With it being our 130^th issue since the science section was introduced in 2012. A continuous theme about Concrete Science is our spotlight on climate change, since day one we’ve had a segment dedicated to the latest climate change news and its implication on the world around us. Before ‘Climate Corner’ there was ‘Environment,’ and way back before that we had ‘Turf’- with the tagline ‘Life without Concrete,’ not a world I would want to live in! 

As a publication, we have now reached our 400^th issue (woo!) since we were established in 1992. Around 30 years ago, Concrete was just getting its footing, but where was our climate at? How much has it changed since? In 2016 we passed an atmospheric CO2 concentration of 400 parts per million, the first time that this has happened in several millions of years. Marking the number 400 with more significance than we initially imagined! In 1992, while our journalists were hard at work creating Concrete, the UN Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro was taking place. A landmark event where over 100 world leaders came together to discuss the most pressing environmental issues of the time, yet still a lot of work is yet to be done. Fast forward over 30 years later and there is 15% more CO2 in the atmosphere compared to 1992, around 2 million species facing extinction, and the global temperature is rapidly rising. Many believed the effects of the summit were little, with others seeing it as being better than having done nothing at all. 

UEA’s climate research unit is a world-leading hub for the study of natural and anthropogenic climate change. A recent UEA study published in Climatic Change, led by Professor Rachel Warren projects the accumulated risk of climate damage, looking at how variable increases in climate temperature affect susceptible developing countries. Warning that more efforts need to be put in place or a 3⁰C temperature increase will be seen. Their research spans across a hefty nine papers over the past three years, marking a key step forward to highlighting the true effects of global warming. 

Image: Pexels