The world’s lakes are heating up fast, threatening the fish on which millions depend and rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

At the Paris climate summit, delegates have struck an agreement that calls for the world to “hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃”.

Field scientists warn that damage being done to the Amazon rainforest indicates that most of the world’s 40,000 tropical tree species now qualify as being at risk.

Meteorologists say that a combination of human and natural causes will make 2015 temperatures the hottest ever – halfway to the 2°C safety threshold.

Tropical forests are being exposed to unprecedented environmental change, with huge knock-on effects. In the past decade, the carbon absorbed annually by the Amazon rain forest has declined by almost a third.

An iconic North American migration is in jeopardy. The monarch butterfly migrates back and forth from Mexico to Canada every year, its orange and black sails peppering blue skies. In the past 20 years, almost one billion monarchs have gone missing across North America.

While the impacts and effects of Tropical Cyclone Pam on the Republic of Vanuatu are still being revealed, important lessons are beginning to emerge in relation to disasters in the Pacific region. Six people have died in the Vanuatan capital Port Vila, but there are no casualty figures from outside the city yet.

With more than half the world’s population now in cities, scientists warn that inadequate surface water supplies will leave many at increasing risk of drought.

Scientists find evidence of vast “storage tanks” of water deep below the melting Greenland ice sheet that could have a major effect on sea level rise.

Endangered species in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots face even greater danger as climate change adds to loss of habitat caused by deforestation.

One of our closest animal relatives is at risk of being wiped out as changing rainfall patterns threaten to destroy its Central African habitat.

Arctic sea ice melts each summer, reaching its minimum extent sometime in September, before refreezing through the winter. Over the past 35 years, the September sea ice extent has reduced by about 35% overall and this decline is projected to continue as global temperatures increase.

Unless substantial rain falls soon, California’s worst drought on record threatens dire consequences for the state’s massive agricultural industry.

Carbon dioxide is the “face” of the greenhouse gases, but nitrous oxide (N₂O) merits its own spotlight. The same “laughing gas” once used by dentists as an anaesthetic and used today by people looking for a quick, giggly high, turns out to be pretty bad for the environment.

Scientists warn that the deadly combination of unchecked climate change and nuclear weapons endangers everyone on Earth unless urgent action is taken.

Harvard researchers find that there has been an almost threefold annual increase in global sea levels over the last quarter of a century.

The Earth’s climate has always changed. All species eventually become extinct. But a new study has brought into sharp relief the fact that humans have, in the context of geological timescales, produced near instantaneous planetary-scale disruption.

The most detailed study yet of the Greenland ice sheet illustrates the complex process that is causing billions of tonnes to melt ever year.

2014 has been confirmed as Australia’s third-hottest year, capping off a record-breaking decade, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement, released today.

Scientists report that many cities near the coasts of the US should prepare for daily flooding at high tide by mid-century because of rising sea levels.

The US Must Face Up To The Dark Side Of Climate Change

As global temperatures rise, scientists warn that more cities in the US face the threat of power blackouts caused by fierce and frequent hurricanes.

Rising temperatures in Finland illustrate the increasingly rapid pace of warming in high northern latitudes − a trend that has accelerated over the last 40 years.

Many of us accept that the world is warming but will not necessarily recognise that climate change caused by human activities is responsible. Social scientists say better education is the answer.