Climate Change News & Discussions

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From ‘global cooling’ to ‘beautiful coal’: Trump’s startling climate claims of 2025:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... e_btn_url

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Contrails are a Major Driver of Aviation’s Climate Impact
December 16, 2025

Introduction:

(Eurekalert) Aviation’s climate impact extends beyond carbon dioxide emissions. A new study from Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Imperial College, UK, reveals that contrails can represent a significant portion of aviation’s overall climate cost. The study also shows that climate impact can be reduced by optimising flight routes.

In a new article in Nature Communications, The social costs of aviation CO₂ and contrail cirrus, the researchers demonstrate that both CO₂ emissions and contrail formation contribute materially to aviation’s climate impact – and that the associated societal costs differ substantially depending on weather patterns and routing decisions. They find that, at the global level, contrails account for about 15 percent of aviation’s climate impact when measured in economic terms.

After also analysing nearly half a million flights across the North Atlantic, the research team has generated new insights that can support both industry and policymakers in guiding aviation towards more climate optimal operations. Drawing on extensive flight and meteorological data, in combination with a contrail model and an advanced climate-economy model, the researchers estimated the climate and societal cost attributable to each emission source.

“Our research provides a basis for strategies to reduce the climate impact of contrails. Our calculations can be used for optimisation of flight routes where climate impact is considered alongside, for example, fuel cost and travel time. The results give airline operators and air traffic management new tools for climate optimisation. This could bring significant climate and societal benefits,” says Susanne Pettersson, postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Space, Earth and Environment at Chalmers.

The study shows that 38 percent of flights generate contrails that have a warming effect. It also shows that it would be beneficial from a climate perspective to reduce the formation of contrails of almost all these flights through minor rerouting, to avoid contrail formation, even if this results in slightly higher carbon dioxide emissions.

Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1109849

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‘A silent majority’: MPs underestimate support for green policies, study reveals

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... cies-study

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Plants can’t absorb as much CO2 as climate models predicted

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 202809.htm

*sigh*

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Western Canada glaciers suffered 2nd-greatest ice loss on record in 2025

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british- ... -9.7036712

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The World's Oceans Soaked Up Record-Breaking Heat for the 9th Straight Year

Source: Gizmodo

Published January 10, 2026

It would take roughly 365 million Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs to release the amount of energy the world’s oceans absorbed as additional heat in 2025. This figure stems from the latest report on the global ocean heat content, which found record-high marine warming for the ninth year in a row.

The 55 scientists who contributed to the report, published Friday in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, warn that the continued trend is exacerbating extreme weather, sea-level rise, and the destabilization of marine ecosystems. The main driver is unequivocally rising greenhouse gas emissions, they say.

We’re already seeing the catastrophic effect marine warming has on communities around the world, particularly through stronger storms and more severe flooding. The researchers point to a slew of deadly events in 2025, from the unprecedented monsoon rains that killed more than 1,300 people across Southeast Asia to flash floods that killed at least 138 people—including 27 young summer campers and counselors—in Central Texas.

“In the long term, consistent with projections from state-of-the-art climate models, global [ocean heat content] is expected to continue breaking records until net-zero greenhouse gas emissions are achieved,” the authors write.

Read more: https://gizmodo.com/the-worlds-oceans-s ... 2000708348

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Strategic tree planting could help Canada become carbon neutral by mid-century

https://phys.org/news/2026-01-strategic ... utral.html

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Global warming is speeding breakdown of major greenhouse gas, research shows

https://phys.org/news/2026-02-global-br ... e-gas.html

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