Day: July 22, 2020

The first active leak of methane from the sea floor in Antarctica has been revealed by scientists. The researchers also found microbes that normally consume the potent greenhouse gas before it reaches the atmosphere had only arrived in small numbers after five years, allowing the gas to escape. Vast quantities of methane are thought to be stored under the sea floor around Antarctica. The gas could start to leak as the climate crisis warms the oceans, a prospect the researchers said was “incredibly concerning”. The reason for the emergence of…

It seems like such a simple question: How hot is Earth going to get? Yet for 40 years, climate scientists have repeated the same unsatisfying answer: If humans double atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from preindustrial levels, the planet will eventually warm between 1.5°C and 4.5°C—a temperature range that encompasses everything from a merely troubling rise to a catastrophic one. Now, in a landmark effort, a team of 25 scientists has significantly narrowed the bounds on this critical factor, known as climate sensitivity. The assessment, conducted under the World Climate Research…

Scientists have achieved two major breakthroughs in terms of solar energy which could significantly increase efficiencies and reduce the cost of generating energy from the sun. The study on these two breakthroughs was published in Nature Energy and Nature Photonics. UpconvertingThe first breakthrough describes how scientists were able to transform low energy, non-visible light into high energy light and successfully harvesting more electricity from the same amount of sunlight. Scientists are calling this, “upconverting”. The research team from the University of Kentucky in the US, RMIT University and UNSW University…