Ian Hall

Dramatic decline of Sargassum in the north Sargasso Sea since 2015 - Nature Geoscience Sargassum biomass in the north Sargasso Sea declined drastically since 2015, co-occurring with related reductions in the northwest Gulf of Mexico and an expansion of the Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt,...

🌊 Sargassum in the north Sargasso Sea has dramatically declined since 2015, with seasonal growth cycles disrupted and biomass maxima shifting

…potentially driven by rising SSTs and marine heatwaves

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Climate-driven changes in Mediterranean grain trade mitigated famine but introduced the Black Death to medieval Europe - Communications Earth & Environment Post-volcanic climate downtown in southern Europe around 1345–1347 CE caused widespread famine, leading to Italian maritime republics importing grain from the Black Sea region and introducing fleas ca...

Food for thought…

Climate-driven changes in Mediterranean grain trade mitigated famine but introduced the Black Death to medieval Europe

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

New approach narrows uncertainty in future warming and remaining carbon budget for 2°C How much the planet warms with each ton of carbon dioxide remains one of the most important questions in climate science, but there is uncertainty in predicting it. This uncertainty hinders government...

New approach narrows uncertainty in future warming and remaining carbon budget for 2°C

phys.org/news/2025-12...

Climate change threatens Europe's remaining peatlands, study shows Only 7% of Europe's original area of peatlands remain. What's more: their climate boundaries are shifting. An international study led by Wageningen University as part of the WaterLANDS project analyze...

Climate change threatens Europe's remaining peatlands, study shows

phys.org/news/2025-12...

Global race to secure critical minerals for weapons threatens climate, warns report Study reveals US earmarked billions to stockpile critical minerals for military use, including precision-guided weaponry and AI-driven warfare

We can choose: a critical-minerals race that fuels conflict, or one that powers a just climate transition.

Demand transparency and ethics in mining.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Trump wins his peace prize from Fifa – any chance of a VAR review? At a gaudy and gauche World Cup draw, Gianni Infantino went all out to flatter the world’s most precious ego

Sometimes copy editors make you despair … and sometimes they entirely nail it.

Case in point: “Trump wins his peace prize from FIFA – any chance of a VAR review?”

🤣

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

What our missing ocean float revealed about Antartica’s melting glaciers Our ocean float spent years adrift in the Antarctic ocean and beneath massive ice shelves. What it found will help us estimate global sea-level rise.

🌊 Serendipity often drives science forward.

A “lost” Argo float drifted under Antarctica’s ice shelves and resurfaced with a warning: warm water is creeping under major glaciers like Denman and Totten.

What’s at risk? Up to 5 m of global sea-level rise.

theconversation.com/what-our-mis...

Over a third of animals impacted in deep sea mining test - scientists The findings contribute to a controversial debate that pits green technology against the environment.

🌊 Deep-sea mining tests impact over a third of seabed animals - scientists

A 37% drop in deep-sea animal life from a single test. If that’s the trial run, imagine the real thing.

If we destroy ecosystems for short-term gains, what future are we even mining for?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Photic zone niche partitioning, stratification, and carbon cycling in the tropical Indian Ocean during the Piacenzian Abstract. The mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (mPWP; ∼ 3.264–3.025 Ma) marks the most recent episode of sustained global warmth, characterised by atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) levels similar to those o...

🌊 Our latest study reconstructs the tropical Indian Ocean during the mid-Pliocene - a past warm world with CO2 similar to today.

A reminder that future oceans may reorganise in ways that reshape ecosystems and the carbon cycle.

IODP EXP361

cp.copernicus.org/articles/21/...

Storms in the Southern Ocean are producing more rain – and the consequences could be global The Southern Ocean is the engine room of global heat and carbon uptake – and it’s changing faster and more dramatically than we thought.

🌊 Storms in the Southern Ocean are producing more rain

👉 28% rainfall increase (vs ERA5’s 8%)
👉 Storm rain intensity up
👉 ~2,300 Gt/yr extra freshwater in 2023
👉 Ocean “cooling by evaporation” up 10–15%

One of Earth’s key climate buffers is shifting.

theconversation.com/storms-in-th...

Sustainable Diets Missing from 99% of Media Coverage of Climate Change: Study Despite sustainable diets and meat reduction being key levers to mitigate climate change, only a tiny fraction of media coverage focuses on these topics.

Sustainable Diets Missing from 99% of Media Coverage of Climate Change

The agrifood system accounts for ~30% of global emissions, with animal agriculture responsible for >19%. Yet only 1.2% of nearly 10,700 US media related articles covered dietary shifts…

www.greenqueen.com.hk/climate-chan...

Expansion of Antarctic Bottom Water driven by Antarctic warming in the last deglaciation - Nature Geoscience Antarctic Bottom Water progressively filled more of the deep Southern Ocean through the last deglaciation, potentially contributing to the increase in atmospheric CO2, according to neodymium isotope r...

🌊 Expansion of Antarctic Bottom Water driven by Antarctic warming in the last deglaciation

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

High levels of ‘forever chemical’ found in cereal products across Europe – study Pesticide Action Network Europe study finds average concentrations 100 times higher than in tap water

Gulp - do you really know what’s for breakfast?

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

UK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record Many now concerned about ability to make living in fast-changing climate after one of worst grain harvests recorded

UK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record

This is not “bad luck.” It’s the climate crisis in action.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Researchers slightly lower study's estimate of drop in global income due to climate change Researchers who examined climate change’s potential effect on the global economy say data errors led them to slightly overstate an expected drop in income over the next 25 years

Researchers have revised their 2024 climate-economics study: the climate change driven drop in global income by 2050 shifts from 19% to 17%.

The “comfort” of falling off a cliff and landing a few metres lower…

www.independent.co.uk/news/associa...

Satellite images reveal scale of flood devastation in Sri Lanka as 366 killed Sri Lankan leader says island battling ‘largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history’

Satellite images reveal scale of flood devastation in Sri Lanka as 366 killed

www.independent.co.uk/asia/south-a...

Coral reefs have orchestrated Earth’s climate for 250 million years Coral reefs have shaped Earth in much deeper ways than we usually appreciate.

🌊 Coral reefs have orchestrated Earth’s climate for 250 million years

theconversation.com/coral-reefs-...

Minor contribution of ammonia oxidizers to inorganic carbon fixation in the ocean - Nature Geoscience Ammonia oxidizers contribute minimally to carbon fixation in the dark ocean despite their abundance at depth, according to enzyme inhibition experiments on water samples from two cruises.

🌊 Minor contribution of ammonia oxidizers to inorganic carbon fixation in the ocean

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How deforestation turbocharged Indonesia's deadly floods The deadly flooding that has killed hundreds in Indonesia was largely the result of monsoon rains and a rare tropical storm. But something else may have played a role: deforestation.

How deforestation turbocharged Indonesia's deadly floods

phys.org/news/2025-12...

Evolution of Shear‐Zone Fractures Presages the Disintegration of Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf Shearing of Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf against its pinning point has been a major driver of its recent destabilization Shear-zone fracturing occurred in two phases: expansion of long shear fractu...

Thwaites Eastern Ice Shelf is breaking apart — and we can now see how.

A new analysis of 20 years of satellite data reveals two phases of fracturing and links the breakup directly to faster ice flow.

agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

At least 1,250 people dead: What caused the devastating Asia floods? Climate advocates say it's time to move to accountability for climate change, as people in Asia are living the evidence.

At least 1,250 people dead: What caused the devastating Asia floods?

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/12...

The UK press has become so hostile and divisive — it’s genuinely draining.

Identifying global marine climate refugia through a conservative approach to ocean biodiversity preservation - Nature Communications Zhuang et al. define climate-resilient zones with global conservation consensus as marine climate refuges. They find that only 14% of marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation...

🌊 Identifying global marine climate refugia through a conservative approach to ocean biodiversity preservation

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

COP30 overlooked the deep ocean, protecting it must be a priority The Maldivian government reopened gulper shark fishing, carving a species-level exemption that weakens both protections and reputations.

🌊 COP30 overlooked the deep ocean, protecting it must be a priority

oceanographicmagazine.com/features/cop...

Revealed: Europe’s water reserves drying up due to climate breakdown Exclusive: UCL scientists find large swathes of southern Europe are drying up, with ‘far-reaching’ implications

Revealed: Europe’s water reserves drying up due to climate breakdown

…with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Emerging evidence shows climate change is making plastic pollution more persistent, increasing its distribution, bioavailability, and impacts.

Tackling these issues needs upstream emission reductions and coordinated research.

(review)

www.frontiersin.org/journals/sci...

Observed large-scale and deep-reaching compound ocean state changes over the past 60 years - Nature Climate Change It is important to understand the combined effects of multiple changes on the ocean. Here the authors use time of emergence to highlight the increases in impacts of individual and compound changes glo...

🌊 Observed large-scale and deep-reaching compound ocean state changes over the past 60 years

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Marine researchers find biggest source of microplastics in our ocean is vehicle tyres It was found broken down tyres were the largest source of microplastics in New Zealand's coastal waters.

🌊 Marine researchers find biggest source of microplastics in our ocean is vehicle tyres

www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Brexit costing UK up to £90bn in lost tax revenue , new analysis shows Exclusive: Britons also up to £3,700 worse off, leading to calls for the Labour government to improve relations with the EU

Something to remember on budget day…

Brexit is now costing the UK up to £90bn a year in lost tax revenue — £3,700 for each and every one of us.

The gift that keeps on NOT giving.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Volcanic bubbles in Papua New Guinea a window into coral’s future - Oceanographic Natural CO₂ seeps in Papua New Guinea reveal how rising emissions may reshape reefs by 2100, leading to fewer corals and more fleshy algae.

🌊 Volcanic bubbles in Papua New Guinea a window into coral’s future

oceanographicmagazine.com/news/papua-n...