Fighting fire with fire: How prescribed burns reduce wildfire damage and pollution Wildfires are becoming more intense and dangerous, but a new Stanford-led study offers hope: prescribed burns—intentionally set, controlled fires—can significantly lessen their impact. By analyzing satellite data and smoke emissions, researchers found that areas treated with prescribed burns saw wildfire severity drop by 16% and smoke pollution fall by 14%. Even more striking, the smoke from prescribed burns was just a fraction of what wildfires would have produced in the same areas.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/06/2506

A giant pulse beneath Africa could split the continent — and form an ocean Beneath the Afar region in Ethiopia, scientists have discovered pulsing waves of molten rock rising from deep within the Earth — a geological heartbeat that could eventually split Africa in two. These rhythmic surges of mantle material are helping to stretch and thin the continent’s crust, setting the stage for a new ocean to form in millions of years. The pulses aren’t random: they follow patterns shaped by the tectonic plates above, behaving differently depending on how thick the plates are and how fast they’re spreading.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/06/2506

New Orleans is sinking—and so are its $15 billion flood defenses Parts of New Orleans are sinking at alarming rates — including some of the very floodwalls built to protect it. A new satellite-based study finds that some areas are losing nearly two inches of elevation per year, threatening the effectiveness of the city's storm defenses.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/06/2506

Tiny creatures, massive impact: How zooplankton store 65 million tonnes of carbon annually Zooplankton like copepods aren’t just fish food—they’re carbon-hauling powerhouses. By diving deep into the ocean each winter, they’re secretly stashing 65 million tonnes of carbon far below the surface, helping fight climate change in a way scientists are only just starting to understand.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/06/2506

Only 3 years left: The carbon budget for 1. 5 °C is almost gone At current emission rates, we re just over three years away from blowing through the remaining carbon budget to limit warming to 1.5 C. This new international study paints a stark picture: the pace of climate change is accelerating, seas are rising faster than ever, and the Earth is absorbing more heat with devastating consequences from hotter oceans to intensified weather extremes.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/06/2506