Adrino Mazenda, University of Pretoriaù Climate change discussions in southern Africa often focus on farming, where the effects of environmental shocks are most visible. The debate frequently centres on droughts, floods, declining crop productivity and heat stress affecting livestock systems. This is largely because agriculture is a sector that’s directly exposed to extreme
Ph. Stanley Dullea/Shutterstock Alexis Cloquell Lozano, Universidad Católica de Valencia; Beatriz Felipe Pérez, Universitat Rovira i Virgili; Joan Lacomba Vazquez, Universitat de València, and María Isolda Perelló Carrascosa, Universitat de València Images of families displaced by floods, prolonged droughts or extreme storms have become a distressingly regular feature of the daily news. As
Many people expect a raging wildfire to leave a blackened, lifeless landscape in its wake. But after a blaze swept through Las Hurdes in Extremadura, Spain, in 2009, the scene was quite different. In the midst of the scorched earth were patches of green where healthy trees remained standing and unscathed. From a
Estelle Razanatsoa, University of Cape Town; Lindsey Gillson, University of Cape Town, and Malika Virah-Sawmy, Humboldt University of Berlin Madagascar is home to seven species of baobab trees, of which six are found nowhere else on the planet. Many of the trees have been alive for well over 1,000 years. The ancient trees
Giovanni Strona, Joint Research Centre (JRC) More than 295 million people globally experienced hunger and starvation in 2025 because of conflict, displacement, climate change and economic disasters. The bad news is that things are going to get a lot worse. My latest research has found that by 2100, climate change could drive more
Daniel Scott, University of Waterloo; Madeleine Orr, University of Toronto, and Robert Steiger, University of Innsbruck The 25th Winter Olympic Games are upon us, with Italy set to host the Games for the fourth time. The schedule at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics is set to look similar to previous iterations of
Ph. Boston and much of the U.S. faced a cold winter blast in January 2026. Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Mathew Barlow, UMass Lowell and Judah Cohen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) A severe winter storm sweeping across the central and eastern U.S. in late January 2026 is threatening states
Forty metres beneath the sea off north-western Italy lies one of the country’s best-preserved World War II shipwrecks. The Equa, an Italian cannon-equipped submarine chaser, sank with no casualties after being accidentally rammed by a German ship in 1944. The vessel now hosts rich marine fauna that attracts divers and fishers. The site
Ph. FrankHH / shutterstock James Dyke, University of Exeter and Johan Rockström, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Ten years ago the world’s leaders placed a historic bet. The 2015 Paris agreement aimed to put humanity on a path to avert dangerous climate change. A decade on, with the latest climate conference ending
Alix Dietzel, University of Bristol and Katherine Fitzpatrick, University of Bristol The world’s most important climate summit – known this year as Cop30 – has begun in the Amazonian port city of Belém, Brazil. It promises to be contentious: key countries haven’t submitted new climate plans, and negotiations are held up by disputes