News
Featured
The atmosphere is becoming a battleground. America must lead on safety.
I understand why millions of Americans look up at the sky with concern. Videos of unusual cloud formations circulate on social media, accompanied by questions about “chemtrails” and secret weather modification programs.
While concerns often reflect misunderstandings about ordinary aircraft contrails and natural atmospheric phenomena, the underlying instinct — that something may be happening in our atmosphere that we don’t know enough about — is not exactly wrong.
Weather and climate modification are not conspiracy theories. They are real, expanding capabilities that demand public attention and government action.
Reduced air pollution is making clouds reflect less sunlight
Winter is setting in across the Northern Hemisphere, and with it, cold and cloudy winter days. Clouds play a vital role in the environment, providing rain but also reflecting sunlight before it reaches the Earth’s surface.
But between 2003 and 2022, clouds over the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific became less reflective, allowing more sunlight to reach the ocean surface and causing sea surface temperatures to rise.
Popular Mechanics: The Earth Is Getting Darker. That’s Not Good News.
New research shows that the past 13 months of extreme heat may signal a deeper shift in Earth’s energy balance, as the northern hemisphere grows darker, absorbs more sunlight, and accelerates global warming.
Fast Company Announces the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025
As the world shifts and industries transform, the World’s Most Innovative Companies aren't just keeping up. They're setting the pace.
NYTimes: The U.S. Is Building an Early Warning System to Detect Geoengineering
In a guarded compound at the foot of the Rockies, government scientists are working on a new kind of global alarm system: One that can detect if another country, or maybe just an adventurous billionaire, tries to dim the sun.
The Guardian: ‘We should have better answers by now’: Earth system scientists baffled by unexpected pace of heating
The leap in temperatures over the past 13 months has exceeded the global heating forecasts – is this just a blip or a systemic shift?
Mongabay: Cloud brightening over oceans may stave off Earth system change, but with risk
Marine cloud brightening (MCB), the spraying of sea salt aerosols or other fine particles into clouds to artificially brighten them and increase the sun’s reflectivity, is a proposed strategy to ward off the full effects of a changing Earth system.
The Conversation: The Earth system is changing so fast that we haven’t seen how bad extreme weather could get
Extreme weather is by definition rare on our planet. Ferocious storms, searing heatwaves and biting cold snaps illustrate what the Earth system is capable of at its worst.
NOAA and United Airlines partner to measure greenhouse gases, pollutants with high-tech flight instruments
NOAA and United Airlines have announced an agreement to equip a Boeing 737 with a sophisticated instrument package that will record measurements during domestic flights.
Grist: How cleaning up shipping cut pollution — and warmed the planet
When the maritime sector slashed sulfur emissions, it became an accidental experiment in geoengineering.
The Washington Post: We’ve been accidentally cooling the planet — and it’s about to stop
Humans’ fossil fuel burning has cooled the planet while warming it — presenting problems for the future.
Seattle Times: UW studies a drastic way to cool a warming planet — cloud ‘brightening’
Aboard the deck of a World War II-era aircraft carrier, University of Washington scientists flicked the switch on a glorified snow-making machine, blasting a plume of saline spray off the coast of Alameda, Calif.
NBC: Cloud brightening: First-in-nation tech aims to cool our warming planet
Scientists are testing an idea in the Bay Area for cooling our warming planet.
SF Chronicle: Bay Area hosts first-in-nation experiment to slow global warming — by helping clouds deflect sunlight
In Alameda, scientists are embarking on a novel attempt to cool the Earth — by spraying salt into clouds.
NYTimes: The New Space Race Is Causing New Pollution Problems
Earth’s stratosphere has never seen the amounts of emissions and waste from rockets and satellites that a booming space economy will leave behind.
Daily Beast: We’ve Been Accidentally Geoengineering the Earth for Decades
For the past few decades, the entire planet has been conducting an experiment that could save us from Earth system change disaster.
Illuminem: Cooling credits: sold as a “cool” solution to Earth system change, buyers (and everyone) should beware
Carbon credits have come under fire recently, as regulators, analysts and media take a closer look to see if and how well these credits represent actual benefits for the Earth system.
Le Monde: La investigación científica es clave para afrontar la crisis del sistema Tierra. Por Ricardo Pineda y Kelly Wanser
Los líderes de Latinoamérica se reúnen esta semana (feb 28 – marzo 2) en Punta del Este, Uruguay para participar en la VIII Plataforma Regional de la UNDRR (Oficina de las Naciones Unidas para la Reducción del Riesgo de Desastres).
The Hill: Earth system intervention research: An insurance policy for near-term Earth system risks
Earth system changes are some of the most critical challenges facing humanity. They currently present disaster risk for which we lack sufficient responses.
World Economic Forum: Earth system intervention: an option for Global South to reduce near-term Earth system risk?
The IPCC’s latest synthesis report projected that the Earth’s surface temperature will increase over the current century under all assessed emission scenarios.