skepticalscience.com

Open access notables Synergistic impact of marine heat waves and rapid intensification exacerbates tropical cyclone destructive power worldwide, Radfar et al., Science Advances Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the most devastating natural phenomena, causing substantial economic damage and severe impacts on human life and infrastructure. Prolonged extreme ocean temperature events, known as marine heat waves (MHWs), affect 52% of landfalling TCs globally and provide favorable conditions for TC rapid intensification (RI). Here, we use four decades of global data to demonstrate that TCs experiencing RI during MHWs resulted in 60% more billion-dollar disasters compare

This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In a recent post on his Substack, Jim Hansen wrote about “runaway climates” on Earth, and I thought it would be useful to explain the physics of what this actually means and whether it’s something we need to worry about. A runaway greenhouse occurs when humans add enough carbon dioxide to the atmosphere to push it past a threshold beyond which warming becomes self-sustaining and unstoppable

This is a re-post from Staying Curious by Dean Rovang This post presents two figures that are the culmination of an extended effort to build the strongest possible empirical case for what the paleoclimate record shows about CO? and temperature. They draw on five independent regression fits across four independent archives and 66 million years of geological evidence. The argument stands on its own merits. Earth’s natural climate relationship Figure 1. Earth&r

A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 5, 2026 thru Sat, April 11, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (9 articles) The US is now paying more than any other country for climate change damage, study suggests "Despite being the biggest carbon emitter, the US is already paying a disproportionate price for the climate crisis" BBC Science Focus, Hatty Willmoth, Mar 31, 2026. The Western US is already running out of water — and summer i

Open access notables Why we need to explore conflict and competition around solar geoengineering, Möller & Young, PLOS Climate In an increasingly aggressive international political environment, solar geoengineering needs to be reconceptualized – not only as a response to climate change, but as an instrument of power. This conceptualization means going beyond focusing on cooperative scenarios in which the technoluogy is used to effectively reduce temperature rise while minimizing potential side effects. As scholars of international relations, we see a need for

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran have sent oil and gas prices soaring. That could be a boon to cheap, clean technologies like electric vehicles, solar power, and wind – at least in the long run. But in the short run, the outlook is more complicated. Why is the conflict causing oil and gas prices to spike?     Iran began restricting ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, 2026. The strait is the narrow passage, about 20 to 40 miles wide, through which ships must navigate from the Persian Gulf to reach the Arabian Sea and global shipping routes.

Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Do wind turbines utilize land for electricity generation more efficiently than fossil fuels? Wind turbines require less land use for the same amount of energy generated by oil or natural gas, and land between turbines is available for agriculture and wildlife habitats. Some sources report larger footprints by ignoring space between turbines, or expanding the

A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 29, 2026 thru Sat, April 4, 2026. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Change Impacts (8 articles) `Very alarming` winter sees Arctic sea ice hit record-low for second year running The biggest distinctly continues to get smaller in the Arctic, as maximum ice extent for this past winter follows a downward trend caused by a warming planet. Carbon Brief, Carbon Brief Staff, Mar 27, 2026.

Open access notables Quantifying climate loss and damage consistent with a social cost of carbon, Burke et al., Nature Climate change is causing measurable harm globally1,

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Karin Kirk s of this writing, every river basin across the entire Western U.S. has below-average snow. Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon, California, and Nevada – the workplaces of thousands of ski area employees like me – are sitting at 15 to 65% of average snowpack for this time of year. Some ski areas closed in the middle of the season, and others decided to close early this year. Many