Posts Tagged ‘climate change’
UN: Global agriculture needs a ‘profound transformation’ to fight climate change and protect food security
By Chelsea Harvey | The Washington Post Climate change has already begun to affect the world’s food production, a new report from the United Nations warns — and unless significant action is taken, it could put millions more people at risk of hunger and poverty in the next few decades. It’s a message that’s been emphasized over and over…
Read MoreBreakage of monumental B.C. iceberg quietly sounds climate change alarm
By Mark Hume | The Globe and Mail A massive chunk of ice – thought to be the largest iceberg to ever break off a glacier in Canada – fell into a lake in British Columbia this summer and no one noticed until a U.S. scientist saw it on a NASA photo. Dr. Mauri Pelto, professor…
Read MoreThe world passes 400ppm carbon dioxide threshold. Permanently
By Brian Kahn | The Guardian In the centuries to come, history books will likely look back on September 2016 as a major milestone for the world’s climate. At a time when atmospheric carbon dioxide is usually at its minimum, the monthly value failed to drop below 400 parts per million (ppm). That all but ensures…
Read MoreLimiting the Planet to 1.5 Degrees C of Warming Is Crucial, but It Won’t Be Easy
By Clive Hamilton | Scientific American Astonishment was universal last December when the Paris Agreement on climate change included the aspiration to limit warming to 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels, a much tougher target than the standard of 2°, now seen as too risky. It was a remarkable triumph for a long campaign by the small…
Read More375 top scientists warn of ‘real, serious, immediate’ climate threat
By John Abraham | The Guardian Yesterday, 375 of the world’s top scientists, including 30 Nobel Prize winners, published an open letter regarding climate change. In the letter, the scientists report that the evidence is clear: humans are causing climate change. We are now observing climate change and its affect across the globe. The seas are rising,…
Read MoreOcean Slime Spreading Quickly Across the Earth
By Craig Welch | National Geographic | August 19, 2016 When sea lions suffered seizures and birds and porpoises started dying on the California coast last year, scientists weren’t entirely surprised. Toxic algae is known to harm marine mammals. But when researchers found enormous amounts of toxin in a pelican that had been slurping anchovies, they decided to…
Read MoreGiant Coral Reef in Protected Area Shows New Signs of Life
By Karen Weintraub | The New York Times | August 15, 2016 In 2003, researchers declared Coral Castles dead. On the floor of a remote island lagoon halfway between Hawaii and Fiji, the giant reef site had been devastated by unusually warm water. Its remains looked like a pile of drab dinner plates tossed into the…
Read MoreFixing water quality for Great Barrier Reef will cost $8.2bn, report finds
By Michael Slezak | The Guardian | August 12, 2016 Attempting to fix the water quality for the Great Barrier Reef will cost $8.2bn in the next decade but even then some of the targets will be impossible to meet, according to a landmark report commissioned by the Queensland government. The targets are part of the federal government’s…
Read MoreMore than 60% of Maldives’ coral reefs hit by bleaching
The Guardian | August 8, 2016 More than 60% of coral in reefs in the Maldives has been hit by “bleaching” as the world is gripped by record temperatures in 2016, a scientific survey suggests. Bleaching happens when algae that lives in the coral is expelled due to stress caused by extreme and sustained changes in temperatures,…
Read MoreThaw could release U.S. toxic waste buried under Greenland’s ice
OSLO – Reuters | The Globe and Mail | August 5, 2016 Global warming could release radioactive waste stored in an abandoned Cold War-era U.S. military camp deep under Greenland’s ice caps if a thaw continues to spread in coming decades, scientists said on Friday. Camp Century was built in northwest Greenland in 1959 as part…
Read MoreAnthrax Outbreak In Russia Thought To Be Result Of Thawing Permafrost
By Michaeleen Doucleff | NPR.org| August 3, 2016 Russia is fighting a mysterious anthrax outbreak in a remote corner of Siberia. Dozens of people have been hospitalized; one child has died. The government airlifted some families out because more than 2,000 reindeer have been infected. Officials don’t know exactly how the outbreak started, but the…
Read MoreSlimy Green Beaches May Be Florida’s New Normal
By Laura Parker | National Geographic | July 27, 2016 The green slime that washed onto Florida beaches earlier this month marks the eighth time since 2004 that toxic algae have fouled the Sunshine State’s storied coastline. The algae blooms of 2013 were so severe the event became known as Toxic Summer. And this year’s outbreak…
Read More‘Shocking images’ reveal death of 10,000 hectares of mangroves across Northern Australia
By Kate Wild | ABC | July 11, 2016 Close to 10,000 hectares of mangroves have died across a stretch of coastline reaching from Queensland to the Northern Territory. Key points: A mangrove expert says it is the most extreme “dieback” he has ever seen The mangrove death occurred across a 700km stretch of NT and…
Read MoreMassive mangrove die-off on Gulf of Carpentaria worst in the world, says expert
By Michael Slezak | The Guardian | July 11, 2016 Climate change and El Niño have caused the worst mangrove die-off in recorded history, stretching along 700km of Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, an expert says. The mass die-off coincided with the world’s worst global coral bleaching event, as well as the worst bleaching event on the Great…
Read More3D printing could save our coral reefs
By Ronan Ye | 3D Printing Industry | June 28, 2016 Most of the environmental changes in the present times are taking the earth closer to the loss of biodiversity. Environmentalists are worried that the vast coral reefs under the ocean are subject to risk of extinction in the coming years. Hence, any program undertaken…
Read More