Climate News

Something unusual is happening beneath China’s vast fields of solar panels.

China’s largest solar farm stretches across the arid highlands of Qinghai Province, on the northeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Built on land long considered too harsh for large-scale development, the vast installation was designed to generate clean electricity at an unprecedented scale and reduce reliance on coal.

But scientists studying the site have noticed something unexpected happening beneath the panels. The desert landscape below is changing, with subtle shifts in soil moisture, temperature, and plant growth that differ from nearby untreated areas.

What began as a massive energy project in one of China’s driest regions is now offering new insight into how renewable infrastructure can quietly reshape the environments where it is built.

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New research shows why slow, hidden changes beneath the ice still pose long-term risks.

Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier has drawn attention for years, but recent findings have shifted the conversation from dramatic collapse to deeper concern about slow, hidden change.

Research conducted through the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration—a large joint effort involving U.S. and U.K. scientists—has used radar, underwater robots, and long-term monitoring to study what’s happening beneath the ice.

What they’re finding isn’t sudden failure, but complex internal weakening that could shape future sea levels over decades. That growing understanding explains why Thwaites remains one of the most closely watched glaciers on Earth.

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For many Americans, climate change stopped feeling distant in 2025.

For many Americans, climate change stopped feeling abstract in 2025 and began showing up in small, personal ways. It wasn’t always dramatic or headline-grabbing, but it was persistent—missing seasons, altered routines, and familiar places behaving differently than they used to.

Across the country, people noticed changes that disrupted daily life and quietly reshaped expectations, from warmer winters to drying waterways and shifting wildlife patterns. These experiences weren’t isolated or rare.

Together, they formed a shared realization that the climate crisis was no longer something happening elsewhere or later—it was unfolding in real time, woven into everyday life.

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The robot drifted unseen for months, and the data it carried back is reshaping how scientists understand Antarctic ice.

Antarctica’s greatest changes are happening out of sight, beneath thick ice shelves where warm ocean water meets frozen ice. These hidden zones play a major role in how fast glaciers melt, yet they are among the least observed places on Earth.

To reach them, scientists rely on autonomous robots that can drift for months in darkness, collecting data no ship or satellite can access. In one recent mission, a robotic ocean float deployed in East Antarctica went missing beneath the ice and was assumed lost.

When it finally resurfaced months later, it returned with a rare, continuous record of conditions beneath major ice shelves near the Totten Glacier region. The measurements offered an unusually clear look at how ocean heat is interacting with Antarctic ice.

Click through and find out why scientists are paying closer attention to this part of the continent.

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What projections suggest for flooding, infrastructure, and daily life in vulnerable areas.

If you live in a coastal city, the ocean is no longer a distant threat: it’s coming for your streets, your home, and your way of life. Sea levels are rising faster than ever, and by 2035, many major cities will face routine flooding, disappearing shorelines, and neighborhoods that may never dry out.

Places that once thought they had decades to prepare are now scrambling as ice sheets melt at an alarming rate. Some cities are fighting back with billion-dollar infrastructure projects, while others are quietly accepting that parts of their coastline will be lost forever.

But for millions of people, the next decade will determine whether they can stay in the communities they’ve always called home—or if the ocean will force them out. These cities are on the frontlines of rising seas, and unless drastic action is taken soon, they may not be recognizable by 2035.

Click through to see if your city is on the list.

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University of Miami researchers found parts of the city are sinking faster than expected.

When people hear that Miami is “sinking,” they often picture the ocean simply creeping higher. But a University of Miami–led study added a different layer to the story: parts of the city’s coastal strip are moving downward in uneven pockets, and some of that motion appears tied to the built environment itself.

It isn’t just water rising around South Florida. In certain places, the ground beneath buildings is also settling. That matters right now because Miami’s coastline is packed with dense development, expensive infrastructure, and neighborhoods already coping with flooding and high groundwater.

Small, measurable changes over time can add up—especially when they overlap with sea-level rise, drainage challenges, and extreme rainfall. Understanding where sinking is happening, how it’s detected, and what may be driving it is a key part of planning what comes next.

Click to see what the study says about the future of Miami.

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New satellite data shows why seasons no longer arrive the same way everywhere, and even nearby places feel it differently.

For most of our lives, seasons have felt steady and predictable. Spring warms things up, summer follows, and nature seems to move along a shared calendar we can plan around. But on July 30, scientists analyzing satellite data reported something unexpected:

Earth’s seasons are no longer lining up the way we assume they do. The research was a collaboration between scientists at the University of California, Berkeley and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia.

Using long-term satellite observations that track how vegetation responds to temperature, sunlight, and moisture, the team found that seasonal changes are increasingly out of sync across different regions, sometimes even within the same country. Instead of a single, shared seasonal rhythm, many places now follow their own timelines.

Click through to learn how they influence weather patterns, wildfire risk, ecosystem health and more.

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From pricier hot chocolate to shrinking reindeer herds, warming winters are changing holiday traditions in ways you might not expect.

The holidays have long been tied to cozy winter scenes: steaming mugs of cocoa, fresh Christmas trees, snowy landscapes and even wild reindeer roaming the far north. But climate change is quietly eroding many of these familiar traditions this year, and scientists say the impacts are becoming impossible to ignore. Warmer temperatures are disrupting the global supply of holiday staples, stressing iconic seasonal crops and putting some beloved symbols of winter at risk, reshaping what the season looks and feels like for millions of people.

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New research reveals how Mars subtly alters Earth’s long-term climate cycles through orbital interactions.

Scientists have found that Mars plays a surprising role in shaping Earth’s long-term climate cycles. The discovery comes from new research led by climate scientist Konstantin Batygin and planetary scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), who analyzed millions of years of orbital interactions across the Solar System. Their work shows that Mars’ gravitational pull subtly alters Earth’s orbital eccentricity, influencing the pacing of major climate rhythms such as ice ages. The findings reveal that Earth’s climate history is deeply connected to planetary dynamics extending far beyond our own world.

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A sudden spike in fine-particle pollution pushed parts of California into the “unhealthy” air category.

Thousands of California residents were urged to stay indoors this week as air-quality monitors detected a sharp rise in PM2.5 pollution, the fine particulate matter that can penetrate deep into the lungs and bloodstream. Several areas reached the “unhealthy” category on the Air Quality Index, leading officials to caution people—especially children, older adults, and those with health conditions—to avoid outdoor exposure. The alert comes as shifting weather patterns, stagnant air, and local emissions combined to trap pollution near the surface.

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