EurekAlert! Climate Change - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 20-Oct-2026 13:17 ET (20-Oct-2026 17:17 GMT/UTC)

New USDA-funded research project to explore the impact of short-term drought on lawns

Binghamton University
Grant and Award Announcement

A new USDA grant will to fund a research project at Binghamton University, State University of New York to explore the impact of short-term drought on lawns.

Q&A: UW doctoral student on expanding climate models to better capture the complexities of public health

University of Washington
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists and policymakers use scenarios called Shared Socioeconomic Pathways to project how today’s choices affect tomorrow’s world. But for complex subjects like public health, these intentionally simple scenarios don’t capture every complexity.

Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health
Funder: Wellcome Trust

'Oxford Handbook of Climate Action' rounds up a world's worth of ideas and expertise

University of California - Merced
Book Announcement

Climate change is a global crisis and the search for solutions is increasingly technological. A new, 700-page volume edited by a sociologist from the University of California, Merced demonstrates that moving people, institutions and communities to act may be just as consequential as technological solutions to climate change. “The Oxford Handbook of Climate Action” gathers 39 chapters from over 60 top environmental and climate scholars around the world.

With a warming climate, heatwaves and wildfires are conjoining, and more than half the world’s population is impacted

Monash University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A twenty-year study, by researchers at Monash University in Australia, reveals that the number of people exposed to both wildfires and heatwaves globally, on the same days, has increased by 287 million over the two decades from 2000 to 2019, and that over half of the world’s population has experienced these conjoined weather events over the 20 years.

Journal: Science Advances

Trees: On your marks, get set, grow!

University of Göttingen
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The fight for survival in the forest is fierce: light, water and nutrients are all limited. This is particularly true in “mast years” – times when trees and shrubs produce an unusually large crop of fruits, nuts, or seeds. Then the race for growth is really on. But can differences in height between trees in their first year of life make a difference to their future, even if these differences are just one or two centimetres? Researchers at the University of Göttingen have now shown that beech seedlings which are slightly taller than their immediate neighbours at the end of their first year of life have a higher chance of survival two decades later. The results were published in the Journal of Ecology.

Journal: Journal of Ecology

Satellites accurately detect methane emissions in large-scale test

Stanford University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers analyzed spaceborne instrument observations of controlled methane releases in a yearlong experiment led by Stanford scientists. The results can inform efforts to identify major methane sources, eliminate leaks, and reduce emissions of the potent greenhouse gas.

Journal: Nature
Funder: Global Methane Hub, Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Saudi Aramco, Stanford Knight-Hennessy Scholars program, Natural Gas Initiative (Stanford industrial affiliates program)

International scientists issue 2026 State of the Climate report, finding climate progress amid intensifying risks

American Institute of Biological Sciences
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new report (https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/biosci/biag125) published in the journal BioScience warns that “Earth’s climate system is moving deeper into uncharted territory,” with seven of 16 climate-related planetary vital signs now at record extremes. The study, co-led by Dr. William J. Ripple of Oregon State University and Dr. Christopher Wolf of Terrestrial Ecosystems Research Associates, describes the situation plainly: “We are witnessing the rapid destabilization of the Earth’s climate system. This is no longer a warning for the future; it is a diagnosis of the present.”

Journal: BioScience
Funder: CO2 Foundation

Report: Earth’s climate system increasingly unstable, but signs of positive change emerge

Oregon State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The seventh annual report by an international coalition led by Oregon State University scientists says the Earth’s climate system is quickly becoming unstable and that while signs of important societal changes are emerging, greater and faster action is necessary.

Journal: BioScience
Funder: CO2 Foundation

Honeybees exert flower power over other species

Anglia Ruskin University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Honeybees are outcompeting wild pollinators in the UK and research has found evidence of their aggressive behaviour.

The new study took place in and around the city of Cambridge and recorded, for the first time, the extent to which honeybees restrict access to food and attack and chase wild pollinators.

The research, by a team from Anglia Ruskin University, also indicates that climate change could further intensify competition between pollinator species.

Journal: Ecological Entomology

Wide-scale cropland loss has consequences for wildfire resilience in the American West, new research finds

Desert Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The Western U.S. is facing parallel and escalating hazards in the form of ongoing drought and increasingly frequent wildfires. Although the region’s ecosystems have evolved with wildfires, the intensity and frequency of blazes where people live and recreate remains a persistent challenge for communities. New research examines tradeoffs in wildfire resilience when Western communities face hard decisions about adaptation strategies to drought, such as retiring or converting irrigated cropland. The question has widespread implications across the region, with more than 4 million hectares of cropland loss across the Western U.S. over the last 40 years.

Journal: Environmental Research Letters

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