As the Coal Industry Fades, Life Expectancies in Coal Country Shift
The coal industry can damage human health in myriad ways via dangerous working conditions and harmful pollution. But the income opportunities offered by the industry can also provide much-needed stability for certain communities, such as those in Appalachia’s coal country.
SPH in India: Partnering for Progress on Disease, Climate, and Sanitation
As India launches its first national census in 15 years following a COVID-related postponement from 2021, researchers at the School of Public Health and their Indian collaborators foresee opportunities to strengthen and scale their existing portfolios of work on air pollution, sanitation access, tuberculosis, and maternal and child health in the world’s most populous country.
In Pakistan’s deadly heat, low-cost cooling tools offer a lifeline for pregnant women
Canvas canopies, hand fans, damp cloths and solar reflective paint may not sound like elaborate medical interventions. But in Pakistan’s hottest neighborhoods, they can act as a lifeline for pregnant women and newborns from low-income households.
In a recent trial of affordable cooling solutions led by researchers at Pakistan’s Aga Khan University, low-tech interventions were able to cut indoor temperatures by 3-4° Celsius (5-7° Fahrenheit). Air-conditioning, and even fans, are often not available due to unreliable electricity supply.
Too hot to learn: cooling Argentina’s overheating schools
There have been 23 heatwaves in Rosario over the last 15 years, the same number as in the previous five decades, according to data from September 2025 from the National Meteorological Service (SMN). In the city, a heatwave occurs when the minimum temperature exceeds 20.5C and the maximum temperature exceeds 33.4C for three consecutive days. The longest in Rosario’s history was one of the most recent, occurring in March 2023 and lasting 10 consecutive days. During that one, a school in the city drew global attention after telling pupils to come to school in swimwear to try to stay cool.
Can we vacuum our way out of the climate crisis?
Technology may not solve the climate crisis, but that hasn’t stopped a wide variety of new techno-fixes from appearing in recent years, from carbon capture and storage to solar geoengineering. One of the latest is direct air capture (DAC) – a technology that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. There are now 200 such projects in operation around the world, up from 150 a year ago, and only a handful a decade ago.
Football in sun and without shadow: How extreme heat puts tomorrow’s stars at risk
Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano called football, not only the most popular sport in the world, but “the music of the body, the festival of the eyes”. It is a beloved hobby of hundreds of thousands of children and teenagers worldwide. But extreme heat is putting their well-being at risk. Researchers, coaches and scientists are now racing to find solutions, ranging from early warnings and awareness campaigns to banning synthetic pitches that trap heat.
How local energy networks are saving lives across the world
This microgrid concept is finding footholds in major cities in the United States, as well as isolated communities in the Global South. Often using renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, microgrids can offer the certainty that when extreme weather events or failures in ageing infrastructure knock out a national grid, communities can still access electricity.
Street vendors are struggling with rising temperatures
When a person is exposed to extreme heat, their body increases blood flow to the skin as it desperately tries to cool down. This attempt to cool creates more strain on internal organs and, if exposure is prolonged, serious organ failure is a possible outcome.
“The effects are particularly severe on the brain, although organs such as the heart and kidneys are where we have recorded chronic failures,” says Jonathan Lee, a researcher in environmental health who works on heat at Boston University in the United States.
City living isn’t good for a tree’s microbiome, study shows. Here’s what that means
Trees are home to all sorts of critters: birds, squirrels, frogs and more than a trillion teeny tiny microbes living in roots, bark and leaves. These fungi, bacteria and microorganisms play an important role in tree health; Beneficial microbes can help a tree take up nutrients or defend itself against disease.
But a new study in Nature Cities published Friday found that oak trees in Boston have a greater number of “bad” microbes, like pathogens and plant decomposers, than beneficial ones because of city stressors like heat and pollution. This disruption of the tree microbiome could spell trouble for the health of both trees and humans, according to the study’s authors.
New Hampshire’s snowpack is shrinking. Researchers are still uncovering the scope of what it means.
New England residents know that snow is disappearing from our landscape, and scientists have proven that climate change is to blame. But the effects of snowpack decline go far beyond what’s visible, and researchers working in the forests of New Hampshire and the Northeast are learning more about just how far the phenomenon stretches across seasons and landscapes. Their findings reveal how much tracking snow can tell us about the health of our forests and our world, and what is still to learn.