Aiming to transition away from fossil fuels and avert the worst consequences of climate change, world leaders aspire to achieve net zero global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius. But actions to meet such targets and minimize adverse impacts on lives, livelihoods, and infrastructure are not one-size-fits-all; they will require different approaches in different places. To better understand the patchwork causes and effects of the climate crisis and elements of viable solutions to it, researchers in MIT's Living Climate Futures (LCF) initiative ' 20 MIT faculty and affiliates from across the Institute ' collaborate with frontline communities in diverse physical and socioeconomic landscapes around the world. Funded by the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) and based at the MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (SHASS), LCF is a multi-disciplinary research hub and community of practice; focuses on how climate change impacts people's everyday lives; and creates knowledge and research collaborations with community organizations....

Climate scientists, who have warned of the dangers of global warming for decades, have found some countries to listen. This week, representatives of more than 50 nations gathered in Santa Marta, Colombia, at what was billed as the first global summit on phasing out fossil fuels. One of the first orders of business was to launch a panel of scientists that will advise those countries on how to shift to clean energy. 'Here, you have a coalition of governments that decided they actually want to be informed by the science,' says Margaretha Wewerinke-Singh, an international climate-change law specialist at the University of Amsterdam. The landmark meeting, which began on 24 April and concluded yesterday, was proposed during last year's United Nations COP30 climate summit in Belem, Brazil. Oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia reportedly opposed attempts at that gathering to create a road map to cut the use of fossil fuels, which are the main source of global greenhouse-gas emissions and the largest contributor to climate change....

We are what we eat. And in the ocean, most life-forms source their food from phytoplankton. These microscopic, plant-like algae are the primary food source for krill, sea snails, some small fish, and jellyfish, which in turn feed larger marine animals that are prey for the ocean's top predators, including humans. In an open-access study appearing today in the journal Nature Climate Change, the team reports that as sea surface temperatures rise over the next century, phytoplankton in polar regions will adapt to be less rich in proteins, heavier in carbohydrates, and lower in nutrients overall. The conclusions are based on results from the team's new model, which simulates the composition of phytoplankton in response to changes in ocean temperature, circulation, and sea ice coverage. In a scenario in which humans continue to emit greenhouse gases through the year 2100, the team found that changing ocean conditions, particularly in the polar regions, will shift phytoplankton's balance of proteins to carbohydrates and lipids by approximately 20 percent. The researchers analyzed observations from the past several decades, and already have found a signature of this change in the real world....

Because the past three years have shattered temperature records (see 'Temperature boost'), researchers have been exploring whether global warming is accelerating, and if so, why. Many scientists agree that the rate at which it is increasing has picked up. This is mainly because of a reduction in air pollution following the introduction of fuel regulations for international shipping (which has resulted in fewer pollutant particles that reflect sunlight into space and seed insulating clouds). In the data, 'you can practically see by eye that it has accelerated', says Stefan Rahmstorf, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. Rahmstorf and Grant Foster, a statistician in Orono, Maine, say they have the strongest evidence yet that global warming has sped up, to a rate of around 0.35 'C per decade. That's faster than some other estimates2. But, the pair say their analysis captures a more accurate picture because of the way it accounts for and removes the effects of natural factors, such as weather events and volcanic eruptions, that cause climate fluctuations. The study was published today in Geophysical Research Letters1....