3/30/2025
Earth losing fresh water and may have hit irreversible tipping point due to climate change
The Earth is getting drier and may have hit a tipping point for how much water is stored in soil because of climate change. So great is the decline in soil moisture that it has outpaced Greenland’s melting ice sheets in its contribution to sea level rise and changes to the wobble in Earth’s rotation. That’s according to a new study in the journal Science, which suggests more than 2,614 gigatonnes of moisture was lost from our planet between 2000 to 2016. It’s a trend that scientists think led to a major shift in land-based water storage — sources like groundwater, rivers, lakes, soil moisture and ice — from 1992. The researchers estimated between 2000 to 2002, soil moisture loss was about 1,614 Gt, equivalent to a 1.95 millimetre per year rise in sea level. That’s compared to a 900 Gt loss of ice in Greenland from 2002 to 2006, which contributes to about 0.8mm of sea level rise annually. Global soil moisture levels have not recovered, and a further 1,009 Gt was lost from 2003 to 2016.
3/20/2025
Last decade was Earth’s hottest ever as CO2 levels reach an 800,000-year high, says UN report
Last year was the hottest year on record, the top 10 hottest years were all in the past decade and planet-heating carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are at an 800,000-year high, a report Wednesday said. In its annual State of the Climate report, the World Meteorological Organization laid bare all the markings of an increasingly warming world with oceans at record high temperatures, sea levels rising and glaciers retreating at record speed. “Our planet is issuing more distress signals,” said António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General. He noted that the report says the international goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.8 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times is still possible. “Leaders must step up to make it happen — seizing the benefits of cheap, clean renewables for their people and economies,” he said. The report attributed the heating to human activity — like the burning of coal, oil and gas — and in a smaller part to the naturally occurring El Nino weather phenomenon. An El Nino formed in June 2023 and dissipated a year later, adding extra heat and helping topple temperature records. In 2024, the world surpassed the 1.5 C limit for the first time — but just for a single year. Scientists measure breaching the climate goal as Earth staying above that level of warming over a longer time period.
2/19/2025
Nuclear fusion reactor sets a new world record – taking us closer towards limitless clean energy
A world record for nuclear fusion has been smashed after an ‘artificial sun’ reactor was able to maintain a plasma for more than 22 minutes. The WEST reactor, in southern France, is at the forefront of efforts to produce huge amounts of energy from the nuclear reaction when two atoms fuse. But, to have a hope of powering the world’s homes in the future, the reaction needs to be long-lasting in order to keep churning out energy. Now, by smashing the 20-minute mark, the WEST reactor has taken a stride towards running for longer – one of the three ‘golden conditions’ to achieve nuclear fusion. Plasma is created when the two fuels used in the reactor, deuterium and tritium, are heated to more than 50 million degrees Celsius. It is the ‘fourth state’ after a material goes through the stages of solid, liquid and gas, and it takes the super-hot centre of a special reactor to achieve it. Plasma must be maintained within the reactor chamber, without it dispersing, cooling and returning to gas form. The WEST reactor prevents plasma from escaping by using magnetic fields to confine it in one place.
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