(June 7, 2026)

Earth’s rotation is gradually slowing as climate change melts glaciers and polar ice sheets, redistributing water across the planet and subtly lengthening the day. According to new research from the University of Vienna and ETH Zürich, the current increase in day length — 1.33 milliseconds per century — is unprecedented over at least the past 3.6 million years. It’s a new measure of how profoundly human-driven warming is affecting the Earth system, even as only 48% of Americans believe climate change is the result of human activity.

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Researchers reconstructed changes in day length over the past 3.6 million years using fossil remains of benthic foraminifera — single-celled marine microorganisms on the seafloor — and advanced machine-learning techniques.