climate change

Managing energy demand spikes with seasonal forecasts of heatwaves and cold spells

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Researchers want to make climate forecasts more accessible to help the energy and other industries better predict spikes in usage.

The impact of heavy droughts, heatwaves and cold spells on energy demand and supplies would be lessened with seasonal climate forecasts that allow energy companies to better predict spikes in usage ahead of time, researchers say. Researchers already have the ability to predict what changes in climate can be expected in two to three weeks’ … Read more

Global warming could be in reverse by 2050 if we take action now – Chad Frischmann

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Project Drawdown's research director says the paradigm around global warming needs to change into one of possibility and opportunity.

We could get to the stage where atmospheric greenhouse gases are in decline – a point known as drawdown – and begin to reverse global warming before 2050, but it will require us adopting solutions at an aggressive rate, according to Chad Frischmann, vice-president and research director of Project Drawdown. Project Drawdown is a worldwide … Read more

Global heatwave: Climate change is no longer a two-way debate – Dr Peter Stott

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With the EUPHEME project, Prof. Stott is linking extreme heatwaves and resulting wildfires to climate change.

The pattern of heatwaves causing record breaking temperatures across the northern hemisphere would not be seen without climate change, and they have firmly focused the conversation on what we can do about it rather than whether it’s happening, according to Peter Stott, professor of detection and attribution of climate change at the University of Exeter, UK. … Read more

Could symbiotic microbes help ecosystems survive global warming?

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Symbiotic bacteria might have helped coffee plants adapt to climate change in the past.

Studies of the relationships between microbes and the organisms they live on are revealing how plants and animals could adapt to climate change. With the world facing a global warming somewhere between 1 and 5.5 degrees Celsius, organisms that have evolved to thrive in specific environments need to adapt or they could struggle to survive. Our … Read more

Hydrogen-powered boat plots course for the future of ocean travel

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Every year, the technologies used to power the Energy Observer in its six-year round-the-world journey are being improved.

The first day that Jérôme Delafosse stepped aboard the Energy Observer, an experimental catamaran run on hydrogen, he knew the plan of sailing around the world on clean energy was a realistic one, he says. Now, the explorer and documentary maker is one year into a six-year odyssey around the globe with his friend Victorien Erussard, an … Read more

Lessons from a real Atlantis

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Before it was lost to the bottom of sea, Doggerland was made up of woodland, meadows, marshes and rivers, as shown by simulations.

Traces of long-forgotten human settlements claimed by the sea thousands of years ago are being uncovered by researchers along the coastlines of Europe. The discoveries, both on land and underwater, are helping to fill in some of the blanks about Europe’s prehistory and are offering insights into how our species responded to global climate change … Read more