Showing posts with label climate things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate things. Show all posts

Sunday, July 19, 2026

Structural Decoherence and Assembloid Resistance


Things to consider as we dematerialize into our furniture - Buildings as living organisms and we will all be living in crystals in the future. Otherwise, how did it take us this long to figure out we could do this with 3D printing:

'Implosion carving' shrinks 3D photonic devices 2,000-fold for visible-light computing
May 2026, phys.org

They figured out how to create vacancies at any site across a material and then shrink it to about 1/2,000 of its original volume, making nanostructures with feature sizes with a resolution less than 100 nanometers; because that resolution is smaller than the wavelength of light, the devices can bend light in specific ways that allow them to perform optical computations.

via MIT: Quansan Yang et al, Isotropic shrinkage of patterned vacancies enables three-dimensional nanoprecise metastructures for visible light applications, Nature Photonics (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41566-026-01896-1

Image credit: Christopher Payne - New York's Forgotten Substations The Power Behind the Subway_6 - 2002 https://chrispaynephoto.com


Novel origami pattern turns flat sheets into load-bearing 3D technology
May 2026, phys.org

It's a "doubly curved lens box", also called a flat tendon-driven origami metamaterial with stiffness reprogrammability. ... Starting from a desired curved shape (such as a sphere, torus or vase-like surface), the researchers used differential geometry—mathematical theories for origami tiling and developable surfaces—followed by numerical optimization to compute the exact crease pattern needed so that, once folded and locked, the origami shell would match the target geometry. ... They next laser-cut and folded paperboard sheets into these patterns, assembled them into shells, and embedded thin cables ("tendons") through specific points. "By tightening or loosening the tendons, we measured how the stiffness changed and showed that the shells could go from saggy and flexible to rigid and resistant to twisting and bending."

via McGill University: Morad Mirzajanzadeh et al, Smooth doubly curved origami shells with reprogrammable rigidity, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69562-2


A low-tech solution to the 6G problem—metacrystal panels offer cheap way to guide wireless signals around corners
Jun 2026, phys.org

Higher-frequency channels of 6G communications are more easily blocked by walls, people and other obstacles. Metacrystals are passive, 3D-printed smart panels that can shape wireless signals without electronics, a power supply or active tuning.

Unlike many existing intelligent surfaces, which often perform only one task for one signal direction, the panels can handle several incoming waves at the same time, operate over different frequency bands simultaneously, work in reflection or transmission mode, and even fully absorb unwanted signals.

via Aalto University: Metacrystals: Inversely-designed 3D-printed intelligent panels for 6G communications, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73019-x


Rising heat and humidity challenge energy-efficient data center cooling worldwide
Jun 2026, phys.org

They assessed historical and projected temperatures and humidity levels around the world and compared them with the conditions required for "direct air free cooling," wherein naturally cold outside air is brought in to cool a building or equipment.

"We found that periods of time when temperature and humidity exceed recommended operating thresholds for direct air-free cooling are becoming more frequent and lasting longer in many regions"

One of their key findings is that the largest changes are not always seen in average conditions. In several regions, worst-day conditions are intensifying more rapidly than average conditions, indicating that environmental stress is becoming increasingly concentrated in rare but consequential events.

Funny way of describing the climate catastrophe: "Worst-day conditions are intensifying more rapidly than average conditions"

via University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology: Christina Karamperidou et al, Limitations to air free cooling in data centers under rising heat and humidity, Scientific Reports (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-56926-3

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Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Unsupervised Climate Attack


There are so many angles to the climate topic that it's hard to organize it all. We've got the unraveling of the social fabric due to not being able to congregate in public, not from government overreach mind you, but from the climate itself; we've got the breakdown of the physical infrastructure, not because our country is 250 years old and literally falling apart, but because our bridges, roads, plumbing systems, and electrical grids weren't built to perform in temperatures too far above 100F; and the Great IMO 2020 Debacle, the first great comprehensive climate policy disaster of the 21st Century, which at the current time is almost entirely unknown to the general public, and just grew another head, because it's combined with the AMOC Collapse. 

All that being said, you know you're screwed when the scientists, whose job it is to be neutral and unemotional, start using superlatives because the results they're seeing are so far out, they just can't use that neutral language anymore.


Why an immense marine heatwave off the US west coast has alarmed scientists
May 2026, The Guardian

“I’m out of superlatives”
--University of Arizona scientist in response to high anomaly in the Pacific

And here's another one, for context:

In March, a remarkable land-based heatwave – what one meteorologist called “one of the most astounding global weather events of the century thus far” – sent late winter temperatures soaring more than 30F above seasonal norms to 88F (31C) or warmer in relatively temperate places such as Minnesota, Colorado and Idaho.



Climate change costs lives by breaking down social connection, says study
May 2026, phys.org

This has been happening in real time, definitely for a few years now, likely noticeable since covid, where even the winter events were attempted to be held at least partially outdoors. During that time, you could feel the strain, the pulling of the social fabric, as people were straight-up scared to hang out with their own friends and family. Now, the social strain is still there, but it's happening in reverse. People want to hang out with each other, but they can't. Most people don't own houses where they can invite all their friends. They rely on public space, which is almost exclusively outdoor space. But that space is increasingly immediately dangerous to life and health, because of the weather.* It's gotten to the point that you have to reconsider not just your kid's birthday party, but your cultural identity. As this is written, the United States' 250th celebration of the founding of the nation was supposed to take place on a Saturday, July 4th, but was cancelled, in the nations's capital of Washington DC, and in other significant cities such as Philadelphia, due to the heat. We had been stuck in a one week long heat wave with temperatures in the 100's, and that ended with severe thunderstorms knocking out power to hundreds of thousands. In other words, the 250th celebration of the nation's founding was in fact cancelled to due to climate change. Maybe we will learn the lesson before Labor Day.  *Slight exaggeration, I don't think we use the "immediately dangerous to life and health" (IDLH) designation for temperatures, but if we do, it's around a heat index of 140F; we've got 110-115 now, so another 10-15 years before we see IDLH in our backyard. India and Pakistan saw this already in 2025.

Heat waves and air pollution are pushing people indoors and away from shared public spaces, while interruptions to school and work make it harder to maintain relationships. [At the same time that "loneliness" is declared more dangerous to our health than smoking a pack of cigarettes a day!]

via University of Sydney: Marlee Bower et al, Climate change and social health, Nature Human Behaviour (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-026-02455-y


Television news coverage of climate policy is limited and polarized in the US, study finds
May 202,6 phys.org

Most television news segments about climate change don't cover policy. Researchers focused on 7 major television news networks — ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NBC, and PBS — and identified news transcripts from April 2020 to April 2021 that contained the words "climate change" or "global warming" and identified whether each transcript mentioned climate policy and if it did, whether it supported, opposed, or presented a neutral view.

"This means that people might not hear anything about solutions when they hear about the climate crisis in the news. This in turn can shape what they think is normal or popular."

"That is a striking gap, because policy is where solutions live. But when policy is largely missing from coverage, so too are the pathways people can imagine for addressing the problem." [And it's because there is no problem; the richest 2,000 people in the world are getting richer, faster, every day. Why would we need solutions?]

via University of Colorado at Boulder CIRES Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences: Ekaterina Landgren et al, U.S. television news coverage of climate change policy is aggregately balanced but polarized, Environmental Research Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1088/2515-7620/ae6b10


Climate catch-22: Cleaning up air pollution could speed key Atlantic current decline
May 2026, phys.org

AMOC meets IMO

They ran a total of 80 simulations and looked at what happens across the globe and within specific regions between the years 2015 and 2050 under two key scenarios—one with strong air pollution controls and the other with weak controls.

Results? Cleaner air could be a problem.

Hopefully we already know what this is by now. They call this a Catch-22 (which is pretty nuts that for such a common phenomenon, all we have as a reference is this 1961 satirical war novel, which although it's often mentioned as one of the most significant novels of the 20th century, I'm not sure that I've ever heard people reference the novel itself, only the title.)

via University of California Riverside: Robert J Allen et al, AMOC weakening in response to global and regional reductions in aerosol emissions, Environmental Research: Climate (2026). DOI: 10.1088/2752-5295/ae63ef


Jersey Shore drawbridge closes to boat traffic due to extreme heat
Jun 2026, nj.com

The excessive heat has caused the expansion of some components of the bridge, which prohibits the bridge from opening. The U.S. Coast Guard has been notified and the Department of Transportation is posting warning messages on waterway signage.


Heat wave grips Europe, triggering alerts and disruptions
Jun 2026, DW

High temperatures strongly impacted the French rail network, with risks to overhead power lines and the possibility of tracks expanding in the heat.


Extreme coastal flooding surges worldwide as rising seas rewrite 100-year odds
Jun 2026, phys.org

Coastal flooding events expected only once every 100 years are now, on average, about 12 times more likely to occur. (This comes from Tulane University btw, for those who remember Hurricane Katrina. ...)

via Tulane: Sönke Dangendorf, Human-driven sea-level rise has quadrupled the frequency of coastal sea-level extremes since 1900, Nature Climate Change (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-026-02659-0.

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Sunday, June 7, 2026

Climate Called, Wants Volcanoes Back

 

"More rapidly than we thought" is the theme  here.

But let's start with IMO 2020 - the biggest climate story of the 21st century that you will not hear about because it's too complicated:

When trade routes shift, so do clouds: Researchers uncover ripple effects of new global shipping regulations
Nov 2025, phys.org

In January 2020, the International Maritime Organization mandated a major reduction in sulfur content in marine fuels to decrease air pollution. But this decreased cloud formation, the same clouds that have historically masked about one-third of the warming caused by greenhouse gases.

Militia attacks in November 2023 rerouted cargo ships in the Red Sea's Bab al-Mandab Strait to the Cape of Good Hope, and gave researchers the opportunity to discover that the new fuel regulations that cut sulfur by about 80% also lowered cloud droplet formation by about 67%. (Quantifying how clouds respond to changes in aerosols remains one of the biggest challenges in studying the climate.)

Although these aerosols temporarily cool the planet, this comes at the cost of human health. Exposure to sulfur particles, potent air pollutants, is linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The IMO regulation is estimated to have already prevented tens of thousands of premature deaths.

via Florida State University Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science: Michael S. Diamond et al, Conflict-induced ship traffic disruptions constrain cloud sensitivity to stricter marine pollution regulations, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2025). DOI: 10.5194/acp-25-16401-2025

Image credit: Space tornado - coronal mass ejection plasma stream - Chip Manchester for University of Michigan - 2025 [link]

Key 'fingerprint' reveals slowdown of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
Nov 2025, phys.org

  • They uncovered a key "fingerprint" of AMOC slowdown: mid-depth (1,000–2,000 meters) warming in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean.
  • Using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology General Circulation Model (MITgcm)
  • AMOC slowdown triggers subsurface warming in the subpolar North Atlantic, which then generates baroclinic Kelvin waves traveling equatorward along the western boundary of the North Atlantic; upon reaching the equator, these waves propagate along the equatorial region, ultimately causing the distinct mid-depth warming.

via Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Oceanology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and UC San Diego: Qiuping Ren et al, Equatorial Atlantic mid-depth warming indicates Atlantic meridional overturning circulation slowdown, Communications Earth & Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02793-1


Ocean's upper 1,000 meters undergoing unprecedented, deep-reaching compound change
Nov 2025, phys.org

"The ocean is experiencing strong compound change multidimensionally. The ocean condition is transforming in multiple dimensions at once, and even the deep ocean - once considered stable - is responding more rapidly than we thought."

via Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Mercator Ocean International, and the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique at the École Normale Supérieure in France: Observed large-scale and deep-reaching compound ocean state changes over the past 60 years, Nature Climate Change (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02484-x.
 

Global warming amplifies extreme day-to-day temperature swings
Dec 2025, phys.org

"Climate roller coaster" (aka weather whiplash)

The study defines such extreme temperature events as occurrences where the temperature difference between two consecutive days exceeds the 90th percentile of historical records. These extreme day-to-day temperature changes have become more frequent and intense across low- to mid-latitude regions. Soil drought leads to reduce the surface's heat capacity and amplify fluctuations in cloud cover and radiation. 

The health risks posed by these sudden temperature shifts outweigh other temperature-related variables. The correlation between these extreme temperature events and all-cause mortality follows a near-exponential pattern. (exponential)

via Nanjing University and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences: Qi Liu et al, Global warming intensifies extreme day-to-day temperature changes in mid–low latitudes, Nature Climate Change (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-025-02486-9

*They don't mention acclimation but that's why it's so dangerous. A 100F day is hot, but an 80F day after a 50F day is equally hot, relative to the body that's trying to cool itself. People need something like one day per degree to acclimate, and weather whiplash does not allow that.

“Acclimatization” means temporary adaptation of the body to work in the heat that occurs gradually when a person is exposed to it. Acclimatization peaks in most people within four to fourteen days of regular work for at least two hours per day in the heat. 
--Source: California Department of Industrial Relations, Heat Illness Prevention in Indoor Places of Employment, Mar 2023. https://www.dir.ca.gov/OSHSB/Indoor-Heat.html

Mostly meaningless unlabeled line chart

Category '6' tropical cyclone hot spots are growing
Dec 2025, phys.org

Hurricane Patricia, which formed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico, was the strongest tropical cyclone ever recorded, with wind intensity of up to 185 knots - enough to make it considered a Category 7 storm, if such a thing existed. 
  • Cat 4 - 114 - 137 knots
  • Cat 5 - 137 (or more) knots
  • Cat 6 - 160 (or more) knots, proposed

via American Geophysical Union and Department of Atmospheric Science at the National Taiwan University: A31A-06 Category ‘6’ Tropical Cyclone Hot Spots in the Warming Climate


Excruciating tropical disease can now be transmitted in most of Europe, study finds
Feb 2026, The Guardian

Higher temperatures due to the climate crisis mean infections (chikungunya, dengue) are now possible for more than six months of the year in Spain, Greece and other southern European countries, and for two months a year in south-east England. 

“Twenty years ago, if you said we were going to have chikungunya and dengue in Europe, everybody would have said you were mad: these are tropical diseases. Now everything’s changed."

via UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology 


Widespread 'enhanced rock weathering' could slow global warming
Feb 2026 phys.org

Enhanced Rock Weathering - crush silicate rocks, add to crop soil, and let the rock dust naturally react with carbon dioxide. The reactions bind carbon into stable mineral forms that can persist for millennia, while also enriching the soil with nutrients, boosting crop yields and increasing farmer profits.

It could remove up to about a gigaton of carbon from the atmosphere annually by 2100, roughly equivalent to the yearly emissions of a major industrial economy. But to reach that mark, access and adoption by the Global South, where warmer and wetter conditions facilitate rock weathering, will be essential.

(Which is interesting to consider, because obviously the Global North will not stop burning fossils, and the Global North will not solve this problem. It's the Global South only who has the ability to fix the future.)

via Cornell: Ying Tu et al, Scaling up enhanced rock weathering for equitable climate change mitigation, Communications Sustainability (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s44458-026-00034-w


An unprecedented Antarctic heat wave hit in the dead of winter - what it signals for the decades ahead
Apr 2026, phys.org

In July and August 2024, temperatures in parts of East Antarctica rose by up to 28°C above average and stayed high for more than two weeks. It followed a heat wave in March 2022, when temperatures in some Antarctic areas soared by nearly 40°C above average — one of the largest temperature anomalies ever recorded anywhere on the planet.

via University of Sheffield: Haosu Tang et al, Unprecedented 2024 East Antarctic winter heatwave driven by polar vortex weakening and amplified by anthropogenic warming, npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41612-026-01392-x


‘Point of no return’: New Orleans relocation must start now due to sea level, study finds
May 2026, The Guardian

The process of relocating people from New Orleans should start immediately, as the city has reached a “point of no return” that will see it surrounded by the ocean within decades due to the climate crisis, a stark new study has concluded.

Ongoing sea-level rise and the rampant erosion of wetlands in southern Louisiana will swallow up the New Orleans area within a few generations, with the new paper estimating the city “may well be surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico before the end of this century”.


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Friday, November 28, 2025

Terran Here We Come


Planet Earth is just not what it used to be. That's probably because managing a planet at the planetary level is a new concept, and it's pretty hard.

The major theme over the past few years has been the Big Oops, somewhat predicted, that reducing air pollution would actually make the greenhouse effect of said pollution even worse. Air pollution is not one thing, it's a bunch, including tiny particles of soot, as well as the hydrocarbon gasses that cause the greenhouse effect. We thought removing the tiny particles would be a good idea, which it probably is, but all those particles were reflecting back sun's rays, making the whole global warming thing less severe, and so it appears that fixing the problem is only making the problem worse, and faster. Maybe. The years 2023 and 2024 were the hottest on record, but they were so hot they broke the record for breaking the record (got that?) Then again, we're really not sure what's happening. 

Another theme is terraforming, but not the aerosol injection kind that puts little particles (less harmful than the ones from pollution) into the air to reflect back the sun's rays. The newer kind of terraforming is about crushing rocks on the surface of the earth, because the interaction of air with certain rocks makes the rocks absorb the carbon from the air and store it in the rocks. More below.

And don't forget the AMOC collapse. Is it? Is it not? Still can't tell. 

One thing is for sure, this is no longer your grandparents' planet.


From boiling hot to freezing cold: Sudden flips in temperature set to increase with climate change
Apr 2025, phys.org

(Some people call this Planet Menopause)

Although there is growing literature on independent extreme warm or extreme cold climate events, little is known about the wider effects of rapid shifts between the two.

via School of Geography and Planning at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou: Sijia Wu et al, Rapid flips between warm and cold extremes in a warming world, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58544-5



Geoengineering technique could cool planet using existing aircraft
Apr 2025, phys.org

Scientists ran simulations of different aerosol injection strategies and concluded that adding particles 13km above the polar regions could meaningfully cool the planet, albeit much less effectively than at higher altitudes closer to the equator. Commercial jets such as the Boeing 777F could reach this altitude.

via University College London: Earth's Future (2025). agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.co


Scientists reveal what drove 2023's record-smashing North Atlantic marine heat wave
Jun 2025, phys.org

Sounds like this is it:  "record-breaking weak winds combined with increased solar radiation, and climate change ..."

The rate of warming depends on the thickness of the ocean's upper layer. A thin layer will warm faster. The thickness of the layer in summer is set by the winds that churn up the surface waters and mix heat throughout it. In June and July of 2023, the North Atlantic winds were weaker than ever recorded, so the upper layer of the ocean was thinner than ever recorded. This meant that the sun heated the ocean's surface more rapidly than normal, which is what led to those record-breaking temperatures.

Ah yes, and here: "There was possibly also a further unexpected, localized factor that summer."

In 2020, new international rules were introduced to reduce the sulfur pollution emitted by ships. The aim was to improve air quality around the world's major shipping lanes. But clearer skies can have an unintended side effect: less aerosol pollution means fewer 'seeds' for clouds. Less cloud cover means more sunlight can reach the sea surface—especially in the North Atlantic, which is a high-traffic shipping area. However, Prof. England says this effect was secondary...

via University of New South Wales: Matthew England, Drivers of the extreme North Atlantic marine heatwave during 2023, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08903-5

Rapid cloud loss is contributing to record-breaking temperatures, new study shows
Jun 2025, phys.org

Trying to keep up here: 

  • 1.5% and 3% of the world's storm cloud zones have been contracting in the past 24 years.
  • The trend has been linked to changing wind patterns, the expansion of the tropics and storm systems shifting toward the North and South poles.
  • Fewer clouds reflecting sunlight back into space amplifies global temps.

via Monash University Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for 21st Century Weather and NASA: George Tselioudis et al, Contraction of the World's Storm‐Cloud Zones the Primary Contributor to the 21st Century Increase in the Earth's Sunlight Absorption, Geophysical Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2025GL114882


Heat waves, droughts and fires may soon hit together as 'new normal,' study finds
Jun 2025, phys.org

"What surprised us is that the increase is so large that we see a clear paradigm shift with multiple coinciding extreme events becoming the new normal"

via Uppsala University: Gabriele Messori et al. Global Mapping of Concurrent Hazards and Impacts Associated With Climate Extremes Under Climate Change, Earth's Future (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2025EF006325


Decline in aerosols could lead to more heat waves in populated areas
Jul 2025, phys.org

Aerosols are up to 2.5 times more influential than greenhouse gases at driving changes in heat wave occurrence in populated areas.

The researchers found that from 1920 to the present, higher aerosol levels helped suppress the occurrence of heat waves in populated areas by about half.

Populated areas, which release the most aerosols, are particularly at risk of accelerating heat waves driven by aerosol decline in the near future.

BTW - What is a "heat wave" - In this study, a heat wave is defined as three or more consecutive days during a region's warm season that exceed a 90th percentile temperature threshold. (So it depends where you live; in New Jersey, that's 90 degrees F.)

via University of Texas at Austin: Geeta G Persad et al, Anthropogenic aerosol changes disproportionately impact the evolution of global heatwave hazard and exposure, Environmental Research Letters (2025). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/addee0


Air pollution cuts in East Asia likely accelerated global warming
Jul 2025, phys.org

"We have been able to single out the climate effects of air quality policies in East Asia over the last 15 years. Our main result is that the East Asian aerosol cleanup has likely driven much of the recent global warming acceleration, and also warming trends in the Pacific."

via National Center for Atmospheric Science at University of Reading and CICERO Center for International Climate Research: East Asian aerosol cleanup has likely contributed to the recent acceleration in global warming, Communications Earth & Environment (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02527-3

Record marine heat waves in 2023 covered 96% of oceans, lasted four times longer than average
Jul 2025, phys.org

They found that 96% of the world's ocean surfaces experienced heat wave conditions, compared with a historical (1982–2022) average of 73.7%. The mean marine temperature was 1.3°C above normal in 2023, compared to the average of 0.98°C above normal. They also found that the average duration of heat waves had gone up to 120 days, quadrupling the historical average.

However, some regional areas experienced even more extreme temperatures and durations. The North Atlantic Ocean endured a heat wave lasting 525 days in total with temperatures sometimes reaching 3°C above normal. But they don't point to the aerosol reduction; it's a different mechanism about surface winds.

via Key Laboratory of Industrial Intelligence and Digital Twin, Eastern Institute of Technology, Ningbo, Zhejiang, China: Tianyun Dong et al, Record-breaking 2023 marine heatwaves, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adr0910


Arctic winter reaches melting point: Scientists witness dramatic thaw in Svalbard
Jul 2025, phys.org

Svalbard, warming at six to seven times the global average rate, ...

via Queen Mary, University of London: Svalbard winter warming is reaching melting point, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60926-8


Two wildfires in US west spur ‘fire clouds’ with erratic weather systems 
Aug 2025, The Guardian

Two wildfires burning in the western United States – including one that has become a “mega-fire” on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon – are so hot that they are spurring the formation of “fire clouds” that can create their own erratic weather systems.

Towering convection clouds known as pyrocumulus clouds have been spotted over Arizona’s blaze for seven consecutive days, fueling the fire with dry, powerful winds. They form when air over the fire becomes superheated and rises in a large smoke column. The giant billowing clouds can be seen for hundreds of miles.

Their more treacherous big brother, a fire-fueled thunderstorm known as the pyrocumulonimbus cloud, sent rapid winds shooting in all directions this week as a smoke column formed from the Utah fire then collapsed on itself.


Adding limestone to farmland boosts carbon capture and crop yields, study finds
Aug 2025, phys.org

Terraforming 2.0; not solar related:

When bicarbonate formed from limestone's interaction with soils washes from fields into rivers and oceans, it has the potential to store carbon for millennia. ... Applying multiple tons of limestone per acre could potentially remove billions of tons of carbon dioxide before the end of the century. ... Lime, which can react with nitrogen fertilizer and release carbon, has been listed as a carbon source by the IPCC. However, the researchers said that the acid from nitrogen fertilizer is the actual problem and, in most cases, adding enough limestone to improve soil levels will lead to CO2 removal over time.

via Yale University Center for Natural Carbon Capture: Peter Raymond et al, Using carbonates for carbon removal, Nature Water (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00473-0

Physics-based indicator predicts tipping point for collapse of Atlantic current system in next 50 years
Sep 2025, phys.org

Boy is this hard, can't seem to decide on this one. As of now, "collapse of the AMOC is likely and that it might begin sooner rather than later" 

via Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research at Utrecht University and Community Earth System Model: René M. van Westen et al, Physics‐Based Indicators for the Onset of an AMOC Collapse Under Climate Change, Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans (2025). DOI: 10.1029/2025JC022651


Four central climate components are losing stability, says study
Oct 2025, phys.org

"We now have convincing observational evidence that several interconnected parts of the Earth system are destabilizing" 
 
via Technical University Munich and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research: Niklas Boers et al, Destabilization of Earth system tipping elements, Nature Geoscience (2025). doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01787-0


Tiny ocean organisms missing from climate models may hold the key to Earth's carbon future
Oct 2025, phys.org

Coccolithophores, the main producers of CaCO₃, are especially sensitive to acidification, as they lack specialized pumps to remove acidity from their cells. Foraminifers and pteropods do, but they face different pressures, from oxygen loss to warming waters. Together, these groups shape the fate of carbon in the ocean. Ignoring their diversity risks oversimplifying how the ocean responds to climate stressors.

via Autonomous University of Barcelona: Patrizia Ziveri, Calcifying plankton: From biomineralization to global change, Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adq8520. 


Cleaner air may be accelerating warming by making clouds less reflective
Nov 2025, phys.org

Between 2003 and 2022, clouds over the Northeastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans, both sites of rapid surface warming, became nearly 3% less reflective per decade. Researchers attribute approximately 70% of this change to aerosols—fine particles that float through the atmosphere and influence both cloud cover and cloud composition. "When you cut pollution, you're losing reflectivity and warming the system by allowing more solar radiation, or sunlight, to reach Earth."

The drop:
"We may be underestimating warming trends because this connection is stronger than we knew," von Salzen said. "I think this increases the pressure on everyone to rethink climate mitigation and adaptation because warming is progressing faster than expected."

What to expect:
"You could think of it as replacing unhealthy pollutant particles with another type of particle that is not a pollutant—but that still provides a beneficial cooling effect."

via University of Washington Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean and Ecosystem Studies: Reduced aerosol pollution diminished cloud reflectivity over the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific, Nature Communications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-65127-x

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Sunday, April 6, 2025

Meteorological Mayhem


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



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

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Monday, March 24, 2025

Facts, Fakes, Fake Facts and Psychological Operators

 

Brainwashing an entire population is hard work!

News consumers are more influenced by political alignment than by truth, study shows
Nov 2024, phys.org

The study is based on research conducted in 2020 with a sample of the voting-age U.S. population matched to the demographics of the census, and made up news headlines whereas earlier studies relied on existing ones. They also used a cover story about memory and communication, and even included foil questions, so that participants would not be aware of the nature of the study.

Both supporters and opponents believed those that aligned with their views more than they believed true headlines that did not align with their views.

"We found that the strongest predictors of bias include extreme views of Trump, a one-sided media diet, and belief in the objectivity and lack of bias of a person's own political side relative to the other side." 

In one measure of bias, the researchers assessed people's beliefs about their political side's objectivity as compared to the other side. Ironically, those most confident in their political side's lack of bias were the most biased.

In addition, the effect of partisan bias was stronger for real news than fake news. That is, people were more likely to disbelieve true information that challenged their political worldview than to accept false information that confirmed their worldview.

"We saw it on both political sides and even among people who scored well on a reasoning test. We were a bit surprised to see how widespread this tendency was. People were engaging in a lot of resistance to inconvenient truths."

"Everyone thinks it's the other person who is the problem."

But this very important point can't be overlooked, dropped halfway through the press article:

One contributing factor for this state of affairs, the researchers suggest, is increased consumption of partisan media.

And just for good measure, let's recall that as of 2010 Citizen's United allows private industry to contribute campaign funds to those running for public office. (As in, who's paying for that partisan media? Yes, that's who.) 

via: Department of Psychology in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford: Michael C. Schwalbe et al, When politics trumps truth: Political concordance versus veracity as a determinant of believing, sharing, and recalling the news., Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2024). DOI: 10.1037/xge0001650



Brief scientific literacy interventions may quash new conspiracy theories
Dec 2024, phys.org

Americans in states with higher scientific literacy scores were less likely to believe in conspiracies and had higher COVID-19 vaccination uptake rates over the time period.

via Penn State's Smeal College of Business: Nathan Allred et al, Conspiracy Beliefs and Consumption: The Role of Scientific Literacy, Journal of Consumer Research (2024). DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucae024


A tangled web: Social media analysis suggests coordinated messaging among fossil fuel-derived hydrocarbon industries
Jan 2025, phys.org

Power rises to the top: "Our study suggests that climate obstruction in different industries is more coordinated than is generally recognized...these different companies in different sectors are using the same strategic messaging to promote a distorted image of their environmental responsibility."

Details: 125,300 unique tweets posted from 2008–2023 by the main Twitter accounts of nine key players in the US fossil energy/plastics/agrichemical trade: ExxonMobil, Chevron, American Petroleum Institute, Dow, Dupont de Nemours, Inc, American Chemistry Council, Corteva Agriscience, FMC Corp, American Farm Bureau

via Northeastern University: PLOS Climate (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pclm.0000370


New AI tool detects fake news with 99% accuracy
Jan 2025, phys.org

The method developed by the researchers uses an "ensemble voting" technique, which combines the predictions of multiple different machine learning models to give an overall score.

(Too bad we don't actually care; see above.)

via Keele University School of Computer Science and Mathematics: Patricia Asowo et al, An Ensemble Modelling of Feature Engineering and Predictions for Enhanced Fake News Detection, Artificial Intelligence XLI (2024). DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-77918-3_16


Meta-analysis uncovers public's skill in detecting fake news, but skepticism towards true news persists
Mar 2025, phys.org

While their findings suggest that most people can accurately judge the veracity of news, they also showed that people are slightly better at spotting false news than true news. In other words, most of the people who took part in the studies appeared to be better skilled at rating false news as false than rating true news as true.

"A small majority of people show this trend (59%). The implication of this finding is that we should focus more on increasing the acceptance of true news. Currently, a lot of efforts are dedicated to making people skeptical of (false) news, however, our data shows that there may be more room to increase the acceptance of true news than to reduce the acceptance of false news."

I also remember the study about how mainstream news being skeptical of a science fact are more influential than a fake news site spreading obvious fake shit, for example BBC saying there may be a small risk of myocarditis for example, even if they have a million other articles that say vaccines are safe. There is a risk of myocarditis, but the risk of dying, or becoming disabled, from Covid due to lack of vaccination is far, far higher. See here or here.

via Jan Pfänder et al, Spotting false news and doubting true news: a systematic review and meta-analysis of news judgements, Nature Human Behaviour (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-02086-1.

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Saturday, January 25, 2025

Peak Climate Confusion


There's a lot happening in the climate news, but Network Address is less interested in the facts, and more interested in the meta-facts, like how many superlatives an article uses, or how many new words have to be coined in order to keep track of what the heck is going on, or just cases where the weather centers monitoring disasters are themselves in the disaster zone, or maybe just outer space observatories that were never meant to be weather stations yet provide more accurate data than actual weather stations. It's all in there:

But first! More examples of scientists saying the word "crazy"
Hurricane Beryl supercharged by ‘crazy’ ocean temperatures, experts say
Jul 2024, The Guardian

“In the Caribbean Sea it has actually been warmer than its usual peak since mid-May, which is absolutely crazy,” said McNoldy. “If the ocean already looks like it’s the peak of hurricane season, we are going to get peak hurricanes.” [Not just crazy but absolutely crazy.]



Shipping emissions regulations enacted in 2020 improved air quality but accelerated warming
Aug 2024, phys.org

Regulations put into effect in 2020 by the International Maritime Organization required a roughly 80% reduction in the sulfur content of shipping fuel used globally.

They scanned over a million satellite images and quantified the declining count of ship tracks, estimating a 25 to 50% reduction in visible tracks. Where the cloud count was down, the degree of warming was generally up.

Further work by the authors simulated the effects of the ship aerosols in three climate models and compared the cloud changes to observed cloud and temperature changes since 2020. Roughly half of the potential warming from the shipping emission changes materialized in just four years, according to the new work. In the near future, more warming is likely to follow as the climate response continues unfolding. (Although it is noted that the magnitude of warming in 2023 is too significant to be attributed to the emissions change alone, according to their findings.)

via Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory: A. Gettelman et al, Has Reducing Ship Emissions Brought Forward Global Warming?, Geophysical Research Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2024GL109077


Say something about the speed of new word occurrence in a general field as related to a kind of turbulence or unpredictability or some kind of measurement of entropy in a system: 

Mexico counting dead from 'zombie storm' John
Sep 2024, BBC News

The term "zombie storm" was first used by meteorologists from the US National Weather Service in 2020 to describe a storm which dissipates only to regenerate again.

This storm hit Mexico's Pacific Coast, then dissipated over the mountains before regaining strength over the waters of the Pacific and hitting the Mexican coast a second time.


We’re only beginning to understand the historic nature of Helene’s flooding
Sep 2024, Eric Berger for Ars Technica

The National Climatic Data Center maintains the world's largest climate data archive and provides historical perspective to put present-day weather conditions and natural disasters into context in a warming world due to climate change.

Unfortunately, the National Climatic Data Center is based in Asheville, North Carolina. As I write this, the center's website remains offline. That's because Asheville, a city in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains, is the epicenter of catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Helene that has played out over the last week. The climate data facility is inoperable because water and electricity services in the region have entirely broken down due to flooding.

N.J. weather - Is this our driest October ever?
Oct 2024, nj.com

So many superlatives:
If our long streak of dry weather continues, this not only will turn out to be the driest October in most areas of New Jersey — but also the driest of any month on record.

If the month ended today, this would be the driest October ever recorded in the Newark, Trenton and Atlantic City areas, as well as New York City and Philadelphia.

It also would be number one for the least amount of rain to fall from the sky in any month of any year — not just October, according to the weather data.


Observatory finds local 1.1 ºC increase in 20 years, twice as much as predicted by climate models
Oct 2024, phys.org

Surprise - At the observatory, the weather station has sent data on temperature, relative humidity, atmospheric pressure and wind speed and direction every two seconds for the past twenty years. "The station was built with the intention to have some guidance for telescope operations, not to characterize local weather professionally, let alone the effects of climate change on the measured parameters. But the fact that they were relatively low-cost devices has been an advantage, since they had to be changed and recalibrated every two years or so, which has favored the reliability of the data and greatly limited the effects of long-term sensor drifts, which are difficult to detect."

But alas - The experimental data obtained show an increase of 1.1ºC over the past 20 years, i.e., 0.55ºC per decade. This is more than double the increase predicted by climate models for the same area, and even more than expected for the next 20 years.

via Department of Physics of the Autonomous University of Barcelona and the Roque de los Muchachos  Observatory: Markus Gaug et al, Detailed analysis of local climate at the CTAO-North site on La Palma from 20 yr of MAGIC weather station data, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2024). DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stae2214


'Doomsday' Antarctic glacier melting faster than expected, fueling calls for geoengineering
Nov 2024, phys.org

This is about glacial geoengineering not just the "regular kind" (i.e., stratospheric injection)

One example - creating a giant submarine curtain that would at least partially prevent warm tidal currents from reaching the glacier ice. 

via the Columbia University Climate School


Unexplained heat-wave 'hotspots' are popping up across the globe
Nov 2024, phys.org

Just here for the ad copy:

Distinct regions are seeing repeated heat waves that are so extreme, they fall far beyond what any model of global warming can predict or explain.

For instance, a nine-day wave that hammered the U.S. Pacific Northwest and southwestern Canada in June 2021 broke daily records in some locales by 30°C, or 54°F. This included the highest ever temperature recorded in Canada, 121.3°F, in Lytton, British Columbia. The town burned to the ground the next day ... .

via Columbia Climate School's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: Kai Kornhuber et al, Global emergence of regional heatwave hotspots outpaces climate model simulations, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2411258121

You know we're having a problem making sense of what's happening with the climate when we're willing to take into consideration the quantum effects of water:

Quantum mechanism identified as a key to accelerating ocean temperatures
Nov 2024, phys.org

Professor Smith said the apparent role of non-thermal energy in accelerating ocean temperatures now needs to be factored into climate models:

"When ocean water is heated by radiation from the sun and the sky it stores energy not only as heat, but as hybrid pairs of photons coupled to oscillating water molecules.

"These pairs are a natural form of quantum information, different to the information researchers are pursuing in the development of quantum computing. This extra store of energy has always been present and aided ocean thermal stability prior to 1960.

"But now the average heat dissipated overnight from each day's heating is no longer stable as extra heat input from Earth's atmosphere raises both forms of stored energy [including the quantum energy described above]."

via University of Technology Sydney: G B Smith, A many-body quantum model is proposed as the mechanism responsible for accelerating rates of heat uptake by oceans as anthropogenic heat inputs rise, Journal of Physics Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1088/2399-6528/ad8f11


On the heels of recent concern over the use of the word "tipping point" as having become kind of useless, and the scientific community is asking to stop using the word because it's confusing and counterproductive:

Rapid surge in global warming mainly due to reduced planetary albedo, researchers suggest
Dec 2024, phys.org

Far worse than expected - not only is it yes to the shipping sulfur aerosols, but also the warming itself is doing this, which means we've passed the tipping point (decades early).

"The 0.2-degree-Celsius 'explanation gap' for 2023 is currently one of the most intensely discussed questions in climate research."

One trend appears to have significantly affected the reduced planetary albedo: the decline in low-altitude clouds in the northern mid-latitudes and the tropics. In this regard, the Atlantic particularly stands out, i.e., exactly the same region where the most unusual temperature records were observed in 2023. [Albedo being the reflection of sunlight back off the earth, so that it never accumulates as heat.]

"It's conspicuous that the eastern North Atlantic, which is one of the main drivers of the latest jump in global mean temperature, was characterized by a substantial decline in low-altitude clouds not just in 2023, but also—like almost all of the Atlantic—in the past 10 years." 

It appears global warming itself is reducing the number of low clouds.

"If a large part of the decline in albedo is indeed due to feedbacks between global warming and low clouds, as some climate models indicate, we should expect rather intense warming in the future. We could see global long-term climate warming exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius sooner than expected to date."

via Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, and European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts: Helge F. Goessling, Recent global temperature surge intensified by record-low planetary albedo, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adq7280.

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Wednesday, January 8, 2025

On the Misunderstandings of Thermodynamics


Thermodynamics is hard. 

The very concept of the green roof is an abomination, because it's antithetical to the purpose of a roof to begin with - a green roof is literally storing water on top of the building, on purpose. Roofs are sloped and bound by drainage systems to get the water out as thoroughly and quickly as possible. Water is the enemy, and yet with a  green roof, we're inviting it into the building on purpose. Sounds cool, looks cool, dumbest thing ever.

But then again, cool roofs are also a problem. One of the ways a building gets rid of unintended and uncontrolled water intrusion is through the silent, invisible power of the stack effect (heat rises). A hot roof facilitates and amplifies this stack effect, cooking-out excess moisture that gets into the interstitial spaces in a building. You can make a building as perfect as possible, but water will get in there, because that's what it does, and because nothing is perfect. 

What can sometimes appear like a deficit (roofs get too hot) can actually be an integral part of the overall design (ridding excess moisture). 

This is similar to highly efficient (almost magically efficient) ambient heat pumps - they only use the exact amount of energy needed. Traditional air conditioners are over-designed in that they cool the air way more than they need to. But for hot and humid climates, this has the benefit of removing moisture from the air. A modern, magical heat pump that removes the heat but not the moisture, does not make a comfortable indoor environment, and could actually lead to unintended side effects like mold growth. 


Cool roofs outperform green roofs in urban climate modeling study
July 2024, phys.org

A three-dimensional urban climate model of Greater London tested the thermal effects of different passive and active urban heat management systems, including painted "cool roofs," rooftop solar panels, green roofs, ground level tree vegetation and air conditioning during the two hottest days of the summer of 2018, and found that if adopted widely throughout London, cool roofs could reduce outdoor temperatures across the city about 1.2 C up to 2 C.

Other systems, such as extensive street-level vegetation or solar panels would provide a smaller net cooling effect, only about 0.3 degrees C on average across London, though they offer other environmental benefits. Similarly, while green roofs offer benefits like water drainage and wildlife habitats, their net cooling effect on the city was found to be negligible on average.

Though on average the effect of green roofs was negligible, the researchers found that their effect on temperature varied significantly throughout the day. During the warmest times of day, the wide adoption of green roofs could lower urban temperatures by an average of 0.5 degrees C. However, this would be offset overnight as the thermal mass from the roofs would retain daytime heat, releasing when the sun was down and increasing night-time temperatures by about the same amount.

via University College London: Cool roofs could be most effective at reducing outdoor urban temperatures in London compared with other roof top and vegetation interventions: a mesoscale urban climate modelling study, Geophysical Research Letters (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2024GL109634

Research shows how common plastics could passively cool and heat buildings with the seasons
Jun 2024, phys.org

Roofs and walls are not the same. Roofs have a clear view of the sky, where they can radiate their heat upwards. Walls can't radiate upwards, they're blocked by other things, and they absorb a lot of heat from surrounding buildings and pavement. They're also affected by different "kinds" of heat:

Radiant heat moves from buildings to the sky in a narrow portion of the infrared spectrum known as the atmospheric transmission window, so the researchers call this narrowband. At ground level, radiant heat moves across the entire infrared spectrum, and the researchers call that broadband.

"By coating walls and windows with materials that only radiate or absorb heat in the atmospheric window (like propylene), we can reduce broadband heat gain from the ground in the summer, and loss in the winter, while maintaining the cooling effect of the sky.

via Oak Ridge National Lab, Arizona State University, Princeton and UCLA: Radiative Cooling and Thermoregulation in the Earth's Glow, Cell Reports Physical Science (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2024.102065.

New fabric makes urban heat islands more bearable
Jun 2024, phys.org

Only hats, shoulder coverings and the tops of shoes - about 3% of clothing - face direct sunlight. The other 97% of are being heated by thermal radiation from the sides and below.

"Solar is visible light, thermal radiation is infrared, so they have different wavelengths. That means you need to have a material that has two optical properties at the same time."

In tests under the Arizona sun, the material kept 2.3 C (4.1 F) cooler than the broadband emitter fabric used for outdoor endurance sports and 8.9 C (16 F) cooler than the commercialized silk commonly used for shirts, dresses and other summer clothing.

via University of Chicago: Ronghui Wu et al, Spectrally engineered textile for radiative cooling against urban heat islands, Science (2024). DOI: 10.1126/science.adl0653

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