It's real. It's happening. It's accelerating. And it's our fault. Human activity — particularly the production of greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel emissions — is reshaping our planet, effecting rapid environmental change at a rate never seen before. Global temperature averages are creeping upward, seas are warming, rising and becoming more acidic, and extreme weather events such as droughts, wildfires, floods and powerful storms are more commonplace. Here's where you'll find the latest on the effects of climate change, and the measures that scientists, world leaders and innovators are taking to reduce our harmful impact on the planet and mitigate the damage already done.
Latest about Climate Change
This was the hottest summer ever recorded on Earth
June through August 2023 were the hottest three months ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Did the Tonga eruption cause this year's extreme heat?
The 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption may have contributed to this year's heat, but it's not causing climate change.
We could be 16 years into a methane-fueled 'termination' event significant enough to end an ice age
Methane emissions from tropical wetlands have been soaring since 2006 and accelerating at the same breakneck speed as when Earth's climate has flipped from a glacial to an interglacial period.
'The stage was now set for the birth and growth of desert dunes': How the Sahara turned from a vast forest to the arid landscape we see today
"A very remarkable series of events took place during the late Miocene between 5.96 and 5.33 million years ago."
15 unexpected effects of climate change
From shrinking goats to a dimmer Earth, here are some of the lesser-known impacts of rising global temperatures.
19 'mass extinctions' had CO2 levels we're now veering toward, study warns
The research looked at peaks in biodiversity loss and their relationship with atmospheric CO2, finding 50 events over the last 534 million years that can be considered mass extinctions.
Will the US run out of water?
"The issue is not about running out of water, it's about having water in the right place," Lis Mullin Bernhardt, from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), told Live Science.
Body of climber missing for nearly 40 years discovered in melting Swiss glacier
The remains of a climber who went missing in 1986 were found peeking out of a melting glacier in the Swiss Alps.
Yellowstone's geysers at risk of extinction from climate change, tree skeletons reveal
In a warmer and drier climate, the groundwater that fuels Yellowstone's tallest active geyser could dwindle, resulting in less frequent eruptions and even extinction.
Gulf Stream current could collapse in 2025, plunging Earth into climate chaos: 'We were actually bewildered'
Researchers have predicted the collapse of the AMOC could happen any time between 2025 and 2095 — far sooner than previous predictions, although not all scientists are convinced.
