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Climate change images are getting scarier—could fear help drive action?
Confirmed
In Short: Commercial aviation is entering a more turbulent era as climate change reshapes the atmosphere, with scientists warning that stronger jet streams, hotter runways.
Commercial aviation is entering a more turbulent era as climate change reshapes the atmosphere, with scientists warning that stronger jet streams, hotter runways, and more volatile storms are likely to translate into longer delays, bumpier rides, and more frequent last-minute changes for passengers, according to new research presented in 2026 using decades of reanalysis data.
Publicly available airline climate-risk disclosures also note that sustained higher temperatures could mean more frequent payload limits at airports with shorter runways, directly affecting passenger numbers and cargo capacity on peak days. This is part of a broader trend of climate change sapping over a third of the region’s typical annual snowpack and decreasing streamflows by about 13 percent, as found in a study published in Nature’s Communications Earth and Environment journal.
Experts fear that 'extreme climate events,' including intense storms and marine heat waves, have had an impact on the survival rates of puffins and other seabirds in recent years. A report published by NatureScot last week found that Scotland’s seabirds are in serious decline, with the average population having halved since the 1980s. The concern for puffins and other seabirds is that climate scientists are predicting an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme events in the future.
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- New work presented in 2026 using decades of reanalysis data indicates that structural changes in the jet stream are sharpening the gradients that drive clear-air turbulence across much of the Northern Hemisphere.
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- Head of Climate Attribution at the Met Office, Dr Mark McCarthy said that summer 2026 was "remarkable" and we can expect to see extremes occurring more frequently in the future because of climate change.
- Scientists are still working out exactly how much each factor contributes, but the result is clear: the background climate in which British weather happens is getting warmer.
- “Some fossil fuel producers began to understand the risks of their products” at that time, “but instead of taking action to warn the public and inform policymakers, they engaged in a campaign of delay and denial and deception to cast doubt on the science,” she said.
- Phillips said this study supports plaintiffs’ position in those cases as they seek to put a price tag on climate change for fossil fuel companies.
- “The consequences of these changes are really evident for people on the ground.” We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else.
- UKCEH said its long-term research shows that puffins have struggled with the impacts of climate change.