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.

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.”

Methane emissions from the oil and gas sector held steady in the United States even as oil and gas production increased during a recent period of heightened regulations, according to new research from Johns Hopkins University. The study, published today in Nature Communications Earth & Environment, is part of an effort to determine whether federal greenhouse gas legislation and mandates have meaningfully decreased methane emissions.