EurekAlert! Climate Change - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 18-Jun-2026 01:16 ET (18-Jun-2026 05:16 GMT/UTC)

12-Feb-2026

As nights warm, study flags possible prenatal link to autism risk

Tulane University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Children of mothers exposed to higher than typical nighttime temperatures during weeks 1-10 of pregnancy had a 15% higher risk of being diagnosed with autism. Exposure during weeks 30-37 was associated with a 13% higher risk. The findings add to a growing body of research exploring how environmental factors — including air pollution and wildfire smoke — may influence fetal neurodevelopment, and as global temperatures rise, this study is the first to examine how temperature can impact that development.

Journal: Science of The Total Environment
Funder: Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Environmental Protection Agency

12-Feb-2026

Frog love songs and the sounds of climate change

University of California - Davis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A good love song tells female frogs when the time is right for mating, finds a UC Davis study showing male frogs change their tune as the weather warms.

Journal: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment

12-Feb-2026

Sea turtles are nesting earlier – but producing fewer eggs, less often: new research

Queen Mary University of London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new 17-year study of loggerhead sea turtles nesting in Cabo Verde shows climate change having impacts that may threaten their long term survival. Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and conservationists from NGO Associação Projeto Biodiversidade report that warming oceans are triggering earlier nesting in one of the world’s most important loggerhead turtle populations. Yet at the same time, declining ocean productivity is reducing how often females reproduce and how many eggs they lay.

Journal: Animals
Funder: UKRI Natural Environment Research Council, Beasiswa Pendidikan Indonesia, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Regional Partnership for Coastal and Marine Conservation in West Africa (PRCM), Tui Care Foundation, RIU Hotels

12-Feb-2026

Climate policy must consider cross-border pollution “exchanges” to address inequality and achieve health benefits, research finds

Cardiff University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Ambitious climate action to improve global air quality could save up to 1.32 million lives per year by 2040, according to a new study.

The research, led by Cardiff University, shows how developing countries rely heavily on international cooperation to see these benefits, because much of their pollution originates outside their borders.

The first-of-its-kind study analysed these cross-border pollution “exchanges” for nearly every country – 168 in total.

Journal: Nature Communications

11-Feb-2026

Rebuilding trust in global climate mitigation scenarios

International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new IIASA-led study examines growing critiques of how global climate mitigation scenarios address equity and justice and identifies key conditions for fair, feasible, and politically credible climate action.

Journal: PLOS Climate

11-Feb-2026

One of the saltiest parts of the ocean is getting fresher

University of Colorado at Boulder
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Off the west coast of Australia, some seawater has lost nearly a third of its salty area in recent decades, as climate change-related current shifts push more fresh water into the region.

Journal: Nature Climate Change

11-Feb-2026

Root microbes could help oak trees adapt to drought

Cell Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Microbes could help oak trees cope with environmental change. Publishing February 11 in the Cell Press journal Cell Host & Microbe, a study observing oaks growing in a natural woodland found that the trees’ above- and below-ground microbiomes were resilient to drought, nutrient scarcity, and exposure to pathogenic beetles and bacteria. The trees showed subtle changes to their root-associated microbiota after prolonged drought, suggesting they can recruit beneficial bacteria under stressful conditions.

Journal: Cell Host & Microbe
Funder: UK Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarships project, European Social Fund, Woodland Heritage, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Natural Environment Research Council, Scottish Government

11-Feb-2026

UK winters becoming wetter due to increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

Newcastle University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

UK winters are becoming significantly wetter mainly due to warming driven by human burning of fossil fuels releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, a Newcastle University study reveals.

Journal: Geophysical Research Letters

11-Feb-2026

Climate attitudes unchanged before and after Hurricane Helene

University of Gothenburg
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Hurricane Helene, one of the deadliest hurricanes in US history, did not affect people’s views on climate change or their intentions to vote for politicians advocating stricter climate policies. This is shown in a new study from the University of Gothenburg.

Journal: Environmental Research Communications
Funder: Formas

11-Feb-2026

Flagship whales facing climate-driven decline in Australia

Flinders University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

The tide has turned on the conservation success story of the southern right whale.

Once considered a global conservation success story, the species is now emerging as a warning signal of how climate change is impacting threatened marine life, according to new research led by scientists from Flinders University and Curtin University with international collaborators in the US and South Africa.

Journal: Scientific Reports
Funder: Minderoo Foundation