The earth is called the "blue planet" for a reason: 70 percent of the surface is covered by oceans. They absorb a quarter of the CO₂ that we humans produce every year. But climate change is afflicting them heavily.
November is here, but there is no winter in sight. According to the German Weather Service, October was already too warm. With climate change, winter is getting shorter and weather extremes are increasing. What must cities look like in the future so that we can continue to live in them? This is what meteorologist Daniel Hertel from the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research is researching.
Biden’s presidency provides a real opportunity for national and global climate policies, according to Reimund Schwarze from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research.
Nowadays, whenever a European windstorm sweeps across Germany, many people wonder whether climate change is to blame. The new storm monitor website now provides answers to this and other questions. In this interview, Oliver Krüger explains what other information the storm monitor offers and who he expects will use it.
If we want to meet the climate targets, the city of the future must become much more efficient. Buildings will then have to produce energy themselves – and solar facades harbor vast potential for this.
Over the past twelve months, researchers on the MOSAiC expedition in the Arctic have collected unique data that will help them to better understand the Earth’s complex climate interactions and to improve corresponding models.
Heat and sunshine galore, but hardly any rain – rarely has it been as warm and dry as in the past two and a half years. For many people, air conditioners have helped to make day-to-day life more bearable. But as these appliances hog energy, they intensify the greenhouse effect by emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide.
This summer, many people are not going to the beaches of southern Europe, but to northern Germany. Insa Meinke works where the others go on vacation. She heads the North German Coastal and Climate Office at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht and researches how climate change is affecting the region in particular.
Time and again, extremely heavy rains devastate entire regions. And due to climate change, they will continue to storm into our lives with greater frequency. Extreme-weather researcher Michael Kunz from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) wants to find out when such events occur more frequently and what impact they have on urban areas.
