Why Climate Change Is Making Flooding Worse

Although floods are a natural occurrence, human-caused climate change is making severe flooding events like these more common. 

Indigenous Elders recently shared their dismay about the unprecedented decline in salmon populations in British Columbia’s three largest salmon-producing rivers.

Solar panels, heat pumps and hydrogen are all building blocks of a clean energy economy. But are they truly “essential to the national defense”?

Being able to target which areas would have the highest reduction in mortality can justify these campaigns, not only as a mitigation measure, but as a way to directly improve health.

We are facing a much different fire regime in a hotter, drier world. In the western U.S., the area burned by wildfires has doubled since the mid-1980s compared to natural levels. 

Urbanisation, and the destruction of habitat it entails, is a major threat to native bird populations. But as our new research shows, restored urban forests can return native birds to our cities and improve species richness.

An extreme heatwave in India and Pakistan has left more than a billion people in one of the most densely populated parts of the world facing temperatures well above 40℃. Although this has not broken all-time records for the regions, the hottest part of the year is yet to come.

While the first decade of the 2000s saw huge growth in natural gas generation, and the 2010s were the decade of wind and solar, early signs suggest the innovation of the 2020s may be a boom in “hybrid” power plants.

It’s easy to feel pessimistic when scientists around the world are warning that climate change has advanced so far, it’s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. But as two of theauthors of a recent international climate report, we also see reason for optimism.

The report finds that in addition to rapid and deep reductions in greenhouse emissions, CO₂ removal is “an essential element of scenarios that limit warming to 1.5℃ or likely below 2℃ by 2100”.

Waterfront homes are selling within days of going on the market, and the same story is playing out all along the South Florida coast at a time when scientificreportsare warning about the rising risks of coastal flooding as the planet warms.

Brace yourselves, allergy sufferers – new research shows pollen season is going to get a lot longer and more intense with climate change.

Livestock has been blamed for contributing to deforestation, biodiversity loss, competition for edible grains and poor animal welfare conditions.

Scientists regularly study the ongoing degradation of Earth’s environment and track the changes wrought by a warming planet. Economists warn that intensifying disasters are harming people’s quality of life.

From self-replicating molecules in Archean seas, to eyeless fish in the Cambrian deep, to mammals scurrying from dinosaurs in the dark, and then, finally, improbably, ourselves – evolution shaped us.

Climate change means extreme events such as floods, bushfires and droughts will become more frequent and severe. Those events will disrupt food supply chains, as people along Australia’s sodden east coast have seen again in recent weeks.

There is a scientific reason that humans feel better walking through the woods than strolling down a city street, according to a new paper.

This isn’t the first time that Britain has experienced drastic climate change, however. By the 16th and 17th centuries, northern Europe had left its medieval warm period and was languishing in what is sometimes called the little ice age.

Governments have delayed action on climate change for too long, and incremental changes in energy and food production will no longer be enough to create a climate-resilient future, a new analysis from scientists around the world warns.

What do the English concept of the countryside, the French paysage, the Spanish dehesas and Australian Aboriginal country have in common?

If Congress has given clear direction on the question at issue, courts and agencies must follow Congress’ expressed intent. However, if the statute is “silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue,” then courts should defer to the agency’s interpretation of the statute as long as it is reasonable.

Mountain glaciers are essential water sources for nearly a quarter of the global population. But figuring out just how much ice they hold – and how much water will be available as glaciers shrink in a warming world – has been notoriously difficult.

China has more solar power capacity than any other country and makes many of the world’s solar cells, but coal is still its top energy source.