Climate

    Rising visitor numbers are leaving a harmful human footprint on Antarctica’s ecosystems
    26 Aug 2025

    Annual visitors numbered fewer than 8,000 in the 1990s. Last year, more than 124,000 visited. Antarctica, Earth’s last great wilderness, is facing growing pressure from human activity. A new study published in Nature Sustainability warns that surging tourism and expanding research bases are polluting the southern continent, accelerating snow melting and threatening fragile ecosystems already […]

    Is hot weather putting you in a bad mood? Science suggests it might be
    25 Aug 2025

    Scientists analysed over a billion social media posts to find out how sweltering temperatures are impacting our mood. If scorching temperatures have you losing your cool, you’re not alone. New research suggests that our warming world could be behind your bad mood. Using social media, scientists from MIT and institutions across the world tracked people’s […]

    Canadian University Dubai architecture students use nature to cool hot climate
    23 Aug 2025

    Students from Canadian University Dubai (CUD) have develop a series of projects that convert environmental extremes into performance assets, to help minimise energy consumption in Dubai’s hot climate. Set within Ghaf Woods, the forest-integrated community that is redefining urban living in the city, each of the projects features a low-rise, multi-use recreation center embodying ecological […]

    Why Iraq’s marshes are ‘treasures we need to fight for’

    One of Iraq’s most beautiful natural wonders and a cradle of surviving Sumerian traditions, the southern marshes now evoke more grief than awe. Aymen al-Ameri reflects upon their deterioration in An Imaginary Museum on the Ground, a photography exhibition that opened in July at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris. Far from mere documentation, the project comes after a decade […]

    Climate change-driven heat extremes are driving ‘staggering’ decline in tropical birds, study warns

    Using climate attribution science, researchers have linked rising heat to declining bird populations around the world. Extreme heat driven by climate change has caused tropical bird populations to decline by up to 38 per cent since the 1950s, scientists have warned. A first-of-its-kind analysis published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution has used observed […]

    Dismay as UN talks fail to agree on treaty to tackle plastic pollution
    16 Aug 2025

    Negotiations to establish the first global plastics treaty faltered in Geneva on Friday, as delegates failed to reach consensus on critical treaty provisions to tackle pollution. The final hours saw entrenched positions over key areas – specifically plastic production caps, which had been a key issue that boiled over from last year’s failed talks in Korea. “It’s very […]

    What are dry storms? The dangerous weather phenomenon sparking wildfires in a warming world
    14 Aug 2025

    Dry storms are a curious meteorological phenomenon. The sky turns dark and thunders, but it doesn’t seem to rain. Imagine a storm that rumbles with thunder and intimidating lightning flashes, but not a single drop of rain falls. Dark clouds loom menacingly over a landscape already scorched by days of extreme heat, while lightning streaks […]

    UAE electric vehicle premiums cost 72% more than petrol cars
    12 Aug 2025

    Insuring an electric car in the UAE has become much more costly, after last year’s record floods, but industry experts believe the future remains bright for the vehicle segment as sales increase. Insurancemarket.ae, one of the country’s leading providers, said insuring an electric vehicle on average costs 72 per cent more on average than a petrol or diesel-powered […]

    July 2025 marked the world’s third-warmest on record
    10 Aug 2025

    Last month was the third-hottest July on record, prompting warnings from climate experts over the stark dangers of searing summer heatwaves across the globe. Scorching temperatures reached 1.25°C above pre-industrial levels, lower only than the two hottest July’s in Earth in the previous two years. The latest report from EU’s climate watchdog Copernicus has shown that the planet’s […]

    Satellites just revealed a hidden global water crisis—and it’s worse than melting ice
    09 Aug 2025

    New findings from studying over two decades of satellite observations reveal that the Earth’s continents have experienced unprecedented freshwater loss since 2002, driven by climate change, unsustainable groundwater use and extreme droughts. The study, led by Arizona State University and published on July 25 in Science Advances, highlights the emergence of four continental-scale “mega-drying” regions, all located in […]