As climate change accelerates, scientists are sounding the alarm about its potentially devastating impact on the world's food supply. In a paper published by Trends in Plant Science, an international team of researchers warns that without rapid changes to how we develop climate-resilient crops, we could face widespread food shortages leading to famine, mass migration, and global instability.

Climate change is driving global extinction risks, with 1.6% of species threatened at 1.3°C of warming and risks escalating to 29.7% at 5.4°C, according to a new meta-analysis encompassing more than 30 years of research. Climate change is reshaping ecosystems and biodiversity globally, altering species distributions, interactions, and population dynamics. While some species adapt or migrate to track shifting climates, others face population declines, shrinking ranges, and potential extinction. Recent global biodiversity assessments forecast extinction risks for over a million species, though the specific contribution of climate change to these predictions remains unclear. Effective conservation efforts to protect this biodiversity require an understanding of these risks globally, but to do so requires a comprehensive synthesis of many datasets. To produce a quantitative estimate of extinctions attributable to climate change, Mark Urban performed a formal meta-analysis that incorporates more than 5.5 million individual projections from 485 studies covering most known species. The author’s analysis greatly advances prior assessments by tripling the number of studies included and leveraging sophisticated modeling approaches that account for species’ sensitivity and adaptability to climate change. According to the findings, under current global temperatures, which are currently 1.3°C above preindustrial levels, 1.6% of species are expected to face extinction. As temperatures rise to 1.5°C – the Paris Agreement’s target – extinction risks increase to 1.8%, and further to 2.7% at 2.0°C. With international emission targets leading to a projected 2.7°C rise, 1 in 20 species will be at risk. Beyond this, extinction risks escalate sharply; 14.9% at 4.3°C and 29.7% at 5.4°C. Amphibians; species from mountain, island, and freshwater ecosystems; and species inhabiting South America, Australia, and New Zealand face the greatest threats.

Australia's forest ecosystems, renowned for their extraordinary diversity of rare plants and animals, also play a vital role in mitigating climate change by absorbing and storing carbon. However, fossils from these ancient forests are reshaping the understanding of modern forest management practices. According to Peter Wilf, professor of geosciences at Penn State, current methods, including prescribed burning, may be disrupting the delicate ecological balance.

This report makes the economic case for nature-based solutions as part of a proactive approach to drought management.

From devastating wildfires and landslides to droughts and extreme heat waves, climate-related events disrupt the lives of communities around the world. How these events impact the health of Los Angeles’s vulnerable communities is a question numerous USC researchers are working to solve. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $4.1 million to a USC-led initiative to build a community of transdisciplinary scientists and a robust infrastructure with the goal of advancing solution-oriented climate change adaptation and health research. The center is called CLIMA, short for the CLIMAte-related Exposures, Adaptation and Health Equity Center. CLIMA researchers have been collaborating with USC Dornsife Public Exchange and the City of Los Angeles Climate Emergency Mobilization Office (CEMO) to build a visual mapping tool called a StoryMap, which can add narrative context to the city and county’s extreme heat challenges. By combining Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping with accessible climate storytelling, the StoryMap can inform the public about the risks associated with extreme heat, as well as provide resources for and information regarding the City of Los Angeles’ #HeatRelief4LA campaign.