GoKawiil
Tech News
A new study using coral data going back a millennium finds that human-caused warming appears to be intensifying El Niño events. Researchers say the historical coral record shows a pattern connecting rising global temperatures to more pronounced El Niño swings than in past centuries.
A severe, prolonged drought and heat wave across Central and Eastern Europe have dried up rivers, lakes and fish ponds, killing hundreds of tons of fish in Hungary and threatening more in Serbia, Bosnia, Romania and the Czech Republic. Hungary's meteorological service reports that roughly 99% of the country is under severe or extreme drought, with nearly 1,600 hectares of fish ponds drying out and about 280 metric tons of fish dead at 20 farms.
Experts at the Eighth Annual Tree Diversity Conference warned that Colorado's Front Range has unusually harsh growing conditions for trees—hot summers, cold winters, alkaline soil and a shortened growing season—and that climate models show these stresses intensifying, especially at higher elevations. Speakers noted that losses of ash and cottonwood trees, combined with rising heat-island effects from pavement and dense development, are weakening urban forests and leaving them more susceptible to pests and disease.
WIRED announced a livestream Q&A on September 10 where a panel of its reporters will field reader questions about the growing controversy surrounding AI data centers. Readers can submit questions in the comments, with the event covering political, environmental, and business angles on the issue.
Palaeoclimatologist Julia Cole and colleagues reconstructed a millennium of sea surface temperatures using Galápagos coral skeletons, published in Science. They found that strong El Niño events have occurred more often over the past century, since industrial-era greenhouse gas emissions began, than in the thousand years before it.
A chunk of glacier broke off and fell hundreds of feet along the Nepal-Tibet border, setting off a landslide that unleashed flash floods which have killed roughly 160 people, with hundreds still missing, including international tourists. Satellite imagery and Nepalese government reports point to glacial instability as the likely trigger, and video shared online shows water sweeping away buildings and vehicles.
A new study in Science Advances reports that roughly 560 million children under age 10 worldwide now experience at least one additional month of dangerous heat stress annually because of climate change. Researchers led by Rosa Pietroiusti at Vrije Universiteit Brussel used the WetBulb Globe Temperature threshold of 28°C, a standard combining heat, humidity, wind, and cloud cover, to measure how often conditions cross into risky territory for children's health.
Researchers found that elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations enhance grass growth in savannah ecosystems even under dry conditions. The study suggests that higher CO2 levels help these grasses use water more efficiently, allowing them to sustain productivity during periods of reduced rainfall.
Scientists report that ocean surface temperatures have reached their highest levels ever measured, coinciding with an intensifying El Niño weather pattern. The warming trend spans large portions of the world's oceans and is being tracked closely by climate researchers monitoring its effects on marine and atmospheric systems.
Copernicus data shows average ocean surface temperatures reached 21.1C on Saturday, surpassing the previous record of 21.09C set in March 2024. Scientists note the timing is unusual since oceans typically peak in March or April, not August, and this record was set even before El Nino reached its expected peak.
The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service recorded average ocean surface temperatures reaching 70 degrees Fahrenheit this month, the highest level since measurements began, and unusually early since such peaks typically occur in spring. One researcher suggested the reading could be the warmest the oceans have been in 125,000 years, spanning back to the last interglacial period. The spike coincides with a strong El Niño pattern layering on top of long-term human-caused warming.