The move has been likened to putting the country on a “war footing”, with climate and the environment at the very centre of all government policy, rather than being on the fringe of political decisions.
If only it were that easy.
Olivier Le Moal/Shutterstock
Protecting forests and wetlands, which absorb and store carbon, is one way to slow climate change. Scientists are proposing similar treatment for marine animals that help store carbon in the oceans.
The exploitation of fossil fuels emits CO₂, the main cause of global warming.
Zbynek Burival/Unsplash
The Earth’s past shows the key role of CO₂ on climate for 4.45 billion years, and how human industrial activity has disrupted its cycle at an unprecedented rate over the past 160 years.
Trapping carbon dioxide in minerals happens naturally over thousands of years. Can humans speed it up – safely?
Simon Clancy
Wil Burns, American University School of International Service and Greg H. Rau, University of California, Santa Cruz
Adding industrial chemicals and natural alkaline minerals could slow climate change, but like other geoengineering proposals, it comes with many complex technical and legal challenges.
Carbon storage in Australian mangroves can help mitigate climate change.
Shutterstock
Agriculture needs to cut its greenhouse gas emissions, yet we must also find a way to produce more food if we are to feed 10 billion people by 2050. A “just transition” could help make that happen.
The Trump administration is sharply reducing environmental protection for wetlands and streams across the US. This roundup of stories spotlights the many benefits that such water bodies provide.
The submersible Alvin about 8,500 feet down, studying seafloor volcanoes and eruptions.
(c) Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution with thanks to Daniel Fornari – WHOI-MISO Facility (www.whoi.edu/miso) and National Science Foundation
When you study volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges, doing fieldwork means becoming an aquanaut – diving thousands of feet to the ocean floor in the submersible Alvin, trading tight quarters for amazing views.
Pep Canadell, CSIRO; Corinne Le Quéré, University of East Anglia; Glen Peters, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo; Robbie Andrew, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo, and Rob Jackson, Stanford University
For the second year in a row global greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels have risen, putting 2018 on course to set a new record, according to an annual audit from the Global Carbon Project.
Over 99 percent of today’s plastics come from oil, but new bio-based options are becoming available.
Icons by Vectors Market, Freepik and srip
One big problem with plastics is that they’re largely made of petroleum. Sourcing bio-polymers from plants and bacteria has some big benefits – and the technology is starting to take off.
The Antarctic Circumpolar Current provides a barrier to heat that keeps warm subtropical waters away from Antarctica. Yet, there are a few places where the heat gets through.
Géochronologue et paléoclimatologue, chargé de recherches CNRS - Centre de recherches pétrographiques et géochimiques (Nancy) et Laboratoire de glaciologie (Bruxelles), Université de Lorraine