https://phys.org/earth-news/environment en-us The latest news on the environment, environmental issues, earth science and space exploration. Far away from the extreme summer temperatures of the northern hemisphere, Southern Cone countries such as Chile and Argentina are also experiencing record heat, but in the middle of what is supposed to be their winter. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-south-america-high-tempsin-middle.html Environment Thu, 03 Aug 2023 04:11:13 EDT news610254668 Colorado's lakes serve as a needed respite during sweltering summer days, but as climate warms, the state's lakes are becoming more susceptible to toxic blooms of algae. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-colorado-lakes-toxic-algae-blooms.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 16:46:51 EDT news610213608 Wildfires are an ancient force shaping the environment, but they have grown in frequency, range and intensity in response to a changing climate. At the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, scientists are working on several fronts to better understand and predict these events and what they mean for the carbon cycle and biodiversity. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-scientists-wildfire-long-term-impacts.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 16:10:42 EDT news610211436 As firefighters battle a massive wildfire that continues to grow in the eastern Mojave Desert, national park officials and ecologists are preparing for habitat losses that are likely to alter the landscape forever. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-joshua-trees-massive-wildfire-threatens.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 12:50:01 EDT news610198956 Loss of forest cover is associated with more frequent extreme flooding, as well as more frequent floods of any size, according to new UBC research. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-clearcut-frequent-extreme.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 12:40:45 EDT news610198841 In California, thousands of miles of fiber optic cables crisscross the state, providing people with internet. But these underground cables can also have a surprising secondary function: they can sense and measure earthquakes. In a new study at Caltech, scientists report using a section of fiber optic cable to measure intricate details of a magnitude 6 earthquake, pinpointing the time and location of four individual asperities, the "stuck" areas of the fault, that led to the rupture. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-fiber-optic-cables-characterize-earthquakes.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:23:15 EDT news610194191 Swathes of northern China were submerged in filthy floodwater on Wednesday after days of historic rainfall battered the capital city of Beijing and surrounding areas. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-miles-swathes-china-underwater-historic.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:18:55 EDT news610193930 As the blazing summer sun beats down on Kuwait, shoppers stroll down a promenade lined with palm trees and European-style boutiques, all without breaking a sweat. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-kuwait-summers-planet.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:12:03 EDT news610193514 A new study led by Dr. Zengchao Hao (College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University) and Dr. Yang Chen (Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences) documents the unfolding process, reason and impact of compounding and cascading among multiple weather and climate extremes during the course of summer 2022 across the Sichuan Chongqing region. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-sichuan-chongqing-spatio-temporally-compound-extremes-bitter.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:10:48 EDT news610193446 Christopher Nolan's biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer has revived morbid curiosity in the destructive power of nuclear weapons. There are now an estimated 12,512 nuclear warheads. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-nuclear-war-devastating-earth-climate.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 11:02:01 EDT news610192915 The United Nations recently declared that the world is now in an "era of global boiling." https://phys.org/news/2023-08-expert-cities.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:50:01 EDT news610191000 A team of scientists from St Petersburg University, in collaboration with their colleagues from the Scientific-Research Centre "Planeta" and the Keldysh Research Centre, has developed a neural network algorithm for measuring the ozone content in the atmosphere, using data from a Russian meteorological satellite. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-physicists-technology-total-ozone-columns.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:46:11 EDT news610191968 Protecting 30% of the world's land and sea outweigh the costs by a ratio of 5 to 1, according to a new report. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-economy-nature-urges.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:38:59 EDT news610191536 The first-ever study to look at drivers of both marine heatwaves and cold spells in the shallow nearshore along the California Current—coordinated by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly) and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, William & Mary—found that certain environmental conditions and the state of the ocean can lead to an enhanced risk for ocean temperature extremes. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-nearshore-california-marine-heatwaves-cold.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 10:24:49 EDT news610190683 Greenland's ice sheet has been melting at an accelerated rate over recent decades, which may have resulted in a 1.4 mm/year rise in sea level. It has three glaciers with a floating tongue (floating ice attached to a glacier emerging into the sea) remaining, with Nioghalvfjerdsbrae (located at 79 degrees latitude north so colloquially termed 79NG) being the focus of a new study reported in The Cryosphere regarding the effects of climate change on its decline. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-greenland-largest-glacial-ice-declined.html Earth Sciences Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:20:02 EDT news610182555 One person was reportedly killed and hundreds of thousands were without electricity in southern Japan on Wednesday as a typhoon appproached packing powerful winds and lashing rain. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-typhoon-power-southern-japan.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 04:16:31 EDT news610168588 Deadly rains that pummel China's capital in recent days were the heaviest since records began 140 years ago, Beijing's weather service said on Wednesday, as a massive cleanup operation began. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-beijing-heaviest-began-years.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 04:09:01 EDT news610168137 During Europe's heat wave last month, Floriana Peroni's vintage clothing store had to close for a week. A truck of rented generators blocked her door as they fed power to the central Roman neighborhood hit by a blackout as temperatures surged. The main culprit: air conditioning. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-summer-breezes-sweltering-europeans-air.html Environment Wed, 02 Aug 2023 04:06:56 EDT news610167997 If you live near the coast, wildfire season starts with Southern California's notorious Santa Ana winds, which usually arrive in the fall. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-windy-wildfires-california.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:27:03 EDT news610126021 Carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere—and, consequently, ocean temperatures—are rising. How high and how fast ocean temperatures can rise can be learned from temperature measurements of ancient oceans. At the same time, energy exploration also relies on knowing the thermal history of oil and gas source rocks, which is often difficult to determine. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-quest-accurately-ancient-ocean-temperatures.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 16:04:04 EDT news610124642 Nature-based solutions (NBS) can help grand challenges, such as climate change and food security, but, as things stand, communities outside of Europe do not stand to benefit from these innovations. New research from the University of Surrey has found that more than 60% of NBS are located in Europe, with other regions showing poor use of the technologies. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-nature-based-solutions-tackle-climate-food.html Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 15:50:03 EDT news610123801 A wildfire blazing along the Southern California-Nevada border, burning through delicate Joshua Tree forests, continued to swell Monday—becoming the state's largest of the fire season. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-york-mojave-california-nevada-border-balloons.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 14:49:03 EDT news610120142 From rising sea levels to longer and more extreme droughts, there is overwhelming evidence that climate change is occurring. The harsh realities of climate change have led developing countries, which are most vulnerable to its impacts, to push for compensation from their industrialized counterparts. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-opinion-leg-onwhy-reconsider-stance.html Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:51:03 EDT news610116661 Christopher Nolan's film "Oppenheimer" has focused new attention on the legacies of the Manhattan Project—the World War II program to develop nuclear weapons. As the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and Aug. 9, 1945, approach, it's a timely moment to look further at dilemmas wrought by the creation of the atomic bomb. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-nuclear-arms-legacy-toxic-contamination.html Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:40:01 EDT news610114469 A new study from UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher emeritus Peter Bromirski uses nearly a century of data to show that the average heights of winter waves along the California coast have increased as climate change has heated up the planet. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-california-winter-climate-century.html Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:22:04 EDT news610114920 Iran on Tuesday declared a two-day holiday for government workers and banks nationwide as searing temperatures sweep across the country, state media reported. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-two-day-holiday-iran-extreme.html Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 13:20:28 EDT news610114825 If you've been out and about the past few days, you may have noticed Australia is experiencing an unseasonably warm winter. It's been t-shirt weather across many parts of the country's east, including Sydney where temperatures topped 25℃ on Sunday. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-australia-winter-climate-expert.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 12:59:04 EDT news610113541 Deadly heatwaves, raging wildfires and record global temperatures are upon us. But far from the flames, at the southernmost tip of the planet, something just as shocking is unfolding. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-antarctica-chunk-sea-ice-bigger.html Earth Sciences Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 12:34:32 EDT news610112069 Nearly six years have passed since Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. The historic storm, one of the deadliest in U.S. history, significantly damaged more than 80% of the island's electrical power system, leading to massive disruptions of essential services for months. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-climate-scientists-hurricane-maria-social.html Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 12:34:06 EDT news610112043 If we have not been warned of the dangers of climate change this summer, we never will be. Extreme heat, forest fires and floods have been all over news reports. Yet the oil and gas industry remains largely in denial. https://phys.org/news/2023-08-viewpoint-oil-industry-succumbed-dangerous.html Environment Tue, 01 Aug 2023 12:31:04 EDT news610111861