Four teams of scientists, including a team co-led by Columbia University researchers, will receive up to $45 million over five years for research that advances human understanding of the global carbon cycle driving a changing climate. The teams are the first to be funded through the Virtual Institute for the Carbon Cycle (VICC), an initiative of Schmidt Sciences that aims to reduce uncertainty in the global carbon cycle to inform effective climate policy and solutions.
As fossil-fuel derivatives, plastics are made of refined carbon. By 2015, about 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste had been generated, with around 79% of this accumulating in landfills or the natural environment, where it breaks into ever smaller pieces. Each year, plastic production increases exponentially: the total weight of carbon in plastic has surpassed the mass of all animals combined, and is likely to equal the mass of all bacteria by 2095 (see 'Litter legacy').
ESA's Biomass satellite captures its first images of Earth’s forests, revealing insights into carbon storage crucial for climate change monitoring.