Earth’s Climate May Go from Greenhouse to Hothouse

By -
By Grace van Deelen, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: Earth systems may be on the brink of long-term, irreversible destabilization, sending our planet on a “hothouse Earth” trajectory, a scenario in which long-term temperatures remain about 5°C (9°F) higher than preindustrial temperatures, according to a new paper...published in One Earth, ...Earth system components could be at a higher risk than we think of reaching crucial tipping points such as the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet and the thawing of the world’s permafrost—points of destabilization that, once breached, are irreversible. “As we move to higher temperatures, we go into higher risk zones,” said Nico Wunderling, a coauthor of the new paper and a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Goethe University Frankfurt, both in Germany. Scientists know higher temperatures will activate interactions between tipping elements, he said. The new paper “strongly builds” on a 2018 perspective paper linking the possibility of hothouse Earth to tipping points, said Swinda Falkena, a climate scientist at Utrecht University in the Netherlands who was not involved in either publication....

Popular posts from this blog

New Lessons from Old Ice: How We Understand Past (and Future) Heating

By -
By Mariana Mastache-Maldonado , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Fragments of blue ice up to 6 million years old—the oldest ever found—offer key insights into Earth’s warming cycles. Researchers are using these ancient data to refine models of our future climate. ...In Antarctica...rare formations known as blue ice areas may offer a distinct look into that deep past. These areas, which make up barely 1% of the continent, form where strong winds strip away surface snow. ...The Allan Hills region, situated on the edge of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.... Here researchers have discovered ice up to 6 million years old—the oldest yet found. Their  study  of the ice, published in  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , revealed that parts of it formed during periods far warmer than today—times when sea levels were higher and open forests and grasslands covered much of the planet. ...studying the atmospheric remnants trapped in blue ice, the rese...
Read more

France hits hydrogen jackpot: World’s largest reserve valued $92 trillion found

By -
By Sujita Sinha , Interesting Engineering.  Excerpt: Scientists in France have made a groundbreaking discovery that could transform clean energy production. Beneath the soil of Folschviller, in the Moselle region, researchers have uncovered an astonishing 46 million tons of natural hydrogen ...providing a new source of carbon-free fuel. The discovery was made by scientists from the GeoRessources laboratory and the CNRS while they were searching for methane. Instead, at a depth of 4,101 feet (1,250 meters), they found an enormous deposit of white hydrogen. This form of  hydrogen  is naturally occurring and does not require industrial production, unlike green hydrogen, which is made using renewable energy, or gray hydrogen, which is derived from fossil fuels. To put this discovery into perspective, the newly found deposit represents more than half of the world’s annual gray hydrogen production—but without the environmental costs. If extracted efficiently, this resource coul...
Read more

E.P.A. Delays Requirements to Cut Methane, a Potent Greenhouse Gas

By -
By Lisa Friedman  and  Maxine Joselow , The New York Times.  Excerpt: The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Wednesday that it would delay a requirement that the oil and gas industry limit emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming gas. Under the requirement, which dates to the Biden administration, oil and gas companies were supposed to start this year reducing the amount of methane they release into the atmosphere. Instead, the Trump administration is giving them until January 2027 and is considering repealing the measure altogether. The move dealt a blow to any remaining effort by the United States to slow Earth’s dangerous warming. It came after the Trump administration  boycotted the United Nations climate summit  this month, the first time that the United States was not present since the annual meetings began 30 years ago....  Full article at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/climate/epa-delays-methane-oil-gas.html . 
Read more