EurekAlert! Climate Change - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Oct-2026 12:16 ET (21-Oct-2026 16:16 GMT/UTC)

Children born today in Europe will live through almost twice as much extreme fire weather as their grandparents

Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Peer-Reviewed Publication

VUB study shows young Europeans will experience years of dangerous fire weather over their lifetime as climate warms, but rapid emissions cuts could substantially reduce their exposure. A child born in Europe in 2025 will live through more than three additional years of extreme fire weather compared with someone born in 1950 if we continue with current climate policies, according to new research published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. That’s an 84% increase for today’s babies when compared to their grandparents. The vast majority (86%) of this increase is due to climate change rather than increased longevity.

Journal: Environmental Research Letters

Spatiotemporal patterns, loads, and risks of microplastics in subtropical coastal stormwater system

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study in Macao reveals that stormwater drains carry significant microplastic pollution into coastal waters. Concentrations reached over 53 particles per litre, with hazardous polymers like PVC posing high ecological risks. The research highlights how land use and rainfall drive this pollution pathway in subtropical coastal cities.

Journal: Emerging Contaminants
Funder: Science and Technology Development Fund, Macao SAR

Just half the world's 475 million smallholder farmers could meet all of humanity’s additional food needs in 2050 while restoring soils and biodiversity

Whole Earth Farming
Book Announcement

Hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers could help feed a growing global population while restoring nature, yet they remain among the least-supported food producers. Whole Earth Farming says the Global South’s roughly 475 million smallholder farms already produce about 30% of the world’s food, despite limited access to finance, markets and training. Author Hugh Locke argues that helping half of these farming families adopt regenerative agriculture and agroforestry could produce the additional food needed through 2050 while improving soils, biodiversity and ecosystems.

Can Catalonia survive without economic growth? A new study says it can

Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Reports and Proceedings

With an unprecedented level of detail, an ICTA-UAB report describes the policies required to put a post-growth transition into practice in Catalonia (Spain). The measures could be applicable in both a national and international context.

Early heat waves hit wheat yields hardest but boost their resilience to subsequent heat waves

Society for Experimental Biology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research published in the Journal of Experimental Botany reveals that wheat crops are more sensitive to grain yield losses from heat waves that occur before reaching their flowering stage than those occuring later. However, exposure to heat waves early in the growing season may reduce yield losses during additional heat waves through a protective “priming” effect.

Journal: Journal of Experimental Botany

In hottest summer on record, 2 in 3 Americans say climate change is increasing heat-related illnesses

Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Reports and Proceedings

Extreme heat is affecting the everyday lives of most Americans, according to a new Annenberg survey which finds that two-thirds of the public say climate change is increasing the risk of respiratory diseases and heat- and insect-related illnesses.

AMS Science Preview: High-res global forecasting, tornado emergencies

American Meteorological Society
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Recent research in AMS journals spotlights tornado emergencies, kilometer-scale global weather forecasting, a new normal for polar sea ice, links between Tibetan snow cover and intense tropical cyclones, and more.

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

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