The devastating effects caused by the DANA over the peninsula and the Balearic Islands in large parts of the Mediterranean area, especially in the Valencian Community and some regions of Andalusia, are a wake-up call on the relationship between these extreme events and climate change.
Current carbon capture technologies to mitigate climate change only work well when applied to concentrated sources, such as power plant exhaust gases. An international team of researchers has developed a new method using a special porous material capable of capturing CO2 directly from the air, despite its low concentration. According to the authors, who publish their results in the journal Nature, this technology ‘represents a significant step towards clean air’.
Research published in Nature analyses future scenarios in which the 1.5°C temperature limit set in the Paris Agreement would be temporarily exceeded, assuming that temperatures could be lowered in the long term by reducing carbon dioxide emissions using different techniques. The authors stress that exceeding this threshold would have irreversible consequences for the Earth system in key areas such as biodiversity, sea level and carbon stocks. ‘Only rapid, short-term emission reductions are effective in reducing climate risks,’ they stress in the paper.
Burying woody biomass in wooden vaults would allow carbon to be extracted and stored from the atmosphere, according to a study published in Science. The authors were inspired by an eastern red cedar log preserved underground for more than 3,700 years in Canada. The team proposes burying wood from sustainable sources in a domed wooden structure designed to extend the duration of carbon storage. The authors estimate that up to 10 gigatonnes of CO2 could be sequestered annually using this technique.
The Anthropocene began around 1952, according to a study based on geological records from 137 sites around the world, published in PNAS. The term ‘Anthropocene’ describes the period in Earth's history when human activities have drastically altered the planet; in March, an international scientific body dismissed it as an official geological epoch.
A study has analyzed changes in the Earth's average global surface temperature over the past 485 million years and has discovered oscillations ranging from 11°C to 36°C, representing a variation of up to 25°C. The research concludes that temperatures during the Phanerozoic underwent more fluctuations than previously thought and shows a correlation between CO2 and changes in Earth's temperature. The article, published in the journal Science, combines thousands of data points with a modeling method used for weather forecasting.
Coastal cities around the world appear to be adapting slowly to the effects of climate change and are relying on past and present experiences rather than projections of future risks, according to a systematic review published in Nature Cities.
Analysis of 1,500 climate policies implemented in 41 countries over the last two decades - between 1998 and 2022 - shows that a small proportion - 63 of them - achieved a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. The study, published in Science, indicates that a significant decrease in these emissions was recorded in the transport sector in Spain. According to the authors, the combination of several policy instruments is often more effective than the use of single measures.
A modelling study published in The Lancet Public Health using data from 854 European cities estimates that heat-related deaths will triple in Europe by 2100 under current climate policies. A slight decrease in cold-related deaths is projected, while heat-related deaths will increase in all parts of Europe. The most affected areas will include Spain, Italy, Greece and parts of France. Currently, around eight times as many people in Europe die from cold as from heat, but this proportion is projected to decrease considerably by the end of the century.
Abandoned farmlands in Europe could find new life through rewilding, a movement aimed at restoring devastated landscapes to their wild state before human intervention. A quarter of the European continent, 117 million hectares, is ready for rewilding, according to a study published today in the journal Current Biology.