Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: climatology

AI model accurately predicts the spread of wildfires in real time

USC researchers are developing a computational model that combines satellite data and physics-based simulations to forecast a wildfire’s path, intensity, and growth rate. If you’ve ever been evacuated from your home during a wildfire, you’ll be aware of the terrifying unpredictability of the situation. From your location on the ground—rapidly gathering a few vital belongings and attempting to identify the best route to safety—there’s no way of knowing how fast a fire is growing or which direction it’s likely to take.

That was the experience of Assad Oberai, Hughes Professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. He was evacuated from his home during the Eaton Fire in January 2025—one of the most destructive wildfires in Southern California history, burning for 24 days before full containment and leaving more than 9,400 structures destroyed and over 1,000 damaged.

“Due to changing climate, we’re seeing more of these extremely intense fires—those that burn very fast and very bright,” he reflected. “We have the data at our fingertips. It all comes down to how we put it to use.”

How Google DeepMind is researching the next Frontier of AI for Gemini — Raia Hadsell, VP of Research

In this presentation, Raia Hadsell, VP of Research at Google DeepMind and AI Ambassador for the United Kingdom, opens AIE Europe and explores what’s open in Frontier AI and the future of intelligence by focusing on advancements beyond standard large language models. She categorizes these innovations into three key areas:

00:00 Introduction.
05:05 Advanced Embedding Models: Raia discusses the importance of embedding models for fast retrieval and recognition, similar to how the human brain uses ‘Jennifer Aniston cells’ to identify concepts across modalities. She highlights Gemini Embeddings 2, a fully omnimodal model that processes text, video, and audio into unified semantic vectors.
09:53 AI for Weather Forecasting: The team has developed revolutionary models for atmospheric prediction, moving away from traditional physics simulations. Notable breakthroughs include:
11:00 GraphCast: A spherical graph neural network that provides accurate 15-day weather forecasts.
12:47 GenCast: A probabilistic model that offers higher efficiency and accuracy (97% of the time compared to gold-standard benchmarks).
13:51 FGN: A functional generative network that directly predicts cyclone behavior, which is currently being utilized by the US National Hurricane Center.
14:35 World Models: Hadsell introduces Genie, a project focused on creating interactive, real-time environments. Starting from Genie 1 (2D platformers) and progressing to Genie 3, these models allow users to create and interact with high-quality, 3D photorealistic worlds. These environments demonstrate capabilities like memory, consistency, and the ability to be dynamically prompted by the user to change the surroundings in real-time.

Speaker info:
/ raia-hadsell-35400266
https://github.com/raiah

Temperature shifts change plant proteins powering photosynthesis

Humans adjust to changes in temperature by putting on a sweater or taking off layers. Plants adjust to temperature changes, in part, by switching the way they express the protein that performs the critical first step of photosynthesis, according to new research from Cornell, Texas A&M and Stockholm University.

Rubisco is the most abundant protein on Earth, and it is responsible for fixing carbon so that plants can convert it into photosynthetic energy. Better understanding of the basic science underpinning rubisco’s function, therefore, has implications for increasing agricultural yields, improving carbon sequestration technology and understanding how plants may adapt to a warming climate.

In the paper “ Rubisco Kinetic Acclimation at the Holoenzyme Level,” published April 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers demonstrate that while rubisco’s protein core remains consistent, parts of its exterior can be swapped out, akin to an outfit. A stiffer exterior is preferred in the heat, for protection, and a looser one in the cold, to increase efficiency. This study, using the mustard-family plant Arabidopsis, is the first to show how rubisco acclimates to temperature changes in any plant species.

EarthSpace 2026

Register now for 2026! A discussion of Earth and space on Earth Day, with Frank White, me, and other great guests!

EarthSpace 2026 brings together leaders, thinkers, and builders to explore one core idea: the future of Earth and the future of space are not separate conversations.

From climate solutions to space infrastructure, from policy to culture, the choices we make today will define how humanity lives on this planet—and beyond it.

This is not a passive webinar. It’s a focused, high-signal conversation with people actively shaping the frontier.

Space 18th SDG — A Side Event at COPUOS Legal SubCommittee — 16 April 2026

Space has become critical infrastructure for climate monitoring, disaster risk reduction, connectivity, navigation, education, and long-term planetary resilience. Even more important, space is an open horizon for new industrial development and settlement, starting with Earth orbit, the geo-lunar system, and the near-Earth asteroids. The Space 18th SDG initiative proposes a non-regulatory, enabling framework that strengthens the existing 17 SDGs by recognizing outer space as both an enabler of sustainable development and an environment requiring stewardship.
THE PANEL:
Prof. Sergio Marchisio, Space Law Expert, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
Ms. Fikiswa Majola, Deputy Director Space Systems, Department of Science and Technology (DST) South Africa.
Prof. Guoyu Wang — Space Law Center, China National Space Administration.
Dr. Claire Nelson, The Future Forum, Giamaica.
Adriano V. Autino, SRI CEO & Founder.
Maria Antonietta Perino, Thales Alenia Space, Italy.
Stefano Antonetti, D-ORBIT SpA, Strategy Director, Italy.
Antonio Stark, iSpace, Japan.
MODERATES:
Dr. Gülin Dede, SRI Director of Relations, Chair of the Space 18th SDG Coalition.

How bromoform wrecks ozone: Ultrafast ‘roaming’ step captured in 150 femtoseconds

The halomethane compound bromoform (CHBr3) has devastating effects on the ozone layer. In the upper layers of the atmosphere, bromoform reacts with UV radiation, releasing bromine molecules which destroy ozone molecules. This reaction, however, has long puzzled scientists; the molecules involved seem to wander relative to each other in a way that energetically does not make sense. Scientists at European XFEL have now revealed structural evidence for this roaming mechanism for the first time, establishing it as a universal characteristic of photochemical reactions.

The study, published in Nature Communications, provides key insights into the field of atmospheric photochemistry and how halomethane compounds such as bromoform impact the ozone layer.

The ozone layer envelops Earth some 15–30 km above the planet’s surface. Ozone gas absorbs ultraviolet light as it enters the atmosphere, thereby protecting life on Earth from the effects of the harmful radiation. Ozone, however, reacts readily with other compounds also found in the stratosphere, leading to ozone depletion, and ultimately the creation of the ozone hole.

Street green space can help cool cities, but it will not be enough on its own

A new IIASA-led study finds that expanding street green space can reduce urban heat stress in cities worldwide, but even ambitious greening efforts are unlikely to offset a significant share of the additional heat expected under climate change. Instead, the research shows that street greenery should be part of a broader portfolio of urban adaptation measures.

Cities are on the front line of climate change, with rising temperatures and heat stress posing growing risks to health, productivity, and livability. Street green space, such as trees and vegetation along streets, is often promoted as a practical nature-based solution because it can provide shade, cooling, and other positive benefits, for example, improving the mental health of citizens. Yet, evidence on how much cooling street greenery can deliver, to which extent the amount of vegetation can be increased, and how much cooling can be expected in future climates has remained limited, particularly when taking a global view across very different urban forms and climate zones.

In the new study published in Environmental Research Letters, a team of researchers from IIASA and VITO Belgium combined high-resolution street greenery data with 100-meter urban microclimate model outputs for 133 cities worldwide, providing a neighborhood-scale assessment with global coverage. Rather than relying on satellite-based surface temperature alone, the team assessed how street green space relates to air temperature and wet-bulb globe temperature —a measure that captures heat stress more appropriately than temperature alone because it accounts for humidity, wind, and radiation.

Summer is getting longer, and it’s happening faster than we thought

Summer weather is arriving earlier, lasting longer and packing more heat than it used to—and it’s happening faster than scientists had previously measured. A new study by UBC researchers has found that between 1990 and 2023, the average summer between the tropics and the polar circles grew about six days longer per decade. That’s up from roughly four days per decade found in past research investigations up until the early 2010s.

For many cities, the numbers are even more striking. In Sydney, Australia, summer temperatures now last about 130 days, up from 80 days in 1990, adding 15 days per decade. Toronto summers are expanding by eight days per decade.

The researchers didn’t use the calendar definition of summer (June through August in the Northern Hemisphere and December through February in the Southern Hemisphere). Instead, they defined summer based on the weather: the stretch of days each year when temperatures rise above what was historically typical for a given location during the warmest part of the year—a threshold set using climate data from 1961 to 1990.

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