Month: February 2026

    A comprehensive new study analyzing nearly four decades of global disaster data reveals that while hundreds of thousands of lives have been saved through improved preparedness and infrastructure, climate-related death risks are increasing in some regions due to rising exposure and intensifying hazards. The research, led by Benjamin B. Cael, assistant professor in the Department of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, examined nearly 2,000 of the world’s deadliest climate hazard events recorded since 1988. Drawing on data from EM-DAT, the largest public database of disaster-related mortality, the study identifies long-term trends in how floods, storms and extreme temperatures affect populations across different continents. Published in Geophysical Res...

    For centuries, the Lighthouse of Alexandria has stood at the crossroads of history and legend. Known in antiquity as the Pharos, it was one of the tallest structures of the ancient world and guided ships safely into one of the Mediterranean’s busiest ports. Over time, earthquakes shattered the monument, its stones sank beneath the sea, and the lighthouse slowly slipped into myth. Now, archaeologists working in Alexandria’s Eastern Harbor have brought a significant part of that lost wonder back into the light. Researchers have successfully raised 22 massive stone blocks from the seabed, some weighing between 70 and 80 tonnes. These newly recovered pieces are believed to belong to the lighthouse itself and may offer the clearest evidence yet of a grand, long-lost monum...

    A new global study has found that intense sunlight rather than temperature, rainfall, or pollution is a major force reducing plant diversity and biomass in grasslands worldwide, raising fresh concerns about how ecosystems will cope with climate change. The research, led by Marie Spohn of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that high levels of photosynthetically active radiation the wavelengths of sunlight used in photosynthesis can overwhelm plants, limiting both the number of species and the total plant growth in grassland ecosystems. Grasslands, which include North American prairies, the Serengeti savanna, Alpine pastures, and Arctic tundra regions like Svalbard, cover vast a...

    Gurgaon’s civic authorities have rolled out a wide-ranging action plan aimed at tackling the city’s worsening air pollution, focusing on public transport expansion, electric mobility, dust control and large-scale road redevelopment. The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has set a target to reduce key air quality parameters by 10 per cent by December 2026, signalling a more aggressive approach to combating pollution in one of India’s fastest-growing urban centres. The plan, recently submitted to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), addresses multiple sources of pollution vehicular emissions, road dust, construction activity, waste management and congestion through coordinated interventions and sustained monitoring. Under the proposed roadmap, MCG...

    Forests are doing more for the climate than they are often credited for. New long-term research shows that forest soils can become increasingly effective at removing methane from the atmosphere as the planet warms, challenging the assumption that climate change will always weaken natural carbon and greenhouse gas sinks. A study based on nearly 25 years of continuous measurements in southwest Germany has found that forest soils in the region are absorbing methane at a steadily increasing rate. The research, carried out by scientists at the University of Göttingen, shows that methane uptake by soils across 13 forest plots rose by about 3% per year over the monitoring period, even as temperatures gradually increased and rainfall patterns shifted. Methane is a powerfu...

The rare discovery of a deep-sea telescope octopus off the Kerala coast has sparked serious concern among marine scientists, who warn that unregulated deep-sea shrimp trawling may be causing extensive damage to marine ecosystems, fish stocks and the livelihoods of fishing communities. The warning follows the first confirmed record of the telescope octopus (Amphitretus pelagicus) in Indian waters. The specimen was documented from the Laccadive Sea after being caught as bycatch off the Kollam coast last year, and the finding has now been published in the Russian Journal of Marine Biology a peer-reviewed journal by Springer. While the discovery is being hailed as a significant scientific milestone, researchers involved in the study say it has also exposed major gaps in the monitoring an...

    As the global plastic crisis deepens, a new generation of packaging is emerging with a clear message: break down naturally or don’t exist at all. Design and materials company Sway has evolved its compostable plastic bags made from seaweed, offering an alternative to conventional plastic packaging that is designed to return to the soil rather than linger in landfills or oceans for decades. Unlike traditional plastics that rely on recycling systems often stretched to their limits, these bags are intentionally created for composting. The goal, the company says, is not to recycle plastic endlessly, but to eliminate long-term plastic waste altogether. Sway’s packaging is made using a blend of seaweed, plant-based materials and compostable polymers. Seaweed, a fast-grow...

    January 2026 ranked as the fifth warmest January globally, even as large parts of Europe and North America endured an intense cold spell driven by a highly unstable Arctic jet stream, according to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The global average temperature for the month was 1.47 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average (1850–1900), making it 0.28 degrees Celsius cooler than the record-breaking January 2025 anomaly of 1.75 degrees Celsius. Despite frigid conditions across parts of the Northern Hemisphere, extreme heat in the Southern Hemisphere and persistently warm oceans kept global temperatures among the highest on record. Throughout January, a wavier-than-normal Arctic jet stream domina...

    Mumbai’s drinking water supply is set for a significant transformation over the next few years, with French water and wastewater management major Veolia expected to meet nearly 60% of the city’s total potable water demand by the end of the decade. According to Guillaume Dourdin, Chief Executive Officer and Country Director of Veolia India, two large-scale water treatment facilities currently under development at Bhandup and Panjrapur will together supply close to 3,000 million litres per day (MLD) of drinking water by 2030. The plants are scheduled to become operational in phases, with the Bhandup facility expected to go live by 2029 and the Panjrapur plant by 2030. The projects are part of Mumbai’s long-term efforts to modernise its ageing water infrastructure an...