Impact of climate change News

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A beaver swimming in a pond just after its release at Tásmam Koyóm in northern California.

Beavers restored to tribal lands in California benefit ecosystems

John Cannon 15 Sep 2025

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

Basten Gokkon 11 Sep 2025
In this file photo, men and women carry bananas and fish from the port in Leticia, Colombia.

How climate change could affect production of the world’s favorite fruit, the banana

Fernanda Biasoli 8 Sep 2025
Climate change threatens to disrupt the soil carbon cycle, potentially releasing billions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere and overshadowing international decarbonization efforts.

Soil carbon: Crucial ally or potential threat to net-zero commitments?

Claire Asher 3 Sep 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)

How scientists unmask climate change’s role in extreme weather

Kristine Sabillo 1 Sep 2025
An Indian pond heron or paddybird (Ardeola grayii) in a pond in Nepal.

In Nepal, artificial ponds offer drought relief despite lingering doubts

Mukesh Pokhrel 28 Aug 2025
Elephants are one of the species that have bounced back after Namibia’s independence in 1990.

Climate change tests the resilience of people and desert-adapted wildlife in Namibia

Petro Kotzé 21 Aug 2025
Banner image of a reindeer calf in 2009 at a Gabna Sámi village in Sweden, by Silje Bergum Kinsten/norden.org via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.5 DK).

Deadly Nordic heat wave made 10 times worse by climate change: Study

Kristine Sabillo 19 Aug 2025
View of central Kampala.

From counting trees to enhancing climate resiliency, Kampala focuses on its forests

Victoria Schneider 15 Aug 2025

As climate change burdens grow, community mental health alarm bells ring

Petro Kotzé 14 Aug 2025
A Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) ship.

World’s first industry-wide climate mandate could be launched with shipping vote

Edward Carver 7 Aug 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
AnIndian pitta (Pitta brachyura)

Can rainwater-fed ponds revive Bangladesh’s hilly streams?

Sadiqur Rahman 1 Aug 2025

When the sea takes over: Voices from a climate-displaced community in Mexico

Sam Lee 1 Aug 2025
Isidrio Hernandez-Ruiz and his son are participants of the collaborative reforestation trial with Smithsonian and Traditional Leadership.

Indigenous leadership and science revive Panama’s degraded lands

Mongabay.com 31 Jul 2025
Person standing in front of a fallen tree.

Global warming is altering storms lightning, impacting tropical forests

Sean Mowbray 28 Jul 2025
Mangroves in Raja Ampat.

Reversing damage to the world’s mangrove forests

Kristine Sabillo 25 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
Sunset at Joshua Tree National Park

In a warming world, can California save its Joshua trees?

Maya L. Kapoor 17 Jul 2025

The world’s children suffer brunt of wildfire smoke health impacts

Anna Dulisse 14 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

Suspicions surround international legal trade in Galápagos iguanas

Spoorthy Raman 10 Jul 2025
Using the law to save the planet | Against All Odds

Youth and women find success in taking climate cases to court

Mongabay.com 9 Jul 2025
Banner image of a flare stack by Yerevan Malarerva via Pexels.

UN rapporteur calls for ban on fossil fuel ads and criminalizing of disinformation

Kristine Sabillo 7 Jul 2025
Marbled white butterflies (Melanargia galathea)

Assisted colonization could be our ally in adapting to climate change, study suggests

Spoorthy Raman 2 Jul 2025
Banner image of buildings in New York, U.S., by Dietmar Rabich via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

104 companies linked to 20% of global environmental conflicts, study finds

Kristine Sabillo 30 Jun 2025
researcher glacier

Communities and ecosystems in Venezuela learn to adapt to life after glaciers

María Fernanda Rodríguez and Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez Torres 30 Jun 2025
For the Maya people, fire has always been a sacred element, central in ancestral Mother Earth celebration ceremonies.

Fire is both destruction and rebirth for Maya communities of Belize

Monica Pelliccia 27 Jun 2025
A ray swims over seagrass in Australia.

As ocean acidification ramps up, experts call for speedy ocean protection

Sean Mowbray 26 Jun 2025
Fungi are our climate allies | Against All Odds

Of mushrooms and mycelium: How fungi are powering eco-friendly solutions

Mongabay.com 24 Jun 2025
Banner image of drought in Brazil in 2023. Image by AP Photo/Edmar Barros.

Vatican-backed report calls for global debt relief amid climate crisis

Kristine Sabillo 20 Jun 2025
Clown anemonefish live symbiotically with anemone

When heat waves hit, clownfish shrink to survive, study finds

Keith Anthony Fabro 18 Jun 2025

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