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Climate Change

It's real. It's happening. It's accelerating. And it's our fault. Human activity — particularly the production of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel emissions — is reshaping our planet, effecting rapid environmental change at a rate never seen before. Global temperature averages are creeping upward, seas are warming, rising and becoming more acidic, and extreme weather events such as droughts, wildfires, floods and powerful storms are more commonplace. Here's where you'll find the latest on the effects of climate change, and the measures that scientists, world leaders and innovators are taking to reduce our harmful impact on the planet and mitigate the damage already done.

Related Topics: Extinction, Global Warming, Deforestation, Heat Wave, Hurricanes

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Instruments aboard the British Antarctic Survey ship RV Nathaniel B Palmer helped scientists map the channels under the glacier.

Hidden rivers of warm water threaten vast Antarctic glacier

By Rafi Letzter

Thwaites Glacier holds enough ice to drive up sea levels more than 2 feet. These hidden ducts lubricate its collapse into the ocean.

A climate map showing the last 66 million years of Earth's history

Earth barreling toward 'Hothouse' state not seen in 50 million years, epic new climate record shows

By Brandon Specktor

Scientists used marine fossils and orbital data to recreate 66 million years of climate history. Its shows that climate change is anything but 'normal.'

Siberian wildfires 2020 seen from above

Zombie wildfires are blazing through the Arctic, causing record burning

By Stephanie Pappas

Arctic wildfires are releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

Cracked surface of Larsen b ice shelf

Half of Antarctic ice shelves could collapse in a flash, thanks to warming

By Nicoletta Lanese

Exactly when that will happen is the big unknown.

Icebergs near Greenland form from ice that has broken off--or calved--from glaciers on the island.

Nothing will stop Greenland's ice sheet from shrinking now

By Stephanie Pappas

If humans stopped heating up the climate instantly, Greenland's ice sheet would keep shrinking.

Climate scientist Konrad Steffen stands on the ice in Greenland in 2008.

World-renowned climate scientist dies in ice accident in Greenland

By Yasemin Saplakoglu

Konrad Steffen was one of the world's leading experts on climate change. In the end, it was climate change that killed him.

Satellite animation shows the collapse of the last fully intact ice shelf in Canada, from July 30 to August 4.

Canada's last intact ice shelf just collapsed

By Mindy Weisberger

In less than 48 hours, the last intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic collapsed, losing more than 40% of its mass.

The Ellesmere ice caps are gone

Two Canadian ice caps have completely vanished from the Arctic, NASA imagery shows

By Brandon Specktor

New NASA imagery shows that the St. Patrick bay ice caps have vanished from Arctic Canada, two years sooner than scientists predicted

The site of the methane leak was stained with a white mat of hungry microbes.

First underwater methane leak discovered near Antarctica

By Brandon Specktor

Researchers detected the first underwater methane leak in Antarctica, and the microbes responsible for eating it aren't doing their job.

Algae have turned the Presena glacier in Italy a pretty pink.

Pink 'watermelon snow' threatens major Italian glacier

By Rafi Letzter

The high Presena glacier has turned pink in a major bloom of dangerous, ice-melting algae.

Summer in Siberia's Sakha Republic

Siberian town records 100 degree F day — the hottest in Arctic history

By Brandon Specktor

The Siberian town of Verkhoyansk just recorded a 100-degree Fahrenheit day — the hottest in Arctic history.

Night lights in Wuhan, China, show the difference in human activity between late January and early February 2020, when the COVID-19 coronavirus spread through the city.

Global carbon emissions dropped an unprecedented 17% during the coronavirus lockdown — and it changes nothing

By Brandon Specktor

Scientists estimate that global daily carbon dioxide emissions dropped by as much 17% during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch shared this view of Hurricane Dorian from the International Space Station on Sept. 2, 2019.

Hurricanes really are getting stronger, just like climate models predicted

By Rafi Letzter

The authors of a new paper studied 4,000 tropical cyclones spanning 39 years, and showed that major hurricanes are coming more frequently as Earth cooks.

storm clouds over ocean

Sometimes, cool air rises. Here's what that means for tropical climates.

By Nicoletta Lanese

Sometimes, cool air rises and warm air sinks — and that helps the tropics cool off.

Mitten found at Lendbreen, made from different pieces of woven fabric. Radiocarbon-dated to the ninth century.

Viking 'treasure' of rare artifacts revealed on a long-lost mountain trail

By Mindy Weisberger

Melting ice revealed a long-lost trail in Norway that was strewn with objects dating to the Viking Age.

This shows the amount of ice gained or lost by Antarctica between 2003 and 2019. Dark reds and purples show large average rates of ice loss near the coasts, while blues show smaller rates of ice gain in the interior.

New satellite maps show dire state of ice melt in Antarctica and Greenland

By Brandon Specktor

New satellite maps show 16 years of ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland.

A satellite view of iceberg A-68

The world's largest iceberg may have just begun its death march

By Brandon Specktor

Iceberg A-68 is large enough to hold New York City five times over — and it may finally be cracking.

This illustration shows a vertically exaggerated image of the ground under Denman Glacier in East Antarctica, including a deep trough (blue area in the center) beneath its eastern flank.

Antarctica's Denman Glacier is sinking into the world's deepest canyon

By Brandon Specktor

Antarctica's Denman Glacier is falling into the world's largest land canyon.

A massive iceberg floating on its side in Greenland

Ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland increased sixfold in the last 30 years

By Brandon Specktor

Thirty years of satellite data shows ice loss in Antarctica and Iceland has increased by sixfold since the 1990s, putting us on the 'worst case' climate scenario.

Coral blooming in the abyssal depths of Australia's southern coast

'Gardens and graveyards' of coral discovered in hidden canyons off Australia's coast

By Brandon Specktor

Researchers explored three canyons thousands of feet below the water in Southern Australia, revealing both thriving gardens of coral and ashen fossil graveyards.