This news article discusses a new forecast indicating the potential arrival of El Niño by May, its impact on summer weather, and the significance of the anomaly in Mars' mantle.
El Niño could be here by May, new forecast reveals — here's what it means for summer weather An anomaly in Mars ' mantle could trigger volcanoes to erupt — and may be causing the whole planet to spin faster China has planted so many trees around the Taklamakan Desert that it's turned this 'biological void' into a carbon sinkSuper El Niño looms, an Acropolis fragment resurfaces, a promising cure for Alzheimer's appears, and a hexagonal diamond is made'It cuts both ways': Positive tipping points can restore wrecked ecosystems — we just need to trigger them, Earth system scientist Tim Lenton saysContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsSign up for the latest discoveries, groundbreaking research and fascinating breakthroughs that impact you and the wider world direct to your inbox.
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Discover this week's must-see night sky events, moon phases, and stunning astrophotos. Sign up for our skywatching newsletter and explore the universe with us! Microplastics and nanoplastics could be hidden drivers of global warming. This digitally generated image of a plastic tornado is for illustrative purposes only..
Scientists have known for a while that plastics are also blown high into the atmosphere, where they are now pervasive, but it was unclear what impact they might be having up there. , has found that overall, plastic particles create a warming effect. This is because, while very-light-colored plastics scatter sunlight back into space, darker-colored plastics absorb sunlight and radiation.
'The warming trend nearly doubled after 2014': The rate of global warming has accelerated more in the past decade than ever before, a distinguished professor of Earth science at Duke University, told Live Science that the climate change impact of plastic particles is fairly small — comparable to the emissions of a small country. In numbers, this is the equivalent of around a couple of percent of the contribution from carbon dioxide — the main driver of climate change — or a couple hundredths of a degree of warming.
However, the researchers' modeling was based on a limited understanding of the amount of plastic in the atmosphere, so the extent of the warming effect is uncertain.
"The key finding is really that the warming strongly outweighs the cooling," Shindell said. "I think we have a lot of confidence in that because we did all of these measurements in the laboratory of how interact with sunlight. What we don't have so much confidence in and what's still a big uncertainty is exactly how many of these are in the atmosphere.
" Microplastics come from larger plastic debris that breaks up and from plastic products that are designed to be microscopic in the first place, such as the tiny beads used in some facial scrubs and shower gels. A plastic is classified as a microplastic when it has a width of 1 micrometer to 5 millimeters .
Anything less than 1 micrometer is classified as a To better understand how different colors of microplastic and nanoplastic particles behave, Shindell's colleagues in Shanghai collected plastic debris and studied its reaction to sunlight and radiation. They also checked whether very light colors would darken in the atmosphere over time — and found that they did. Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.
Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors "Sometimes if you get a parking pass or something that you put on your windshield, the plastic yellows with time because it's out in the sunlight," Shindell said.
"We thought maybe particles of plastic do that, too. " Once the team understood how the plastic particles behaved, Shindell and his colleagues in the U.S. used that data alongside data on plastic emissions to model their impact. This modeling was hampered by uncertainty surrounding the quantity and distribution of plastics in the atmosphere.
'Food insecurity is no longer just about low-income countries': Environmental economist explains how climate change is pushing agricultural systems to the brink Antarctica's sea ice suddenly started shrinking a decade ago — and deep-diving robots are revealing why 'The push towards renewables is unstoppable because it's in a country's self-interest': Climate scientist Andy Reisinger on Trump, Iran, and the future of Earth "People have mostly taken measurements near the ground because they were thinking of these as a health hazard, which they are, but the climate is influenced by not just the amount at the surface but throughout the atmospheric column," Shindell said.
The analysis revealed that the warming effect from the microplastics and nanoplastics is about five times larger than their scattered cooling effect, establishing them as a previously unrecognized driver of global warming. And while the impact of microplastics on warming is tiny compared with the effect of burning fossil fuels, getting rid of plastic waste is another thing humanity could do to slow climate change, Shindell noted.
"It just adds another compelling reason why we should pay more attention to keeping plastic waste out of the environment," he said. Patrick Pester is the trending news writer at Live Science. His work has appeared on other science websites, such as BBC Science Focus and Scientific American. Patrick retrained as a journalist after spending his early career working in zoos and wildlife conservation.
He was awarded the Master's Excellence Scholarship to study at Cardiff University where he completed a master's degree in international journalism. He also has a second master's degree in biodiversity, evolution and conservation in action from Middlesex University London. When he isn't writing news, Patrick investigates the sale of human remains.
'The warming trend nearly doubled after 2014': The rate of global warming has accelerated more in the past decade than ever before'Food insecurity is no longer just about low-income countries': Environmental economist explains how climate change is pushing agricultural systems to the brinkNew York City is at major risk of flooding that could leave 4.4 million people exposed to extreme damage, study finds'The push towards renewables is unstoppable because it's in a country's self-interest': Climate scientist Andy Reisinger on Trump, Iran, and the future of Earth
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