"...Earth is crossing the threshold of 1.5°C of global warming, according to two major global studies which together suggest the planet's climate has likely entered a frightening new phase...The researchers say the record-hot 2024 indicates Earth is passing the 1.5°C limit, beyond which scientists predict catastrophic harm to the natural systems that support life on Earth. source Science Alert
The research is the first field-based confirmation of such climate impacts--
"...Increasing rat numbers in cities are linked to climate warming, urbanization, and human population --Abstract Urban rats are commensal pests that thrive in cities by exploiting the resources accompanying large human populations. Identifying long-term trends in rat numbers and how they are shaped by environmental changes is critical for understanding their ecology, and projecting future vulnerabilities and mitigation needs. Here, we use public complaint and inspection data from 16 cities around the world to estimate trends in rat populations. Eleven of 16 cities (69%) had significant increasing trends in rat numbers, including Washington D.C., New York, and Amsterdam. Just three cities experienced declines. Cities experiencing greater temperature increases over time saw larger increases in rats. Cities with more dense human populations and more urbanization also saw larger increases in rats. Warming temperatures and more people living in cities may be expanding the seasonal activity periods and food availability for urban rats. Cities will have to integrate the biological impacts of these variables into future management strategies..." Science Journal source
"...For this study, published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, researchers looked at global warming and the effects of searing heat on the human body. They found a significant increase in the area of the world potentially exposed to unsafe temperatures, with people in North Africa and South Asia most at risk. They considered both dangerous and unsurvivable heat levels – where the body's core temperature increases to 42 °C within six hours. The study concluded that between 1994 and 2023, heat and humidity reached unsafe levels for people aged under 60 in areas equivalent to about two percent of global land area..."source Science Alert
"...The unexpected jump in global temperatures since 2023 has helped fuel a relentless assault of associated disasters around the world, including the still-burning LA fires and the deadly Valencia floods, leaving researchers scrambling for explanations. Data from the world's oceans now reveal that an alarming acceleration in sea surface warming likely contributed. A new study from the University of Reading in the UK finds the tops of our oceans are warming more than four times faster than in the late 1980s..." souce ScienceAlert (Environmental Research Letters)
"...In the autumn, deadly floods wreaked havoc along an arc from Spain to the Balkans, and from Morocco to Libya. More than 200 people were killed in Valencia in October, not long after a deluge dumped five times the month’s ordinary rainfall across Europe in a single week. Scientists say climate change is increasing not just the strength of the Mediterranean’s devastating storms but also the frequency — and they predict that it will get only worse..." source NYTimes
"...Since around 1900, global average sea level has risen by about 7-8 inches (Hayhoe et al. 2018, NCA4) and the rate of sea level rise has been accelerating in recent decades as ocean temperatures warm. Nearly half of this rise in sea levels has occurred since 1993, and the rate of global mean level rise since 1993 has been approximately 3.4 mm per year. It is virtually certain that global mean sea levels will continue to rise throughout the 21st century and beyond...Sea levels across Florida are as much as 8 inches higher than they were in 1950, and the rate of sea level rise is accelerating. For instance, sea levels around Virginia Key have risen by 8 inches since 1950, but they have been rising by 1 inch every 3 years over the past 10 years, based on tide gauge data." source Florida State University.
"...As countries around the world continue to pump planet-warming pollution into the skies, driving global temperatures to record levels, the financial world is racing to fund the emerging field of carbon dioxide removal, seeking both an environmental miracle and a financial windfall. The technology, which did not exist until a few years ago, is still unproven at scale. Yet, it has a uniquely alluring appeal. Stripping away some of the carbon dioxide that is heating up the world makes intuitive sense. And with a small but growing number of companies willing to pay for it, investors are jockeying to be first movers in what they believe will inevitably be a big industry that is necessary to help fight global warming..." source NYTimes
"...The Arctic of today looks stunningly different from the Arctic of even one to two decades ago. Over the Arctic Report Card's 19 years, we and the many contributing authors to the report have watched the pace of environmental change accelerate and the challenges become more complex. For the past 15 years, the Arctic snow season has been one to two weeks shorter than it was historically, shifting the timing and character of the seasons...." source ScienceAlert
"...The world needs to both drastically reduce emissions and actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This reality demands a paradigm shift: instead of focusing solely on a carbon budget, we need to embrace a carbon removal budget as a key part of the solution. A recent article from the World Economic Forum (WEF) underscores the urgency of this shift, emphasizing that carbon removal must complement emissions reductions in our global climate strategy..."source Climeworks -- Remove Carbon Dioxide
"...Along coastlines from Australia to Kenya to Mexico, many of the world’s colourful coral reefs have turned a ghostly white in what scientists say has amounted to the fourth global bleaching event in the last three decades. At least 54 countries and territories have experienced mass bleaching along their reefs since February 2023 as climate change warms the ocean’s surface waters, the US National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch, the world’s top coral reef monitoring body, said..." source AlJazeera News