Alec Luhn
@alecluhn.com
Environment reporter @NewScientist.com | Kavli, Schmidt & Covering Climate Now winner 🏆 | 2x Emmy nominee | non-beefeater 🚫🐄 | icemushroom.substack.com ✉️
Here's a controversial thought: Record ocean temperatures during El Nino provide a “natural lab” to test geoengineering techniques www.newscientist.com/article/2589...
Scientists call for ‘emergency’ measures to save sea life from El Niño | New Scientist
Reducing fishing quotas, rescuing endangered species from the water and testing geoengineering could help soften ocean heat impacts from the record El Niño, some oceanographers argue
newscientist.com
The UN says we’ll overshoot 1.5C & come back down with carbon dioxide removal. But that’s easier said than done. For one, the ocean will start releasing the extra CO2 it’s absorbed. “It’s like crashing a car into the wall & then you back up…It’s not the same car” www.newscientist.com/article/2588...
The world’s biggest carbon sink may start emitting CO2 after net zero | New Scientist
If the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere declines, the Southern Ocean is likely to begin emitting more carbon than it absorbs, prolonging global warming
newscientist.com
Move over, pumpkin spice: September belongs to the BOG HARVEST. While many flock to apple orchards, the world’s peatlands are hitting their peak. Far from muddy swamps; bogs are the secret agricultural powerhouses you didn't know you needed. Join me in protecting these undervalued landscapes! 🧵 1/
Increasing emissions from permafrost, wetlands, lakes & wildfires will add an extra 20-30% of global warming that we haven’t been factoring in www.newscientist.com/article/2588...
Natural feedbacks will warm world an extra 20 per cent this century | New Scientist
Ecosystems like wetlands emit more carbon as temperatures rise. By 2100, such feedback loops will increase warming by 20 to 30 per cent more than anticipated
newscientist.com
‘Honest Bob’ Jenrick says he wants to “abolish” Natural England, and at the very least stop funding it, in the first 100 days of a putative Reform government. Reform may appear to be on the rocks currently but their plans are terrifying, mad & must be stopped. www.theguardian.com/politics/liv...
Unlike other El Ninos, this record El Nino could bring not only a stormy, wet autumn to the UK, but also a stormy, wet winter. @tinymaddie.bsky.social www.newscientist.com/article/2587...
Super El Niño could have unexpected effect on UK winter | New Scientist
An El Niño is usually expected to herald a cold end to winter in the UK – but this year could be different
newscientist.com
I went on the New Scientist podcast to talk about the Nepal-Tibet glacier disaster & possible record ice loss in the Alps this year www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LK9...
The Nepal Disaster: How Climate Change is Reshaping the World
YouTube video by The World, The Universe And Us
youtube.com
This is due to Waymo's business choices, not technical challenges. Waymo could tell its cars not to park illegally (or block bike lanes), but that might annoy riders. Want Waymo to follow the law? Either use automatic cameras w/steep fines or make future permits contingent on better behavior.
Waymo has been slapped with more than 8,300 parking tickets since January 2025
With fines of nearly $1 million for various violations, the robotaxi company says it’s cooperating with the city and learning from its cars’ mistakes
sf.gazetteer.co
Boris Johnson calls on conservatives to "get with the hot dang Right-wingers of Texas" & support wind & solar energy, only sold at local prices rather than the UK's national wholesale price www.dailymail.com/debate/artic...
BORIS JOHNSON: Why electricity bills are so low for Right-wing Texans
We just can't go on like this. It is now clear that the cost of electricity in this country is out of control. We are walloping consumers and we are crippling our industry.
dailymail.com
A few days before the Nepal-Tibet glacier disaster, I went on the Rhône Glacier to report on possibly record ice loss in the Alps. As glaciers & permafrost thaw, the risk of fracture & collapse increases: icemushroom.substack.com/p/melting-gl...
Melting glaciers, collapsing mountains
The Alps may break the record for glacier loss following unprecedented heat this summer, raising the risk of more ice avalanches and droughts
icemushroom.substack.com
From the record ocean temperatures to the falling rice harvest, El Niño is already having huge impacts. The next phase will be extreme weather like wildfires & flooding www.newscientist.com/article/2586...
5 graphs that show how the record-breaking El Niño will affect the world | New Scientist
A stronger El Niño means more extreme weather, including droughts and wildfires in some places and flooding and tropical storms in others
newscientist.com
Initial analyses of satellite images and seismic data by @watershedlab.bsky.social & @kristencook.bsky.social suggest that the collapse of a high glacier caused the flash flood disaster in Nepal www.newscientist.com/article/2586...
A glacier collapse is most likely cause of the Nepal disaster | New Scientist
Melting snow appears to have weakened a steep glacier at an altitude of 5 kilometres, causing it to plummet around a kilometre into the river valley below
newscientist.com
At the same time as the deadly Nepal glacier collapse, the Alps are facing possibly their worst glacier loss year ever. They will be mostly melted by 2100. A report from the Rhône Glacier, the source of the vital Rhône River www.newscientist.com/article/2586...
Glaciers in the Alps are on track for record-breaking ice loss | New Scientist
Glacier loss could break the 2022 record after a series of heatwaves this summer, raising the risk of falling river levels and deadly ice avalanches
newscientist.com
200,000 square meters of ice broke off a glacier in Nepal & fell 1,200 meters into a river, killing 403 people, mostly from US, UK, Australia, S Korea & Malaysia. Hot weather is believed to have played a role. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...
'Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said plans to provide Ukraine with blueprints for long-range Scalp missiles would add “fuel to the fire”... The Prime Minister told reporters: “Who started the fire?”' 🔥🔥🔥
If the UK approves the Rosebank & Jackdaw fields, they would cause climate damages at least 4x greater than the value they would generate. “Not just an environmental crime but also economically illiterate,” says one expert. @dpcarrington.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Climate damage would obliterate any economic benefits of new North Sea fields, analysis shows
Exclusive: Economic harm of CO2 pollution from Rosebank and Jackdaw forecast to far outweigh any boost to UK
theguardian.com
Here’s some fantastic thermal drone imagery of a thermal spring in East Greenland. Captured by Eva Nielsen earlier this month. The spring water is 53C, flowing down a rock wall behind the field team. Our HotBlink project is funded by the Independent Research Fund of Denmark.
The case for Contracts for Difference: "When the rollercoaster of global pricing starts to climb again, Britain pays through the nose for its own oil and gas. We can end this by fixing the price of our own oil and gas." www.independent.co.uk/voices/dale-...
The moment I changed my mind about North Sea drilling
With the government poised to decide on the fate of gas and oil fields such as Rosebank and Jackdaw, Dale Vince, the UK's foremost renewable energy entrepreneur, says he can now see a convincing econo...
independent.co.uk
Make a band bigger: Elton Matthew, Mark, Luke and John
donoteat@donoteat.bsky.social · 4w agoMake a band bigger: Joy Corps
Our emissions have really let the genie out of the bottle when it comes to Europe's weather www.newscientist.com/article/2585...
Greenland meltwater is intensifying European heatwaves | New Scientist
The cooling of the North Atlantic is creating waviness in the jet stream and high-pressure ridging over Europe, a study finds
newscientist.com
If you or I "aggressively test" a judge's order we're actually just violating it and there are consequences for that. bsky.app/profile/nyti...
The New York Times@nytimes.com · last mo.The Kennedy Center board voted on Thursday to inscribe President Trump’s name on its building, aggressively testing a federal judge’s order to remove it, according to two people with direct knowledge of the proceedings. nyti.ms/4wYFrXV
Paradoxically, suppressing wildfires has also made European countries more vulnerable to huge blazes like those seen in France and Spain this week. With global warming also amplifying the danger, some experts are calling for a change of strategy
How Europe can make its landscapes more fire-resilient | New Scientist
Paradoxically, suppressing wildfires has also made European countries more vulnerable to huge blazes like those seen in France and Spain this week. With global warming also amplifying the danger, some experts are calling for a change of strategy
newscientist.com
A photo of what appears to be a buckled rail on the hottest day of the year makes you wonder if the UK train derailment was a climate disaster www.bbc.com/news/live/cl...
Photos from the northernmost caves on Earth. Rock samples from them show Greenland was covered in vegetation rather than ice 10 million years ago--at CO2 levels *lower* than today's www.newscientist.com/article/2583...
The unbearable cost of doing nothing www.theguardian.com/business/202...
UK heatwaves may have cost economy £4.4bn in lost output so far this year, analysis finds
Verdant thinktank says cost could top £25bn a year by 2030 and calls for maximum temperature for working and urban redesign to cool down cities
theguardian.com
"Save water, build a data centre." "Stop climate change, drill an oil well." "No money for infrastructure, but £80 billion for shareholders." Hardly a wonder people are confused with such mixed messages from governments.
Researchers are investigating whether artificially thickening ice blockages between Canada and Greenland could prevent huge amounts of sea ice from flowing south to melt
Could geoengineering ‘ice arches’ help preserve Arctic sea ice? | New Scientist
Researchers are investigating whether artificially thickening ice blockages between Canada and Greenland could prevent huge amounts of sea ice from flowing south to melt
newscientist.com
