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Open access notables The weak land carbon sink hypothesis, Randerson et al., Science Advances Over the past three decades, assessments of the contemporary global carbon budget consistently report a strong net land carbon sink. Here, we review evidence supporting this paradigm and quantify the differences in global and Northern Hemisphere estimates of the net land sink derived from atmospheric inversion and satellite-derived vegetation biomass time series. Our analysis, combined with additional synthesis, supports a hypothesis that the net land sink is substantially weaker than commonly reported. At a global scale, our estimate of the net land carbon sink is

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections he amount of heat trapped by climate-warming pollution in our atmosphere is continuing to increase, the planet’s sea levels are rising at an accelerating rate, and the Paris agreement’s ambitious 1.5°C target is on the verge of being breached, according to a recent report by the world’s top climate scientists. “The news is grim,” said study co-author Zeke Hausfather, a former Yale Climate Connections contributor, on Bluesky. A team of over 60 international scientists published the latest edition of an annual report updating key metrics that are used in reports

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. Has the greenhouse effect been falsified? The greenhouse effect is basic physics that has been known for nearly 200 years. Without it, the Earth would not be warm enough for life. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide act like an insulating blanket. By preventing some outgoing heat from escaping the atmosphere by absorbing and re-emitting it, they keep Earth aro

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons Is AI saving the world or breaking it? As the era-defining technology leapfrogs from what-if to what-next, it can be hard for us humans to know what to make of it all. You might be hopeful and excited, or existentially concerned, or both. AI can track Antarctic icebergs 10,000 times faster than humans and optimize renewable energy grids in real time – capabilities that could help us fight climate change. But it also consumes incredible amounts of energy, and ever more of it, creating a whole new level of climate pollution that threatens to undermine those benefits. All that dizzying transformation i

A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 7, 2025 thru Sat, September 13, 2025. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Policy and Politics (9 articles) Chevron’s Boss Says the World Will Need Oil for a ‘Long, Long Time’ "Mike Wirth, who has seen many booms and busts over the more than 40 years he has been with the energy giant, said that 'when the world stops using oil and gas, we’ll stop looking for it'." US Economy, The New York Times, Q&A by Jordyn Holman, Aug 31, 2025.

Open access notables Wild, scenic, and toxic: Recent degradation of an iconic Arctic watershed with permafrost thaw, Sullivan et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Science The streams of Alaska’s Brooks Range lie within a vast (~14M ha) tract of protected wilderness and have long supported both resident and anadromous fish. However, dozens of historically clear streams have recently turned orange and turbid. Thawing permafrost is thought to have exposed sulfide minerals to weathering, delivering iron and other potentially toxic metals to aquatic ecosystems. Here, we report stream water metal concentrations throughout the federal

This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler My last post described our 450-page response to the DOE Climate Working Group report. This DOE report seems designed to muddy the waters about climate science — it’s a new iteration of the Merchants of Doubt. We found the report used selective misquoting of the scientific literature (cherry picking), omission of contrary results from the scientific literature, and simple errors due to a lack of understanding of the science to reach its conclusions. Further commentary of the process is in this post. A reporter asked me for a comment on a post on Dr. Judy Curry’s blog about our review of the DOE Climate Working Group report. In her post, she said:

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. Has Arctic sea ice recovered? Arctic sea ice, in both extent and volume, continues to decline. The only fair comparison for Arctic sea ice is to a full 12 months prior, as ice accumulates each winter and melts each summer. By that metric, Arctic sea ice extent set a record low maximum in March 2025, the month when ice is at its highest. Arctic sea ice vo

This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler If you don’t follow climate policy closely, you may not know that the Trump administration is launching an effort to overturn one of the most fundamental pillars of American climate policy: the scientific finding that carbon dioxide endangers human health and welfare (the so-called “Endangerment Finding”). If successful, this move could unravel virtually every U.S. climate regulation on the books, from car emissions standards to power plant rules. To support this effort, the Department of Energy 

A listing of 28 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, August 31, 2025 thru Sat, September 6, 2025. Stories we promoted this week, by category: Climate Policy and Politics (8 articles) How to organize a peaceful and effective climate protest "Are you ready to organize your first event on behalf of the planet? Here are some ideas and tips on how to make it successful." Yale Climate Connections, Colleen M. Crary, Aug 28, 2025. Historians See Autocratic Playbook in Trump’s