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A family crosses the flooded streets of Pakistan.

One after another, Pakistan endures successive climate disasters

Waqas Alam Angaria 10 Oct 2025
Banner image: A boy holds locusts he caught in Nakuru county, Kenya Wednesday, March 17, 2021. Image courtesy of AP Photo/Brian Inganga.

Fears of major locust swarms wane in the Sahel but agencies step up monitoring

Stephanie Achieng’ 7 Oct 2025

Indonesia’s giant Java seawall plan sparks criticism & calls for alternatives

Basten Gokkon 11 Sep 2025
Banner image of motorists riding through a flooded road caused by heavy monsoon rain in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 10, 2025. Image by AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary.

Deadly monsoon rains in Pakistan made worse by climate change: Study

Kristine Sabillo 7 Aug 2025
Joseph Vargas and Wilma Abanil in their home

As gas giants move in, Philippine fishers fight for their seas and survival

Nick Aspinwall 29 Jul 2025
Person standing in front of a fallen tree.

Global warming is altering storms lightning, impacting tropical forests

Sean Mowbray 28 Jul 2025
Heavy rainfall in Colombia and Venezuela caused deadly landslides and widespread flooding in June. A new analysis now points to rapid urbanization, deforestation, mining and overgrazing as having reduced the region’s climate resilience. 
 “The rapid growth of population and informal settlements in areas prone to landslides, particularly in Colombia, puts people and infrastructure at risk,” the World Weather Attribution (WWA), a network of scientists evaluating extreme weather events, said in its latest rapid analysis. It said the informal communities are growing as people seek livelihoods in cities or are displaced due to conflict. Roop Singh, report co-author from the Netherlands-based Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, said at a media briefing that pasture- and agriculture-driven deforestation rose over the past two decades, increasing “the risk of landslides because tree roots are no longer binding and anchoring the soils.”
 The heavy rains during the last week of June triggered widespread flooding and damage in Colombia; a landslide in Antioquia department killed 27 people. In Venezuela, rivers overflowed, and smaller landslides cut off rural communities. WWA said in its report that rains in these regions had persisted since April, and that the June rain fell on already saturated ground where the deadly landslide occurred, and in rivers with already high levels of water. The scientists examined the total rainfall from April-June this year over the Magdalena River catchment in Colombia and the Falcón and Maracaibo basins in Venezuela. They also studied data on the accumulated rainfall from June 20-24 in the affected states in the Venezuelan Llanos, a grassland plain. “Neither events were particularly extreme,” Mariam Zachariah, co-author and research associate at Imperial College London, said at the briefing. The WWA analysis showed the heavy rain that fell in June is common, expected every 10 years in Colombia and every three years in Venezuela. The scientists also used climate models to understand the influence of human-induced climate change on the rains, but the findings were inconclusive. Instead, the models projected a drying trend for Colombia and mixed results for Venezuela. Friederike Otto, co-author and climate science professor at Imperial College London, said not being able to show clear linkages to climate change doesn’t mean there’s no influence. The researchers attributed some of the uncertainty to a lack of long-term observational weather data and weather stations in the region. “Unfortunately, extreme weather is not well understood in northern South America,” Paola A. Arias, a professor at the University of Antioquia, said in a statement. “We urgently need more investment in climate science to understand shifting risks and prepare for what’s ahead. More science will save lives." Zachariah said Colombia and Venezuela must prepare for both rainfall and drought, and build resilience to extreme weather. Banner image: People look at their destroyed home after a deadly landslide was triggered by heavy rain in Colombia’s Antioquia department on June 25, 2025. Image by AP Photo/Fredy Amariles.

Deadly landslide and flooding in Colombia and Venezuela linked to rapid urbanization

Kristine Sabillo 18 Jul 2025
Most of the lightning strike victims tend to be farmers and fishers.

Study links surge in lightning disasters in Bangladesh to transboundary air pollution

Mahadi Al Hasnat 11 Jul 2025
Riding through a locust swarm in Lekiji, Samburu County, Kenya.

Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts return to northern Africa

Stephanie Achieng’ 3 Jul 2025
Pelicans have rebounded on the restored Queen Bess Island off the coast of Louisiana. Photo courtesy of Alisha Renfro

Pelicans recover, but dolphins and other species struggle 15 years after BP oil spill

Mongabay.com 18 Jun 2025
Rescuers evacuate people from a flooded hospital following landslides and flash flooding in India's northeast state of Manipur, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Donald Sairem)

Heavy rains inundate northeast India

Kristine Sabillo 6 Jun 2025
Banner image of Mokwa after the flooding, by the Nigerian National Emergency Management Agency via X.

Hundreds die after flash floods tear through Nigerian market town

Kristine Sabillo 5 Jun 2025

A fragile win as Indonesia cancels high-risk mine permit after court ruling

Hans Nicholas Jong 2 Jun 2025
Drought in Bangladesh.

Global warming hits hardest for those who can’t escape it

John Cannon 24 Apr 2025
Damage from the wind pictured in Beijing. Image from 飞蟹子/Weibo.

Typhoon-strength winds sweep across northern China, killing cyclist

Shanna Hanbury 15 Apr 2025

Award-winning film highlights lasting damage from X-Press Pearl disaster in Sri Lanka

Malaka Rodrigo 11 Apr 2025

Indonesia’s peatlands face growing flood risks amid widespread degradation

Hans Nicholas Jong 7 Apr 2025
Banner image floodwaters moving through Queensland by Bureau of Meteorology via Facebook.

Floods devastate normally arid parts of Australia’s Queensland

Kristine Sabillo 3 Apr 2025
Banner image of South Korea wildfires by NASA (Public domain).

Wildfires in South Korea kill at least 30 people

Kristine Sabillo 1 Apr 2025
Repsol’s 2022 oil spill contaminated two protected areas.

5 takeaways from the 2022 Repsol oil spill in Peru

Mongabay Latam 24 Mar 2025
The Stanley Plateau glacier in 2022. Africa’s remaining tropical glaciers are rapidly disappearing. Image courtesy of Project Pressure.

Africa’s last tropical glaciers are melting away along with local livelihoods

Sean Mowbray 21 Mar 2025
Oil spill in Ecuador’s northwestern Esmeraldas municipality. Image courtesy of Eduardo Rebolledo Monsalve.

Esmeraldas oil spill in Ecuador devastates rivers and wildlife refuge

Shanna Hanbury 19 Mar 2025
More than 200 people were killed in Valencia by the 2024 flood. The army joined rescue efforts in the worst flash floods ever to hit Spain, leaving victims in the ravaged region begging for aid.

A tale of two cities: What drove 2024’s Valencia and Porto Alegre floods?

Gerry McGovern, Sue Branford 12 Mar 2025
Scorched earth on the banks of the drought-stricken Xingu River on September 12th, 2024. Photo © Marizilda Cruppe / Greenpeace.

Will Brazil’s President Lula wake up to the climate crisis? (commentary)

Philip M. Fearnside 12 Mar 2025
Trees fallen due to winds and fooding.

Indonesia families evicted for Jakarta PIK2 project flooded at relocation site

Irfan Maulana 7 Mar 2025

Brazil has seen a 460% increase in climate-related disasters since the 1990s

Letícia Klein 11 Feb 2025

Global temperature in 2024 hits record 1.55°C over pre-industrial level

Shanna Hanbury 14 Jan 2025

At least 11,500 deaths linked to extreme weather in 2024

Shanna Hanbury 9 Jan 2025
The Missouri River floods Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base in March 2019. Photo credit: Rachelle Blake on Wikimedia Commons

Eastern U.S. floods could persist longer toward the end of the century

Jenna Ahart 4 Dec 2024

Coral biodiversity hotspot at risk from fossil fuel expansion, report warns

Ashley Yeong 13 Nov 2024

As 25 Earth vital signs worsen, scientists warn of ‘irreversible climate disaster’

Sean Mowbray 15 Oct 2024
Abdi Ahmed, in his late 60s, continues his pastoral life in Guyo Kebele, Somali Region, supporting his 19 children through a lifetime of nomadic herding.

Drought & climate change force Ethiopia pastoralists to go job hunting

Solomon Yimer 9 Oct 2024

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