Climate Change

A PNAS study presents an urgent warning: Crossing a series of critical thresholds could push the Earth into nearly uninhabitable “hellish hothouse conditions” in the next century.

MONTRÉAL—“When you have more, you have to give more.” That advice, from Québec's Chief Public Health Officer Horacio Arruda, aptly described his audience of medical students attending a health inequities forum at the International Federation of Medical Students’…

The manifestations of climate change vary from place to place, but from city centers to the American Southwest and beyond, the anxiety and despair that comes extreme weather has begun to show. Amid this “ecological grief,” researchers have found a spreading decline in…

MONTRÉAL, Quebec—Warming of the subarctic permafrost. Asthma exacerbated by wildfires. Changes in the diet of the Dene people.  

MONTRÉAL, Quebec— Courtney Howard had to act. As an emergency department physician in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Howard, MD, sees climate change behind the warming of the subarctic permafrost, the asthma cases exacerbated by wildfires and the changes in the diet…

We have meagre chances of limiting global warming to 2 degrees under the non-binding Paris agreement, and even that scenario is set to bring long-term disaster. 30 years ago we had a chance to solve the problem, and didn’t take it. From 1979-1989, we were the closest we’ve…

Extreme heat threatens the lives and livelihoods of millions worldwide. A recent World Bank report notes that increasing temperatures will reduce 800 million people’s living standards.   India’s large cities are at special risk; 24 of the 100 largest cities with summer high…

This month PLOS is unfurling a special collection on climate change and health, addressing the health effects of extreme heat and flooding, infectious disease risks, the health benefits of greenhouse gas mitigation policies and more.  

Countries most at risk for climate change also face steeper borrowing costs, a new Imperial College Business School and SOAS University of London study determined.

As the planet warms, economic, technological, and political obstacles hinder our chances of reducing the carbon released into the atmosphere—but impressive efforts are underway to catch emissions before they get there, writes Laura H. Kahn.