Climate & Agriculture 6: Global agricultural benefits of keeping warming below 1.5 degrees (IPCC)

Yes, while the human population keeps growing, climate change is likely to cause various detrimental effects on global agriculture and thereby food security. Like other climate change impacts these effects will increase with the magnitude of the warming, and most … Continue reading

Climate & Agriculture 1: African food imports increase, while agricultural dependence stays high

Yes, we have many simultaneous climate series running here at Bits of Science. For instance one about the global temperature trend, another about sea level rise – and of course our series about climate change as a driver to the … Continue reading

Climate Change & Anthropocene Extinction 35: 9 megatrend graphs show little base for optimism

Over 15,000 scientists have endorsed a newly published paper titled ‘World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice’ that’s set to quickly become a landmark publication. Essentially it’s an overview update (and very digestible, just a thousand words) on the … Continue reading

Take a look at this graph: Global air travel increased 8 fold in 4 decades – and it’s an accelerating trend. Yes we have a problem

Over the last 40 years global air travel has almost increased eight fold: In 1974 air planes carried 421 million people globally. In 2014 this number has increased to 3,21 billion passengers – that’s a billion more in just five … Continue reading

Stopping economic growth for the sake of the climate

A United States and Spanish research team has conducted a study into the most likely causes of climate change and came to a rather surprising conclusion. The most feasible manner of stopping climate change is halting economic growth. Or changing … Continue reading

Natural and human-made CO2 differentiation possible thanks to new monitoring technique

A large diversity of gasses in the atmosphere influence air quality, climate change and the recovery of the ozone layer. Measuring the concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere is quite straightforward. But pinpointing wether the gasses are a natural … Continue reading

Not recession but gas prices responsible for reduction in US carbon emissions

When the economic recession hit the US in 2009, at least one good thing seemed to have come from it: a reduction in carbon emissions to levels not seen since 1996. But as it turns out, the recession wasn’t the … Continue reading

Nanotech helps make plastics without oil

Nearly all chemical products ranging from antifreeze and medicine to plastics and paint are currently made from petroleum. But since it became apparent that the petroleum supply was not as reliable and unending as many had hoped, several techniques have … Continue reading