From dark dragonflies becoming paler to plants flowering earlier, some species are slowly evolving with the climate. Evolutionary biologists explain why few will evolve fast enough.
News about the growing ecological crisis may cause people to feel grief and fear. It is understandable to seek relief from these feelings and look for good news. But what if grief is the good news?
Climate change is seeing more of us with mental health problems and harmful substance use. So we need to start planning now.
A hot spot from the Lower East Adams Lake wildfire burns in Scotch Creek, B.C., in August 2023. Provincial premiers have increasingly turned their backs on climate action, forcing the federal government to largely go it alone.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
A little more than five years ago, there was a strong federal-provincial consensus around climate action. With the election of several Conservative premiers since then, that consensus has vanished.
Climate modelling that best accounts for the processes that sustain plant life predicts plants could absorb up to 20% more CO₂ than the simplest version predicted.
Energy efficient lightbulbs are useful – but more radical actions are available.
New Africa / shutterstock
As seas rise, it is clear that traditional coastal defence approaches are unable to keep pace. Nature-based solutions offer considerable potential to protect coasts, people and biodiversity.
A group of prominent environmental scientists devised this list of 5 things we must see in Australia’s new national environmental laws, if we are to avoid calamity and hasten recovery.
The Ayès lake, in the Ariège region of the Pyrenees.
Dirk S. Schmeller
Mike Joy, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
The idea that harm done today can be offset in the future is based on a basic misunderstanding of the carbon cycle. Planting more trees is important – but it’s no substitute for cutting emissions.
A swan stands between dumped plastic bottles and waste on the Danube river near Belgrade, Serbia, on April 18, 2022.
(AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Climate action should be framed not as a sacrifice but as an investment that can generate economic savings and improve human and ecosystem health today.
Relative to the long-term average, this autumn has been even hotter than summer.
Forest fires were mostly started by lightning. Their spread was then exacerbated by a lack of precipitation and abnormally high temperatures.
(Victor Danneyrolles)
Dorian M. Gaboriau, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT); Jonathan Lesven, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT); Victor Danneyrolles, Université du Québec à Chicoutimi (UQAC), and Yves Bergeron, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT)
The forest fires of the summer of 2023 in Québec were devastating. It was the worst year in 50 years. But with climate change, the worst may be yet to come.
Rapidly changing temperatures and sensory environments are challenging the nervous systems of many species. Animals will be forced to evolve to survive.
Buying back water from irrigators across the Murray-Darling Basin will not be enough to restore river health because we have big problems getting this ‘environmental water’ to where it’s needed most.
Our birds are tough. They went through some mean climatic conditions to make Australia home.
Smoke from the McDougall Creek wildfire fills the air and nearly blocks out the sun as people take in the view of Okanagan Lake from Tugboat Beach, in Kelowna, B.C., in August 2023.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Canadians should demand greater accountability from their governments to reduce the need for last-minute humanitarian efforts in the face of climate-related disasters in their communities.