Climate Change

Lava pouring out from Kilauea’s Fissure 8 on June 25, 2018.Image: USGSScientists are attributing the 2018 Kilauea eruption, which destroyed hundreds of homes on Hawaii’s Big Island, to a surprising source: intense and sustained rainfall.Excessive precipitation in the months leading up to the eruption led to the collapse of rocky…

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Three heatwaves hit Europe across 2019 Europe is heating faster than the global average as new data indicates that last year was the warmest on record.While globally the year was the second warmest, a series of heatwaves helped push the region to a new…

Image copyright Getty Images Despite the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the world mustn't forget the "deeper environmental emergency" facing the planet.That's the view of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in remarks released to celebrate Earth Day.The toll taken by the virus is both "immediate and dreadful", Mr Guterres…

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The UK government has plans for a number of new road schemes The UK government’s climate change adviser is urging ministers to reconsider plans for road-building and switch the investment into broadband.The government plans £28bn worth of new roads to relieve congestion.But the head…

The American Lung Association says the numbers have gone up in recent years. April 21, 2020, 8:04 AM8 min read Almost half of Americans live in communities with unhealthy levels of air pollution, according to the American Lung Association, as the country continues to grapple with a respiratory virus that…

While the coronavirus is posing a serious risk to millions of lives right now, Professor England said climate change will threaten even more lives over the next five decades. "We’ve seen all around the world that the nations ignoring the best advice of their scientists are suffering the most, and…

In late October 2019, Google CEO Sundar Pichai likened the latest result from the company’s quantum computing hardware lab in Santa Barbara, California, to the Wright brothers’ first flight.One of the lab’s prototype processors had achieved quantum supremacy—evocative jargon for the moment a quantum computer harnesses quantum mechanics to do…

For 20 years, even before the movement had a name, Hilton Kelley was fighting for environmental justice in his hometown of Port Arthur, Texas. The Gulf Coast city of 55,000 is home to a disproportionately high number of industrial polluters in relation to its population, as well as to the largest…

Unconcerned about climate change on Earth, senator wants to create atmospheres on other planetsIn June 2018 the journal Science published research showing that chlorophyll-containing blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria, that were grown in extremely red light could carry on some photosynthesis despite the light's low energy.Visit our Librarian Gateway…

Image copyright Getty Images A new material developed by scientists could give a significant boost to a new generation of hydrogen-powered cars. Like a bath sponge, the product is able to hold and release large quantities of the gas at lower pressure and cost.Containing billions of tiny pores, a single…