The effects of climate change encompass the biophysical and socio-environmental consequences arising from long-term shifts in climate variables driven primarily by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Key effects include increased global mean surface and ocean temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, sea-level rise via thermal expansion and cryosphere melt, and increased frequency and intensity of heatwaves, droughts, extreme precipitation events, and some categories of tropical cyclones. These changes cascade into impacts on hydrological regimes, ecosystem structure and function, species distributions, biogeochemical cycles, agricultural productivity, human health, and infrastructure, often interacting nonlinearly and amplifying existing environmental and socioeconomic vulnerabilities.
Much is being made of a record-strength El Niño event that could well spell a drier, windier summer for the north and east of New Zealand. But, as a major new assessment shows, it is forming against a backdrop of warming ...
Environment
Oct 19, 2026
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19
As governments prepare to gather in Yerevan, Armenia, this week for the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP17), new research identifies 13% of Earth's land area as hotspots for biodiversity conservation, highlighting where ...
Environment
Oct 19, 2026
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19
One-quarter of the world's data centers are located in areas where water demand exceeds supply for at least one month each year, according to a new global analysis. Researchers reporting in Environmental Science & Technology ...
Environment
Oct 19, 2026
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175
A new study led by researchers at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium) reveals that glaciers worldwide could lose ice faster than previously projected. Published in Nature Communications, ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 19, 2026
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52
Depending on the cultivar, higher concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere can significantly alter the protein composition of wheat. This affects not only baking quality but potentially also the tolerability ...
Agriculture
Oct 18, 2026
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79
As human activity has increased temperatures globally, determining the costs directly incurred by climate change is challenging. The effects of climate change on extreme weather events—such as hurricanes and heat waves—can ...
Environment
Oct 17, 2026
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27
Wind does more than sway trees. It also plays an important role in determining an ecosystem's water-use efficiency—defined as the amount of carbon an ecosystem absorbs per unit of water lost. Water-use efficiency is an important ...
Ecology
Oct 16, 2026
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17
A study led by the Centre for Global Wood Security formally defines the concept of global wood security and identifies the 20 greatest challenges to wood security in the 21st century.
Environment
Oct 16, 2026
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14
A Florida State University–led review shows how ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry can help researchers identify the molecular fingerprints of human activity in water systems around the world.
Environment
Oct 16, 2026
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43
Expanded excavations at White Sands National Park in New Mexico have provided researchers an opportunity to refine the age of the oldest human footprints in North America and establish a deeper understanding of the landscape ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 15, 2026
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