The water level in the Great Salt Lake, the largest in the Western Hemisphere, reached a record low in 2022. This has caused serious problems in the American state of Utah - economically, environmentally, as well as medically. The new Portland State University study is the first to not only assess the factors underlying the lowering of water levels to historic lows, but also provides valuable information for predicting and managing future changes in the condition of the reservoir.

Anthropogenic climate change has caused a rare series of typhoons to hit the Philippines this year and has increased the likelihood of powerful storms making landfall. Scientists came to this conclusion in a new study published Dec. 12, UCA News reported. According to local authorities, five typhoons and a tropical storm hit the Philippines in 23 days in October and November, killing more than 170 people and causing at least $235 million in damage.

Since 1980, the rainy season in Brazil's Cerrado region has dragged on for 36 days, with rainfall falling by almost 37 percent and average temperatures rising by 1.5 °C, jeopardizing sustainable soybean and maize crops. The scientists linked this to the destruction of natural vegetation - the first time they have been able to separate the contribution of deforestation from the effects of global climate change. The work is published in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Research has shown that an area that is nearly a third the size of India has gone from wet lands to arid areas where agriculture is difficult over the past three decades, The Guardian reported on December 9. Drylands now make up 40 percent of all land on Earth, excluding Antarctica. Over the past 30 years, three-quarters of the world's landmass has suffered from drought conditions that are likely to be permanent, according to a study by Science Policy Interface, a group of scientists convened by the United Nations.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change have increased by a third over the past 30 years and could increase by another 40 percent by mid-century if current rates of development, plowing and logging do not slow. Meanwhile, emissions from land-use changes in agriculture have declined by four percent. Researchers believe this has been helped by the adoption of conservation practices. The study is published in the journal Global Change Biology.

Global warming continues every year - the changes in climate are already strongly felt by most of the world's inhabitants. Both last year and this year have repeatedly set temperature records, and in both years the average temperature was about 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Accumulated greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and some natural phenomena such as El Niño (a sudden abnormal change in the temperature of water in the Pacific Ocean off South America) and volcanic eruptions are partly to blame. But none of these fully explain such extraordinary heat.

The impact of microplastics on cloud formation and disruption of cloud formation mechanisms and climate has been revealed by a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, published Nov. 9 in the journal Acs ES&T Air. “Over the past two decades of research on microplastics, scientists have found that it's everywhere, so this is another piece of that puzzle,” explained Miriam Friedman, professor of chemistry at Penn State and senior author of the study. “Now it's clear. that we need to better understand how they interact with our climate system because we've been able to demonstrate that the process of cloud formation can be altered using microplastics.” According to the authors of the new study, microplastics act as ice nucleating particles, microscopic aerosols that promote the formation of ice crystals in clouds.

Due to investments in polluting activities, the use of private jets and superyachts, billionaires on average emit more CO₂ in just 90 minutes than the average inhabitant of the planet produces in a lifetime. This is according to a November 9 report by the non-governmental organization Oxfam, published on the eve of the COP29 climate summit in Baku. “Representatives of the richest socio-economic groups bear a major responsibility for the worsening climate crisis generated by their lifestyles, consumption and investments,” emphasizes Francesco Petrelli, Oxfam's representative in Italy.