SETH BORENSTEIN

Science writer

Borenstein is an Associated Press science writer, covering climate change, disasters, physics and other science topics. He is based in Washington, D.C.

This image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows dead elkhorn coral on Feb. 9, 2024, at Carysfort Reef, northeast of Key Largo, Fla. Record hot seawater killed more than three-quarters of human-cultivated coral that scientists had placed in the Florida Keys in recent years in an effort to prop up a threatened species that’s highly vulnerable to climate change, researchers discovered. (Ben Edmonds/NOAA via AP)

Hot seawater killed most of cultivated coral in Florida Keys in setback for restoration effort

Researchers are finding that record hot seawater killed more than three-quarters of human-cultivated coral that scientists had placed in the Florida Keys in recent years.

FILE - A male polar bear eats a piece of whale meat as it walks along the shore of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, Aug. 23, 2010. With Arctic sea ice shrinking from climate change, many polar bears have to shift their diets to land during parts of the summer, a new study suggests. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

For threatened polar bears, the climate change diet is a losing proposition

With Arctic sea ice shrinking from climate change, many polar bears have to shift their diets to land during parts of the summer.

FILE - People swim in the Atlantic Ocean in Biarritz, southwestern France, Oct. 27, 2021. An abrupt shutdown of Atlantic Ocean currents that could put large parts of Europe in a deep freeze is looking a bit more likely and closer than before, according to a new story. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, File)

Ocean system that moves heat gets closer to collapse, which could cause weather chaos, study says

An abrupt shutdown of Atlantic Ocean currents that could put large parts of Europe in a deep freeze is looking a bit more likely and closer than before as a new complex computer simulation finds a “cliff-like” tipping point looming in the future.

FILE - People gather at "El Morro" to watch the sunset during the San Sebastián Street festivities in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Jan. 21, 2024. For the eighth straight month, Earth was record hot, according to the European climate agency’s analysis of January 2024. (AP Photo/Alejandro Granadillo, File)

Globe breaks heat record for 8th straight month. Golfers get to play in Minnesota’s ‘lost winter’

The European climate agency says for the eighth straight month in January, Earth was record hot. That was obvious in the northern United States, where about 1,000 people were golfing last month in a snow-starved Minneapolis during what the state is calling “the Lost Winter of 2023-24.”

FILE - Celeste Saulo, of Argentina, poses after she was elected as Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, Switzerland, June 1, 2023, during the U.N. climate and weather agency's congress in Geneva. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)

New UN weather agency chief says rate of global warming is speeding up

The new chief of the World Meteorological Organization says the rate of human-caused climate change is accelerating and that warming has triggered more Arctic cold outbreaks further south, weighing in on two issues that divide climate scientists.

FILE - Residents wade down a street through receding floodwaters, two days after Hurricane Patricia, in the village of Rebalse, Jalisco State, Mexico, Oct. 25, 2015. A handful of powerful tropical storms in the last decade and the prospect of more to come has some experts proposing a new category of hurricanes: Category 6, which would be for storms with wind speeds of 192 miles per hour or more. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

Dial it up to Category 6? As warming stokes storms, some want a bigger hurricane category

A handful of super powerful tropical cyclones in the last decade has a couple of experts proposing a new category of whopper hurricanes: Category 6.

This undated image provided by Amos Winter shows a sponge from the Caribbean. This sponge, a simple animal that filters water, and a handful of other centuries-old sponges are causing some scientists to think human-caused climate change began sooner and has heated the world more than they thought. Many sponge species live long, and as they grow they record the conditions of the environment around them in their skeletons. (Courtesy of Amos Winter via AP)

Could the planet be warmer than we thought? Ocean sponges might be telling us something

A handful of centuries-old sponges from the Caribbean are causing some scientists to theorize that human-caused climate change began sooner and has warmed the world nearly a degree Fahrenheit more than most scientists previously thought.

FILE - United Nations Climate Chief Simon Stiell speaks during a plenary session at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Dec. 13, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)

UN climate chief’s blunt message: Fewer loopholes, way more cash to really halt climate change

The United Nations’ climate chief says to keep Earth from overheating too much, the nations of the world need to put fewer loopholes in climate agreements and far more money — trillions of dollars a year — into financial help for poor nations.

FILE - John Kerry, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate of the United States, left, listens to Xie Zhenhua, Special Envoy for Climate Change for China, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, May 24, 2022. Kerry and Xie are stepping down from their roles, marking a generational shift in the world of international climate negotiations. Activists and scientists hope that the world's two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases continue finding ways to collaborate to prevent the planet from heating up to catastrophic levels. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

Kerry and Xie exit roles that defined generation of climate action

For years, John Kerry and Xie Zhenhua were the two most important people working on global warming. As the top representatives for the United States and China, almost no progress was possible without their involvement.

FILE - A worker pauses while removing snow from Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., Jan. 14, 2024. While the U.S. is shivering through bone-chilling cold, most of the rest of world is feeling unusually warm weather. Scientists Tuesday, Jan. 16, say that fits with what climate change is doing to Earth. (AP Photo/ Jeffrey T. Barnes, File)

US in deep freeze while much of the world is extra toasty? Yet again, it’s climate change

While the U.S. is shivering through bone-chilling cold, most of the rest of world is feeling unusually warm weather.

FILE - A man cools off in a shower at Ipanema beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sept. 24, 2023. The latest calculations from several science agencies Friday, Jan. 12, 2024, all say that global average temperatures for 2023 shattered existing heat records. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

Scientists explain why the record-shattering 2023 heat has them on edge. Warming may be worsening

The latest calculations from several science agencies showing Earth obliterated global heat records last year may seem scary.

FILE - The Colorado River runs through lightly snow covered mountains April 12, 2023 near Burns, Colo. Once regularly snowbound river basins across the globe, including the upper Colorado, are increasingly seeing their snowpack shrink and climate change is to blame, a new study found. (Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily via AP, File)

Climate change is shrinking snowpack in many places, study shows. And it will get worse

Areas across the globe have seen spring snowpack shrink over the last 40 years, and a new study says for many of them climate change is clearly to blame.

FILE - The cracked earth of the Sau reservoir is visible north of Barcelona, Spain, March 20, 2023. Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, the European climate agency said Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

Earth shattered global heat record in ’23 and it’s flirting with warming limit, European agency says

Earth shattered global annual heat records last year and it’s flirting with the warming threshold that nations wanted to stay within to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

FILE - Tourists fill plastic bottles with water from a public fountain at the Sforzesco Castle, in Milan, Italy, June 25, 2022. A new study found the average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of nanoplastics, microscopic plastic pieces, detected and categorized for the first time by a microscope. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

Scientists find about a quarter million invisible nanoplastic particles in a liter of bottled water

New research shows that the average liter of bottled water has nearly a quarter million invisible pieces of ever so tiny nanoplastics.

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber gestures at the end of the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Experts at odds over result of UN climate talks in Dubai; ‘Historic,’ ‘pipsqueak’ or something else?

The climate negotiations that just finished in Dubai hit upon the essence of compromise, finding common language that everyone accepted, at times grudgingly.

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, right, celebrates passing the global stocktake with United Nations Climate Chief Simon Stiell, left, and COP28 CEO Adnan Amin during a plenary session at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

In a first, delegates at UN climate talks agree to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels

Negotiators at United Nations COP28 climate talks agreed Wednesday that the world must transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels.

People walk through the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Sharp disagreements over future of planet-warming fossil fuels at UN climate talks in Dubai

Hopes for finishing a critical climate summit on time faded early Tuesday as countries were still far apart on key issues, including an agreement on what to do about the fossil fuels that are causing dangerous global warming.

Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, right, accepts an item from an activist as she heads to a new session of talks at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Dec. 11, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

As COP28 nears finish, critics say proposal ‘doesn’t even come close’ to what’s needed on climate

Countries at United Nations-led climate talks in Dubai moved closer to reaching a final deal on Monday, but critics condemned a draft agreement as a watered-down document that won’t stop dangerous climate change.

Delegates arrive for a meeting at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Agreeing to agree: Everyone must come to consensus at COP28 climate talks, toughening the process

It’s the killer detail in international climate talks: Consensus. With nearly 200 nations of different sizes, economies, political systems, resources and needs, they all have to find common ground if they are going to save the one common ground they share: planet Earth.

A woman pours tea at the Azerbaijan Pavilion at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

Baku to the future: After stalemate, UN climate talks will be in Azerbaijan in 2024

For years, climate change has been a factor — not the only one — in wars and conflicts, but now for the first time it’s part of a peace deal.

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, left, and John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, speak as they attend a meeting at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

At COP28, sticking points remain on fossil fuels and adapting to climate as talks near crunch time

Negotiators have been urged to narrow down their options and agree on how to save Earth from disastrous levels of warming as the clock runs down on United Nations climate talks and the summit’s president is determined to finish up talks by Tuesday.

Activists demonstrate during the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Saturday, Dec. 9, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

A leaked OPEC letter shows the oil cartel’s worry over the COP28 climate talks, environmentalists say

Veteran climate negotiation observers say the oil industry is starting to sweat as United Nations climate talks heat up and threaten to plug fossil fuel-belching wells for good.

People walk near country's flags during the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

At COP28, pageantry is over and negotiations get intense to save a planet in peril

Teams of veteran negotiators fanned out Friday at the United Nations climate conference with orders to get the strongest, most ambitious agreements possible, especially on the central issue of the fading future of fossil fuels in a dangerously warming planet.

FILE - Activists participate in a demonstration for loss and damage at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)

Climate talks shift into high gear. Now words and definitions matter at COP28

The mood is about to shift, the hours grow longer and the already high sense of urgency somehow amp up even more as United Nations climate talks head into its final week.

People walk through the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

After a fast start, COP28 climate talks now in murky middle of hope, roadblocks

After a first-day blur of rare quick action and agreement, negotiators at a critical United Nations climate conference Wednesday are finishing up their first week in a more familiar place for them: the murky middle where momentum and roadblocks intertwine.

FILE - A jet takes flight from Sky Harbor International Airport as the sun sets over Phoenix, July 12, 2023. Homeless people are among the people most likely to die in the extreme heat in metro Phoenix. The European climate agency calculates that November, for the sixth month in a row, the globe set a new monthly record for heat, adding the hottest autumn to the broken records of record-breaking heat this year. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

November is the sixth straight month to set a heat record, scientists say

The European climate agency calculates that for the sixth month in a row, Earth set a new monthly record for heat, and also added the hottest autumn to the litany of record-breaking heat this year.

Activists participate in a demonstration against fossil fuels at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

To phase out or phase down fossil fuels? That is the question at COP28 climate talks

After days of shaving off the edges of key warming issues, climate negotiators Tuesday are zeroing in on the tough job of dealing with the main cause of what’s overheating the planet: fossil fuels.

Guohua Power Station, a coal-fired power plant, operates in Dingzhou, Baoding, in the northern China's Hebei province, Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

World carbon dioxide emissions increase again, driven by China, India and aviation

A team of scientists reported that the world this year pumped 1.1% more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the air than last year because of increased pollution from China and India.

Al Gore, former U.S. vice president, speaks to The Associated Press at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Dec. 3, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Gore blasts COP28 climate chief and oil companies’ emissions pledges at UN summit

Former Vice President Al Gore says don’t trust the oil and gas industry to report their actual carbon pollution and he adds that the man running United Nations climate talks runs one of the dirtiest oil companies out there.

COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber speaks during a news conference at the COP28 U.N. Climate Summit, Monday, Dec. 4, 2023, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

Analysis: Emirati oil CEO leading UN COP28 climate summit lashes out as talks enter toughest stage

The Emirati leading the United Nations’ COP28 climate talks walked out on stage Monday to a room full of journalists to offer a 17-minute list of what he described as the stunning successes of made so far in the summit.