Sandstorm wave sweeps Middle East, sending thousands to hospitals

On Monday, a bright orange glow bathed the streets of Kuwait City, like a wildfire without flames. In Tehran, the tip of the Milad Tower, the tallest structure in the city, could barely be seen. In Mosul, Iraq, a wall of dust blotted out the skyline. Further south, bridges disappeared into the haze.

At least one dust storm began on Monday in Iraq and traveled to Saudi Arabia, satellite imagery showed. NASA data showed dust reaching more than three miles into the sky, said Hiren Jethva, a Morgan State University and NASA scientist. The dust layer thinned over Saudi Arabia on Thursday and migrated toward the Red Sea…READ ON

Physicists predict Earth will become a chaotic world, with dire consequences

Humans aren’t just making Earth warmer, they are making the climate chaotic, a stark new study suggests.

The new research, which was posted April 21 to the preprint database arXiv(opens in new tab), draws a broad and general picture of the full potential impact of human activity on the climate. And the picture isn’t pretty.

In the new study, researchers modelled the introduction of the Anthropocene as a phase transition.

While the study doesn’t present a complete simulation of a climate model, it does paint a broad sketch of where we’re heading if we don’t curtail climate change and our unchecked use of fossil fuels, according to the study authors, scientists in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Porto in Portugal…READ ON