Cement production (shown) accounts for a fourth of the world’s carbon emissions. But a new technique using seawater splitting might make its production carbon-negative.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/032025_cg_carbon-sink-concrete_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/032025_cg_carbon-sink-concrete_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1">
Climate
Splitting seawater offers a path to sustainable cement production
Cement manufacture is a huge carbon emitter. A by-product of splitting seawater might make the process more environmentally friendly.
Climate
More Stories in Climate
- Climate
Some trees are coping with extreme heat surprisingly well
Rising temperatures could reduce trees' ability to photosynthesize. Scientists are trying to figure out just how close we are to that point.
- Animals
Some sea turtles are laying eggs earlier in response to climate change
A 1-degree-Celsius change in water temperature prompts sea turtles in Northern Cyprus to lay eggs nearly a week earlier on average.
- Climate
Warming is chasing cloud forests steadily uphill
Cloud forests are biodiversity hot spots and crucial water sources. But climate change and deforestation are shrinking their range, new data show.
- Climate
Even desert cities could pull drinking water from the air
Water harvesting from foggy air provided up to 5 liters of water a day in a yearlong Chilean desert experiment.
- Climate
Historical writings reveal how people weathered the Little Ice Age
Records from 500 years ago document floods, famine and death in 16th century Transylvania due to wild weather swings during the Little Ice Age.
- Climate
Just a small rise in global temperatures could be deadly
As early as mid-century, an area of land that adds up to the size of the U.S. could hit temperatures hazardous for human health.
- Climate
Can geoengineering plans save glaciers and slow sea level rise?
As climate change melts West Antarctica’s glaciers, scientists are proposing bold ideas to avoid devastating sea level rise. Will they work?
- Animals
Hotter cities? Here come the rats
Well, rats. A study of 16 cities shows that higher ambient temperatures and loss of green space are associated with increasing rodent complaints.
- Climate
Yes, you can blame climate change for the LA wildfires
Weather data show how humankind’s burning of fossil fuels made the hot, dry, windy weather more likely, setting the stage for the Los Angeles wildfires.
Trees in India’s Western Ghat mountains (shown) endure extreme high temperatures for about 10 minutes per day during the hottest months of the year, new research shows. While that’s not enough time to permanently damage tree leaves, it could impact other aspects of tree health.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/022825_sp_trees-science-life_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/022825_sp_trees-science-life_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
Green sea turtles are laying their eggs earlier in the season to cope with warming temperatures, a new study shows.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/022725_gt_sea-turtle-nesting_feat_rev.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/022725_gt_sea-turtle-nesting_feat_rev.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
Mist swallows the treetops in a cloud forest in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Bromeliads, mosses and other epiphytes cover the tree trunks, greatly increasing the surface area of the canopy, thereby allowing it to collect vast amounts of water from tiny fog droplets.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/030625_df_cloud-forests_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/030625_df_cloud-forests_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
Large-scale fog water harvesting has the potential to relieve water stress at Alto Hospicio, a fast-growing city in Chile’s Atacama Desert, researchers say.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/021925_cg_fog-water_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/021925_cg_fog-water_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
Researchers used texts like these to discern what it was like to live through the Little Ice Age in Transylvania, a region in Romania.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/021125_av_little-ice-age_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/021125_av_little-ice-age_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
If global temperatures average 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, many parts of the world may experience extreme heat events hazardous to human health.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/021025_mr_too-hot_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/021025_mr_too-hot_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
West Antarctica’s Pine Island (shown) and Thwaites glaciers together hemorrhage 140 cubic kilometers of ice per year, through melting and the shedding of icebergs. These glaciers are targets of glacial engineering proposals.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/020125_glacial-engineering_feat-1.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/020125_glacial-engineering_feat-1.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
Rats love warmer weather. As temperatures in cities increase, people make more rat complaints, a new study shows.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/013025_bb_rat-cities_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/013025_bb_rat-cities_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1"> 
As the Santa Ana winds raced through the Los Angeles area in January, they fanned the flames of ongoing blazes. In this photo of the Hughes Fire taken on January 22, winds can be seen breathing life into flames on a hillside near Castaic Lake.
" data-medium-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/012825_no_fire-climate-attribution_feat.jpg?fit=680%2C383&ssl=1" data-large-file="https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/012825_no_fire-climate-attribution_feat.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1">