Time (October 12)
Of the Antarctica’s “162 ice shelves, 68 show significant shrinking between 1997 and 2021, while 29 grew, 62 didn’t change and three lost mass but not in a way scientists can say shows a significant trend” according to a new study. “All told, Antarctic ice shelves lost about 8.3 trillion tons (7.5 trillion metric tons) of ice in the 25-year period….That amounts to around 330 billion tons (300 billion metric tons) a year.”
Tags: 1997, 2021, Antarctica, Ice shelves, Mass, Scientists, Significant shrinking, Trend
BBC (July 5)
“The world’s average temperature reached a new high on Monday 3 July, topping 17 degrees Celsius for the first time.” This marks “the highest in any instrumental record dating back to the end of the 19th century.” Scientists attribute the record high to “El Niño and mankind’s ongoing emissions of carbon dioxide.” With El Niño about to enter its hottest phase, “scientists believe that more records will be shattered as the summer goes on and El Niño gains strength.”
Tags: 17 degrees, CO2, El Niño, Emissions, High, Hottest phase, Record, Scientists, Shattered, Strength, Summer, Temperature
BBC (May 17)
“There’s now a 66% chance we will pass the 1.5C global warming threshold between now and 2027. The chances are rising due to emissions from human activities and a likely El Niño weather pattern.” This would not necessarily mean that “the Paris limit had been broken,” especially if the temperature falls back under the threshold in subsequent years. “Scientists say there is still time to restrict global warming by cutting emissions sharply.”
Tags: 1.5C, 2027, Broken, El Niño, Emissions, Global warming, Human activities, Paris limit, Scientists, Temperature, Threshold, Weather pattern
Newsweek (May 11)
“Business leaders are particularly enthralled by AI’s growing capabilities,” but the general public is unsold. “Two-thirds of American adults—across all income and education levels—don’t trust generative AI and believe it presents a threat to humanity.” The urgent challenge must be addressed. “As was the case at the dawn of the nuclear age, we all have a role to play in demanding governance of this new technology. Scientists, along with society more generally, have made it clear that now is the time.”
Tags: AI, Business leaders, Education, Enthralled, General public, Generative, Governance, Growing capabilities, Humanity, Income, Scientists, Society, Technology, Threat, Trust
Wall Street Journal (February 10)
European scientists have set a “nuclear-fusion energy world record” and the “findings suggest this approach can be scaled-up for use in power plants.” The experiment successfully “generated 59 megajoules of fusion energy for five seconds,” but “the researchers weren’t able to overcome a major obstacle: generating more energy than they had to put into the experiment.” A scaled-up version looks set to do so as early as 2025. Currently “35 firms globally are racing to be the first to create net-energy machines and to commercialize them by delivering electricity to the power grid.”
Tags: 2025, Commercialize, Electricity, Energy, Europe, Net-energy machines, Nuclear fusion, Obstacle, Power grid, Power plants, Scientists, World record
USA Today (December 13)
“A devastating tornado outbreak across five states Friday night left dozens of people dead and reduced hundreds of homes to rubble, and some scientists say this may be the harbinger of future tragedies as the planet warms.”
Tags: Dead, Five states, Future, Harbinger, Homes, Outbreak, Planet, Rubble, Scientists, Tornado, Tragedies
Investment Week (November 12)
“The world’s two biggest emitters, who had been trading insults for the first week of the conference,” surprised the world with “a joint declaration that would see Washington and Beijing cooperate closely on the emissions cuts scientists say are needed in the next ten years to stay within 1.5C.”
Tags: Beijing, Conference, Cooperate, Emissions, Emitters, Joint declaration, Scientists, Trading insults, Washington
Washington Post (November 9)
“After nine days of grand pronouncements, pledges and plans, scientists delivered a rude awakening to a COP26 summit that has been called ‘the last, best hope’ for climate action: Earth is on track to warm about 2.5 degrees Celsius (4.5 degrees Fahrenheit), eclipsing the world’s shared climate goal by a full degree.”
Tags: 2.5 degrees, Climate action, COP26, Earth, Hope, Plans, Pledges, Pronouncements, Rude awakening, Scientists, Summit
USA Today (October 20)
“Scientists for decades have dreamed of xenotransplantation: using animals to solve the shortage of organs available for human transplant.” This came a step closer with a “groundbreaking operation using a pig’s kidney.” Though the successful transplant into a brain-dead human is only a first step, it may ultimately help reduce the number of deaths, roughly 6,000 annually, of those waitlisted who die before receiving a donor organ.
Tags: Animals, Deaths, Donor, Groundbreaking, Human, Kidney, Operation, Organs, Pig, Scientists, Shortage, Transplant, Xenotransplantation
New York Times (August 12)
The fires ravaging Evia, Greece’s second-largest island “seem less a random act of God than another inevitable episode of Europe’s extreme weather brought on by the man-made climate change that scientists have now concluded is irreversible.”
Tags: Act of God, Climate change, Europe, Evia, Extreme weather, Fires, Greece, Inevitable, Irreversible, Man-made, Random, Scientists