EurekAlert! Climate Change - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Jun-2026 17:15 ET (21-Jun-2026 21:15 GMT/UTC)

Half of the world’s coral reefs suffered major bleaching during the 2014–2017 global heatwave

Smithsonian
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For the first time, an international team led by Smithsonian researchers estimated the extent of coral bleaching worldwide during a global marine heatwave, finding that half of the world’s reefs experienced significant damage between 2014 and 2017. Another heatwave began in 2023 and is ongoing.

Journal: Nature Communications

Bison hunters abandoned long-used site 1,100 years ago to adapt to changing climate

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

More than 1,000 years ago, bison hunters on the Great Plains of North America left behind a small hunting site despite the continued presence of bison. Their abrupt departure could not be explained until researchers dug deeper and found that it wasn’t bison depletion that drove hunters elsewhere. Instead, they may have responded to decade-long droughts and moved to sites with a more reliable supply of water and had features that better lent themselves to an emerging and more coordinated way of hunting. This pattern shows bison presence alone wasn’t enough to keep hunters at a site. Rather, climate variability favored select sites and different ways of hunting that weren’t always reversed when environmental conditions improved.

Journal: Frontiers in Conservation Science

UW researchers use satellite data to quantify methane loss in the stratosphere

University of Washington
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A University of Washington study shows that existing models underestimate methane loss in the stratosphere and generate uncertainty in the global methane budget — a key metric for tracking climate change.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Climate change could halve areas suitable for cattle, sheep and goat farming by 2100

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study conducted at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows that grassland-based grazing systems – currently covering a third of the Earth’s surface and representing the world’s largest production system – will see a severe contraction as global temperatures rise. Depending on the scenario analysed, 36-50 percent of the land with suitable climatic conditions for grazing today will experience a loss of viability by 2100, affecting more than 100 million pastoralists and up to 1.6 billion grazing animals.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Glaciers in retreat: Uncovering tourism’s contradictions

University of Lausanne
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As glaciers around the world melt at unprecedented rates, tourism in these icy landscapes is booming, adding pressure to vulnerable regions and disrupting delicate ecosystems. A collective effort, led by UNIL and published in Nature Climate Change, points to ways of balancing tourism with conservation, awareness, and social equity.

Journal: Nature Climate Change

Why melting glaciers are drawing more visitors and what that says about climate change

Rice University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As glaciers around the world continue to shrink and disappear, they are drawing more visitors than ever, not only for their beauty but for what they have come to represent in an era of climate change. A new study co-authored by Rice University anthropologist Cymene Howe examines this phenomenon, showing how melting glaciers have become powerful destinations for tourism, sites of collective grief and symbols of political meaning even as their loss threatens the communities that depend on them.

Journal: Nature Climate Change

“This engine is grinding to a halt” - Nature slowing down as climate change gains pace

Queen Mary University of London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Many ecologists hypothesise that, as global warming accelerates, change in nature must speed up. They assume that as temperatures rise and climatic zones shift, species will face local extinction and colonize new habitats at an ever-increasing rate, leading to a rapid reshuffling of ecological communities.

A new study by researchers at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and published in Nature Communications shows this is emphatically not the case.

Journal: Nature Communications

How to “green” operating rooms: new guideline advises reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink

Canadian Medical Association Journal
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Reduce, reuse, recycle, and rethink can be applied in Canadian operating rooms (ORs) to increase environmental sustainability, advises a new guideline published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.251192.

Journal: Canadian Medical Association Journal

New global review reveals integrating finance, technology, and governance is key to equitable climate action

Biochar Editorial Office, Shenyang Agricultural University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new global review highlights that tackling climate change requires more than funding or innovation alone. Researchers emphasize that meaningful climate action depends on the coordinated integration of financial systems, technological solutions, and governance reforms. The study presents a comprehensive framework designed to help countries, especially developing nations, implement effective and equitable climate strategies.

‘Energy efficiency’ key to mountain birds adapting to changing environmental conditions

University of East Anglia
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research from the University of East Anglia (UEA) finds that 'energy efficiency' appears to influence how mountain birds adapt to changes in climate. Researchers looked at seasonal changes in the elevational distributions of birds - how high in the mountain birds go at different times of year - for nearly 11,000 avian populations across 34 mountain regions worldwide, including in Asia, Europe and the Americas, as well as Southern African and Australia.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: Wolfson Foundation, Royal Society

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