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    Flood disasters combined with other climate hazards such as droughts, heatwaves and windstorms have increased sharply across Europe over the past three decades, according to a new international study led by scientists from the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC). The research found that more than 70% of flood events recorded in Europe between 1981 and 2020 were actually “compound events” disasters where floods occurred alongside at least one additional hazard. Researchers warned that these overlapping climate extremes are causing far greater economic and social damage than floods alone. The study revealed that losses from compound flood events were on average 2.8 times higher than losses caused by standalone floods. Every flood event ranked among the...

    Patna: With severe heatwave conditions expected across several districts of Bihar, the state government has decided to strengthen its early warning systems at the village level to protect vulnerable communities from extreme heat and lightning strikes. Disaster management minister Ratnesh Sada announced the move after a high-level review meeting held on Wednesday. He said the government’s top priority is to safeguard poor families, daily wage labourers, farmers and marginalised communities who face the greatest risk during extreme weather events. The meeting was chaired by Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) vice-chairman Uday Kant and attended by officials from the disaster management department and the Bihar Meteorological Service Centre. Accordi...

    While large parts of India continue to struggle under intense summer heat, Ladakh’s Zojila Pass witnessed an unexpected spell of fresh snowfall in May, turning the mountain landscape white and disrupting traffic along the Srinagar-Ladakh highway. Fresh snow covered areas near Minamarg on Thursday, creating a sharp contrast with conditions in the plains where temperatures have been hovering between 42°C and 47°C. The sudden weather shift brought chilly winds and freezing temperatures to the high-altitude region even as northern and central India remained under severe heatwave conditions. Authorities temporarily closed the strategic Srinagar-Ladakh road after snowfall made travel risky near Zojila Pass, which sits at an altitude of more than 3.5 kilometres above sea...

    A new study has found that the horsetail plant (Equisetum), a lineage that has existed on Earth for over 400 million years, produces internal water with an oxygen isotope signature so unusual that scientists say it resembles material more commonly associated with extraterrestrial samples. Researchers reported that water moving through the hollow stems of the plant showed an extreme shift in oxygen isotope composition from the base to the tip. At the upper sections, evaporation had enriched the water so strongly in heavier oxygen isotopes that it exceeded any previously recorded value in terrestrial materials. The study, led by scientists at the University of New Mexico, shows that this transformation happens entirely within the plant’s stem as water rises upward a...

    From scorching heatwaves in India to unexpected snowfall in Ladakh, deadly floods in Latin America, and rising global pressure for climate accountability, a series of recent events and scientific reports are highlighting how climate change is rapidly reshaping weather patterns and disaster risks across the world. In Bihar, the state government has announced plans to strengthen village-level early warning systems to protect people from severe heatwaves and lightning strikes. Disaster Management Minister Ratnesh Sada said protecting poor families, farmers, daily wage workers, and vulnerable communities remains the government’s top priority as temperatures continue to rise across the state. Officials warned that several districts in southern and central Bihar could e...

    A new scientific discovery beneath Chile’s Atacama Desert is reshaping how researchers think about where life might exist beyond Earth especially on Mars. Scientists have identified potentially viable microbial communities as deep as 4.2 metres below the surface of one of the driest places on Earth. The finding suggests that even in extremely harsh, Mars like environments, life may persist underground in isolated and slow moving ecosystems. The Atacama Desert has long served as a natural testing ground for planetary science because of its extreme dryness, high salinity and low biological activity conditions that closely resemble those on Mars in several ways. However, researchers emphasize that it is not a replica of Mars, but rather a useful “analogue” for studyi...

    Maharashtra latest ecological policy move marks a significant shift in how India may begin to think about environmental restoration not just as a tree-planting exercise, but as a broader effort to revive entire ecosystems. The state’s newly announced Green Maharashtra Commission and the ambitious 300 Crore Tree Plantation Mission (2026–2047) aim to expand forest and tree cover to 33 per cent. But unlike earlier plantation-driven approaches, the focus is now expanding toward landscape-level restoration, ecological planning, and long-term survival of plantations. A key change in the government resolution issued on May 7, 2026, is its clear recognition that restoration cannot be limited to forests alone. It explicitly states that grasslands and wetlands should not be...

    As India struggles through rising temperatures and severe heatwaves, meteorologists are closely watching a developing climate event in the Pacific Ocean that could shape the country future for months ahead. Scientists warn that the possible return of El Niño during 2026 may weaken the southwest monsoon, raising concerns over agriculture, water supplies, food prices and the rural economy. The southwest monsoon delivers nearly 70 percent of India’s annual rainfall and remains the backbone of farming across the country. But experts say warming sea temperatures in the Pacific Ocean are beginning to signal the emergence of El Niño, a global climate pattern often associated with hotter and drier weather conditions in Asia. Climate specialists explain that El Niño develo...

    In a breakthrough that could reshape the future of manufacturing, scientists from Rice University and University of Houston have created a next generation material made from bacterial cellulose that is strong enough to compete with some metals and glass while remaining flexible, transparent and biodegradable. The newly developed material, described in the journal Nature Communications, may one day offer a sustainable alternative to petroleum based plastics used in packaging, electronics, textiles and industrial products. Researchers say the innovation relies on living bacteria that naturally produce cellulose, one of the most abundant biological materials on Earth. Instead of allowing the bacteria to grow randomly, the team designed a special rotating bioreactor t...

    A real world experiment in Southampton, New York, has provided the first field evidence that crushed olivine a green silicate mineral found in Earth’s mantle may help oceans absorb carbon dioxide, though researchers say it is still too early to judge its long-term safety or climate impact. In 2022, scientists spread around 650 tons of crushed olivine across a section of beach as part of a controlled coastal trial. The mineral was later carried offshore by waves, where it began interacting with seawater and atmospheric CO₂. The goal was to test whether this natural chemical reaction, known as enhanced rock weathering, could be accelerated in coastal environments to help reduce carbon levels in the atmosphere. Olivine reacts with carbon dioxide in seawater and conve...