EurekAlert! Climate Change - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Oct-2026 15:17 ET (21-Oct-2026 19:17 GMT/UTC)

WMO report on global water resources: worldwide continents are drying up

Johannes Gutenberg Universitaet Mainz
Reports and Proceedings

The global water cycle is becoming increasingly unbalanced. Extreme droughts and floods are the result. This is shown in this year's report by the World Meteorological Organization on the state of global water resources, "State of Global Water Resources 2025," which was published today. "The total volume of water stored on the continents is steadily decreasing," said Professor Robert Reinecke of the Department of Geography at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, who has played a key role in compiling the report, which has been published annually since 2022, from the very beginning.

Funder: World Meteorological Organization

Conserving just 35% of nation’s waterways could sustain freshwater biodiversity

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

By evaluating the health of waterways across the US, researchers have identified about one-third of rivers and streams that, if conserved and restored, could sustain the nation’s freshwater biodiversity in the face of habitat degradation and climate change. Mark Anderson of the Nature Conservancy, US, led the new study, published September 16, 2026, in the open access journal PLOS One.

Journal: PLOS One

Food & drink manufacturers can greatly improve sustainability and healthiness of their products with small changes – Oxford research

University of Oxford
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Leading UK food and drink manufacturers could significantly improve the overall nutrition and sustainability of their products by making changes to 10% or less of their existing product line, according to new research in Nature Food.

Journal: Nature Food

Climate change causes the Western Pacific Subtropical High stronger and more extreme

Science China Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A latest study published in National Science Review has resolved inconsistencies in the responses of Western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH) to greenhouse warming that arise from earlier definitions. The study reports a robust increase in WPSH’s area and intensity, its northwestward expansion, as well as in occurrence of stronger, longer-lasting record-breaking WPSH events under the past and future climate change scenario. These changes imply increasing risk exposure to monsoon rainfall extremes and heatwaves beyond historical experience for human society and communities.

Journal: National Science Review

Engineers crack puzzle of Arctic sea ice movement

University of California - Riverside
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Arctic sea ice moves and spreads in ways that wind alone cannot explain. A new UC Riverside-led study finds that collisions between individual pieces of ice provide a surprisingly simple explanation for these movements, potentially offering a better way to predict where sea ice will travel as the Arctic warms.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

Drought-flood alternation under climate change

PNAS Nexus
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Climate change is increasing the frequency of both droughts and floods, and that means that back-to-back extreme events are also on the rise. These rapidly alternating crises can harm people in complex ways.

Journal: PNAS Nexus

Acknowledging local climate change experiences is essential for policy reforms

University of Turku
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New study highlights the importance of lived experience, local knowledge, and community voices in climate change communication. The researchers call for climate policies and communication strategies in the Global South to move beyond broad, one-size-fits-all approaches and instead recognise the lived realities of the communities most exposed to climate change.

Journal: Ocean & Coastal Management

Greenhouse gas benefits of ag irrigation outweigh emissions costs

Colorado State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Irrigating U.S. crops prevents higher greenhouse gas emissions by avoiding land conversion, groundbreaking new research by Colorado State University shows.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: U.S. Department of Agriculture

New World Health Summit Academic Alliance-Lancet commission to strengthen academic responsibility and trust in science

Boston University School of Public Health
Business Announcement

In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, the World Health Summit Academic Alliance and leading medical journal The Lancet have launched a joint commission that will examine and strengthen the core responsibilities of academic institutions to health research and to society, and work to restore public trust in scientific institutions. The 30-member commission includes Dr. Adnan Hyder, dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health, who coauthored a new commentary in The Lancet to announce this initiative and call for international, cross-sector collaborations to combat health and science misinformation.

Chocolate’s new climate threat: Too much rain

Harvard University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Cocoa farmers in West Africa cannot stop intense downpours from damaging their crops. But they may be able to anticipate the risk and prepare, protecting both their livelihoods and their plants, the source of one of the world’s most beloved foods. Scientists at Harvard University and the University of Ghana say that large-scale weather patterns could make some threats to cocoa harvests predictable months in advance, giving farmers time to act.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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