Hazards
Site news
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Hotter, drier conditions could leave millions of Americans struggling to afford tap water. The cost of drought resilience measures, such as desalination plants, will likely fall on ratepayers, with the greatest impact on low-income and minority communities, according to the research.
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Environmental microbiologist Yaochun Yu studies how microbes break down pesticides, plastic additives, and other chemicals in the environment. His goal is to enable new ways to clean up pollution and design safer chemicals for the future.
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New Stanford research finds California homeowners insurance premiums up 84% since 2020, with FAIR Plan enrollment nearly tripling — from under 2% to 5% of homes — as the insurance crisis spreads beyond fire country into the broader housing market.
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A Stanford-led study based on two decades of satellite data finds California could cut deadly pollution from wildfire smoke by 20% in active fire years by expanding use of prescribed fire in conifer forests each year.
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Climate change could make historically rare tropical cyclones more common in Southern California, significantly expanding landslide risk across the region by 2050.
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Why is the cost of electricity going up in U.S. western states? Stanford experts explain how wildfires, AI data centers, extreme weather, and deferred grid maintenance are affecting utility bills, along with strategies that could help lower costs.
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Researchers presented new methods for tracking wildfire pollution and recovering bleached corals while former government officials and leaders from business and civil society called for urgent responses to food security, climate risks, and AI energy demand.
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New analysis shows 85% of carbon emissions from the 2025 Dava Moor Fire in Scotland came from peat combustion, signaling a dangerous shift in how wildfires behave in historically boggy landscapes.
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From studying the economic aftermath of cyclones to understanding innovative approaches to crop planting schedules, five researchers represent a new wave of climate progress.
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As part of the Stanford Impact Labs Design Fellowship, Marshall Burke and Gabrielle Wong-Parodi each conducted research intended to equip governments, institutions, and communities with evidence and approaches to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate.
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Researchers discovered high levels of benzene in domestic gas in multiple Western European cities. Exposure through commonplace gas leaks reaches levels that breach safe limits for many residents, new measurement and modeling suggests.
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Stanford researchers partnered with neighborhoods hit hard by flooding to understand their experiences and explore potential solutions. When given resources to plan infrastructure, residents consistently chose configurations that would benefit neighbors and shared spaces over maximizing protection for their own properties.
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New research traces a direct line from warmer, wetter weather to a mosquito-bornedisease epidemic. The findings could help inform policy and interventions to blunt such outbreaks.
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By 2050, up to half the world’s urban population will face water scarcity. A new model of water supply, demand, and policies in a drought-prone city of 7 million in India shows how policies could prevent the poor from bearing the heaviest burden.
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While 14% of major companies report carbon emissions, just 9% disclose water withdrawals and only 1% reveal recycled water use. Stanford and Korea University researchers have developed a scoring system that weighs where companies draw water and how they use it.
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Stanford scientists have developed a new method for identifying rare earthquakes in the Earth’s upper mantle, under the continents. The research enhances understanding of how continental mantle earthquakes relate to broader seismic activity, which may lead to improved earthquake risk assessment and preparedness.
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Ripples of air known as atmospheric gravity waves can influence the polar vortex, severe winter weather, and long-term climate patterns. Using AI and machine learning, researchers have developed a way to realistically represent their effects in global climate models.
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An ambitious initiative is tackling the pervasive issue of lead contamination, which exerts a heavy toll on global health. Researchers aim to identify major sources of lead exposure and develop affordable detection methods in communities worldwide.
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What drives atmospheric rivers? Da Yang explains how these "rivers in the sky" gain and lose momentum, and how researchers are studying their physical properties to improve forecasts and reduce risks.
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Scientists have discovered wintertime seismic activity in the ocean around Antarctica controls summer growth of phytoplankton, tiny organisms that fuel the marine food web and sequester huge amounts of carbon from Earth’s atmosphere.
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Adam Pellegrini engages in collaborations and field experiments across the globe to examine how ecosystems respond to global change and predict their resilience to major disturbances, such as wildfires, droughts, and disease outbreaks.
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Using AI to analyze Google Street View images of damaged buildings across 16 states, Stanford researchers found that destroyed buildings in poor areas often remained empty lots for years, while those in wealthy areas were rebuilt bigger and better than before.
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Gas and propane stoves emit substantial amounts of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant linked to higher risks of asthma, heart and lung disease, and other conditions. A Stanford-led study finds switching from a gas to electric stove would cut nitrogen dioxide exposure across the U.S. by over one half, reducing the risk of asthma.
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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.
