Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, August 15, 2024

https://thebulletin.org

JESSICA MCKENZIE

A 2022 Supreme Court decision greatly curtailed the EPA’s ability to limit power plant emissions of carbon dioxide. The court argued that when the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970, Congress did not know enough about climate change to intend to regulate carbon dioxide.

In a soon to be released paper, science historian Naomi Oreskes shows that scientists and lawmakers already knew that carbon dioxide was warming the planet and understood it as a pollutant. Read more.

MICHAEL MEREDITH

Scientists recently discovered when the fronts of glaciers “calve” huge chunks of ice into the ocean, the underwater tsunamis that result can spread for miles and mix the different layers of warm and cold ocean water. This previously overlooked phenomena is changing the way we think about ocean mixing and how it matters. Read more.

Advertisement

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The greening of drylands threatens fragile ecosystems and water reserves, and shows how unexpected the impacts of climate change can be. Read more.

SUMMER VIDEO ARCHIVE DIVE
The rise of maximum containment laboratories

In this week’s Summer Archive Dive, learn about the world’s maximum containment laboratories, where research is done on the deadliest diseases. Watch now.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“A 1-degree Celsius rise in global temperature, they say, would lead to a 12 percent decline in world GDP.”
​​​​
— Erin O’Donnell on research from Adrien Bilal and Diego Kanzig, “Climate Change’s Crippling Costs,” Harvard Magazine