Environment

In 1957, Vancouver took a decisive turn in its urban development when city council lifted the eight-story height limit in the West End neighborhood on the downtown peninsula, opening the door to high-rise living along English Bay. Over the next two decades, more than 300 mid- to high-rise concrete apartment... Read more

International efforts to tackle climate change reached a major milestone with the Paris Agreement, adopted by more than 190 countries. The agreement aims to limit the average global temperature rise to well below 2 °C, preferably to 1.5 °C. However, questions remain as to whether current national climate pledges are... Read more

The warming El Niño weather phenomenon could form later this year, potentially pushing global temperatures to record heights.... Read more

New geological data indicate that marine life is somewhat resilient to warming in the tropics. Chris Fokkema, Earth scientist at Utrecht University, discovered that tropical algae were largely unaffected by a number of periods of global warming of up to 1.5 degrees Celsius in the distant past. These unicellular organisms... Read more

How much will heat, flooding, drought and storms increase as a result of human-induced climate change? In a groundbreaking study, climate researcher Gottfried Kirchengast and his team at the University of Graz have developed a new method for computing the hazards from extreme events: it can compute all relevant hazard... Read more

Most countries will not achieve climate neutrality through greenhouse gas emission reductions alone; carbon sinks are also needed to offset unavoidable emissions. Researchers are discussing technical solutions, such as applying silicate-rock powder to arable land. This process, known as enhanced rock weathering (ERW), can bind carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.... Read more

Where are you at most risk when a flood or bushfire strikes? You might think it's at home. But in reality, the most dangerous time is when you leave and jump in your car. Many flood and bushfire deaths are linked to vehicles, often driven by people evacuating late.... Read more

The extreme weather events and resulting destruction that have hit New Zealand this summer are not only signs of a changing climate. They also highlight the now indispensable role of remote sensing satellite technology.... Read more

It is a double-edged sword. As the planet heats up, more of us are turning up and turning to air conditioning to keep us cool. The trouble is that, as well as consuming vast amounts of electricity, AC also leads to significant greenhouse gas emissions and worsens the climate change... Read more

Air travel is famously one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize, and the number of air passengers keeps increasing. Electric planes and "sustainable" aviation fuels are still a long way off making a dent in the industry's emissions—if they ever will.... Read more

The amount of greenhouse gases produced by the wastewater sector may be higher than reports suggest. According to a paper published in the journal Nature Climate Change, countries are missing out on reporting a significant portion of their emissions.... Read more

Thousands of companies around the world now regularly disclose aspects of their water use as part of corporate commitments to environmental, social, and governance goals. Yet reliable measures of corporate water withdrawals and discharges—and their impacts on local water quality and ecosystems—have been limited.... Read more

A research team at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has analyzed 40 years of data covering about 1,500 tropical cyclones and discovered that average rain rates surge by more than 20% in the 60 hours before landfall. The study is also the first to clearly identify... Read more

Particles in the atmosphere, known as aerosols, cool the climate by acting as cloud condensation nuclei. The more cloud droplets form around these particles, the less sunlight penetrates a cloud. This cools the climate, although this process is outweighed by the much stronger greenhouse effect.... Read more

A leading climate scientist has sought to set the record straight over "demonstrably incorrect" claims made in a major U.S. government report that misrepresented his work and downplayed the role of human activity in global warming.... Read more