article thumbnail

The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling, Prompting New Climate Concerns

Yale E360

A new study reaffirming that global climate change is human-made also found the upper atmosphere is cooling dramatically because of rising CO2 levels. Scientists are worried about the effect this cooling could have on orbiting satellites, the ozone layer, and Earth’s weather. Read more on E360 →

Cooling 364
article thumbnail

Summer 2023 Is a Wrap: It Showed Us the Inequities of Keeping Cool in Killer Heat

Union of Concerned Scientists

Climate change smothered us in heat this season, here in the US and across much of the world , but it has not affected us as equals: some of us can stay relatively safe and cool while many of us cannot and suffer instead. Climate change is only accelerating, and so the threat to vulnerable people is mounting.

Cooling 305
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

With Climate Change, Nights Are Warming Faster than Days. Why?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Extreme heat and heatwaves are growing more frequent and more severe because of climate change. That often brings to mind images of people trying to catch some shade under a baking hot sun or city kids cooling off in a fountain while their parents sweat on the sidelines. How much more likely are hot nights given climate change?

article thumbnail

A Sign of Things to Come? After Last Ice Age, Europe Cooled as the Planet Warmed

Yale E360

More than 8,000 years ago, as the planet thawed following the end of the last ice age, Northern Europe abruptly cooled. New research reveals that Arctic ice melt weakened a critical ocean current, leaving Europe in the cold, a finding with important implications for future climate change. Read more on E360 →

Cooling 257
article thumbnail

CMIP6: Not-so-sudden stratospheric cooling

Real Climate

As predicted in 1967 by Manabe and Wetherald , the stratosphere has been cooling. The dominant factors are changes in CO2 (a cooling), ozone depletion (a cooling), warming from big volcanoes, and oscillations related to the solar cycle. So the net effect is less absorption and more emittence, and thus they give a cooling.

Cooling 288
article thumbnail

The water south of Greenland has been cooling, so what causes that?

Real Climate

An AMOC weakening by 15 % thus cools the region at a rate of 0.15 x 10 14 W and according to model simulations can fully explain the observed cooling trend (2). So in comparison, the cooling effect of a 15 % AMOC slowdown is over 1,000 times larger than the direct cooling effect of the Greenland meltwater. References.

Cooling 364
article thumbnail

Climate Change Threatens Already Poor Air Quality in California’s Central Valley

Union of Concerned Scientists

California’s Central Valley consistently experiences the country’s worst air quality, and climate change is poised to make air quality even worse. In a region known for its exceptional agricultural productivity, climate change is quickly amplifying a dangerous type of climate risk in California’s Central Valley: air pollution.