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
