Climate impacts
Site news
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Weather patterns that produced five severe heat waves in Europe over the past 30 years could kill thousands more people if repeated in today’s hotter global climate, a new study finds. Rapid acceleration of efforts to adapt to greater extremes could save lives.
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New research finds damage to rice crops has accelerated in recent decades due to rainstorms that increasingly submerge young plants for a week or more. Adoption of flood-resistant rice varieties in vulnerable regions could help avert future losses.
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Throughout roles in the White House, U.S. State Department, and academia, Maxine Burkett has focused on the relationship between environmental change and inequity, its impact on communities, and how law and policy can help build a better world for all.
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Ninety years of tidepool observations in Monterey Bay have taught Stanford researchers about climate change impacts on the ocean and the evolution of science.
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Direct experiences have powerful effects on perception – a truth at the heart of new Stanford-led research showing how immersive VR can make distant places feel more immediate and climate-related impacts, such as flooding, feel personally relevant. Compared to seeing static images, the approach engenders feelings more likely to lead to constructive actions.
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How does climate change affect human migration and what does it mean for border policies? Learn about the complex relationship between weather and cross-border migration across different demographic groups, and the role for future policies.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded in 2009 that carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare, underpinning rules for cars, power plants, and industry. As the agency weighs reversing the decision, Stanford’s Chris Field distills the peer-reviewed science on risks to people and the economy.
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Wildfire smoke increasingly threatens lives across the country. A new study shows smoke exposure in the coming decades will cause tens of thousands of excess deaths and predicts where exposure will occur so communities and policymakers can prepare for the health burden.
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Climate change has already contributed substantially to the global burden of dengue fever, a new study finds. Over 260 million people live in places where dengue incidence is expected to more than double due to climate change by mid-century. The findings could help with public health planning and developing ways to mitigate such risks.
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A new global study finds that extreme weather may trap many populations in place even as it increases migrations of other groups. The analysis shows that age and education strongly shape who migrates in response to severe heat, cold, floods, and droughts.
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Stanford marine biologist Steve Palumbi uses fundamental science to find practical solutions to pressing questions about ocean life and its future. His lab’s work on the effects of heat waves on marine life has implications for the environment, economies, health, and culture.
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How can air quality policies adapt to the new world of pollution trends shaped by wildfire smoke? Learn about the growing problem of air polluted by wildfire smoke, and what the data show about policies that can make a difference.
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Erin Mordecai, a senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, studies mosquitos to understand how climate change is affecting the spread of infectious diseases and uses mathematical modeling to predict future outbreaks.
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A sweeping new analysis finds that rising global temperatures will dampen the world’s capacity to produce food from most staple crops, even after accounting for economic development and adaptation by farmers.
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A Stanford study reveals how climate change has altered growing conditions for the world’s five major crops over the past half century and is reshaping agriculture. The impacts corroborate climate models used to predict impacts, with a couple of important exceptions, according to the researchers.
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New research finds that tropical cyclones reduce years of schooling for children in low- and middle-income countries, underscoring the need to address the educational impacts of climate change.
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New research shows that when predator species like California sheephead thrive, they keep hungry sea urchins and other grazers from devouring kelp forests struggling to recover from marine heat waves. Scientists estimate kelp forests’ annual exposure to once-rare heat will more than quintuple by 2100.
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Brooke Weigel studies ecosystem interactions that are invisible to the naked eye. Scientists in her lab examine kelp’s microscopic forms, their role in carbon sequestration, and how climate change will impact the future of these vast underwater forests.
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Between 1997 and 2024, endangered North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles shifted their foraging northward at a rate six times faster than the average for most marine species. The turtles face risks as they adapt to ocean warming caused by climate change.
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Rainy days are becoming less frequent but more intense across much of the planet because of climate change. Even in years with similar rainfall totals, plants fare differently when rain falls in fewer, bigger bursts, a new study shows.
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An expert on climate change and its impact on human society says the evidence for it is all around us, but it’s not too late to better understand, adapt to, and mitigate climate change.
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Stanford researchers have created an open-source tool so other scientists can make ice-penetrating radar systems at a fraction of the cost of current methods. Ice-penetrating radar is a core tool used by glaciologists monitoring how ice sheets contribute to rising sea levels.
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U.S. tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, indirectly cause thousands of deaths for nearly 15 years after a storm. Understanding why could help minimize future deaths from hazards fueled by climate change.
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Solomon Hsiang combines data science, natural science, and social science to answer key policy questions about climate change and other fundamentally global problems.
