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Atlantic Council Issue Brief: Accelerating Climate Intervention Research to Improve Climate Security
The world is currently experiencing unprecedented global temperatures and extreme weather events, with record heat waves and devastating storms. Last month, the world experienced the hottest days ever observed, with four days of record-breaking temperatures taking place in the span of just one week. Around the globe, climate-linked disasters are occurring more frequently, and scientists continue to publish research on the escalating risks of natural systems crossing major climate tipping points.
NYU Langone Health Forms New Partnership to Minimize Deaths from Extreme Heat Amid Rising Global Temperatures
Project HEATWAVE, a new research initiative aimed at improving how we project and prepare for the risks associated with extreme heat, launched today as an international, collaborative effort led by top researchers from NYU Langone Health, Georgia Institute of Technology, and SilverLining, a non-profit climate research organization.
On World Ozone Day, there is HOPE: A new platform for observing the stratosphere
Far above us, in the stratosphere, the world’s ozone layer protects people and natural systems from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. Much of the life on Earth has adapted to live under this protection. In the twentieth century, as society developed new technologies, especially refrigeration and cooling, we released chemicals that traveled to the stratosphere and depleted some of this stratospheric ozone, creating expanding “holes” through which protection did not occur. With the use of these chemicals growing rapidly, projected damage to the ozone layer posed an existential threat to humanity.
Aerosols, Climate and Coastal Research: A TED Talk from Dr. Sarah Doherty
In 2019, I was invited to give a TED Talk on emergency medicine for climate. In the five years since, climate extremes have escalated in the US and around the world — from Bangladesh to Brazil and Phoenix to Florida — with June breaking more than 1,000 temperature records around the world. As the world warms unusually quickly, these record extremes are accelerating changes in natural systems and devastating people and communities.
United Nations Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue: SilverLining Submission on Marine Atmosphere Research
As part of our efforts to improve society’s understanding of key influences on near-term climate change, SilverLining provided input to the 2024 Ocean and Climate Change Dialogue. This activity within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is designed to elicit scientific and technical input to strengthen ocean-based climate action.
Sharing Sami Experiences: Near-Term Tipping Points and Climate Intervention Research
Against the backdrop of the 23rd session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the Sámi Parliament of Finland partnered with SilverLining and youth-led organizations Operaatio Arktis and Green Africa Youth Organization to host a discussion of Indigenous voices on climate intervention research.
SilverLining Announces $20.5 Million in Funding to Advance its Governance and Equity Initiatives on Near-Term Climate Risk and Climate Intervention
SilverLining announces $20.5 million in funding from leading climate foundations: Quadrature Climate Foundation, Pritzker Innovation Fund, 2040 Foundation, Bernard and Anne Spitzer Charitable Trust, and Casey & Family Foundation. Building on five years of impact working successfully across political and societal divides, the funding will support SilverLining in its core governance, equity, and engagement initiatives over three years.
New Climate Studies and Public Engagement Center launch in the San Francisco Bay Area
The Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) Program, an open collaboration of atmospheric scientists and other experts to study how clouds respond to particles — also called aerosols — in the atmosphere, today initiated new climate studies and launched the Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement (CAARE) facility at the USS Hornet Sea, Air & Space Museum, a Smithsonian Affiliate located in Alameda, California.
SilverLining Applauds Discussions on Climate Intervention Research at the UN Environment Assembly
The Sixth Session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA-6) in Kenya is concluding today. A significant topic of the international convening was a proposed resolution to establish a panel to review scientific and societal considerations on a prominent form of rapid climate intervention: releasing particles into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight or alter the properties of clouds, also known as solar radiation modification (SRM).
SilverLining - 5 Years of Impact: Scientific Research
SilverLining is celebrating its five-year anniversary. At this milestone, we are reflecting on our progress across the many initiatives that collectively deliver against our mission of ensuring a safe near-term climate.
SilverLining’s R3OC Rapid Response Observing Campaign
On December 18th, a volcano on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula began an extended eruption. We are thinking of everyone impacted by the eruption and wishing for safety for residents, first responders, and the community. While the eruption is disruptive and dangerous, it is also a powerful natural experiment for the study of the effects of aerosols on clouds, atmosphere and climate.
SilverLining Spotlight: COP28
Emerging from the global climate summit, COP28, the world is at a pivotal moment. Progress was made, including major commitments to reduce the super-polluting greenhouse gases that cause exorbitant near-term warming and commitments for Loss and Damage funds to help developing countries adapt to the impacts of warming that they did not cause. But as the climate experiences record extremes and approaches dangerous thresholds for warming, enormous work remains. With increasing acknowledgement that targets cannot be met, we now have a moral imperative to invest in research on climate interventions to assess their potential to reduce harm.
Climate intervention requires international research and the Global South has contributions to make
Challenging times are ahead for all of us who call this small blue planet home. The planet will continue warming due to emissions already in the atmosphere at least for the next 40 years even if we stop polluting right now, and yet emissions continue to rise. Tragically, we are in a place where emission reductions are not advancing fast enough and we don't have any indication that our elected leaders are ready to step up to the challenge. In this context, we’ll have to rely on human ingenuity and our unprecedented problem solving capacity to protect our common future. All options must be on the table.
Reflections from ARCTIC MOMENTUM in Finland: Entering a New Paradigm
Recently, the SilverLining team had the privilege to participate in and support a remarkable event held by youth-led Operaatio Arktis in Helsinki, Finland.
Empowering Youth for Climate Intervention: Insights from the 2023 Global Youth Summit on Near-term Climate Risks and Interventions
The recent Sixth Assessment (AR6) synthesis report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints a stark reality - the world is hurtling towards surpassing the critical 1.5°C global warming threshold. The imperative to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels is not merely a statistic, but a safeguard against an array of catastrophic impacts.
The SilverLining Spotlight - August 30, 2023
With deadly landslides in India, floods in China, heat extremes from Morocco to Japan, tropical storms in California, and devastating fires in Maui, we appear to have entered a more dangerous and uncertain phase of climate change.
SilverLining comment on the proposed “AGU Ethical Framework Principles on Climate Intervention Research”
We are supportive of the concerns driving the AGU’s Ethics Framework effort; but we are concerned that the deficiencies in the draft document and the process by which it is being developed pose risks to the generation of scientific evidence on climate interventions, to scientific independence and objectivity, and to its own stated goals of transparency, inclusiveness and justice.
In the climate red zone, the US and EU are considering urgent interventions
Brown skies over Europe and North America from Canadian wildfires and record “hot” North Atlantic seas are signs that we have reached a new level of climate risk — one that threatens the well-being of nearly everyone on Earth.
Cooling credits: Sold as a “cool” solution to climate change, buyers (and everyone) should beware
Carbon credits have come under fire recently, as regulators, analysts and media take a closer look to see if and how well these credits represent actual benefits for climate.
The SilverLining Spotlight - March 24, 2023
We hope you’re having a wonderful start to spring. Climate intervention conversations have accelerated this year and this trend is on track to continue.