All posts tagged: climate change

Heatwaves and wildfires affect over 50% of world’s population

Heatwaves and wildfires affect over 50% of world’s population

Published by Miika Tikkanen

More than half the world’s population has experienced simultaneous exposure to heatwaves and wildfires, and the number of people affected has risen sharply over two decades. That striking statistic comes from research at Monash University in Australia, which examined global exposure to extreme heat and landscape fire pollution between 2000 and 2019. It found that the number of people exposed to both hazards on the same day increased by 287 million over the study period, highlighting the growing overlap between extreme temperatures and wildfire smoke. Led by Dr Yao Wu and Professors Yuming Guo and Shanshan Li, the research warns that climate warming could increase exposure to these combined events, raising concerns about their effects on respiratory and cardiovascular health. Heatwaves and wildfires increasingly overlap The researchers examined how exposure to heatwaves and wildfire pollution varied by region, over time, and across population groups. Their findings show that almost 56% of the global population experienced increasing exposure to both hazards during the 20-year study period. Among people living in populated areas, the proportion was 52.4%. …

They War-Gamed Dimming the Sun. It Went Even Worse Than You Think

They War-Gamed Dimming the Sun. It Went Even Worse Than You Think

Published by Miika Tikkanen

When it comes to deciding the fate of the planet, Dr. Colleen Golja always thought science and reason would have a seat at the table. That was until one morning last September in London, when the climate researcher took part in the first in a series of war games. The goal: to prevent an uncontrolled global race to develop a technology aimed at cooling the planet but that comes with vast, unknown risks that could reshape life on Earth. “I thought that would be such an easy thing. Like, we can all agree to do ethical research and make sure it’s for the better of all humans,” she told WIRED. “And boy, was I wrong.” The simulation, titled Exploring Geopolitical Tipping Points and Climate Cooling Strategies, saw a couple dozen foreign-relations experts, scientists, military personnel, and former government officials from across the world convene in a meeting room at Queen Mary University of London. After making introductions over coffee and little yogurts, they sat at tables arranged in a square with the name of the …

California’s Tallest and Most Iconic Trees Are Getting Heatstroke

California’s Tallest and Most Iconic Trees Are Getting Heatstroke

Published by Miika Tikkanen

“It’s kind of a double whammy,” said Todd Dawson, a plant ecophysiologist at the University of California Berkeley, who also didn’t participate in the study. “They’re running out of water and also getting this heat stress,” he said. “They’re used to living in a very narrow temperature range of 8 to 27 degrees Celsius (about 46 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit). California, like everywhere, has been getting long periods of much warmer days than we’ve ever experienced, and now the fog, which is normally kind of like an air conditioner, has also declined between 30 and 40 percent.” These temperature swings also impact the organisms living high up in the trees. “If they experience really excessive heat throughout the summer,” Ambrose said, “then the soil mats and ferns will probably dry out much faster. And then those salamanders and birds might not be able to live there. So we’ll see cascading effects through the whole ecosystem at that point.” Klinek said, the trees seem to be doing okay after the heat passes; while the leaves she …

How Europe is building flood-resilient infrastructure

How Europe is building flood-resilient infrastructure

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Europe is entering a new phase of flood adaptation. Instead of relying solely on higher barriers and larger drainage systems, cities and governments are increasingly redesigning the infrastructure around rivers, coastlines and urban areas to cope with water when extreme events occur. The shift is being driven by a simple problem: much of Europe’s infrastructure was designed around historical weather patterns, while roads, railways, energy networks, hospitals and cities are expected to remain operational for decades. The European Environment Agency (EEA) has identified infrastructure as one of the areas facing major climate risks, with floods already causing damage to transport networks and other critical systems. As a result, flood-resilient infrastructure is becoming less about keeping every drop of water out and more about designing places and systems that can withstand flooding, safely manage excess water and recover quickly afterwards. Designing infrastructure around future flood risk The challenge for European planners is not simply to respond to the floods being experienced today. Infrastructure built now may remain in use for many decades, meaning decisions made during …

Oregon State develops new material to aid carbon capture in factory flue emissions

Oregon State develops new material to aid carbon capture in factory flue emissions

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Oregon State University scientists have filed a patent application for a new carbon capture material that turns water in factory flue emissions from a problem into an advantage. Metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, is important because industrial activities, among them burning fossil fuels for energy, account for a significant percentage of the carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere. In the United States, 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions are from industry, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Published in Angewandte Chemie, the findings show that the new MOF, dubbed BVR-X, essentially directs water and carbon dioxide to different regions inside its pores, preventing water from blocking the places where carbon dioxide is captured. Porous but structurally versatile “This internal organisation helps the material work under conditions that more closely resemble real industrial emissions,” said Kyriakos Stylianou, professor of chemistry in the OSU College of Science. MOFs are crystalline materials made up of positively charged metal ions surrounded by organic “linker” molecules known as ligands. The metal ions make nodes that bind the linkers’ arms to form …

Heatwaves, wildfires expose a third of world to extreme ozone pollution

Heatwaves, wildfires expose a third of world to extreme ozone pollution

Published by Sam Flores

Heatwaves and wildfires combined with human-caused emissions this year to expose one third of the world’s population to extremely high levels of ozone pollution, a European Union report said on Wednesday. In a new analysis covering the first eight months of 2026, the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) highlighted the close relationship between climate change and air pollution. When heat and sunlight react with airborne emissions from wildfires, vehicles and industry, they create ground-level ozone pollution, which can damage lung tissue, cause breathing problems, trigger asthma attacks and lead to other health issues. Despite progress in cutting the most harmful air pollutants in recent decades, ozone has proved more difficult to tackle as climate change fuels the conditions that favour its formation. Read moreFrance puts out massive fire that torched 42,000 hectares and smouldered for 69 days This year’s ozone pollution was driven in part by record-breaking heatwaves and wildfires that seared Europe and North America and sent smoke well beyond their borders. Indonesia has experienced major wildfires, while the warming El …

Maui wildfires linked to metals exposure and abnormal lung function

Maui wildfires linked to metals exposure and abnormal lung function

Published by Miika Tikkanen

The health effects of the Maui wildfires may have continued long after the flames were extinguished, with new research finding elevated levels of several metals in residents more than six months after the disaster. Researchers from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa analysed biological and lung-function data from 1,400 Maui adults between six and 18 months after the August 2023 fires. The study found substantially higher concentrations of several metals in participants compared with US biomonitoring reference data, while greater overall metal exposure was associated with abnormal measures of lung function. The findings suggest that exposure following a major wildfire can be more complicated than smoke inhalation alone. Fires that destroy developed areas can burn buildings, vehicles, electronics, treated timber and infrastructure, while also disturbing contaminants already present in soil and the wider environment. Metal exposure remained months after Maui wildfires The study, conducted through the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Maui Wildfire Exposure Study (MauiWES), measured 24 metals in participants’ urine alongside standardised pulmonary function tests. Several metals were present at markedly higher concentrations …

New climate models are zooming in on regional risks

New climate models are zooming in on regional risks

Published by Miika Tikkanen

More detailed climate models are helping researchers explore how climate change may affect particular regions and how human actions shape the risks ahead. From his office on the outskirts of the French city of Toulouse, Roland Séférian literally charts out the future of our planet. Working at the National Centre for Meteorological Research (CNRM), the climate scientist designs models that project future climate change. Among the best known are the models featured in reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body that assesses the science of climate change. These models simulate the entire Earth system by dividing it into a grid of large boxes, known as grid cells. This can make it difficult to capture the smaller-scale processes that shape climate risks in particular places. Researchers across Europe are developing new Earth-system models to address two related challenges: representing more fully how human activities change the climate, and simulating climate processes more realistically at global and local scales. Tracking human influence The latest models Séférian has been working on tackle the …

Ministers release update as UK households urged to stockpile 9 items | Personal Finance | Finance

Ministers release update as UK households urged to stockpile 9 items | Personal Finance | Finance

Published by Sam Flores

Dan Jarvis Minister of State (Security Minister) gave an update on a campaign to encourage stockpil (Image: Parliament TV) Nine items UK households are urged to stockpile as Ministers issue fresh guidance calling on people to set aside nine essential supplies amid growing concern over potential emergencies striking Britain. The UK has weathered a succession of crises in recent years, encompassing wildfires, droughts and dangerously intense heatwaves, while anxiety mounts over foreign cyber or so-called ‘hybrid’ assaults on critical infrastructure. Further strain is being placed on oil supplies after Saudi Arabia’s principal energy firm suspended certain deliveries to Europe following attacks on vital pipelines, with the ongoing Middle East conflict severely disrupting tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz. Earlier this month, Defence Secretary Wes Streeting issued an urgent warning encouraging households to stockpile nine essential items, cautioning that emergencies can arise without warning. The UK Government announced this summer that it would shortly publish a significant strategy addressing national resilience and the country’s capacity to withstand major crises. In a recent parliamentary question, Conservative …

Wildfire Smoke causes greater health risks than other air pollution

Wildfire Smoke causes greater health risks than other air pollution

Published by Miika Tikkanen

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that wildfire smoke may carry greater health risks than equivalent amounts of air pollution from other sources. Two large-scale studies examined long-term exposure to wildfire-related fine particulate matter (PM2.5), finding stronger associations with cardiovascular and respiratory hospitalisations, as well as poorer survival among people with lung cancer. The research, led by first author Min Zhang, PhD, and senior author Yaguang Wei, PhD, compared wildfire-related PM2.5 with pollution from non-wildfire sources. Published in The Lancet Oncology and Nature Communications, the studies examined health outcomes across millions of people in the United States. Together, the findings suggest that the source of air pollution may matter as much as the amount people are exposed to. Wildfire-related PM2.5 was linked with greater health risks per unit of exposure, suggesting that wildfire smoke represents a distinct environmental health concern rather than simply another source of particulate pollution. Wildfire smoke and lung cancer survival The first study investigated the relationship between long-term wildfire-related PM2.5 exposure and survival among older …