An area larger than the Indian subcontinent burned in wildfires across the globe in the past year alone. From thousands of bushfires in Australia, to the deadly Los Angeles wildfires, to record-breaking blazes ravaging the Amazon and Congo, our planet has been burning.

Is this devastation attributable to climate change? Scientists from around the world worked together to find out. They used satellite imagery and computer models to confirm the answer, and have now published their findings in a landmark study.

That answer? Yes. The climate crisis is fuelling Earth’s extreme wildfires. But the scientists also want you to know – it’s not too late to act. And yet, we head towards COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, with a sense that such climate summits so often fall short of delivering what’s required. Why? Francesco Grillo considers ways to make them more effective.

Signe Dean

Science + Technology Editor, Melbourne
Roni Bintang/Getty

The climate crisis is fuelling extreme fires across the planet

Hamish Clarke, The University of Melbourne

It’s clear – climate change is supercharging the world’s wildfires in unpredictable and devastating ways.
A police officer works inside the Louvre museum on Sunday. AP Photo/Thibault Camus

The Mona Lisa, a gold toilet and now the Louvre’s royal jewels: a fascinating history of art heists

Penelope Jackson, Charles Sturt University

A heist has taken place at the Louvre. It’s just the latest in a long line of cunning art heists.
Mikhail Nilov/Pexels

Eat kiwifruit for constipation, new guidelines say. But ditch the high-fibre diet

Vincent Ho, Western Sydney University

Kiwifruit, mineral water and rye bread are in. A high-fibre diet is out. Here’s what’s behind new advice to treat long-term constipation.
shutterstock. Juiced Up Media/Shutterstock

Why we keep hunting ghosts – and what it says about us

Alice Vernon, Aberystwyth University

From Victorian séances to TikTok, our hunt for ghosts reveals more about the living than the dead.