https://eos.org/articles/humans-adapted-to-diverse-habitats-as-climate-and-landscapes-changed By Deepa Padmanaban , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Our genus,  Homo , evolved over 3 million years by adapting to increasingly diverse environments. Now, a  new study  published in  Science  deeply explores how six species of  Homo ( H. ergaster ,  H. habilis ,  H. erectus ,  H. heidelbergensis ,  H. neanderthalensis,  and early  H. sapiens ) adapted to habitats across Africa and Eurasia. In its analysis, the team of scientists from South Korea and Italy used data from more than 3,000 human fossil specimens and archaeological sites. They then combined those data with climate and vegetation models of the past 3 million years. ...during the early to middle Pleistocene (about 2.6 million years ago to 0.5 million years ago), massive changes in Earth’s climate played a role in the distribution of vegetation, as well as the evolutionary developme...

https://eos.org/articles/ambidextrous-microbes-may-pump-out-co2-as-temperatures-rise By Katherine Kornei , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Some tiny forms of life double-dip to sustain themselves: They’re both photosynthetic and predatorial. But as the planet warms, such “mixotrophic microbes” are apt to shift away from being sunlight driven to being more predatory, researchers have found. And because photosynthesis consumes carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and respiration expels the greenhouse gas, that transition has important implications for the climate. Furthermore, the early-warning signs that signal an impending shift from a carbon sink state to a carbon source state are muted in the presence of high levels of nutrients, the team  reported in  Functional Ecology ....The collective amount of all the CO 2  that mixotrophic microbes are capable of sequestering or releasing is apt to be substantial, Wieczynski said. That’s because the combined biomass of Earth’s microbes, including bact...

https://data.berkeley.edu/news/hand-held-water-harvester-powered-sunlight-could-combat-water-scarcity By Rachel Leven, UC Berkeley College of Computing, Data Science, and Society.  Excerpt: UC Berkeley researchers have designed an extreme-weather proven, hand-held device that can extract and convert water molecules from the air into drinkable water using only ambient sunlight as its energy source, a  study published in  Nature Water  today shows . This atmospheric water harvester used an ultra-porous material known as a metal-organic framework (MOF) to extract water repeatedly in the hottest and driest place in North America,  Death Valley National Park . These tests showed the device could provide clean water anywhere, addressing an urgent problem, as climate change exacerbates drought conditions “Almost one-third of the world’s population lives in water-stressed regions. The UN projects in the year 2050 that almost 5 billion people on our planet will ex...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/06/earth-record-heat-climate-extremes/ By Scott Dance , The Washington Post.  Excerpt: New precedents have been set in recent weeks and months, surprising some scientists with their swift evolution: historically warm oceans, with North Atlantic temperatures  already nearing their typical annual peak ; unparalleled   low sea ice levels around Antarctica, ...and the planet experiencing its warmest June ever charted, according to new data. And then, on Monday, came Earth’s  hottest day in at least 125,000 years . Tuesday was hotter. “We have never seen anything like this before,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. He said any number of charts and graphs on Earth’s climate are showing, quite literally, that “we are in uncharted territory.” ...Ocean heat is to be expected during El Niño — it is marked by unusually warm sea surface temperatures along the equatorial Pacific. But  ...

https://eos.org/features/agriculture-3-0-preparing-for-a-drier-future-in-the-colorado-river-basin By Jane Palmer , Eos/AGU.  Excerpt: Years of drought and climate change are causing water resources to dwindle in the Colorado River Basin. But farmers and scientists are collaborating to learn how to grow crops with less water. ...Colorado River flow has shrunk by  nearly 20% in the past 2 decades . And in 2022, the nation’s largest reservoirs—Lake Mead (in Arizona and Nevada) and Lake Powell (in Arizona and Utah)—were at unprecedented low levels. If the water levels at Lake Powell were to drop much further, in the future, the dam would no longer be able to deliver hydropower or water to people, farmers, and businesses in Arizona, California, and Nevada. To prevent this doomsday scenario, in 2022, the Interior Department said that the seven states relying on the Colorado River  need to reduce water usage by as much as 4 million acre-feet  (493 cubic kilometers)—30% of ...

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66104822 By   Matt McGrath , BBC News.  Excerpt: The world's average temperature reached a new high on Monday 3 July, topping 17 degrees Celsius for the first time. Record spring heat in  Spain  and in many countries in Asia was followed by marine heatwaves in places that don't normally see them, such as in the  North Sea . This week China continued to experience an enduring heatwave with temperatures in some places above 35C, while the southern US has also been subject to stifling conditions.  Against this background, the global average temperature reached 17.01C on 3 July, according to the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction. This broke the previous record of 16.92C that had stood since August 2016. Monday's high was also the warmest since satellite monitoring began in 1979....

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/03/business/economy/canada-wildfires-economy.html By Lydia DePillis , The New York Times.  Excerpt: Canada’s wildfires have  burned 20 million acres ,  blanketed Canadian and U.S. cities  with smoke and raised health concerns on both sides of the border, with no end in sight. The toll on the Canadian economy is only beginning to sink in. The fires have upended oil and gas operations, reduced available timber harvests, dampened the tourism industry and imposed  uncounted costs  on the national health system. ...What long seemed a faraway concern has snapped into sharp relief in recent years, as billowing smoke has suffused vast areas of North America, floods have  washed away  neighborhoods and heat waves have strained power grids. That incurs billions of dollars in costs, and has longer-reverberating consequences, such as insurers  withdrawing  from markets prone to hurricanes and fires. In some early...