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    Here are 3 big ideas to combat climate change, with or without COP

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    Belém, Brazil — The Amazon rainforest is a poster child for the perils of climate change. Deforestation and warming temperatures threaten to push the iconic forest past its limits.

    So Belém, in the heart of the Amazon, was a momentous place for global climate leaders to meet on the 10th anniversary of an international pledge to try to rein in climate change. Some 196 nations signed that pledge, known as the Paris Agreement, promising to collectively reduce their greenhouse gas emissions enough to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius relative to preindustrial times by 2100.  More

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      Combining western science with Indigenous knowledge could help the Arctic

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      The Arctic char, a red-pink bellied relative of trout and salmon, is a staple food source for millions of people living in the Arctic. But that dynamic is being embrangled by climate change, as the Arctic is warming two to four times faster than the rest of the world.

      Marianne Falardeau, a polar marine ecologist at Université TÉLUQ in Quebec City, Canada, studies how climate change is reshaping boreal and polar marine ecosystems and the benefits those ecosystems provide to people, aiming to help northern communities adapt to the shifting environment. In 2022, she coauthored a study showing how to make small-scale fisheries in the Arctic more resilient in the face of climate change. More

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      Life-saving research on extreme heat comes under fire

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      Located just a few hours’ drive from the Canadian border, Missoula, Mont. is not known for sweltering temperatures. And yet heat waves are becoming more common in the mountainous region due to climate change, and researchers are concerned that a catastrophic heat event could soon shock the 120,000 or so people who call Missoula County home. Recent history reveals the cost of being unprepared for extreme heat; in 2021, the Pacific Northwest was caught off guard by the strongest heat wave the region had seen in a thousand years, resulting in more than 1,400 deaths.

      “We’ve come to understand that heat is a major threat to our region,” says Alli Kane, the Climate Action Program Coordinator for Missoula County. “And it’s something that we’re not prepared for.” More

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      A special shape shift helps a shrub thrive in blistering heat

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      From growing smaller leaves to shape-shifting its insides, a desert flowering plant goes all in to flourish in the harshest of conditions.

      Summer temperatures in Death Valley National Park frequently exceed 50° Celsius (122° Fahrenheit). During that peak heat, most desert plants hope simply to cling to life. Not the Arizona honeysweet (Tidestromia oblongifolia). It thrives by making cellular and genetic tweaks, notably changing the shape of a microscopic structure that converts light and carbon dioxide into energy, researchers report in the Nov. 7 Current Biology. More

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      Mosquitoes infiltrated Iceland. Will they survive the winter?

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      Iceland’s first mosquitoes are poised to face a frosty test. Winter is coming, and it’s uncertain whether these newcomers might stick around until spring.

      The Nordic island, previously one of the last places on Earth without mosquitoes, hosted at least a few Culiseta annulata mosquitoes this year, the Natural Science Institute of Iceland announced October 21. In mid-October, local resident Björn Hjaltason captured two female and one male mosquito using a ribbon soaked in red wine while on a farm north of the capital, Reykjavík. The ribbon usually attracts moths but also lured the mosquitoes, the first confirmed in Iceland. More

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      Polar bears provide millions of kilograms of food for other Arctic species

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      In a single year, one polar bear can leave roughly 300 kilograms of prey for other animals to dine on. Altogether, the carnivores provide 7.6 million kilograms of carrion for scavengers throughout the Arctic, researchers estimate.

      The findings, reported October 28 in Oikos, highlight the crucial role these apex predators play in feeding a vast array of species and hints at the way that food web might be shaken as climate change warms the Arctic, endangering polar bear populations. More

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      Australia’s tropical forests now emit CO₂, clouding the COP30 talks

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      Australia’s tropical forests are the world’s first to flip a worrisome switch. The forests are now putting more carbon into the atmosphere than they are taking out, researchers report in the Oct. 16 Nature.

      That switch is a clanging alarm bell for the planet’s tropical forests, sounding as world leaders prepare to gather in the heart of the Amazon rainforest to wrangle over how to address the crisis of global climate change. The 30th annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP30, begins November 10 in Belém, Brazil. More

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      As wildfires worsen, science can help communities avoid destruction

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      Bright flecks of burning wood stream through the smoky air and toward a hapless house. Before the one-story structure, the glowing specks, each merely centimeters in size, seem insignificant. But each lofted ember is a seed of destruction. Researchers estimate that embers cause somewhere between 60 to 90 percent of home ignitions.

      Next to the house stands a trash bin, its lid propped open with sheets of cardboard inside. The fiery spores enter and in seconds flames sprout inside. Within minutes, a column of fire rises and licks the house’s sidewall. Black flaps of vinyl siding begin to peel and writhe. Burning chunks fall to the ground, and a crackling, smoldering fissure grows up the wall. Orange, blue and purple flames roar as they ascend toward the roof. More