When it comes to global warming, methane is a monster. It may represent only 11% of the share of greenhouse gasses emitted each year, but during its first 20 years in the atmosphere it is 80 times more efficient at capturing heat than the far more commonplace carbon dioxide. That’s why it’s so important to spot the worst emitters and shut them down—or at least reduce their...
Climate change likely juiced rainfall by up to 50% late last month in two southern Pakistan provinces, but global warming wasn’t the biggest cause of the country’s catastrophic flooding that has killed more than 1,500 people, a new scientific analysis finds. Pakistan’s overall vulnerability, including people living in harm’s way, is the chief factor in the disaster that...
It’s one of our great cosmic misfortunes that we entirely missed Mars’ golden age. About 3.5 billion years ago—during the first billion or so years of the solar system’s existence—the Red Planet was a blue planet, awash in ocean, seas, and rivers the way Earth is today. Ancient sedimentary basins, deltas and riverbeds are all that is left of Mars’ watery...