Climate

Mapping out a low-carbon future

Energy scenarios provide useful decision-support tools for policymakers and investors.

January 19, 2017

The SMAP observations are providing an unprecedented level of detailed, worldwide information on the amount of water in the top 2 inches (5 centimeters) of soil, collected globally every two to three days.

Study tracks “memory” of soil moisture

First year of data from SMAP satellite provides new insights for weather, agriculture, and climate.

January 16, 2017

MIT President L. Rafael Reif (left) and Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi

MIT and Eni extend energy collaboration

In Rome, MIT President Reif and Eni CEO Descalzi discuss low-carbon breakthroughs and future research.

January 16, 2017

Researchers report that warming from short-lived compounds — greenhouse gases such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons, that linger in the atmosphere for just a year to a few decades — can cause sea levels to rise for hundreds of years after the pollutants have been cleared from the atmosphere.

Short-lived greenhouse gases cause centuries of sea-level rise

Through warming effects, methane and other gases impact rising seas long after leaving the atmosphere.

January 9, 2017

“Compared to the developed world, the state of transportation systems in China is less well-understood, and because it’s such a large, populous country, unrestricted or poorly guided growth could lead to significant negative consequences for the environment and climate,” says Paul Kishimoto, a recent recipient of a fellowship from the Martin Family Society of Graduate Fellowships in Sustaina...

Rethinking how we get around

Paul Kishimoto, a PhD student in IDSS, probes the future of transportation in China.

January 4, 2017

MIT scientists have found that extreme precipitation events in California should become more frequent as the Earth’s climate warms over this century.

Study finds more extreme storms ahead for California

New technique predicts frequency of heavy precipitation with global warming.

January 3, 2017

MIT oceanographers have found that some small marine organisms — mostly bacteria — have a surprisingly low limit to the amount of oxygen they need to breathe.

New study sets oxygen-breathing limit for ocean’s hardiest organisms

Bacteria can survive in marine environments that are almost completely starved of oxygen.

December 19, 2016

A destructive wildfire burned through Canada’s Northern Alberta region, razing neighborhoods in Fort McMurray and displacing tens of thousands of residents.

Climate models may be overestimating the cooling effect of wildfire aerosols

Study finds accounting for year-to-year variability enables more accurate projections of climate change and its impacts.

November 29, 2016

Dust blowing through the Sahara Desert in 2012. Researchers have found that the plume was far less dusty between 5,000 and 11,000 years ago, containing only half the amount of dust that is transported today.

Saharan dust in the wind

Scientists find huge reduction in African dust plume led to stronger Saharan monsoons 11,000 years ago.

November 23, 2016

Left to right: Robert Stoner, deputy director of the MIT Energy Initiative and director of the Tata Center for Technology and Design; Maria Zuber, MIT vice president for research; Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab; and John Fernandez, professor of architecture and director of MIT's Environmental Solutions Initiative.

Forging ahead on climate action

At UN Climate Change Conference, MIT researchers share insights on implementing climate commitments.

November 22, 2016

At forum, MIT community tackles tough ethical questions of climate change

Why is it so hard for human beings to address climate change? What can motivate effective action?

November 21, 2016

University students walk through dense air pollution at Anyang Normal University in Henan Province, China.

Enabling China to shift from coal to natural gas

How an enhanced cap-and-trade system can help the world’s top carbon emitter cut emissions and improve air quality.

November 18, 2016

Seeking to inform India’s climate policy choices

Tata Center graduate fellow Arun Singh shares energy-economic modeling research at UN Climate Change Conference.

November 16, 2016

A capacity crowd at the New England Aquarium's Omni Theater enjoyed the 2016 John H. Carlson Lecture, "Big Ice: Antarctica, Greenland, and Boston," presented by Penn State University Professor Richard Alley.

Big ice, big science

Richard Alley delivers 2016 Carlson Lecture on the physics of glaciers and how ice sheets capture a history of the world’s climate.

November 14, 2016

A new study by researchers at MIT and elsewhere has found that, rather than adopting a standard for automotive gas-mileage ratings, the EU could achieve the same results at far lower cost to the economy by simply extending their existing emissions-trading system to encompass transportation rather than just electricity generation and energy intensive industry.

What’s the best way for Europe to curb greenhouse emissions from cars?

Emissions trading would be more effective than mileage standards, new study shows.

November 8, 2016

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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