Hairdressers could be a secret weapon in tackling climate change, new research finds
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 1-May-2026 12:16 ET (1-May-2026 16:16 GMT/UTC)
Indigenous peoples have used forest thinning to protect against wildfires for millennia. These traditional methods – including cultural burning – have often been neglected in modern times, which is thought to have contributed to wildfires in the US and elsewhere. Now, researchers have shown for the first time in a regional hotspot for wildfire risk and drought risk that forest thinning with modern tools has an additional benefit: it increases the snowpack in winter by 16 to 30%, thus recovering lost water and helping to safeguard its supply for natural and human needs.
With the rapid advancement of industrialization, urbanization, and modernization, human demand for energy has continued to grow. However, the extensive use of traditional fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and
natural gas, has not only led to the depletion of resources but also triggered a series of severe environmental
problems. In particular, the increasing emissions of greenhouse gases have caused global warming, resulting
in the melting of glaciers, rising sea levels, and more frequent extreme weather events, which pose a significant
threat to the earth’s ecosystem as well as to human survival and development.
Against the backdrop of global climate change, the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the UNFCCC,
held in November 2023, reached the UAE Consensus. The Parties agreed on establishing a roadmap to transition
away from fossil fuels, which has been described as “the beginning of the end of the fossil fuel era” [2]. To date,
more than 150 countries around the world have announced plans to achieve net-zero emissions or carbon
neutrality around 2050, and a profound and far-reaching third energy revolution is underway [3–5], marking an
unprecedented epoch-making shift in the energy domain. This paper explores the historical development of
energy revolutions, the cornerstones of the third energy revolution, and the new cognitive frameworks and
innovative thinking required for the construction of a new energy system.
The GRACE project (Growing Climate Resilience in Remote rural Areas through Community Empowerment) started in October 2025 and is funded under the Horizon Europe Programme and the EU Mission Adaptation to Climate Change. Coordinated by the Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC) in Italy, the project brings together 26 partners from 15 countries in a four-year collaboration focused on community-led adaptation, local innovation, and capacity-building in remote rural territories.
Researchers at Lund University have produced the most detailed map of carbon emissions from Swedish forest fires to date. The results show that the largest emissions occur below the ground surface, in peat and organic soils.
A recent study co-led by CityUHK found that strong El Niño events cause deeper, longer-lasting harm to human health than previously understood—by slowing long-term improvements in mortality rates for many years, shortening life expectancy, and generating major economic costs.
Bird migration is awe-inspiring. Animals mostly made of feathers take to the sky and complete round-trip journeys up to 40,000 kilometers long. The extremists migrate nonstop. Some fast the entire way. Most migratory species, however, engage in what ornithologists refer to as “stopovers” to refuel, rest, and wait out storms. A new literature review published in the Journal of Raptor Research emphasizes the need for more investigation into the importance of these stopover sites, newly defined in the review as places where individuals “pause their migratory movements for at least twenty-four hours.” Raptors are top predators with far-reaching impacts on their surrounding habitat, and they respond quickly to environmental change, making them effective bioindicators. Bolstering our knowledge of which areas are most crucial to the success of these long-distance journeys is therefore necessary, and increasingly possible as tracking technology improves.