Airplane contrails may not be the climate villain once feared

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By Paul Voosen, Science. 

Excerpt: It seems an easy climate solution, almost too good to be true. Greenhouse gas emissions from airplanes are stubbornly difficult to reduce—batteries cannot power a jumbo jet. But in the past few years, scientists and industry have seized on a way to trim airplanes’ climate footprint by limiting the clouds they leave behind. Jet contrails, when they turn into long-lived clouds, trap significant amounts of heat that would otherwise escape Earth—three times more than the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by the engines, some studies have suggested. In theory, tweaking flight routes to avoid creating these clouds could slash aviation’s toll on the climate.... 

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2024 was the hottest year on record, breaching a critical climate goal and capping 10 years of unprecedented heat

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By Laura Paddison , CNN.  Excerpt: It’s official: 2024 was the hottest year on record, breaking the  previous record  set in 2023 and pushing the world over a critical climate threshold, according to new data from Europe’s climate monitoring agency Copernicus [ https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2024-first-year-exceed-15degc-above-pre-industrial-level ]. Last year was 1.6 degrees hotter than the period before humans began burning large amounts of fossil fuels, Copernicus found. It makes 2024 the first calendar year to breach  the 1.5-degree limit  countries agreed to avoid under the Paris climate agreement in 2015. Scientists are much more concerned about breaches over decades, rather than single years — as above that threshold humans and ecosystems may struggle to adapt — but 2024’s   record   “does mean we’re getting dangerously close,” said Joeri Rogelj, a climate professor at Imperial College London....  Full article at https://www.cnn.c...
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Warmer, more crowded cities bring out the rats

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By Elizabeth Pennisi , Science.  Excerpt: Climate change  emerged as a driving factor behind urban rat swarms , the researchers report today in  Science Advances . As temperatures rise, they conclude, and people flock to urban areas and convert formerly “green” spaces into neighborhoods and shopping centers, they created a perfect storm for rat populations to explode. And the city that’s fared the worst over the past decade? Washington, D.C.....  Full article at https://www.science.org/content/article/warmer-more-crowded-cities-bring-out-rats . 
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