Effects of Climate Change Stories

Sea otters are critical players in marine ecosystems and a keystone species, meaning they have a profound effect on their ecosystem. They are vital to kelp forests, ensuring the health and carbon storage abilities of these important ecosystems.

Kelp farming is catching on in Maine as a way to sustain coastal workers while strengthening ecosystems. This story traces the journey of kelp from farm to table. 

From deadly wildfires in Texas to devastating floods in North Carolina, disasters have wreaked havoc across the US in 2024, set to be the world’s hottest year on record. As climate change intensifies, there is no question that the intensity and frequency of extreme weather—often resulting in disasters—is increasing.

Marisa Tellez has devoted her life to crocodiles, first as a biologist and now as the Executive Director of the Crocodile Research Coalition, a nonprofit she founded to support the conservation of crocodiles and their habitats. Crocodiles keep aquatic ecosystems in balance as apex predators, but they also hold a cultural significance in Central America. 

In May 2024, WWF's Environment & Disaster Management program team traveled to Madagascar to build capacity for and conduct a Rapid Environmental Assessment with local governments, organizations, and communities.

With advances in climate science, scientists have identified strong links between our planet’s warming and changing weather patterns. This is known as attribution science: the study of to what degree human influence may have contributed to the frequency, intensity, and likelihood of extreme climate or weather events.

This fall marks a pivotal moment for the future of nature conservation. In late October, world governments will meet in Colombia to continue work on the most ambitious plan ever to save the vast array of diversity of life on planet Earth.

Tackling climate change will be one of the biggest challenges of our time, and nature itself can contribute to the fight. 

Climate change is impacting our planet faster than anyone had predicted. With storms increasing in number and severity, with temperatures rising to unsupportable levels, with more flooding and more sea level rise and saltwater encroachment, we’re seeing more and more records getting broken. But these are the kinds of record-breaking events that cost lives and livelihoods, that harm our communities and the natural resources that sustain us.

String. Toothpaste. Burgers. Fertilizer. Makeup. Printer ink. What do all of these things have in common?

They all can be made with seaweed! Commonly categorized into red, green, and brown species, seaweed is a broad term for plants and algae that live in the ocean. In the US, farming kelp, a brown macroalgae, is a rapidly growing industry. Farmed seaweed is good for people and good for nature!

There are more than 530 species of sharks in our oceans today protecting the delicate balance of marine ecosystems, which helps ensure a healthy ocean and climate.

On the surface, brown kelp might not look like the most exciting plant. But when it comes to tackling climate change, this large algae—one of around 12,000 species of seaweed worldwide—has superpowers. It can store harmful greenhouse gases, reduce the carbon footprint of the global food system, help coastal communities adapt to climate impacts, and even be made into a climate-friendly alternative to plastic!

The new Climate-Smart Mangrove Tool will help ensure the long-term viability and effectiveness of mangroves in the fight against climate change. 

More worrying than climate deniers are those that believe climate change can't be stopped. But we can't let that zap our motivation. With collective action, change is possible.

Elephants’ important role in maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems has earned them various names including ecosystem engineers, seed dispersers, and forest gardeners. However, African forest elephants—a species inhabiting the dense rain forests of central Africa—are increasingly recognized by another name: ‘climate hero.’

Using cutting-edge technology, researchers are uncovering profound links among ocean health, climate change, and the denizens of the deep

After the hottest year on record, here's what we can expect—and what we must accomplish—to combat climate change in the year ahead.

The theme for the 2024 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos is “Rebuilding Trust,” a timely choice given the pledge that 190 nations made at last year’s UN climate conference (COP28) a few months ago to transition away from fossil fuels. The gathering at Davos is an opportunity for the government leaders and powerhouses in business and culture in attendance to take on the challenge of delivering this promise of a clean energy transition. The World Economic Forum is putting its stated goal of driving trust and accountability to the test, and the world is watching.

Whales are the largest living creatures on the planet. But this massive stature is not their only superpower: whales play an important role when it comes to ocean productivity that could, by extension, influence the climate.

After days of intense negotiations, a landmark agreement emerged from the UN climate summit in Dubai, marking a significant step towards addressing climate change. For the first time in history, the agreement explicitly calls on all nations to transition away from fossil fuels, a crucial step in curbing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global warming.

The negotiators gathering in Dubai today for the UN COP28 climate summit are fully aware of the challenge before them. The first iteration of the global stocktake report, a key component of the Paris Agreement released in the lead-up to this year’s summit, paints a sobering picture: while we have made strides since 2010, the current trajectory of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions still falls perilously short of the targets set to limit warming.

With over 100,000 attendees in the massive Dubai Expo Center, it's halftime at the Superbowl of climate change talks—but this is no game. Our fate as a planet hangs in the balance of what is happening here.

This year is set to be the hottest year ever recorded, according to an announcement by the World Meteorological Organization at critical international climate talks underway in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

This year’s COP is critical as an inflection point in the transition away from fossil fuels and towards a renewable energy economy. We need to rapidly scale clean energy, and we need to do it while minimizing harm to nature.