EurekAlert! Climate Change - Latest News Releases

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 6-Sep-2025 18:11 ET (6-Sep-2025 22:11 GMT/UTC)

Ash dieback is triple whammy for net zero plans

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Ash dieback and other tree diseases are resulting in significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought because a large amount of carbon is escaping from woodland soils, a study has found. This is in addition to carbon losses from tens of millions of dying trees and reduced removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere due to the widespread deaths of mature ash trees. The research team led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) etimate losses from soils alone due to ash dieback in British woodlands resulted in 5.8 million tonnes of CO₂emissions over five years (2016-21).

Journal: Global Change Biology
Funder: Woodland Trust, EU Horizon Europe research and innovation programme

Industry managed forests more likely to fuel megafires

University of Utah
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Timber companies are more likely to use plantation forestry—clear-cutting and replanting trees close together. Leveraging a unique lidar dataset, the authors created 3D maps of forest before five wildfires burned 1.1 million acres. During extreme weather, the number of trees per acre was the strongest predictor of high-severity fire. Thinning trees would reduce risk, even in the face of accelerating climate change.

Journal: Global Change Biology
Funder: Wilkes Climate Center for Climate Science and Policy, U.S. National Science Foundation

Earth System Models project the start of the Amazon dieback within the 21st century

National Institute for Environmental Studies
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study led by researchers at the National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan Agency for Marine-Earthe Science and Technology and The University of Tokyo published in Communications Earth & Environment, analyzed long-term projections from state-of-the-art Earth System Models and identified large-scale atmospheric circulation and ecosystem changes that lead to the degradation of the Amazon rainforest. The research reveals that if no efforts are made to stop climate change, the dieback of the Amazon rainforest may start within the 21st century.

Journal: Communications Earth & Environment
Funder: The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency and the Ministry of Environment of Japan, KAKENHI

Will climate change promote the spread of Dengue fever through Western Europe?

Wiley
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Although Dengue fever has long been recognized as a disease of the tropics and sub-tropics, a study published in Global Change Biology reveals that it is likely to spread increasingly northward and through Western Europe as climate change expands the Asian tiger mosquito’s habitat.

Journal: Global Change Biology

Researchers identify increased microbial carbon use efficiency upon abrupt permafrost thaw

Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team led by Prof. YANG Yuanhe from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has shown how microbes can stabilize soil carbon and potentially weaken the climate risk.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

World Mosquito Day 2025: Europe sets new records for mosquito-borne diseases: ECDC supporting Member States in adapting to ‘new normal’

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
Reports and Proceedings

Europe is experiencing longer and more intense transmission seasons for mosquito-borne diseases, including WNV infection and chikungunya virus disease. This shift is driven by climatic and environmental factors such as rising temperatures, longer summer seasons, milder winters and changes in rainfall patterns — conditions that combine to create a favourable environment for mosquitoes to thrive and transmit viruses.

MSU scientist partners on biofuel policy for a carbon-neutral agricultural future

Michigan State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A team of economists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Madhu Khanna and Gal Hochman), the University of California-Berkeley (David Zilberman) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Jeffrey O’Hara), including Michigan State University environmental scientist Bruno Basso, came together to propose a groundbreaking “climate-smart” biofuel policy that could revolutionize the agricultural sector’s role in mitigating climate change and improving ecosystems services.

Journal: Science

Q&A: What can AI developers learn from climate activists

University of Washington
Reports and Proceedings

The goals of those developing AI systems for the climate and those working on the front lines of climate advocacy don’t necessarily align. To compare the two groups, UW researchers interviewed nine people who are developing AI for sustainability and 10 climate advocates.

Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation

Climate change is on track to shift key tree species like beech and Norway spruce north: European forests will be completely changed by the year 2100

Aarhus University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In just a few decades, the climate in many of the world’s forests will be so changed that many trees will have difficulty surviving. For example, in wide parts of lowland Central Europe, there is a risk that species such as European beech and Norway spruce will be squeezed out, according to new research from Aarhus University.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: Villum Fonden

In Africa, heat waves are hotter and longer than 40 years ago, UIC researchers say

University of Illinois Chicago
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Greenhouse gas emissions, black carbon and other human activities are responsible for 70% of these changes.

Journal: Communications Earth & Environment

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