Running a planet gets harder every year.
Solar geoengineering could save 400,000 lives a year
Dec 2024, phys.org
Stratospheric aerosol injection for 1 degree of cooling could save 400,000 lives, outweighing deaths caused by solar geoengineering's direct health risks from air pollution and ozone depletion by a factor of 13.
via Georgia Institute of Technology School of Public Policy, Princeton, University of Chicago: Anthony Harding et al, Impact of solar geoengineering on temperature-attributable mortality, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401801121
Image credit: AI Art - Money Gets Swept Away in a Tornado - 2025
Enhanced weathering could transform US agriculture for atmospheric CO₂ removal
Feb 2025, phys.org
This is the flip side to the stratospheric injection style geoengineering:
Enhanced weathering - adding crushed basalt to soils using existing agricultural infrastructure; the basalt reacts with CO2, taking it out of the air; it also could improve air quality by interacting with the soil nitrogen cycling processes to reduce the formation of ozone and fine particulate matter.
via Leverhulme Center for Climate Change Mitigation, University of Sheffield: David J. Beerling et al, Transforming US agriculture for carbon removal with enhanced weathering, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08429-2
Ocean-surface warming has more than quadrupled since the late-1980s, study shows
Jan 2025, phys.org
Ocean temperatures were rising at about 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade in the late 1980s, but are now increasing at 0.27 degrees Celsius per decade, a quadrupling.Global ocean temperatures hit record highs for 450 days straight in 2023 and early 2024. Some of this warmth came from El Niño, a natural warming event in the Pacific.When scientists compared it to a similar El Niño in 2015–16, they found that the rest of the record warmth is explained by the sea surface warming up faster in the past 10 years than in earlier decades; 44% of the record warmth was attributable to the oceans absorbing heat at an accelerating rate.Expect more warming ...
via University of Reading: Quantifying the acceleration of multidecadal global sea surface warming driven by Earth's energy imbalance, Environmental Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/adaa8a
Scientists highlight alarming rise in marine heat waves worldwide
Mar 2025, phys.org
One group of researchers found that the number of such heat waves in 2023–2024 was 240% higher than any other year in recorded history.
(fyi: "Prior research has also shown that abnormally high water temperatures can lead to dolphins and whales swimming closer to shore than normal".)
via Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, Climate Change Research Centre, Centre for Marine Science & Innovation and ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, University of New South Wales: Kathryn E. Smith et al, Ocean extremes as a stress test for marine ecosystems and society, Nature Climate Change (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02269-2
Extreme ocean heat does not mean climate change is accelerating
Mar 2025, phys.org
As opposed to being a sign that our models are all wrong and we absolutely helpless, they say it could be a 500-year event, but according to our current climate not the historical climate, which means it could become more like a 100-year event.
via University of Bern: Jens Terhaar et al, Record sea surface temperature jump in 2023–2024 unlikely but not unexpected, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08674-z
