Technologies

Scientists estimate 85% of world’s population affected by climate change

Over 60,000 studies were crunched by researchers in Germany using machine learning. The findings aren’t comforting.

Climate change is going to get a lot worse if we don’t act soon. While that’s not breaking news, it was the thrust of a landmark report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in August. The IPCC’s report warned that every region of the planet will be affected by rising temperatures.

A new paper, published in the journal Nature Climate Change on Oct. 11, adds some specificity to that forecast. Using machine learning technology to analyze over 60,000 climate change-related studies, researchers in Germany estimate that 85% of the population is affected by human-induced climate change. The study was led by Max Callaghan of Berlin’s Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change.

«There is overwhelming evidence that the impacts of climate change are already being observed in human and natural systems,» the paper reads. «We infer that attributable anthropogenic impacts may be occurring across 80% of the world’s land area, where 85% of the population reside.»

The study comes ahead of COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow that runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12. COP26 will bring together world leaders, including US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson but notably not China’s Xi Jinping, in hopes they’ll make new commitments to lowering carbon emissions. It was at COP21 in 2015 that the Paris Accords were struck, and observers hope that more ambitious commitments to carbon neutrality can be agreed to in Glasgow.

Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence that gets smarter as it’s fed more information: think speech-to-text software, which gets more accurate the more hours of voices it’s able to hear. Callaghan and the team aimed not just to highlight the planet’s plight as climate change’s impacts become more known, but also to use machine learning to reveal gaps within scientific study.

The researchers fed machine learning software called BERT (or «bidirectional encoder representations from transformers») 2,373 abstracts on papers related to climate change. Having digested the information on climate change, the algorithm then identified studies that may show the impacts of climate change even if those studies didn’t attribute their findings to climate change. The paper referenced one such study on the relationship between the timing of snowmelt and the population growth of mammals.

«Our objective is to map all possibly relevant studies on climate-related changes, rather than a list of studies where the relationship between an observed climate trend and specific impacts has been demonstrated with high confidence,» the paper reads. «While traditional assessments can offer relatively precise but incomplete pictures of the evidence, our machine-learning-assisted approach generates an expansive preliminary but quantifiably uncertain map.»

Technologies

Resident Evil Requiem Revealed, but Where’s Leon Kennedy?

The Resident Evil 9 trailer showed off a new character, but not the much-rumored return of Leon.

After a fake-out earlier in Summer Game Fest on Friday, Resident Evil Requiem, or Resident Evil 9, was shown for the first time.

The new title is the first mainline entry since Capcom released Resident Evil Village in 2021, and is rumored to feature series stalwart Leon Kennedy. In the trailer, the only person we saw was a character named Grace Ashcroft, who works for the FBI and appears to have ties to Raccoon City.

For the most hardcore Resident Evil fans, the name Ashcroft will ring a bell. Alyssa Ashcroft was one of the survivors of the online-only title, Resident Evil Outbreak for the PS2. Alyssa was a journalist who was trapped in Raccoon City during the events of Resident Evil 2, and she, along with other survivors, had to escape the city before it was destroyed.

Grace is Alyssa’s daughter, and in the trailer, she is going to visit the Remwood Hotel, where Alyssa was murdered. Later in the trailer, images from what appears to be the remnants of a destroyed Raccoon City are shown — including the police department from RE2 — so it appears Resident Evil 9 will return to where the series started.

Leon’s (rumored) return is a big deal for the series, which has made some of its best games with him in the starring role. He first showed up as a rookie cop in Resident Evil 2, which built on the original game’s success with more story and improved monsters and level design.

He showed up again in Resident Evil 4, which took the series in a new direction by introducing an over-the-shoulder perspective, instead of the usual static camera angles and tank controls. Leon was also one of several playable protagonists in Resident Evil 6, a game that seemed to forget about its survival horror roots. We mostly don’t talk about that one.

But the 2019 remake of Resident Evil 2 was an excellent return to form, bringing RE4’s gameplay and much better graphics to a fan-favorite entry. The RE4 remake was a similar success.

Resident Evil Requiem is set to drop Feb. 27, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series consoles, but we’re hoping to get our hands on it this weekend. If you want to catch up on older Resident Evil games, Capcom is having a sale that includes basically all the games, including Village and the three remakes.

Technologies

The Switch 2 Is Here, and I’ve Scoured the Internet for Every Accessory Available Right Now

Technologies

T-Mobile’s Free Premium iPhone 16 Pro Deal Explained. Learn Exactly How It Works

Along with a free iPhone, you can get an extra $800 to pay off your old device.

If you’re starting a new cell phone plan, most major mobile carriers require a multiyear commitment so it’s a big decision you need to consider carefully. First, think about the plan and provider itself: What’s the best coverage in your area and how many lines do you want to add? Next, compare the best mobile phone plan deals to save yourself the most money

T-Mobile has some fantastic deals right now you can take advantage of that make it a pretty competitive pick — especially for Apple fans looking to upgrade.

T-Mobile’s incentives include free lines and streaming services but one huge highlight is the chance to snag the top-rated iPhone 16 Pro free. The language on some of these offers can be a little confusing so we’ve broken down how T-Mobile’s current deals work below. Note that there aren’t any set expirations for these offers so they could vanish at any moment. We wouldn’t wait too long if you’re hoping to take advantage of these savings.

Why these deals matter

You more or less need a phone with reliable coverage these days but costs can add up quickly. Whether you’re looking to upgrade your mobile device or shopping for the best family plans, these T-Mobile deals can help save you some serious cash each month.