Environment

A global analysis of more than 2,300 seawater samples from more than 20 field studies around the globe indicates that human-made chemicals make up a significant portion of organic matter in coastal oceans. The international study, led by biochemists Jarmo Kalinski and Daniel Petras at the University of California, Riverside,... Read more

When floods, coastal erosion or sea-level rise threaten settlements or infrastructure, European countries turn to managed retreat more often than previously assumed. Managed retreat refers to the planned, government-supported relocation of people, homes or infrastructure away from areas exposed to flooding and other climate-related hazards. A new German–Dutch study led... Read more

An international research team used multiple global agroeconomic models and found that climate mitigation consistent with the 1.5 °C target could raise global hunger risk in 2050 by 17% (56 million people) compared with a baseline scenario that assumes today's climate and air pollution conditions persist. However, the concurrent reduction... Read more

Pesticides used in pet flea treatments occur widely in Welsh rivers and were detected in over three quarters of river water samples, finds new research by Cardiff University and Natural Resources Wales. The study found that two pesticides from flea treatments, imidacloprid and fipronil, exceeded safe levels in almost half... Read more

In April 2012, a Harley-Davidson motorcycle was found on Graham Island in the Haida Gwaii archipelago off the coast of British Columbia. It belonged to Ikuo Yokoyama, a survivor of the earthquake and tsunami that struck northeastern Japan a year earlier, in March 2011. Yokoyama lost his home and three... Read more

The findings of a new paper show governance and preparedness rather than hazard magnitude determine whether avalanches become mass-casualty events. With large ice-rock avalanches growing in frequency as steep slopes in the Himalaya become unstable due to rapid glacier retreat, extreme precipitation and permafrost degradation, scientists believe saving lives, protecting... Read more

The future of one of Antarctica's most iconic glaciers could be far more dramatic than scientists previously thought. Using satellite calibrated ice sheet models, a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh found that the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica could be shedding 180–200 gigatonnes of ice per year... Read more

Every summer, people living near the Mendenhall River in Juneau, Alaska, keep a close eye on the water level. When the river level begins to rise rapidly, it's a sign that Suicide Basin, a small glacier-dammed lake 5 miles up the mountains, has broken through the glacier again and a... Read more

The 2025 Eaton fire's smoke did more than darken the sky: It generated a carbon monoxide and particulate matter surge that far exceeded Los Angeles County's average daily human-caused emissions, according to a new study led by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. The findings... Read more

The Mediterranean Sea is widely perceived as having a low tsunami risk. History and recent modeling technology have demonstrated that destructive waves have already hit the French coast and could do so again. The results of a project carried out in Nice and along the French Riviera show why anticipation... Read more

More than 7.5 million people immerse themselves in lakes, rivers, seas and lidos every year in the UK. But getting in the water means getting in pollution too for most outdoor swimmers. Raw sewage was discharged into UK waters for 4.7 million hours during 2024. But sewage is only part... Read more

Wet wipes conveniently clean and sanitize soiled surfaces and skin. Because some labels do not clearly indicate how consumers should dispose of them, these small cloths are often flushed down the toilet and released by sewage plants into waterways. Now, researchers report in ACS ES&T Water that some of these... Read more

The Miocene, beginning approximately 23 million years ago, represents a canonical "warm-Earth" interval characterized by elevated atmospheric CO2 and a warmer global climate. The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), as a leading mode of interannual climate variability, exerts pronounced influences on global precipitation patterns and the occurrence of climate extremes. Investigating... Read more

The episode of extreme rainfall that affected the east of the Iberian Peninsula at the end of October 2024 left a devastating mark on the province of Valencia. In some areas, such as Turís, more than 700 liters per square meter were recorded in 24 hours; in other words, in... Read more

The presence of small plastic pellets on the beaches of Donostia and Orio has drawn attention to a little-studied source of pollution: leakage of industrial microplastics that reach the sea through stormwater drainage networks. Researchers in the Materials + Technologies Group at the EHU have identified two control parameters that... Read more