cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/34194024

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/33064194

More than a thousand people have been evacuated near forest of Ofunato in northern region of Iwate

Archived version: https://archive.is/newest/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/01/japan-battles-largest-wildfire-in-decades

Disclaimer: The article linked is from a single source with a single perspective. Make sure to cross-check information against multiple sources to get a comprehensive view on the situation.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19378689

MIT aerospace engineers have found that greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment of near-Earth space in ways that, over time, will reduce the number of satellites that can sustainably operate there.

In a study appearing today in Nature Sustainability, the researchers report that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause the upper atmosphere to shrink. An atmospheric layer of special interest is the thermosphere, where the International Space Station and most satellites orbit today. When the thermosphere contracts, the decreasing density reduces atmospheric drag — a force that pulls old satellites and other debris down to altitudes where they will encounter air molecules and burn up.

Less drag therefore means extended lifetimes for space junk, which will litter sought-after regions for decades and increase the potential for collisions in orbit.

[...]

Their predictions forecast out to the year 2100, but the team says that certain shells in the atmosphere today are already crowding up with satellites, particularly from recent “megaconstellations” such as SpaceX’s Starlink, which comprises fleets of thousands of small internet satellites.

“The megaconstellation is a new trend, and we’re showing that because of climate change, we’re going to have a reduced capacity in orbit,” Linares says. “And in local regions, we’re close to approaching this capacity value today.”

“We rely on the atmosphere to clean up our debris. If the atmosphere is changing, then the debris environment will change too,” Parker adds. “We show the long-term outlook on orbital debris is critically dependent on curbing our greenhouse gas emissions.”

[...]

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19171727

• Daily global sea ice extent, which combines the sea ice extents in both polar regions, reached a new all-time minimum in early February and remained below the previous record of February 2023 for the rest of the month.
• Arctic sea ice reached its lowest monthly extent for February, at 8% below average. This marks the third consecutive month in which the sea ice extent has set a record for the corresponding month.*
• Antarctic sea ice reached its fourth-lowest monthly extent for February, at 26% below average. The daily sea ice extent may have reached its annual minimum near the end of the month. If confirmed, it would be the second-lowest minimum in the satellite record. This confirmation will only be possible in early March.

It is important to note that the new record low for the Arctic in February is not an all-time minimum. Arctic sea ice is currently approaching its annual maximum extent, which typically occurs in March.

Temperatures in world regions

• The average temperature over European land for February 2025 was 0.44°C, 0.40°C above the 1991-2020 average for February, ranking it well outside the 10 warmest months of February for Europe.
• European temperatures were most above average over northern Fennoscandia, Iceland and the Alps. A large region of negative anomalies was recorded for eastern Europe.
• Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over large parts of the Arctic. They were also above average over northern Chile and Argentina, western Australia and the southwestern United States and Mexico.
• Temperatures were most notably below average over parts of the United States and Canada. Other regions with below-average temperatures include the regions adjacent to the Black, Caspian and eastern Mediterranean Seas, as well as in a large region in eastern Asia, covering parts of southern Russia, Mongolia, China and Japan.
• The average temperature for European land for winter 2025 (December 2024 to February 2025) was the joint second highest on record for the season at 1.46°C above the 1991-2020 average, significantly cooler than the warmest European winter in 2020 (2.84°C).

There are a lot of papers advocating for a switch away from fossil fuels, and even H2 fuel cells, to ammonia based propulsion in transport. It can be used in combustion engines but there's a risk of NOx production. So the greenest option to me is ammonia to H2 conversion or direct ammonia fuel cells. It's got the same advantages of classic H2 fuel cells but without the constraints of cryogenic or pressurized containment of H2. And ammonia has a better energy density. But it's toxic for humans and, above all, marine life! Especially for fish species. So I'm feeling a bit uneasy about potential mass ammonia spills…

Two billion years ago, an igneous rock in northern South Africa formed. Not long after, some bacteria crawled into cracks in that rock, and got trapped inside when the cracks got plugged up by a bunch of clay. But that bacterial colony didn't die. It just sat around, doing its bacteria thing for billions of years, until scientists cracked that crack open.

Hosted by: Hank Green

Global warming is helping rats thrive in major cities around the world, with Washington DC seeing the fastest growth in rats