Curated News

An emergency is a serious situation that requires immediate action. When someone calls 911 because they can’t breathe, that’s an emergency. When someone stumbles on the sidewalk because their chest is pounding and their lips are turning blue, that’s an emergency. Both people require help right away. Multiply those individuals by millions of people who have similar symptoms, and it constitutes the biggest global health emergency in a century: the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over a third of the Antarctic ice shelf is at risk of collapsing as Earth continues to warm. In a new study, scientists at the University of Reading have found that as climate change continues, if Earth’s global temperature rises to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius) above pre-industrial levels, about 193,000 square miles (500,000 square kilometers) of the Antarctic ice shelves could collapse into the sea. Ice shelves are permanent floating slabs of ice attached to coastline, and the collapse of these shelves could significantly raise global sea levels, the researchers suggest.

The lush-green mountains in the background usually make the famous Nainital lake in Uttarakhand state of northern India more picturesque. But for several weeks now haze from forest fires has hidden the mountains, and the lake’s beauty has visibly shrunk. “You can smell the haze from this side of the lake where I live,” said Shekhar Pathak, an expert on the history of forests in the region.

The Biden administration is preparing to throw its weight behind international efforts to alleviate climate risks that threaten the stability of the global financial system. The move, which is expected to come soon in the form of an executive order, is the latest sign that the administration will seek to mitigate climate-related financial risks as a pillar of its carbon policies. “The directive from the top is clear,” said Rachel Kyte, a former vice president and special climate envoy at the World Bank Group. “There’s no plausible deniability [anymore]. You can’t be a financial actor out there and say that you’re not really clear where the administration stands on these things.”

The Canadian government’s new carbon offset system could ultimately drive up greenhouse gas emissions while creating the illusion of progress on the climate crisis, three of the country’s leading climate analysts warn in an opinion piece for the CBC. The post cites industrial carbon regulations in Alberta and forest management plans in British Columbia as examples of past offset programs that likely led to higher emissions.

From atmospheric physicists to urban climatologists, DW spoke to researchers who study the many and varied aspects of climate change about what concerns them most as our planet heats up.