Carbon Brief reviews climate articles with the highest media attention in 2020

In first place was the article "temporary reduction in Global carbon dioxide emissions during COVID-19 's mandatory restriction period" (Temporary Reduction in Daily Global CO2?Emissions During the COVID-19 Forced Confinement) published in Natural Climate change (Nature Climate Change), with an Altmetric score of 6174. Researchers from the University of East Anglia (University of East Anglia) in the UK and Stanford University (Stanford University) in the United States have designed an alternative method to re-analyze the comprehensive data of energy, activities and policies up to the end of April 2020, based on the corresponding restriction index (confinement index, CI) to estimate the change in daily CO2 emissions compared to 2019. The study found that global CO2 emissions by early April 2020 were 17 per cent lower than the 2019 average as a result of the government's policy to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. The study was mentioned by 715 online news articles, 63 blogs and more than 4000 tweets, including the Washington Post, the Financial Times, Reuters, New Scientist, the Guardian, BBC News, the Daily Mail, the Independent, the Daily Telegraph and Sky News.

In second place was "the Future of the Human Climate niche" (Future of the Human Climate Niche), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), with an Altmetric score of 3696, which was mentioned in 229 news reports. In the past 6000 years, human beings have been distributed under relatively stable climatic conditions on a global scale (called "human climatic niche"), according to a study conducted by a cross-collaborative team of ecology, archaeology and climatology composed of Xu Chi's research team of the School of Life Sciences of Nanjing University and European and American scholars. The study further found that if the global population wants to maintain this climatic niche, according to the current trend of climate change, about 1x3 of the population will face immigration pressure by 2070; assuming that large-scale climate migration does not occur, and taking into account population growth, about 3 billion people may then be living in extremely hot temperatures (average annual temperatures) similar to those in the current hinterland of the Sahara. Effective mitigation of climate change can significantly reduce this negative impact.

In third place was the article "Global growth in the exceeding probability of strong Tropical Cyclones over the past 40 years" (Global Increase in Major Tropical Cyclone Exceedance Probability Over the Past Four Decades), published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, with an Altmetric score of 3669. The study, conducted by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (University of Wisconsin-Madison), analyzed the intensity trends of 4000 tropical cyclones over the past 39 years (1979-2017) and found that strong hurricanes occurred more and more frequently with global warming. The specific conclusion is that the probability of tropical cyclones reaching or exceeding the intensity of strong hurricanes has increased over the past 39 years, with an average increase of about 8% per 10 years, 95% confidence interval is 2% to 15%. During the most severe period of climate warming, the intensity of tropical cyclones increased, causing more tropical cyclones to become hurricanes and more hurricanes to become strong hurricanes.

In fourth place was the article "the threat of Sandy Shoreline erosion" (Sandy Coastlines under Threat of Erosion) published in Natural Climate change, with an Altmetric score of 3065. 50 per cent of the world's beaches could disappear by the end of the 21st century because of coastal erosion, according to a study led by the European Union Joint Research Centre (JRC).

In fifth place was the article "rebuilding Marine Life" (Rebuilding Marine Life) published in Nature magazine, with an Altmetric score of 2848. This paper makes a detailed analysis of nine kinds of ecological environment in the ocean, namely, salt marshes, mangroves, seagrass, coral reefs, kelp, oyster reefs, fisheries, giant fauna and the deep sea, and puts forward some important and feasible measures to restore and protect these environments. It is concluded that if human beings can meet the challenges, the entire marine environment will be substantially rebuilt in 2050. The key to success is to reduce the impact and pressure on the oceans while restoring damaged ecosystems and working to reduce the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change.

In sixth place is the article "Greenland Ice sheet dynamic loss of Glaciers due to continuous retreating Glaciers" (Dynamic Ice Loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet Driven by Sustained Glacier Retreat) published in Nature's journal Communications Earth & Environment. The study, led by climatologists at Ohio State University (Ohio State University) in the United States, found that glaciers are melting much faster than expected, Greenland's glaciers have exceeded the tipping point, and the annual snowfall can no longer supplement the melting of glaciers.

In seventh place is Nature's article "temperate Rain forests near Antarctica during the Cretaceous Super warm period" (Temperate Rainforests near the South Pole During Peak Cretaceous Warmth). The analysis of the sedimentary sequence of the southwest polar ice shelf shows that there was a temperate rain forest ecosystem in West Antarctica during the Toulon-Thornton period (92 million ~ 83 million years ago). Climate reconstruction models show that West Antarctica was ice-free at that time, and the atmospheric CO2 concentration was 1120-1680 ppm, much higher than the current 407 ppm.

In eighth place is Natural Climate change's article "the length of the fasting season sets a time limit for the durability of polar bears around the world" (Fasting Season Length Sets Temporal Limits for Global Polar Bear Persistence). Due to the reduction of sea ice caused by global warming, polar bears are forced to come ashore for food, but there is a shortage of food on land, and polar bears can only live on stored fat. Most polar bear subpopulations in the Arctic could be threatened by 2100, the study warned. The study estimated how long polar bears can fast, and once this threshold is exceeded, the survival rate of cubs and adults will decline rapidly. The study found that several subgroups may have reached this threshold.

In ninth place is the The Lancet Health and Climate change Countdown report 2020 (The 2020 Report of the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change: Responding to Converging Crises), which focuses on the health impacts of global climate change based on 43 indicators in five key areas of climate change and health. The report notes that climate change has undergone significant global changes in potential social and environmental determinants of health and that indicators are deteriorating in all areas.

At No. 10 is the article "the emergence of a Hot and humid Environment beyond Human tolerance" (The Emergence of Heat and Humidity too Severe for Human Tolerance) in the journal Science Advances. Unbearable hot and humid weather has emerged around the world, decades earlier than expected, the study found. With the exception of Antarctica, there have been thousands of abnormal or unprecedented extremely hot and humid weather on all continents.

Among the 25 most concerned articles on climate change, there are 6 articles in Nature, followed by 5 articles in Natural Climate change. There are 2 articles each in PNAS, Communication Earth and Environment and Science, and 1 article in each of the other 8 journals.

?

The Global change Research and Information Center is the global change strategy research business platform of Lanzhou Literature and Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the main tasks include: real-time