In 2013, an 18-month old boy got sick after playing near a hollow tree in his backyard, in a remote West African village. He developed a fever and started vomiting. His stool turned black. Two days later, he died. Two years and more than 11,000 deaths later, the World Health Organization put out a report saying the Ebola outbreak that likely emanated from that hollow tree may have been caused in part by deforestation, led by "foreign mining and timber operations."

The cold waters of the planet’s north are highly susceptible to carbon absorption and under a ‘business as usual’ climate change scenario the impacts to marine ecosystems and food chains could be dire...

With the mercury set to soar to unprecedented levels in 2020, climate experts fear that record-high temperatures will make lingering coronavirus restrictions far more challenging. Scientists are increasingly concerned that the combination of global warming, a deepening economic crisis, and pandemic lockdowns could make for a long and sweltering season.

Anyone who has stood at the base of a redwood or visited Sequoia National Park knows the beauty of giant, old trees. But future generations may not get to experience that same sense of wonder. We’ve already lost a minimum of 30% of the world’s old-growth forests since 1900, and as trees face a host of environmental threats, their forests may be made up exclusively of younger, shorter trees.

Whether it’s a creaky old house or a brand new, state of the art office block, the buildings we live and work in have a big impact on the environment. The challenge to reduce this footprint is sizable. According to a recent report from the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction, International Energy Agency and the UN Environment Programme, building construction and operations were, globally, responsible for 36% of final energy use in 2018.

In almost every region of the world where hurricanes form, their maximum sustained winds are getting stronger. That is according to a new study by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Center for Environmental Information and University of Wisconsin–Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, who analyzed nearly 40 years of hurricane satellite imagery.

The inextricable connections between global warming and pandemics are ignored at our peril.

Across the United States, dams generate hydroelectric power, store water for drinking and irrigation, control flooding and create recreational opportunities such as slack-water boating and waterskiing.

Alarming heat scorched Siberia on Saturday as the small town of Verkhoyansk (67.5°N latitude) reached 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, 32 degrees above the normal high temperature. If verified, this is likely the hottest temperature ever recorded in Siberia and also the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic Circle, which begins at 66.5°N.

There is no herd immunity from the damage caused by millions of personal automobiles roaming city streets at all hours.

An “unprecedented” hole in the ozone layer which developed to become the largest ever seen over the Arctic has closed just weeks after opening, scientists observing the phenomenon have said. The gap in the vital layer, which protects the Earth from harmful radiation from the sun, set a new record for ozone depletion in the northern hemisphere when it formed earlier this month.

Artist Rob Arnold is spending his lockdown sifting plastic from 40 sacks of litter from his local beach. Two vans loads were collected from Tregantle beach in Cornwall before the lockdown came into effect. He has removed items including 50 million plastic beads, 200 car tyre dust caps and 300 Lego flippers. Rob is using the material he's sifted to make artwork to raise awareness of environmental issues.

Reports of localised air quality improvements during the coronavirus pandemic have given the false impression that the climate crisis is improving, warned experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) his week. The most recent data of atmospheric and ice core concentrations of carbon dioxide show that levels are in fact rising sharply, suggesting that even amidst the reduced industrial activity and air travel, we are still not taking enough action to clamp down on global carbon emissions.

Our sun has gone into lockdown, which could cause freezing weather, earthquakes and famine, scientists say. The sun is currently in a period of “solar minimum,” meaning activity on its surface has fallen dramatically. Experts believe we are about to enter the deepest period of sunshine “recession” ever recorded as sunspots have virtually disappeared.

Microplastics show up in soil, the deep ocean, beer, fish nurseries, table salt, bottled water, tea, all kinds of marine mammals, and human stool. One study published last year estimated that Americans might ingest as many as 121,000 of the particles per year. At less than 5 millimeters long, the tiny synthetic polymer particles are one of the most ubiquitous pollutants in our environment.

While we on Earth suffer from coronavirus, our star—the Sun—is having a lockdown all of its own. Spaceweather.com reports that already there have been 100 days in 2020 when our Sun has displayed zero sunspots. That makes 2020 the second consecutive year of a record-setting low number of sunspots— which you can see (a complete absence of) here.

Americans’ positions on climate change have remained largely unshaken by the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, according to a new national survey that showed acceptance of the reality of global warming at record highs in some categories. In the report, Climate Change in the American Mind, written by researchers at Yale University and George Mason University and scheduled to be made public on Tuesday, 73 percent of those polled said that climate change was happening, which matches the highest level of acceptance previously measured by the survey, from 2019.

The EU’s farming sector needs radical reform, and the common agricultural policy (CAP) must be rewritten if the climate crisis is to be tackled, a group of young climate activists will urge. Fridays for Future, founded by teenagers in the wake of Greta Thunberg’s school strikes, will confront the European commission’s vice-president, Frans Timmermans, online to call for new plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, and replace subsidies based on the amount of land farmed with payments for farmers supplying public goods, such as clean water, clean air and lower carbon emissions.

At least 30% of EU land and seas will be protected by 2030 to halt the decline of plant and animal species and restore carbon sinks to address climate change, under European Commission plans. The proposed biodiversity strategy, initially due to be released late March and delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, was published on Wednesday.

The Earth's magnetic field is weakening between Africa and South America, causing issues for satellites and space craft. Scientists studying the phenomenon observed that an area known as the South Atlantic Anomaly has grown considerably in recent years, though the reason for it is not entirely clear.