What Are Clinician Groups Doing About Climate Change?
With climate change being such a big story in the news this past week, it was a good time to check in with Lisa Patel, MD, MESc, who became the new executive director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health in January. MedPage Today (MPT) Washington Editor Joyce Frieden spoke with Patel about […]
Experts Warn of the Extreme Public Health Threats From Heat
As record-breaking heat waves from climate change transform weather patterns and ecosystems, healthcare will also need to shift to contend with these new realities. During SciLine’s “Extreme Heat Update” presentation for media, experts highlighted the current hotspots for extreme, human-caused heat changes and their health implications. Andrew Pershing, PhD, vice president for science at Climate […]
Insect protein slows weight gain, boosts health status in obese mice
As the global population grows under a changing climate, the urgency to find sustainable protein sources is greater than ever. Plant-based “meat” and “dairy” products may be popular, but they’re not the only environmentally friendly meat alternatives. A new study in mice from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests replacing traditional protein sources with mealworms […]
Democrats’ Climate Deal Puts U.S. Emissions Goals In Reach, 3 Separate Studies Show
The potential climate and economic benefits of the surprise reconciliation package Democrats unveiled last week are starting to come into a clearer view. Researchers have crunched the numbers to forecast how the more than 100 climate provisions in the $369 billion deal, called the Inflation Reduction Act, would impact planet-warming carbon emissions, jobs, electricity prices […]
WHO: Climate Crisis Poses Serious Risks for Mental Health
Climate change has a detrimental impact on mental health worldwide, making it critical for countries to include psychological support in their climate response plans, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated. As the climate crisis becomes more severe — causing extreme heat episodes, floods and wildfires as well as ecosystem changes leading to food or water […]
Will climate change increase the risk of aflatoxin in U.S. corn?
As climate change continues to alter weather patterns around the planet including the Midwest, researchers at Michigan State University are modeling the impact on crops such as corn. “The United States is the largest exporter and donor of field corn around the world,” said Felicia Wu, a John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor and an international […]
Paris Climate Agreement goal still within reach, suggests new study
The Paris Climate Agreement goal to limit global warming this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) over pre-industrial temperatures is still within reach, while apocalyptic, worst-case scenarios are no longer plausible, suggests a new CU Boulder analysis. Out today in Environmental Research Letters, the new study finds that a subset of climate scenarios […]
Coastal ecosystem being destabilized by climate change
Ecological communities on the Oregon coast are being subtly destabilized by the pressures of climate change despite giving an appearance of stress resistance, new research by Oregon State University shows. The findings are important because assessing and understanding how plants, animals and other life forms respond to a warming planet is critical to human welfare, […]
Study of Antarctic ice’s deep past shows it could be more vulnerable to warming
Insights into how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet responded to a warmer climate millions of years ago could improve predictions of its future. The new study, led by Imperial College London scientists, examined the status of Antarctic ice sheets during the Early Miocene, around 18-16 million years ago, which experienced both warm and cold periods. […]
Trees on the move: Researchers reveal how wildfire accelerates forest changes
Refugees are on the move in forests across the western U.S. As climate conditions change, the ranges of tree species are shifting, especially toward cooler or wetter sites. A new Stanford analysis provides some of the first empirical evidence that wildfire is accelerating this process, likely by reducing competition from established species. The study, published […]