Climate Change

Latest: February 2024 was the hottest on record, with global temperatures surpassing critical climate threshold

7Mar

By UNN News DeskNo Comments

Environment

Latest: February 2024 was the hottest on record, with global temperatures surpassing critical climate threshold

February sets a new global warmth record February sets a new global warmth record 03:33 The world has marked yet another consecutive month of record-breaking heat. New data from Copernicus, the European Union's climate change monitoring service, shows that last month was the hottest February on record globally, with "exceptionally high" temperatures in both the air and sea. The record heat comes as the U.S. continues to battle weather extremes. In recent weeks, communities across the nation have seen spring- and summer-like temperatures, extreme rain and floodi...

26Feb

By UNN News DeskNo Comments

Environment

Latest: Sperm whale’s slow death trapped in maze-like Japanese bay raises alarm over impact of global warming

Tokyo — The slow demise of a stray whale that spent its last days circling Osaka Bay not only saddened TV viewers across Japan, it also alarmed cetacean experts who called the whale the latest casualty of a warming planet. "Whales used to lose their way every three years or so," Yasunobu Nabeshima, a visiting researcher at the Osaka Museum of Natural History, told CBS News. "Until now it was a rare phenomenon. But these incidents have increased." A file photo shows a sperm whale swimming near the Ogasawara Islands, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan. Getty This month's tragedy marked the second case in as many years. Nabeshima said global warming ...

14Feb

By UNN News DeskNo Comments

Technology and Ai

Game Tech: The Feds Just Bet Even Bigger on American-Made Heat Pumps

While everyone’s been focused on accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles to cut carbon emissions, a technological hero has been rapidly ascending under the radar: the heat pump. Instead of burning natural gas or coal to produce heat, this fully electric device extracts warmth from outdoor air—even when it’s freezing outside—and pumps it inside to warm a structure. After years of stealthy, steady growth, heat pumps are now outselling gas furnaces in the United States, whereas EVs accounted for just 8 percent of all US new vehicle sales in the first half of 2023.In November, the Biden administration announced it would be infusing the domestic heat pump industry with $169 million in federal funding, increasing capacity to manufacture the actual devices and their various components, lik...

12Feb

By UNN News DeskNo Comments

Environment

Latest: Migratory species at risk worldwide, with a fifth in danger of extinction, landmark U.N. report says

From African elephants searching for water, to turtles crossing seas to nest, to albatrosses on their ocean-spanning searches for food, the world's migratory species are under threat across the planet, according to a landmark report Monday. The first-ever State of the World's Migratory Species assessment, which focuses on the 1,189 species covered by the U.N. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, found that 1 in 5 is threatened with extinction and 44% are seeing their populations decline. A volunteer carries a Green Sea Turtle after it was caught temporarily at a feeding site on Itaipu Beach in Niteroi, Brazil, on May 24, 2023. Silvia Izquierdo / AP ...

9Feb

By UNN News DeskNo Comments

Environment

Latest: Renowned climate scientist Michael Mann awarded $1 million in suit over his work being likened to child molester’s acts

Washington — A jury on Thursday awarded $1 million to climate scientist Michael Mann, who sued a pair of conservative writers 12 years ago after they compared his depictions of global warming to a convicted child molester.Mann, a professor of climate science at the University of Pennsylvania, rose to fame for a graph first published in 1998 in the journal Nature that was dubbed the "hockey stick" for its dramatic illustration of a warming planet. The work brought Mann wide exposure but also many skeptics, including the two writers Mann took to court for comments that he said affected his career and reputation in the U.S. and internationally. "It feels great," Mann said Thursday after the six-person jury delivered its verdict. "It's a good day for us, it...