The changing climate poses a major threat to polar bear survival. But new research suggests that rising temperatures may be altering polar bear DNA in ways that help them adapt and endure in increasingly challenging environments.

Changes to the atmosphere and to the climate are interrelated and understanding what effects such changes have is a complicated matter. Wildfires are increasingly commonplace and many of their effects are obvious. Air quality in places hundreds or even thousands of miles from wildfires can become degraded and even hazardous to human health. Ecosystems are disrupted by killing wildlife and destroying habitats. A new study by Harvard University looked at the effects of wildfires on the upper atmosphere.

Somewhere between 97% and 99.9% of actively publishing climate scientists agree that climate change is happening and is primarily caused by human activities. However, while science is based on observations and evidence, politics is not.

Sand mining is the second most widespread human activity in marine environments after fishing. In fact, sand is second only to water as a natural resource used by humans. Currently, around 40 billion tons of sand is mined every year. The greatest use for sand is as a component of concrete, mortar, asphalt, and fill. But sand is also used for manufacturing glass, silicon chips for electronics, and metal castings, as well as for filtration, landscaping, and abrasives. Sand is a cornerstone of modern society.

Ammonia is produced on a massive scale around the world. Over 250 million tons of it were manufactured in 2023. Eighty percent of it is used as fertilizer, but ammonia is also used for the production of plastics, fibers, explosives, nitric acid, and for the manufacture of dyes and pharmaceuticals.

Climate change is making air quality worse in many parts of the world. Rising temperatures increase ground-level ozone and more frequent wildfires release harmful smoke and particulates into the air. These shifts, together with ongoing pollution from vehicle exhaust and industrial emissions, are leading to longer and more intense episodes of unhealthy air.

Coastal ecosystems are undergoing a process known as a coastal squeeze. Beaches face a combination of rising sea levels caused by climate change and reductions caused by expanding development in coastal zones. Between the two forces, beaches are gradually being eaten away. According to research by a marine scientist in Uruguay, almost half of the beaches in the world could disappear by the end of this century.

The air contains water. We call it humidity. Even in the desert, there is water in the air. Scientists have been working on ways to squeeze water out of the air to produce clean drinking water. They have developed a number of sorbent materials that harvest water from the air. The process is called atmospheric water harvesting, or AWH.

Each summer, vast quantities of Sargassum seaweed spread across the tropical Atlantic and foul the coasts of the Caribbean Islands, the Gulf of Mexico, and northern South America. The Sargassum is not only bad for tourism, it also disrupts ecosystems by providing massive amounts of food for many marine species, upsetting the balance of those systems.

Concrete is the most abundant manufactured material in the world. It is primarily composed of water, cement, and aggregate (sand and gravel.) Cement manufacturing is responsible for about 8% of the world’s total CO2 emissions, primarily a result of the chemical reaction of heating limestone and the combustion of fossil fuels used to provide the heat.