Month: July 2025

In a remarkable display of people-powered environmental action, more than 10,000 villagers across coastal Tamil Nadu have helped revive the state’s largest mangrove forest the 2,057-hectare Muthupet wetlands using a mix of traditional knowledge, scientific design, and grassroots mobilisation. Located where the Koraiyar and Pamaniyar rivers meet the Palk Strait, the Muthupet wetland complex plays a critical role in supporting biodiversity, protecting villages from storm surges, and acting as a vital fish nursery. But in recent decades, silt accumulation, blocked tidal flows, and canopy loss had left vast tracts barren and degraded, threatening the livelihoods of local fishing communities. Under the Green Tamil Nadu Mission, launched in 2022, the Tiruvarur Forest Division, led by Distr...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Telangana government for clearing forest land under the pretext of sustainable urban development, stating that no authority can “destroy forests overnight” in the name of progress. The case pertains to nearly 400 acres in the ecologically sensitive Kancha Gachibowli area of Hyderabad a region that has seen rapid real estate and infrastructure expansion due to its proximity to the city’s IT corridor. The court had earlier halted all deforestation in this zone in April through suo moto proceedings. Chief Justice of India Bhushan R Gavai, heading the bench, said, “I am an advocate of sustainable development, but that does not mean you will employ 30 bulldozers overnight and destroy all forest land.” His comments came after visuals ...

As China grapples with intensifying heatwaves, the country’s industrial sector is undergoing a quiet but powerful transformation. A new study shows that rising temperatures are pushing Chinese firms to innovate faster not just in areas directly hit by heat but across the entire economy driven by shifting consumer demand and tighter government climate policies. The research by Long and Wang (2025) reveals that since 2003, climate stress has led to an 8.62% rise in patents for adaptation technologies such as cooling systems and a 10.68% jump in patents aimed at climate mitigation, including carbon reduction tools. What’s striking is that these innovations often emerge in regions that are not the hottest highlighting that companies are responding to where their customers need solutions the...

A vital gap in Earth’s space weather defense system has finally been closed. After nearly two decades without monitoring in a key region of the globe, scientists have reactivated a solar cosmic ray detection station atop Haleakalā, a dormant volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui. This marks a major step in restoring the planet’s global space weather monitoring network crucial for forecasting solar storms that can disrupt power grids, GPS, and satellite systems. For 19 years, a giant hole stretched across the equator of the Pacific from Thailand to Mexico City leaving scientists blind to important data as powerful, high-energy particles from solar flares bombarded Earth. Now, with the return of a neutron monitor on Haleakalā, that blind spot has been filled. Standing at 10,023 feet, ...

The summer of 2025 has become one of the wettest and deadliest in U.S. history, with a staggering 3,600+ flash flood warnings issued across the country by late July nearing the annual average, with more rain still to come. Communities from Texas to New York have been battered by torrential downpours, turning ordinary streets into rivers and camps into deadly traps. Flash floods swept through Texas Hill Country on July 4, killing more than 135 people, including children at a summer camp near Hunt. Rivers rose by more than 30 feet in just 45 minutes in Kerrville, driven by record-breaking rainfall fueled by historic levels of atmospheric water vapor. From New Mexico to Vermont, and Kansas to New Jersey, states have reported severe flash flooding, infrastructure collapse, and widespread...

A comprehensive 24-year study has revealed a sharp decline in coral health across the Lakshadweep Archipelago, with live coral cover dropping by nearly 50% since 1998 due to repeated marine heatwaves. The findings, published on July 17, 2025, in Diversity and Distributions, highlight how even the toughest corals are struggling to recover as climate shocks become more frequent. Scientists from India and Spain studied 12 reef sites across Agatti, Kadmat, and Kavaratti islands, observing the impacts of three major marine heatwaves triggered by El Niño events in 1998, 2010, and 2016. The most severe of these occurred in 2010, with a Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) score of 6.7, a key indicator of sustained ocean heat stress that causes coral bleaching. Coral cover in the region plunged from a...

The Indian government has rolled out city-specific action plans to tackle worsening air pollution in 130 cities with populations over one million, as part of the ongoing National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). These targeted efforts aim to address major pollution sources such as road dust, construction activity, vehicle emissions, stubble burning, and industrial pollution. Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Kirti Vardhan Singh informed Parliament that ₹13,036 crore has been released under NCAP since FY20, with ₹9,209 crore already utilized by urban local bodies for pollution control measures. The action plans focus on traffic decongestion, road upgrades, junction improvements, and expanding green cover in polluted areas. Source Apportionment (SA) studies conduc...

As scorching summer temperatures grip Canada once again, wildfires are tearing across landscapes, destroying homes, forcing evacuations, and pushing communities to their limits. The fires, now more frequent and intense than ever, are the product of decades of fire suppression, rising global temperatures, and changing land-use patterns. But new research from the University of Victoria’s POLIS Wildfire Resilience Project says the key to protecting lives and nature may lie not in fighting every fire but in learning to live with fire. Published amid one of Canada’s most severe wildfire seasons, the study outlines how beneficial fires those planned and managed for ecological, cultural, and safety outcomes can reduce the risk of catastrophic blazes while restoring fire-resilient landscapes. T...

A new study published in Nature on July 21, 2025, has uncovered a dangerous intersection of extreme heat and worsening air quality in Kigali, Rwanda offering a stark warning for fast-growing cities across sub-Saharan Africa. The research, conducted between May 2021 and December 2024, shows how Kigali’s rapid urbanisation coupled with vehicle emissions, biomass burning, and stagnant air conditions has created a perfect storm of heat and pollution. As one of Africa’s fastest-growing capitals, Kigali now faces increasingly frequent heatwaves and high levels of harmful pollutants like PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), and ozone (O₃). Drawing data from 12 air quality monitoring stations operated by the Human Environment, Location, Transport and Health Research Lab and Rwanda’s Environmental ...

As Europe swelters under record-breaking summer temperatures, a new and unlikely political flashpoint has emerged: air conditioning. Once viewed as a luxury or even a symbol of American excess, air conditioning is rapidly becoming a necessity in cities across the continent and a source of fierce political debate. A brutal heatwave that gripped Western Europe in June and July triggered a rush on air conditioners, leaving appliance stores across France, Germany, and Italy scrambling to meet demand. The heat arrived earlier than usual, catching many off guard before their usual summer exodus to the coast. In France alone, over 1,000 schools were forced to partially or fully close due to a lack of cooling infrastructure. Europeans are now grappling with a tough question: how to balance t...