Chlamydia could make koalas extinct. Can a vaccine save them in time?

On the table, unconscious and stretched out on a pillow, Joe Mangy looks deceptively peaceful. The koala's watery, red-rimmed eyes are the only sign of the disease at war with his body.

Tubes snarl out of a mask covering his face as a vet tech listens to his chest with a stethoscope. He is not healing as well as they had hoped.

Cal Academy Adds Over 100 New Species to the Library of Life in 2024

New species of sea slug, Bermudella lahainensis. 

Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences have unveiled a list of all the new animal, plant and fungi species that they added to the Library of Life in 2024.

The new species include a pygmy pipehorse camouflaged in sponges found off the coast of South Africa, an edible and endangered Oaxacan dahlia that looks like a succulent, and 136 other fishes, leaf bugs, worms, sea slugs, spiders, ghost sharks and more.

These discoveries expand our understanding of Earth’s biodiversity. Below, KQED has compiled a list of some of the most eye-catching of the new plants and critters.

Arctic tundra now emits planet-warming pollution, 2024 federal report finds

The Arctic tundra is warming up and that's causing long-frozen ground to melt as well as an increase in wildfires. The region is "now emitting more carbon that it stores, which will worsen climate change impacts," explained NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad in a statement.

Arctic tundra, which has stored carbon for thousands of years, has now become a source of planet-warming pollution. As wildfires increase and hotter temperatures melt long-frozen ground, the region is releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Countries agreed to try to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Is that still possible?

An iceberg floats off the coast of Illulisat, Greenland. Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting rapidly, and the risks of drastic melting increase as the Earth heats up. The melting of Greenland's ice sheet is the second-largest contributor to global sea-level rise. (The largest contributor is water expanding as it warms.)

The primary focus of international climate negotiations this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, is how to pay for the costs of cutting global climate pollution and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

As well as the news that this year will likely be the warmest on record, today’s report by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization has other worrying findings: