The signs of serious, destructive climate change have been difficult to miss this year. Hurricanes Florence and Michael caused at least 98 deaths, billions of dollars of destruction, with tens of thousands of lives uprooted. In Iowa, we are seeing increased humidity, which is both uncomfortable and affects crop growth (increasing mold growth, insects, and hindering grain drying) as well as unprecedented rainfall (September saw 7.05 inches of rainfall in Iowa City, compared to the normal average of 3.35 inches).

Just two years ago, amid global fanfare, the Paris climate accords were signed — initiating what seemed, for a brief moment, like the beginning of a planet-saving movement. But almost immediately, the international goal it established of limiting global warming to two degrees Celsius began to seem, to many of the world’s most vulnerable, dramatically inadequate; the Marshall Islands’ representative gave it a blunter name, calling two degrees of warming “genocide.”

The average temperature of the planet has been rising since the 1700s and its Industrial Revolution. Three years ago, in 2015, 195 nations signed onto what is known as the Paris Accord. In it, they agreed to curb greenhouse gas emissions to limit that warming by 2100. The goal is not to let it exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over preindustrial times. But a new report says there may be big benefits to setting an even lower target.

The number of sheep and cattle in the UK should be reduced by between a fifth and a half to help combat climate change, a report says. The shift is needed, the government’s advisory Committee on Climate Change (CCC) maintains, because beef and lamb produce most farm greenhouse gases. The report foresees an increase in the number of pigs and chickens because these produce less methane. The farm union NFU said it did not agree with reducing livestock numbers.

The site is riddled with radioactive waste and toxic compounds. Where does it all go during a fire? By Elina Shatkin

Insurance companies offer exclusive firefighting services for high-paying clients that can help them mitigate the worst consequences of wildfire disasters. Most other people aren’t so lucky. By Caroline Haskins.

Climate change is altering America’s first national park so quickly that plants and animals may not be able to adapt.

Climate change could reduce fertility rates in male insects by at least half, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications. This is bad news for bugs and humans alike, because insects play a crucial role in pollinating our crops and stabilizing many of the food webs and ecosystems that we rely on. Led by Kirs Sales, a postgraduate researcher at the University of East Anglia in the UK, the research found that increasingly intense heat waves pose a serious threat to the reproductive fitness of insects worldwide.

Alerts had been going out for weeks that conditions in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas were perfect for wildfires. On March 6, 2017, the prairie went up in flames. By Ian Frazier.

2018’s wildfires are already proving to be more destructive than last year’s. The Camp Fire near Chico, California has already claimed at least 29 lives, destroyed more than 6,400 structures, and burned more than 111,000 acres since it began last Thursday. It is now the deadliest and most destructive fire in California’s history. Meanwhile, the Woolsey Fire continues to ravage Los Angeles County, burning 85,500 acres. This essay, published during last year’s brutal fire season, tackles many of the same issues as this year’s season.

Al Gore, the former U.S. Vice President and co-founder of Generation Investment Management, continues to ring the alarm that climate change and environmental damage is a global emergency. “This is the biggest challenge we’ve ever faced,” Gore said at the Summit LA18 festival. “Nuclear war is the only one in the same category, and we’ve held that at bay pretty successfully. This is an existential threat to our civilization and potentially our species.”

A new study has found that people would change their consumption habits to help the climate - even if this would have implications for their personal lives and shopping habits - and that this could play a significant role in helping the UK to reduce its carbon emissions.

2018 was a terrible year for Swiss glaciers.

As the Antarctic Peninsula heats up, the rules of life there are being ripped apart. Alarmed scientists aren’t sure what all the change means for the future. By Craig Welch, photographs by Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, Keith Ladzinski.

A trio of rapidly expanding wildfires are devastating the Golden State. By Eric Holthaus.

At least 44 people have been killed in California a result of the wildfires that have burned more than 100,000 acres of land in the state. The most vulnerable populations, including the elderly and people with disabilities, are at the highest risk of perishing in the fires, which were made more likely by climate change that exacerbated dryness and tinder availability in fire-prone areas.

Over and over we’ve gotten scientific wake-up calls, and over and over we’ve hit the snooze button. If we keep doing that, climate change will no longer be a problem, because calling something a problem implies there’s still a solution. By Bill McKibben.

A federal judge late Thursday blocked construction of the disputed Keystone XL oil pipeline, saying the Trump administration “simply discarded” the effect the project would have on climate change. The ruling by Judge Brian Morris of the United States District Court for Montana repudiates one of Donald J. Trump’s first acts as president.

Environmental groups say Russia, China and Norway played part in rejecting plan.

Apple reaffirmed its commitment to the Paris Agreement on climate change with a senior company official telling the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, that the iPhone maker could continue to profit while being environmentally responsible. "The air we breathe and the planet we leave to our children doesn't belong to any one party, it doesn't belong to any one ideology...

A collective-risk dilemma experiment with members of the public in Barcelona has shown that people are more or less likely to contribute money to fighting climate change depending on their how wealthy they are. And the results indicate that participants with fewer resources were prepared to contribute significantly more to the public good than wealthier people, sometimes up to twice as much.

A number of states had education bonds on Tuesday’s election ballots. Voters approved bonds to increase funding for education in New Jersey, New Mexico and Rhode Island, while similar bonds or referendums were defeated in Arizona and Colorado. Now legislators need to direct the new funding, as well as existing education funding, where we most desperately need it: science education.

In the face of global warming, polar bears continue to lose ground. The gradual withdrawal of the ice could lead to periods of scarcity with worrying repercussions. Among the victims of global warming, polar bears are probably the most iconic. These creatures have probably survived previous warm periods in the Arctic with stranded whale carcasses. However, this source of power may no longer suffice with the gradual removal of ice, reducing the number of platforms on the surface of which they can hunt seals.

Eleven people are confirmed killed as storms and floods hit the west and north of Italy.

The UN released a report this week showing the ozone layer is healing, with the hole over the South Pole expected to close completely by 2060. The Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018 has shown a continued decrease in ozone-depleting substances in the Earth's atmosphere since 2000.

An estimated 50,000 people marched in Montreal to show their support for climate action on Saturday, as part of a wider campaign with sister marches happening in cities throughout Quebec. The march was organized by a group called The Planet Goes to Parliament. Spokesperson Nathalie Roy said that the movement was born out of increasing frustration from citizens during the recent provincial election campaign.

Hurricane Walaka, one of the most powerful Pacific storms ever recorded, has erased an ecologically important remote northwestern island from the Hawaiian archipelago. Using satellite imagery, federal scientists confirmed Monday that East Island, a critical habitat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals and green sea turtles, was almost entirely washed away earlier this month.

After an investigation of more than three years, the state's attorney general has sued Exxon Mobil, accusing it of downplaying the risks of global warming to its business.

A parasitic fungus that grows wild throughout the Himalayas and sells for more than its weight in gold could vanish if current harvesting and climate trends continue, according to new research from Stanford University.

Those rising temperatures are creating an epic underwater refugee crisis among marine life.

"It could be a game-changer in the fight against climate change," the executive director of the Sierra Club said.

Even modest warming leads to more drought and excessive heat for barley crops.

Research shows how ancient Angkor experienced the same challenges as modern urban networks. As we move further into a period characterised by extreme weather events, the resilience of our urban infrastructure will be tested. Will our cities go down like Angkor did? By Dan Penny.

Humanity may have to start removing as much carbon as all the world’s forests and soils currently absorb each year to meet Paris Agreement goals, according to Princeton climate scientist .

With a growing world population and climate challenges that are causing agricultural areas to shrink, many are wondering where sustainable food will come from in the future. A professor of gastrophysics from the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen and a chef offer a suggestion in a new research article: The cephalopod population (including squid, octopus and cuttlefish) in the oceans is growing and growing – let’s get better at cooking them so that many more people will want to eat them!