, 2025, the federal government, through the Department of Transportation, stated its disapproval of the program. A WhiteHouse social media post shows a TIME magazine-style cover featuring Trump wearing a crown with the text ‘Congestion pricing is…

After a brutally hot summer in 2023 that caused widespread bleaching and coral death, summer 2024 was more favorable for the state’s vulnerable reefs.  Read More…

Scientists use satellites in orbit and boots on the ice to monitor glacial changes on the flanks of Mount Baker and elsewhere in Washington state. Read More…

A newly launched sustainability trade show and multi-stream conference, named NET ZERO EXPO, has been designed to showcase tools and solutions for businesses, councils, property developers and households to cut emissions, reduce energy costs, prepare climate reports and meet evolving customer expectations. The event will run twice in Australia in 2025: first in Sydney on 27–28 August, then in Melbourne on 16–17 September. “We want the…

The above image shows a trend (magenta), based on NOAA August 2008 through June 2024 data (black) and added on a canvas that is 31.42-year wide. If this trend continues, the clouds tipping point could get crossed in early 2036 due to the rise in carbon dioxide (CO₂) alone. [ from earlier post ] Rising CO₂ emissions could originate from many sources, the more so as more sinks…

Congratulations humanity! For the first time in recorded history we have breached 2C above preindustrial levels!  (Glacecakes Tumblr) 

For about one year now, global temperature anomalies have been extremely high, as illustrated by the image below, created with a screenshot from Copernicus, showing an anomaly from 1991-2020 of 0.86°C on June 1, 2024. What could be behind these persistently high temperatures? Many causes such as El Niño and sunspots have been discussed in earlier posts. How much do emissions contribute to these high temperatures?Despite pledges…

A new report from the United Nations environment program (Unep) finds that on current pledges, the world is heading for a 3.2 degree rise. Although G20 nations collectively account for 78 percent of all emissions, only five members have committed to a long-term emissions target. Of these, the UK and France are the only two to have passed legislation confirming their commitments in law. Germany, Italy…

Preserved Forest Area in the Realidade District, Humaitá, Amazonas © Greenpeace Brasil Just ten days after Nature COP took place in Cali, Colombia, high-level negotiations kicked off at the annual climate summit or COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. While the Nature summit closed with some wins and some frustration on finance ambition, the climate summit now presents another test for countries to agree on a new finance…

Update on May 21, 2024: This image shows a phytoplankton bloom in the Gulf of Oman. It was acquired on March 17, 2024, less than two months after the launch of NASA’s PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) satellite. Congratulations to Dan Taylor for being the first to correctly identify the bloom and its location. Special mention goes to Robert Taylor for providing a detailed answer, and to…

The above image, created with monthly mean global temperature anomalies by LOTI Land+Ocean NASA/GISS/GISTEMP v4 data while using a 1903-1924 base, has a trend added based on Jan 2016-Aug 2024 data. The image also shows that anomalies could be 0.99°C higher when using a more genuine pre-industrial base. The image below featured in an earlier post and was created with an image from the NASA website…

Requiring key sectors to switch to clean energy by specific times could trigger benevolent cascades, report claimsIn the terminology of the climate and ecological crises the phrase “tipping point” is loaded with dreadful implications.It evokes a climate breakdown supercharged by the mass escape of methane locked in Siberian permafrost, or the great currents of the oceans smothered by freshwater melting from the Greenland ice sheet, or…

In the past few years, the topic of climate change has worked its way into every area of our lives, and rightfully so. As we push closer to the irreversible effects of climate change and the ever-looming 2°C, companies, governments, and individuals are looking for every possible way to mitigate emissions. Carbon offsetting was first conceptualized in 1989, but has been gaining traction in recent years….

Global heating could bring “untold suffering” for humans.  It could also mean less fresh water and less rice, though tasting more of arsenic. In an unprecedented step, more than 11,000 scientists from 153 nations have united to warn the world that, without deep and lasting change, the climate emergency promises  humankind unavoidable “untold suffering”. And as if to underline that message, a US research group has…

Temperatures are forecast to reach 46.5°C or 115.8°F in Saudi Arabia (green circle left) and to reach 36.1°C or 96.9°F in China (green circle right) on August 4, 2024 06 UTC.As illustrated by the image below, ‘feels like’ temperatures are forecast to reach 42.1°C or 107.9°F in Saudi Arabia (green circle left) and 53.6°C or 128.4°F at that location in China (green circle right), i.e. at…

Update on April 23, 2024: This image shows Sortebræ, a large surge-type glacier in eastern Greenland, on September 6, 1986. Congratulations to Steward Redwood for being the first to correctly identify the glacier. Read more about the glacier and see how it has retreated in recent decades in our Image of the Day story. Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The March 2024…

A pioneer wind turbine tower design is set to be put on trial south of Adelaide in a novel research collaboration between Flinders University and startup company VAWT-X Energy. Supported by state and federal funding, the research team constructed and tested a 6 KW vertical wind turbine prototype to install at a field site on the Fleurieu Peninsula. The low-maintenance two-bladed helical vertical axis wind turbine design comprises a rotor with…

Perrine Fournier is a trade and forests campaigner at the forests and rights NGO Fern The view from the highest vantage point in Kabaena island is awe-inspiring. Mountain peaks coated with thin clouds rise over a thick blanket of vegetation. But the natural beauty of this tropical island in Indonesia’s Southeast Sulawesi province, belies the human and environmental damage that’s unfolding below – and which is…

Climate change is considered the greatest single threat to humankind, and while individuals are working to minimize their carbon footprints, the overwhelming majority of climate change is caused by businesses. Through emissions, resource consumption, and waste, companies are responsible for over 80% of climate change. As the threats of climate change rapidly increase, companies in every sector and industry must take responsibility for their sustainability efforts…

 Climate Choir Melbourne supporting Extinction Rebellion protestors at their sit down on the busiest intersection in Melbourne City, Australia. The police were very restrained. Are they in agreement with the protestors? They do have family of their own.  

UN climate talks in Bonn ended in finger-pointing over their failure to move forward on a key programme to reduce planet-heating emissions, with the UN climate chief warning of “a very steep mountain to climb to achieve ambitious outcomes” at COP29 in Baku. In the closing session of the two-week talks on Thursday evening, many countries expressed their disappointment and frustration at the lack of any…

[ click on images to enlarge ]Temperatures remain high, as illustrated by the above image, adapted from Copernicus. Meanwhile, El Niño is no longer prevalent. Instead, La Niña conditions are expected to be dominant soon, as illustrated by the NOAA ENSO update on the right. There are fears that self-amplifying feedbacks have taken over as the dominant drivers of the temperature rise, as discussed in earlier posts such…

Mark Maslin is professor of natural sciences at University College London (UCL) and Iain Hanson is honorary professor at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, UCL. Many of us feel guilt when we fly because it is a very obvious source of carbon emissions. Aviation causes around 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But we do not perhaps feel the same guilt when we walk into…

In Canada, we are witnessing the deliberate weaponization of the term “woke” by political figures like Pierre Poilievre and other right-wing leaders, who use it as a blanket label to dismiss calls for justice, equity, and truth. What began as a term rooted in activism—particularly within Black and Indigenous communities—has been distorted into a derogatory buzzword, often used to discredit legitimate movements for social change. A…

The news from California is clear, but we don’t want to see it. It’s too confounding, big, complex. But we can sense the dangerWhen I send anxious texts to friends in Los Angeles – friends who have been evacuated or who are waiting to leave , friends escaping a fire zone, wondering if their life’s work has been destroyed, worrying about the smoke’s effect on an…

The daily average carbon dioxide (CO₂) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, was 428.60 parts per million (ppm) on February 6, 2025, the highest daily average on record. The previous record high was 428.59 ppm on April 26, 2024. To find higher levels, one needs to go back millions of years (see inset). CO₂ typically reaches its annual maximum in May, so even higher levels can be expected…

On May 11, 2024, the day-night band of VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) on the Suomi NPP satellite spotted the aurora borealis over the United States during the strongest geomagnetic storm in over two decades. That same night, observers on the ground captured spectacular photographs of the dazzling light. The following photos represent just a handful of those shot by citizen scientists as part of NASA’s Aurorasaurus…

Sea ice [ click on images to enlarge ] The above image shows Arctic sea ice extent from November 5 to December 24, a period when Arctic sea ice is growing in extent. The red line shows 2024 sea ice extent through November 23, 2024. Dots mark Arctic sea ice extent on November 23 for the respective year. On November 23, Arctic sea ice extent was…

The Kumani Bank mud volcano in the Caspian Sea suddenly manifested an island in early 2023 that had nearly disappeared by the end of 2024. Read More…

The 2024 global average surface temperature was 1.55°C above the 1850-1900 average, according to WMO’s consolidated analysis of six datasets.  [ click on images to enlarge ] Differences between datasets are mainly due to the ways temperatures are measured, e.g. ERA5 measures the temperature of the air above oceans, whereas NASA and NOAA measure the surface temperature of the water, which is lower. There can also be…

Oil spills can pollute large volumes of surrounding water – thousands of times greater than the spill itself – causing long-term economic, environmental, social and ecological damage. Effective methods for in situ capture of spilled oil are thus essential to minimize contamination from such disasters. Many oil spill cleanup technologies, however, exhibit poor hydrodynamic stability under complex flow conditions, which leads to poor oil-capture efficiency. To…