Storm surges and extreme water levels along coastlines occur significantly more frequently today than at the beginning of the 20th century. A new study in the journal Nature Climate Change shows that what was statistically expected to occur only once every 100 years around 1900 now occurs, in global average, about every eight years. This corresponds to an increase by a factor of about twelve. The team of authors includes Prof. Ben Marzeion from the Institute of Geography and MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences at the University of Bremen.

 

Global rice production nearly doubled between the 1960s and the 2010s, despite the negative impacts of climate change, according to a new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The study found that management decisions — including expanded irrigation and increased nutrient inputs — played a central role in sustaining rice production and offsetting climate-related losses. The results of the study suggest that future food security will depend not only on environmental conditions, but also on how rice production systems are managed and adapted to changing conditions.

Climate change could make historically rare tropical cyclones more common in Southern California, significantly expanding landslide risk across the region by 2050.

An online navigation tool developed at Arizona State University chooses walking paths based on forecasts of mean radiant temperature, a measure of the total heat load experienced in a given location, including reflected heat and sun exposure. The current version covers ASU's Tempe campus, but it is an open-source framework that can be put to work in other cities to support walking, biking, and public transit use.

A Boston College-led study suggests that enhanced mid-ocean-ridge volcanism may have released hydrothermal iron that fertilized plankton in the eastern equatorial Pacific during ice-age transitions. The work reveals a hidden connection among sea level, deep-sea volcanism, ocean productivity, carbon storage, and climate.

Millions of children under age five worldwide suffer from childhood stunting. A critical marker of chronic undernutrition, stunting represents a lifelong constraint on human potential, carrying a heightened risk of mortality, chronic disease, impaired cognitive development and reduced economic opportunity. A new study from the University of Notre Dame reveals that human-caused climate change is actively worsening this public health crisis, acting alongside structural socioeconomic disparities that already challenge the next generation’s ability to thrive.

A new study published in National Science Review has revealed that global warming may reshape the distribution of sunlight reaching Earth’s surface. Climate models project reduced downward surface solar radiation over polar regions but increased radiation over Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes, especially in local summer. The contrast is driven by increased atmospheric water vapor, reduced mid-latitude clouds, and enhanced polar cloud liquid water.