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A Grim Signal: Atmospheric CO2 Soared in 2024

Inside Climate News

By Bob Berwyn The latest anomaly in the climate system that cant be fully explained by researchers is a record annual jump in the global mean concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere measured in 2024.

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Why Were 2023 and 2024 So Hot?

Union of Concerned Scientists

In that year, El Nio added to the increased warming caused by the build-up of heat-trapping emissions in the atmosphere, leading to that record-breaking heat. Humans have a direct effect on albedo through emitting industrial aerosols such as sulfates, which accumulate in the atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels.

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An Important New Report from the National Academies on Atmospheric Methane Removal

Law Columbia

Last month, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a report on a relatively new field of research – atmospheric methane removal. The Sabin Center contributed one of these papers on Legal Considerations for Atmospheric Methane Removal.

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Why the World Needs a New UN Study on the Effects of Nuclear War

Union of Concerned Scientists

New scientific information has yielded insights, including updates to our understanding of, and ability to model, the atmosphere, and the studies of the long-term effects of radiation on affected populations have yielded new information. New studies are being published and commissioned and research gaps are being identified.

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An Atmospheric River Brought This Week’s Flooding Rains to the Southeast

Inside Climate News

Climate change makes heavy rain even heavier, beginning with warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico that produce more evaporation into the atmosphere. By Sean Sublette After early signs of drought from Georgia through Virginia this spring, a slow-moving storm brought flooding rain to the Southeast this week.

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The Long History of Climate Models

Union of Concerned Scientists

Climate models are the main tool scientists use to assess how much the Earths temperature will change given an increase in fossil fuel pollutants in the atmosphere. The atmosphere around us is an invisible fluid (at least to the human eye): we can apply math to that fluid to predict how it will look in the future.

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What Is a Climate Model and How Does It Work?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Climate models are the main tool climate scientists use to predict how Earth will respond to more heat-trapping pollutants in the atmosphere. Just by looking at the name, you can see that a GCM is a model that simulates the circulation of Earths different physical systems like the atmosphere and ocean. What causes a circulation?