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    The Pacific island nation of Palau, often described as one of the world’s last untouched paradises, is taking decisive steps to protect its people from the growing threats of climate change. With support from the United Nations, the country is building and strengthening a national network of climate-resilient disaster shelters designed to withstand extreme weather events and safeguard vulnerable communities. Palau, an archipelago of more than 500 islands in the western Pacific Ocean, is among the countries least responsible for global climate change. Yet it is one of the most exposed to its impacts. Rising sea levels, intensifying typhoons, storm surges and coastal flooding are increasingly shaping daily life and national planning. For Seth Techitong, the changes ...

    Vulnerable communities across Chad are now receiving improved climate, meteorological and hydrological services, along with life-saving early warnings, following the successful completion of a six-year project funded by the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems (CREWS) initiative. The US$3.15 million project, implemented between 2019 and 2025, was designed to strengthen Chad’s national capacity to deliver climate and early warning services in key sectors and high-risk communities. Led by the World Bank’s Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), with US$1.5 million implemented by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the initiative has laid the foundation for a more integrated, modern and people-centred early warning system in the country. ...

    When devastating floods swept through Mozambique in 2000, the story of a baby born in a tree as her mother clung to branches above the rising Limpopo River captured international attention. The child, later nicknamed Rosita by the press, became a symbol of hope and resilience in the face of disaster. But her life, which began amid catastrophe, ended quietly on 12 January 2026. Rosita reportedly died of anaemia at a provincial health centre, a condition that could have been treated within a stronger and better-resourced health system. Her death coincided with yet another wave of severe flooding in southern Mozambique, underscoring the country’s persistent vulnerability. In late January 2026, weeks of heavy rainfall submerged large parts of southern Mozambique, affe...

    After major disasters, public debate often frames them as unexpected or unprecedented events. This reaction is not necessarily due to a lack of warnings. Rather, it reflects how societies process shock and how authorities frequently portray disruption as unavoidable instead of the outcome of earlier institutional choices. In reality, extreme weather events are rarely unpredictable. Scientists are often able to identify increased risks of storms, floods, droughts, or other hazards days or even weeks in advance. Yet despite these warnings, destructive outcomes continue to occur. An examination of the catastrophic floods that struck Luxembourg in July 2021, the most damaging disaster in the country’s recorded history, provides insight into why this happens. By recons...

    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...