Scientists are proposing a new way to boost the climate benefits of biochar by pairing it with peatland restoration. A new study suggests that applying biochar to rewetted peatlands could dramatically improve long term carbon storage while making biochar production more efficient and scalable.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Leipzig) have shown how natural ocean cycles and rainfall patterns prevent a synchronised, planet‑wide drought and global-scale agricultural collapse. Based on over 100 years of climate data, the study finds that though warming increases drought severity, synchronised droughts are rarer than expected, affecting only 1.8–6.5% of land at any time. By treating droughts as a connected global system, the research team has identified key “drought hubs” and early‑warning regions that can help stabilise food markets.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have now discovered for the first time that large blackwater lakes in the extensive peatlands of the central Congo Basin are releasing ancient carbon.  To date, climate researchers had assumed that carbon was stored safely for millenia in the peat. How the carbon is mobilised from the peat to the lake, where it is finally released to the atmosphere, is still unknown. Climate changes and altered land use, especially the conversion of forest to cropland, could exacerbate this trend – with consequences for the global climate. 

How much will heat, flooding, drought and storms increase as a result of human-induced climate change? In a groundbreaking study, climate researcher Gottfried Kirchengast and his team at the University of Graz have developed a new method for computing the hazards from extreme events: it can compute all relevant hazard metrics for events such as heat waves, floods and droughts in any region worldwide with unprecedented information content. Using it for Europe, the researchers found that anthropogenic climate change has caused a tenfold increase in extreme heat in recent decades. The study, published in the journal Weather and Climate Extremes, also provides a basis for better quantifying the damage to people, ecosystems and infrastructure.

Antarctica plays a crucial role in the Earth’s climate system by reflecting solar radiation back into space. The large white ice surfaces and clouds play a decisive role in this process. However, how clouds actually form in Antarctica, how they interact with the atmosphere and what role aerosols play in this process has not been sufficiently researched to date. Engaging in the SANAT flight campaign, the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric Research and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry aim to help close this knowledge gap. The flight-based aerosol measurements conducted in Antarctica are the first of their kind in 20 years and also the first to extend deep into the interior. 

Antarctica’s pale expanses of ice keep water locked up and reflect heat from the planet — but the climate crisis is putting these safeguards at increasing risk. Antarctica is warming much faster than the global average, which could destroy its ecosystems and put other parts of the planet at risk by driving sea level rise and damaging food chains. Scientists modelling possible climate crisis outcomes for the Antarctica Peninsula show just how high the stakes are if we don’t act now.