International Environmental Scientists Award

Human activities are causing world temperatures to rise, with more intense heatwaves and rising sea-levels among the consequences. Things are likely to worsen in the coming decades, but scientists argue urgent action can limit the worst effects of climate change. What is climate change? Climate change is the long-term shift in the Earth's average temperatures and weather conditions. Over the last decade, the world was on average around 1.2C warmer than during the late 19th Century. It has now been confirmed that global warming exceeded 1.5C across the 12 month period between February 2023 and January 2024. That followed 2023 being declared the warmest year on record. The temperature increase was driven by human-caused climate change and boosted by the natural El Niño weather phenomenon. How are humans causing climate change? The climate has changed throughout the Earth's history and natural factors, such as El Niño, can affect the weather for shorter periods of time, as happene...

  Climate change: The 'insane' plan to save the Arctic's sea-ice Perched on sea-ice off Canada's northern coast, parka-clad scientists watch saltwater pump out over the frozen ocean. Their goal? To slow global warming. As sea-ice vanishes, the dark ocean surface can absorb more of the Sun's energy, which accelerates warming. So the researchers want to thicken it to stop it melting away. Welcome to the wackier side of geoengineering - deliberately intervening in the Earth's climate system to try to counteract the damage we have done to it. Polar bears face starvation as ice melts More snow and rain is falling in the Arctic Hottest February marks ninth new monthly record in a row Geoengineering includes more established efforts to lock up planet-warming gases, such as  planting more trees and burying carbon underground . But more experimental measures aim to go a step further, seeking to reduce the energy absorbed by the Earth. Many scientists are strongly opposed...

Deep-sea mining: Norway approves controversial practice Norway has become the first country in the world to move forward with the controversial practice of commercial-scale deep-sea mining. The bill, passed on Tuesday, will accelerate the hunt for precious metals which are in high demand for green technologies. Environmental scientists have warned it could be devastating for marine life. The plan concerns Norwegian waters, but agreement on mining in international waters could also be reached this year. The Norwegian government said it was being cautious and would only begin issuing licences once further environmental studies were carried out. The deep sea hosts potato-sized rocks called nodules and crusts which contain minerals such as lithium, scandium and cobalt, critical for clean technologies, including in batteries. Norway's proposal will open up 280,000 sq km (108,000 sq miles) of its national waters for companies to apply to mine these sources - an area bigger than the size ...