People have been recording local climates for centuries, chronicling hot and cold periods as well as resulting floods, famines, and fatal diseases. Now, researchers have examined a wealth of historic documents to learn how climate impacted 16th century Transylvania, a region that today is part of Romania. They found that after several decades of uncharacteristically high temperatures, the climate changed in favor of excessive rain – and that both climates shaped human lives and societies in their own way.

Colorado’s forests store a massive amount of carbon, but dying trees – mostly due to insects and disease – have caused the state’s forests to emit more carbon than they absorbed in recent years, according to a Colorado State Forest Service report. 

A study shows that there are almost twice as many risky days for large human-caused fires in the American West as there are for lightning-caused fires, due to differences in the level of heat and aridity under which each type of fire is likely to occur. The discrepancy is not accounted for in most fire early warning systems. In addition, risky days for human-caused fires are growing faster than risky days for lighting-caused fires as the climate warms. 

New published research from Virginia Tech and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institution finds that electric vehicles generally produce less non-exhaust emissions compared with gasoline-powered vehicles.