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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.