A 2023 Dartmouth study that quantified the global economic fallout of El Niño is included in this year’s 10 New Insights in Climate Science report, a compendium of pivotal climate research from the past 18 months. The 10NICS report is intended to drive international climate policy, particularly during the 29th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) being held in Azerbaijan next month.

A survey of patients receiving gender affirming care shows that commercial insurance pays for most of their treatments, they receive less care in the South than other parts of the U.S. and they deal with disproportionate levels of housing insecurity and trauma compared to others, according to a new study by researchers at the Colorado School of Public Health and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

The study, using data provided by Kythera Labs, a healthcare clearinghouse, examined millions of insurance claims by patients undergoing gender affirming care (GA) and those not. It also looked at social determinants of healthcare (SDOH), non-medical factors which affect a person’s quality of life.

The study was published today in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

It showed that commercial insurance covered 72.8% of GA claims followed by Medicaid at 17.2 %, other insurance at 6.6% and Medicare at 3.5%. GA patients incurred more claims across all insurance and age groups, about 87% more overall.

A new study by Silent Spring Institute and UC Berkeley shows that a California law, Proposition 65, has helped reduce people’s exposures, both in California and the U.S., to toxic chemicals in their everyday lives that cause cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm. The study is the first to evaluate the effectiveness of the toxics law and shows the benefits extend nationwide. 

Carbon emissions play a key role in global warming caused by human activity. To comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change, China and Germany are aiming to significantly reduce their carbon emissions. Today, the President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Professor (ETHZ) Dr Gerald Haug, and the President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Dr Jianguo Hou, jointly signed the “Berlin Declaration: On the Path to Carbon Neutrality” at the opening of the Science for Future conference titled “On the Path to Carbon Neutrality”. The declaration emphasises the importance of basic research and international cooperation to achieve carbon neutrality, and sets out specific measures to reduce CO₂ emissions.