News
SpaceX rocket launches world's first global water survey mission
A SpaceX rocket blasted off early on Friday carrying a U.S.-French satellite designed to conduct the first global survey of Earth’s surface waters, a mission expected to shed new light on the mechanics and consequences of climate change.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate: oceans
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
State of Play
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.