Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Backyard
Nature's Direct Feed from |
Last updated on November 21st, 2009
| Scientific debate sparked over carbon sink data: Click here |
| Physorg: According to research published this week in Nature Geoscience, emissions of carbon dioxide continue to outstrip the ability of the world's natural 'sinks' to absorb carbon. The new report follows another study published only ten days earlier by Dr Wolfgang Knorr in Geophysical Research Letters, which concludes that a decline in the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 cannot be detected within the available data. Both studies involved researchers ... |
| Are the Earth's Oceans Hitting Their Carbon Cap?: Click here |
| Time Magazine: But a new paper published in the Nov. 19 issue of Nature demonstrates that the oceans' ability to absorb man-made carbon may be dwindling -- and that has worrying ramifications for future climate change. While the ocean is now absorbing more carbon in total than ever before, the waters are sucking up a smaller percentage of the CO2 emitted by humans. That could mean that there's a limit to the ocean's capacity -- and that we might be hitting it. (See the top 10 green ideas of ... |
| Listen to the Earth, Say Indigenous Peoples: Click here |
| Inter Press Service: The idea of wilderness is "an interesting concept; it is a Western concept. Our people have always lived and interacted in the environment," said Illion Merculieff, an environmental activist from the Aleut community in the north-western U.S. state of Alaska. The Aleuts have inhabited the islands and coastal areas of the Bering Sea, in the northern Pacific, for more than 10,000 years, having adapted to the extreme climate. "Adaptation is absolutely essential," according to ... |
| Oceans' Uptake of Human-Made Carbon May Be Slowing: Click here |
| ScienceDaily: The oceans play a key role in regulating climate, absorbing more than a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans put into the air. Now, the first year-by-year accounting of this mechanism during the industrial era suggests the oceans are struggling to keep up with rising emissions -- a finding with potentially wide implications for future climate. The study appears in the November 19 issue of the journal Nature. The researchers estimate that the oceans last year took up a record 2.3 ... |
| 'Climate change pushes poor women to prostitution, dangerous work': Click here |
| GMA: Effects of climate change have driven women in communities in coastal areas in poor countries like the Philippines to risk dangerous jobs, and sometimes even into the flesh trade. Suneeta Mukherjee, country representative of the United Nations Food Population Fund (UNFPA), said women in the Philippines are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the country. "Climate change could reduce income from farming and fishing possibly driving some women into sex work ... |
| Japan whale fleet leaves for Antarctic: Greenpeace: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: Japanese whaling ships left port Thursday for Antarctic waters for the annual hunt of the ocean giants, Greenpeace said, setting the stage for high-seas confrontations with anti-whaling activists. The factory ship Nisshin Maru and the smaller Yushin Maru 2 and 3 left the western port of Innoshima shortly after 10am (0100 GMT) for what is usually a five-month voyage, said the environmental activist group. Japan kills hundreds of whales a year in Antarctic waters by using a ... |
| Seas Are Struggling to Absorb Emissions: Click here |
| New York Times: The Earth's oceans, which have absorbed carbon dioxide from fuel emissions since the dawn of the industrial era, have recently grown less efficient at sopping it up, new research suggests. Emissions from the burning of fossil fuels began soaring in the 1950s, and oceans largely kept up, scientists say. But the growth in the intake rate has slowed since the 1980s, and markedly so since 2000, the authors of a study write in a report in Thursday's issue of Nature. The research ... |
| Using fish as livestock feed threatens global fisheries: Click here |
| Mongabay: Fish doesn't just feed humans. Millions of tons of fish are fed every year to chickens, pigs, and even farmed fish even in the midst of rising concerns over fish stocks collapses around the world. Finding an alternative to fish as livestock feed would go a long way toward preventing the collapse of fish populations worldwide according to a new paper in Oryx. "Thirty million tons – or 36 per cent – of the world's total fisheries catch each year is currently ground up into fishmeal and ... |
| Sinking Global Warming: Is There a Reliable Way to Track Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels?: Click here |
| Scientific American: The planet soaks up excess carbon dioxide via oceans, plants and soils, among other natural systems, locking away some of the greenhouse gases emitted by burning fossil fuels. In fact, every year these natural "sinks" absorb a larger and larger tonnage of emissions--but thanks to the increasing amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases dumped in the atmosphere by human activity, the proportion that is reabsorbed is beginning to dwindle, according to new studies. As efforts get underway ... |
| Rising CO2 could cause catastrophic sea level rise finds Antarctic study: Click here |
| Telegraph: The British Antarctic Survey found that during past periods of high carbon dioxide, temperatures in Antarctica were up to 6C above current levels. This could cause a sea level rise of up six metres, threatening coastal cities like London, New York and San Francisco. It is the latest research to warn of the consequences of increased greenhouse gases on the Earth's climate. Yesterday a study warned that carbon dioxide produced by man is now rising at record rates putting the world on a ... |
| Oceans' ability to sequester carbon diminishing: Click here |
| Mongabay: A new study--the first of its kind--has completed an annual accounting of the oceans' intake of carbon over the past 250 years, and the news is troubling. According to the study, published in Nature, the oceans' ability to sequester carbon is struggling to keep-up with mankind's ever-growing emissions. Since 2000 researchers estimate that while every year the oceans continue to sequester more anthropogenic carbon emission, the overall proportion of carbon taken in by the oceans is ... |
| Skate may be fished to extinction: Click here |
| BBC: A species of skate could become the first marine fish driven to extinction by commercial fishing, say scientists. A study reveals that an error in the classification of the species has meant researchers have failed to see just how close to the brink it is. The French team reports its findings in the journal Aquatic Conservation. Marine biologist Nicholas Dulvy from Simon Fraser University in Canada says the skate is now "the most precarious marine species on ... |
| Sharks under threat as environmental change bites hard: Click here |
| Physorg: Their size and fearsome appearance have made them the stuff of nightmares, but new research just published suggests that sharks may not be as tough as they appear. Using information from two global datasets collected by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and FishBase, the Australian team behind the study has compiled the most comprehensive database yet of information about sharks, rays and chimaeras (a deep-water fish which also has cartilage instead of bones) ... |
| Small Islands Fear Going the Way of Atlantis: Click here |
| Inter Press Service: The world's small island states, most of which are painfully vulnerable to the ravages of climate change, have put the United Nations on notice. Dramatising the plight of Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS), Ambassador Stuart Beck of Palau warns that the 192-nation world body, which progressively kept growing from its original membership of 51 in 1945, is in danger of shrinking because some of its members may be wiped off the face of the earth. "This chilling ... |
| Save Half the Planet, or Lose It All: Click here |
| Inter Press Service: At least half the planet must be protected if humanity is to survive the next century, declared conservationists at the conclusion of 9th World Wilderness Congress on Friday, Nov. 13. "That is what the science said, this is what many aboriginal people say," said Harvey Locke, the Wild Foundation's vice president of conservation strategy. "It's time to speak the simple truth: The whole thing unravels without protecting at least half of the planet," said Locke. A leading ... |
| Bluefin tuna quota cut not enough: environmentalists: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: Environmentalists on Sunday warned bluefin tuna was on its way to extinction after a international meeting of fishery ministry officials trimmed catch quotas but upheld continued hauls of the fish, prized in sushi dishes. "After meeting for 10 days, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) refused to end fishing for Atlantic bluefin tuna," the Pew Environment Group, a US organization that sat on in the meeting in Recife, Brazil, said in a ... |
| Actions taken to save sharks 'disappointing': Click here |
| Mongabay: Environmentalists say that the International Commissions for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) did not do enough in their yearly meeting to protect the ocean's sharks. Member countries of ICCAT agreed on a ban big eye thresher sharks. However, Mexico was granted an exemption, allowing it to catch 110 big eye threshers, which is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. "ICCAT's lack of action on sharks was [...] disappointing," said Matt Rand, coordinator of the ... |
| Fishing body agrees to cut in Atlantic tuna quota: Click here |
| Reuters: Fishing nations agreed on Sunday to cut by about a third the quota for Atlantic bluefin tuna, a giant fish prized by sushi lovers, numbers of which have been decimated by commercial catches. The move was denounced as inadequate by environmental groups who had called on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) to agree to a zero quota and list the fish as an endangered species. ICCAT, an intergovernmental body of 48 nations that ... |
| Australia: Report details coastal climate change risks: Click here |
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: The Federal Government has released a new report titled Climate Change Risks to Australia's coasts. It is the first risk assessment done by the Commonwealth to gauge which areas on the eastern seaboard are most at risk from a sea level rise. Professor Bruce Thom worked on the report and says parts of the New South Wales north coast face an uncertain future. "There's more and more properties that are low-lying around our estuaries and our lakes, of course we do have some ... |
| UN 'Hunger Summit' starved for attention: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: The leaders of the world's wealthiest nations will be conspicuous by their absence as more than 60 heads of state and government gather in Rome this week for a UN summit on the plight of the planet's billion hungry. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader from the Group of Eight industrialised countries expected to attend the "Hunger Summit" from Monday through Wednesday. Pope Benedict XVI will be among the inaugural speakers at meeting at the Rome ... |
| Climate-vulnerable countries send SOS over climate change: Click here |
| Afrique en Ligue: Ahead of the forthcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, the world's most climate-vulnerable countries have called on the developed countries to provide money amounting to at least 1.5 per cent of their gross domestic product to assist developing countries make their transition to a climate resilient low-carbon economy. Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Kiribati, Barbados, The Maldive Island, Bhutan, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania, popularly known as the V11, are the ... |
| 250,000 Australian homes at climate risk: report: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: Rising sea levels caused by global warming could inundate up to 250,000 homes in Australia, according to a new study that warned airports, hospitals and power stations were at risk. The government's "Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coasts" report found between 157,000 and 247,600 existing residential buildings were in danger of being flooded by 2100 if seas rose by 1.1 metres (43 inches). Major ports and other crucial infrastructure were also vulnerable, said Climate Change ... |
| Sea rises threaten Australian homes: govt report: Click here |
| Reuters: Nearly a quarter of a million homes along Australia's coastline could be submerged by 2100 unless action is taken to stop sea levels rising, a government report said on Saturday. Debate on climate change -- and a government proposal to introduce a carbon trading scheme -- are the very focal point of political debate, with parliament due to reopen on Monday. With Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Labour Party far ahead in polls and the conservative opposition divided on the issue ... |
| Australia: Waters keep rising, and so does worry: Click here |
| Sydney Morning Herald: SCIENTISTS say Lake Macquarie is the area in the state most vulnerable to rising sea levels. Gordon and Marie Richardson, who have lived there for 42 years, need no convincing. In the past 20 years two storms have transformed their street into a tributary of the nearby lake, with water deep enough to float shoes off the veranda. "If we get big storms, heavy rain, big tides, we do have a problem," Mr Richardson said. "We've had [40 centimetres] of water in our backyard. ... |
| Australia: Dykes may be vital: Click here |
| Sydney Morning Herald: DYKES, seawalls and other barriers may have to be built to save thousands of coastal properties, many of them in Sydney and Melbourne, according to a landmark study. The first attempt to assess the risk that climate change poses to the nation's coastal communities estimates that between 22 and 35 per cent of 711,000 coastal properties around Australia are at risk. Sixty per cent of those vulnerable houses are in NSW and Queensland. The report, Climate Change Risks to ... |
| Climate Rage: Click here |
| Rollingstone: Climate Rage The only way to stop global warming is for rich nations to pay for the damage they've done - or face the consequences One last chance to save the world -- for months, that's how the United Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen, which starts in early December, was being hyped. Officials from 192 countries were finally going to make a deal to keep global temperatures below catastrophic levels. The summit called for "that old comic-book sensibility of uniting ... |
| El Nino Picking Up Steam: Click here |
| Physorg: The latest image from the U.S./French Jason-2 satellite finds a strong wave of warm water heading toward the Americas, fueling El Nino. El Niño is experiencing a late-fall resurgence. Recent sea-level height data from the NASA/French Space Agency Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 oceanography satellite show that a large-scale, sustained weakening of trade winds in the western and central equatorial Pacific during October has triggered a strong, eastward-moving wave of warm ... |
| How much is nature worth?: Click here |
| Physorg: How much is nature worth? £1 billion? £100 billion? £1 trillion? The loss of our forests and biodiversity in general could cost us between £1.2-2.8 trillion a year, according to Pavan Sukhdev, who is giving this year's Annual Science Lecture at the Natural History Museum on Monday. In The Value of Nature lecture, Pavan Sukhdev will talk about this incredible cost of continuing to take nature for granted. He will also explain the costs and benefits of actions taken to reduce these ... |
| United Kingdom: Climate expert targets the affluent: Click here |
| BBC: On the eve of the Copenhagen summit on climate change BBC East speaks to Kevin Anderson, director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. Failure to control emissions of greenhouse gases and other atmospheric pollutants will be catastrophic to East Anglia, Professor Anderson claims. The coast will be reshaped and vital agricultural land will be lost. Change now will avert the worst of the impacts but the well-off will have to shoulder the burden, he ... |
| Greenland ice cap melting faster than thought: Click here |
| Independent (UK): Greenland's ice sheet has melted faster previously thought, according to the results of a two-year study published by the US journal Science. Scientists reported that warmer than usual summers accelerated ice loss to 273 cubic kilometers (65 cubic miles) of a year between 2006 and 2008, amounting to a 0.75 millimeter (0.02 inch) rise in global sea levels per year, "It is clear from these results that mass loss from Greenland has been accelerating since the late 1990s and the ... |
| Greenland Ice Cap Melting Faster Than Ever: Click here |
| ScienceDaily: Satellite observations and a state-of-the art regional atmospheric model have independently confirmed that the Greenland ice sheet is losing mass at an accelerating rate, reports a new study in Science. This mass loss is equally distributed between increased iceberg production, driven by acceleration of Greenland's fast-flowing outlet glaciers, and increased meltwater production at the ice sheet surface. Recent warm summers further accelerated the mass loss to 273 Gt per year (1 Gt is ... |
| Invest in nature now, save trillions later: study: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: Investing billions today to protect threatened ecosystems and dwindling biodiversity would reap trillions in savings over the long haul, according to a UN-backed report issued Friday. More than a billion of Earth's poorest denizens depend directly on coral reefs, forests, mangroves, aquifers and other forms of "natural capital" to eke out a living. Unless world leaders take swift action to halt the accelerating depletion of these resources, the result could be hunger, conflict ... |
| Investment in ecosystems will reap rewards: UNEP: Click here |
| Reuters: Nations that take into account natural resources in their investment strategies will have higher rates of return and stronger economies, a report backed by the United Nations' Environment Programme said on Friday. With less than one month until a U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, the report urges policymakers to reform their economic policies to stop the destruction of natural resources such as forests and oceans. "Repairing the ecosystem by replanting forests, restoring ... |
| Australia: Threats looming fast for vital facilities: Click here |
| Sydney Morning Herald: SYDNEY Airport, the nation's busiest, sits surrounded almost entirely by waterways. Botany Bay lies on the south, Botany Wetlands to the east, Alexandra Canal to the north, and Cooks River to the west. It is among the most critical and vulnerable pieces of infrastructure at risk from sea-level rise, the latest report on Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coast finds. A sea-level rise of 1.1 metres, combined with a storm surge, would inundate parts of the northern runways and taxiways ... |
| Countries that invest in conservation will see higher financial returns, argues report: Click here |
| Mongabay: A new report issued by the The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) initiative makes a strong case for valuing the planet's ecosystem services. The report calls for investments in "ecological infrastructure" to protect wildlands and the services they provide; market-based valuation of ecosystem services; reductions in environmentally harmful subsidies; recognition of the link between environmental degradation and poverty; and a strong climate deal that includes forest ... |
| Greenland ice loss accelerating: study: Click here |
| Reuters: Greenland's ice losses are accelerating and nudging up sea levels, according to a study showing that icebergs breaking away and meltwater runoff are equally to blame for the shrinking ice sheet. The report, using computer models to confirm satellite readings, indicated that ice losses quickened in 2006-08 to the equivalent of 0.75 mm (0.03 inch) of world sea level rise per year from an average 0.46 mm a year for 2000-08. "Mass loss has accelerated," said Michiel van den Broeke, ... |
| Greenland ice loss 'accelerating': Click here |
| BBC: The Greenland ice sheet is losing its mass faster than in previous years and making an increasing contribution to sea level rise, a study has confirmed. Published in the journal Science, it has also given scientists a clearer view of why the sheet is shrinking. The team used weather data, satellite readings and models of ice sheet behaviour to analyse the annual loss of 273 thousand million tonnes of ice. Melting of the entire sheet would raise sea levels globally by ... |
| Canada: Signs and Portents of a Hostile New World: Click here |
| Inter Press Service: Lawrence Amos travelled from the Arctic at the top of the world to the tropical middle to recite in a soft voice the ongoing destruction of his home by climate change. The ice is rougher and not as thick, and melts in May instead of June. There is less snow, more coastal erosion, and permafrost is melting, threatening to swallow homes, said Amos, an Inuit who lives in Sachs Harbour in Canada's High Arctic, one of the remotest communities on the planet. Amos was speaking here on ... |
| Warming drives off Cape Cod's namesake, other fish: Click here |
| Associated Press: Fishermen have known for years that they've had to steam farther and farther from shore to find the cod, haddock and winter flounder that typically fill dinner plates in New England. A new federal study documenting the warming waters of the North Atlantic confirms that they're right - and that the typical meal could eventually change to the Atlantic croaker, red hake and summer flounder normally found to the south. "Fishermen are businessmen, so if they have to go farther and ... |
| Costa Rica proposes to downgrade Las Baulas National Park, threatening leatherback sea turtles: Click here |
| Mongabay: Costa Rica is considered by many to be a shining example of environmental stewardship, preserving both its terrestrial and marine biodiversity while benefiting from being a popular tourist location. However, a new move by the Costa Rican government has placed their reputation in question. In May of this year the President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, presented a law to the legislature that would downgrade Las Baulas from a National Park to a 'mixed property wildlife refuge'. The ... |
| China: Yangtze basin faces climate disasters: Click here |
| China Daily: The basin, home to 400 million people, is an economic powerhouse and the site of the country's largest port and city, Shanghai. In a report released yesterday, environmental group WWF said climate change over the next 50 years would inflict more potentially disastrous weather on the affluent area. "Extreme climate events such as storms and drought will increase as climate change continues to alter our planet," said Xu Ming, the lead researcher of the report. Other ... |
| Can offshore winds spin a market for U.S.-made turbines?: Click here |
| Climate Wire: Middle Eastern oil is one energy dependency. Another, looming in the future, could be a growing array of wind turbines, situated along the Eastern Seaboard, manufactured by European companies and feeding electricity to nearby American cities. That's what government and industry experts are trying to avoid -- a new addiction. The effort here to roll out an offshore wind industry is accelerating, but major gaps are still stopping turbine builders from opening U.S. facilities that could ... |
| Vulnerable countries urge world to cut emissions: Click here |
| Associated Press: A group of 11 countries vulnerable to adverse effects of global warming urged world leaders Tuesday to reach a binding agreement at the next month's global conference on the issue. The countries called President Barack Obama and the leaders of emerging economies such as India and China, to personally attend the talks in Copenhagen. Officials from Bangladesh, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, Kiribati, the Maldives, Nepal, Rwanda, Tanzania and Vietnam -- calling themselves the V11 ... |
| Copenhagen failure would be 'suicide': Maldives: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: The president of the Maldives has warned that a failure to agree a deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions in Copenhagen next month would be an act of "collective suicide". "At the moment every country arrives at climate negotiations seeking to keep their own emissions as high as possible," President Mohamed Nasheed said here. "This is the logic of the madhouse, a recipe for collective suicide. "We don't want a global suicide pact. We want a global survival pact." More ... |
| Coral reef scientist slams Brumby over 'reckless vandalism': Click here |
| Sydney Morning Herald: One of the world's leading coral reef scientists has slammed the Brumby Government's proposal to export Victoria's brown coal to India as "reckless vandalism". John "Charlie" Veron, who discovered a quarter of the world's identified coral species, said any move to export the state's vast reserves of brown coal would only further endanger the Great Barrier Reef. "It's reckless vandalism. Brown coal would have to be the dirtiest, nastiest form of energy there is. It is absolutely ... |
| United States: As seas rise, planning starts: Click here |
| Savannah Now: Sea level rise could put as much as 50-100 square miles of currently dry land - an area about 20-40 times the size of Tybee Island - under water in Georgia this century, a new report points out. But the study, published in Environmental Research Letters, indicates Georgia is in a better position than many states to plan for this inundation. That's because Georgia has a good portion of its low lying land - including most of the state's barrier islands - in conservation. In fact, ... |
| 'Last chance' for tuna authority: Click here |
| BBC: |
| Threatened Maldives urges joint action at climate talks: Click here |
| Reuters: The Maldives, threatened by rising sea levels because of global warming, on Monday pleaded with developed nations to reduce carbon emissions and said developing nations could change the outcome at climate talks in Copenhagen. The appeal by the Indian ocean archipelago came at a climate change summit grouping Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Kiribati, Barbados, Bhutan, Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania before next month's global climate change summit in Copenhagen. Despite being ... |
| India shouldn't be seen wanting in climate change action: Click here |
| Press Trust of India: Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday said India should not be seen "wanting" in the climate change action and quantify its greenhouse gas emission targets at the domestic level to be accountable to its parliament. "We should take aggressive targets for emission cuts on the domestic front but there is no question of taking commitments at the global level," Ramesh said at the lecture on 'Equitable Agreement on Climate Change', which was delivered by US economist Nicholas ... |
| Past climate of the northern Antarctic Peninsular informs global warming debate: Click here |
| Physorg: The seriousness of current global warming is underlined by a reconstruction of climate at Maxwell Bay in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula over approximately the last 14,000 years, which appears to show that the current warming and widespread loss of glacial ice are unprecedented. "At no time during the last 14 thousand years was there a period of climate warming and loss of ice as large and regionally synchronous as that we are now witnessing in the Antarctic ... |
| Thailand: Fight to keep Bangkok above water: Click here |
| Straits Times: Each of the 51 submersible pumps at the Phra Khanong pumping station -- the biggest of the facilities draining Bangkok -- can at full throttle blast 173 cubic metres per second of water into a broad canal. From there, the momentum propels the water into the Chao Phraya river 1km away. Night and day, the pumps work, literally keeping Bangkok above water. When the rain comes down and the river rises, Bangkok needs every last ounce of that horsepower. That is because much ... |
| Desalination plant: cost keeps rising: Click here |
| Green Left Weekly: The price tag for the desalination plant planned for Wonthaggi has increased from $3.5 billion to $4.8 billion. On the July 31 ABC Stateline program, Tony Shepherd, then chairperson of AquaSure, the consortium building the plant, said: "I think the total funding will be $4.8 billion, so the difference between the $3.5 and the $4.8 is associated with the financing of the project." He said the extra was for "things like interest during construction and company costs". He ... |
| Protected zones will help to save Britain's marine wildlife: Click here |
| Guardian: An exotic underwater world of seahorses, sharks and corals that surrounds the coast of Britain is to be given greater protection under new legislation coming into force this week. The long-awaited Marine Act will allow conservation groups to map sites of nature preservation for the first time. Future legislation to be enforced in these marine conservation zones will see an end to damaging practices such as scallop dredging and trawler fishing. Currently there is only one small ... |
| Canada: Scientists warn caribou collapse not unlike disappearance of cod stocks: Click here |
| Canadian Press: Once, caribou wandered over the Arctic tundra in herds that took days to pass. So great were their numbers - even 20 years ago - that they were able to shake off man's puny imprint on the great barren lands like so many flies on a rump. "There was so much caribou all over that even our plane, our scheduled flights, couldn't land on the airstrip," recalled Alfonz Nitsiza of Wha Ti, a tiny aboriginal community northwest of Yellowknife. "The caribou were on the airstrip. It ... |
| EU to fight for tuna protection at global talks: Click here |
| Reuters: Fishing nations must cut the amount of Atlantic bluefin tuna they catch and protect porbeagle and thresher sharks, European fisheries commissioner Joe Borg said on Friday ahead of international talks. Atlantic bluefin is prized by sushi lovers and commands huge prices in Asia, particularly in Japan where a single fish can fetch up to $100,000. As a result, industrial fishing has drastically reduced numbers in the Mediterranean and east Atlantic, and scientists warn the ... |
| The unsung heroes who risk their lives to save the planet: Click here |
| Telegraph: Monday was one of the best days of the year. But then it always is. On the first Monday of every November, I help give away $900,000 (£542,000) of someone else's money, as one of the judges of one of the world's biggest green awards. Even better, the cash goes to some of the most remarkable and courageous -- if largely unknown -- people on earth. Most of the best-known environmental prizes are normally scooped up by the great and (not always) good, whose shelves are already sagging ... |
| Can Oceans Survive The Human Appetite For Seafood?: Click here |
| National Public Radio: IRA FLATOW, host: You're listening to SCIENCE FRIDAY from NPR News. I'm Ira Flatow. And for most of us, whatever lies behind - beyond the beach is pretty much a mystery. Maybe you've been snorkeling or you're scuba diving a few times a year or you watch "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel, but do you really know the ocean? Someone who has been there, done that, walked the depths of the seas, literally, is Sylvia Earle. She's lived in a coral reef, celebrated birthdays ... |
| U.S. requests talks with Mexico over tuna dispute: Click here |
| Reuters: The United States on Thursday sought formal talks with Mexico to settle a spat between the neighbors over which international body should hear a complaint about "dolphin-safe" tuna. In March, Mexico filed a World Trade Organization complaint challenging U.S. labeling rules for tuna caught using methods less harmful to dolphins that swim near the fish. The United States bars the "dolphin-safe" label on tuna caught by boats using purse seine nets that also snare dolphins -- a ... |
| Canada to investigate disappearing Pacific salmon: Click here |
| Reuters: Canada will launch an investigation into why far fewer sockeye salmon than scientists had predicted returned to the Fraser River on the Pacific Coast this summer. Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the judicial inquiry on Thursday, saying the federal government was concerned about the declining sockeye population. Federal government scientists had predicted that as many as 13 million sockeye salmon would return to the river this year to breed, but it is now estimated that ... |
| Bluefin tuna on edge of extinction, environmentalists warn: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: An international fisheries group set up to protect Atlantic tuna has done the opposite and driven one species of the fish, the bluefin, to the edge of extinction, environmentalists said Thursday. On the eve of a 10-day meeting in Brazil of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), environmentalists accused the group of ignoring the advice of its own scientists and setting fishing quotas for bluefin tuna that have drastically depleted ... |
| Australia launches inquiry into major oil spill: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: Australia launched an inquiry on Thursday into a major oil spill off its coast which has been described as one of the country's worst environmental disasters. Retired senior civil servant David Borthwick was appointed to probe the leak, which gushed from a damaged oil well in the Timor Sea for some 10 weeks and then burst into flames before finally being contained on Tuesday. "I simply say that we aspire to learn from this incident and take any necessary steps to stop similar ... |
| Radar Reveals Dynamic World Under Antarctica's Ice: Click here |
| National Public Radio: A NASA DC-8 plane equipped with lasers, ice-penetrating radar, and a gravity meter is revealing a dynamic and complex world beneath the massive ice sheet that covers Antarctica. The plane is flying over Antarctica for six weeks as part of a mission to use airplanes to replace a dying NASA satellite that's been monitoring polar ice. But the stopgap measure is providing a major scientific bonus: The DC-8 flies just 1,500 feet above the ice and carries instruments that let ... |
| Paleoecologists Offer New Insight Into How Climate Change Will Affect Organisms: Click here |
| redOrbit: An article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science written by a team of ecologists, including Robert Booth, assistant professor of earth and environmental science at Lehigh University, examines some of the potential problems with current prediction methods and calls for the use of a range of approaches when predicting the impact of climate change on organisms. According to Booth and his colleagues, one of the biggest challenges facing ecologists today is trying to ... |
| China pushes CO2 capture, storage questions loom: Click here |
| Reuters: |
| Coral bleaching gives rise to reef bullies: Click here |
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: To the average snorkeller a coral reef might seem like a watery paradise, but new research has found coral bleaching could turn reefs into rough neighbourhoods. With the decline in the reef, bigger fish could bully smaller varieties out of the best positions and those smaller fish would then become much easier targets for predators, leading to dramatic changes in a reef's ecosystem. Coral bleaching is expected to become more widespread because of the effects of global ... |
| Bangladesh: Combating climate change impacts: Click here |
| Daily Star: THE European Union (EU) parliamentary delegation's commitment that the EU will be on Bangladesh's side in spite of the outcome of the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen is a hope giving one. Especially, we are reassured at the concern and empathy it expressed for us in the event of any catastrophe befalling the country, for example, in the form of triggering an exodus of climate refugees. As a frontline state in the fight for survival against the impact of global ... |
| Governments, public failing to save world's species: Click here |
| Mongabay: According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 2008 report, released yesterday, 36 percent of the total species evaluated by the organization are threatened with extinction. If one adds the species classified as Near Threatened, the percentage jumps to 44 percent--nearly half. "It's time to recognize that nature is the largest company on Earth working for the benefit of 100 percent of humankind – and it's doing it for free. Governments should put as much ... |
| Calm Before The Spawn: Climate Change And Coral Spawning: Click here |
| redOrbit: What's the point of setting up marine reserves to protect coral reefs from pollution, ship groundings and overfishing if climate change could cause far more damage? A study published this week in London in Proceedings of the Royal Society B provides the answer. For decades researchers have known that corals synchronize their release of eggs and sperm into the water but were unsure of how and why. Robert van Woesik, a biologist at the Florida Institute of Technology, explains why ... |
| The Perils Of Overfishing, Part 2: Click here |
| National Public Radio: Daniel Pauly, a professor at the Fisheries Centre of the University of British Columbia, warns that the global fishing industry has drastically depleted the number of fish in the oceans. In an Oct. 7, 2009 article entitled "Aquacalypse Now: The End of Fish," published by The New Republic, Pauly writes that in the past 50 years "we have reduced the populations of large commercial fish, such as bluefin tuna, cod, and other favorites, by a staggering 90 percent." Pauly writes that ... |
| Over 1,000 fish species 'threatened with extinction': Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: More than 1,000 freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction, reflecting the strain on global water resources, an updated global "Red List" of endangered species showed Tuesday. The list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the most respected inventory of biodiversity covering more than 47,000 of the world's species. Scientists looked at 3,120 freshwater fish this year, 510 more than a year ago. They found that 1,147, or a third, are now ... |
| Taiwan coral reefs need 100 years to recover: scientists: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: Coral reefs off Taiwan will need up to 100 years to recover from Typhoon Morakot, which lashed the island in early August killing more than 600 people, a scientist said Tuesday. Latest research shows the reefs, near volcanic Orchid Island southeast of Taiwan, have sustained even worse damage than initially feared, according to Academia Sinica, a Taipei-based scientific institution. "Some of the shallow-water coral reefs look as if they've been crushed by road rollers," said ... |
| Deep-sea Ecosystems Affected By Climate Change: Click here |
| ScienceDaily: |
| Warming could create 150 million 'climate refugees': Click here |
| Guardian: Global warming will force up to 150 million "climate refugees" to move to other countries in the next 40 years, a new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) warns. In 2008 alone, more than 20 million people were displaced by climate-related natural disasters, including 800,000 people by cyclone Nargis in Asia, and almost 80,000 by heavy floods and rains in Brazil, the NGO said. President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives, who presented testimony to the EJF, said ... |
| Overturn of CO2 transportation ban promises North Sea CCS boost: Click here |
| Business Green: The prospect of depleted North Sea oil and gas fields continuing to generate revenue for the UK as storage facilities for capture carbon emissions moved a step closer last week after International Maritime Organisation (IMO) voted in favour of the international ban on the cross-boundary transport of CO2 being lifted. The repeal of the ban could still take several years to ratify, but experts said it would provide a major boost to the development of international carbon capture and ... |
| Coastal homes in Australia at risk from rising sea levels: Click here |
| Independent (UK): Australia's love affair with the beach is in danger of being rudely terminated. A parliamentary report released yesterday suggests that the government may have to force people to abandon prime oceanfront homes along thousands of miles of coastline vulnerable to rising sea levels. The report, published in the run-up to the Copenhagen summit on climate change in December, sent a shiver through a country where 80 per cent of the population lives on the coast. With more than 700,000 homes ... |
| Australians 'could be forced to evacuate seaside homes': Click here |
| Times (UK): Australia's fabled beachside life of sea, surf and sundowners overlooking the ocean is under threat from rising sea levels. Those living in coastal areas most at risk could be ordered out of their homes for their own safety, while construction in other sensitive seaside areas may be banned. A government report on climate change says that urgent action is needed to protect thousands of miles of coastline and to maintain an Australian way of life. The issue is already coming to a ... |
| Catastrophic climate change: Click here |
| Age: IT WAS a grand plan that would have transformed a small Victorian coastal town. The $200 million resort development known as Great Ocean Green would have spanned 165 hectares, expanded Apollo Bay by 500 blocks and added an 18-hole, championship golf course for good measure. The development was to be built on the Barham River flood plain between Marengo and Apollo Bay and became a hot issue in the local community. Three local councillors were sacked by Local Government Minister ... |
| Rising seas 'threaten thousands of Australian homes': Click here |
| Independent (UK): Australia may have to force people to evacuate coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten thousands of homes, an official report has warned. The National Sea Change Taskforce said urgent action was needed to protect Australia's coast from seas expected to rise more than 80 centimetres (31 inches) this century. The sweeping parliamentary report noted that 80 percent of Australians live in coastal areas with about 711,000 homes within three kilometres (about two miles) of the ... |
| Indonesia: Climate change to affect marine tourism: Click here |
| Antara: Sea and Coastal Areas Director of the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry Subandono Diposaptono said that climate change could affect the marine tourism, particularly natural tourism in coastal areas. "When the climate changes as a result of global warming the sea surface would rise so that white sand will disappear because it is submerged with water," Diposaptono told a seminar on climate change here on Tuesday. He said that the increase in global warming would also bring ... |
| Australia coastal living at risk: Click here |
| BBC: Australians may have to leave coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten homes, according to a new report. The parliamentary committee report says urgent action is needed, as seas are expected to rise by 80cm (31 inches). About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas, and the report recommends new laws banning further development in coastal regions. Correspondents say the authorities are divided over whether to retreat from rising seas or defend the ... |
| Updated: Marine energy needs new wave of subsidy: Click here |
| Business Green: Britain's marine energy policy is in danger of repeating the mistakes that allowed Germany, Denmark and China to outstrip the UK in the race to develop a domestic wind energy sector, according to a major new report from the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA). The trade group, which also represents the UK's emerging wave and tidal energy sector, released its annual State of the Industry report this week warning that while the UK is home to many of the world's leading marine energy ... |
| Australia's coastal lifestyle under threat: Click here |
| Guardian: Beach culture is as much part of the Australian identity as the bush and barbecues, but that could have to change according to a government report that raises the unsettling prospect of banning its citizens from coastal regions at risk of rising seas. The report, from a parliamentary climate change committee, said that AUS$150bn (£84bn) worth of property was at risk from rising sea levels and more frequent storms. With 80% of Australians living along the coastline, the report warns ... |
| Canada: Insurance companies say climate change causing spike in claims: Click here |
| Canadian Press: Harsh weather whipped up by climate change has caused insurance claims to surge as more and more flash floods, hail storms and hurricanes wallop the Canadian landscape, industry experts say. And - thanks to global warming - there's more of that to come, a conference in Montreal was told Monday. Martin-Eric Tremblay of the Co-operators Group Ltd. said that insurance companies now expect to pay out claims on catastrophic events four times more often than they did in the ... |
| Ailing planet seen as bad for human health: Click here |
| Washington Post: Climate change will make Americans more vulnerable to diseases, disasters and heat waves, but governments have done little to plan for the added burden on the health system, according to a new study by a nonprofit group. The study, released Monday by the Trust for America's Health, an advocacy group focused on disease prevention, examines the public-health implications of climate change. In addition to pushing up sea levels and shrinking Arctic ice, the report says, a warming planet ... |
| Australia: Coastal building bans flagged as part of climate change response: Click here |
| Australian Broadcasting Corporation: TONY EASTLEY: Australians love their coastline, and over the years the push for people to move closer to the ocean has been labelled a "sea change". But Australians may have to rethink their ideas. A federal parliamentary report has raised the possibility of banning people living in areas of Australia's coastline which are threatened by rising sea levels. The Lower House Environment Committee has spent 18 months examining the effect the changing climate will have on coastal ... |
| 350 PPM Too Ambitious, Say Lawmakers: Click here |
| Inter Press Service: A future global climate change treaty must limit the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million (ppm), and not 450 ppm, the currently proposed level, Samuel Fankhauser told a meeting of pro-environment legislators from the eight most industrialised countries and emerging economies here. But they felt the goal was not feasible. A British economist and researcher on climate change, Fankhauser said the limit he is urging is the only way to avoid the ... |
| UK's new marine reserves are threatened by legal loophole: Click here |
| Times (UK): Legislation to designate marine reserves around the coast of Britain is likely to contain a loophole that will allow fishermen to damage the fragile areas of seabed without fear of fines. Conservationists are warning that the Marine & Coastal Access Bill, which has its final reading in the House of Commons on Monday, contains a clause that makes a mockery of calling the areas "protected'. The poor state of the UK's seas is largely attributed to the effects of commercial ... |
| Coral 'cryobank' saves reef species: Click here |
| Australian: SHOULD the Great Barrier Reef perish as a result of rising ocean temperatures and acidity levels, it appears scientists will have, at least, a small consolation prize. The Zoological Society of London is planning the world's first coral "cryobank", which would preserve hundreds of samples of each species in liquid nitrogen. Samples taken from the Great Barrier Reef would be included in the radical preservation effort, although none has so far been removed for this ... |
| Maldives warns climate change more dangerous than terrorism: Click here |
| Daily Times: Maldives President Mohammad Nasheed on Friday pleaded enlisting climate change issues on the agenda of UN Security Council, saying it was a bigger challenge than international terrorism. He said environmental challenges and conflict resolution were inter-related as global warming was affecting an estimated 300,000 people every year. "Climate change is going to affect a large number of people through flashfloods, diseases and massive human displacement due to sea (level) rise, besides ... |
| From ecological Soviet-era ruin, a sea is reborn: Click here |
| Associated Press: Standing on the shore under the relentless Central Asian sun, Badarkhan Prikeyev drew on a cigarette and squinted into the distance as one fishing boat after another returned with the day's catch. Until recently, this spot where the fish merchant was standing, in a man-made desert at the edge of nowhere, represented one of the world's worst environmental calamities. Now fresh water was lapping at his boots, proclaiming an environmental miracle -- the return of the Aral ... |
| 'Freezer plan' bid to save coral: Click here |
| BBC: The prospects of saving the world's coral reefs now appear so bleak that plans are being made to freeze samples to preserve them for the future. A meeting in Denmark took evidence from researchers that most coral reefs will not survive even if tough regulations on greenhouse gases are put in place. Scientists proposed storing samples of coral species in liquid nitrogen. That will allow them to be reintroduced to the seas in the future if global temperatures can be ... |
| Palms grew in ice-free Arctic 50 million years ago: study: Click here |
| Reuters: Palms flourished in the Arctic during a brief sweltering period about 50 million years ago, according to a study on Sunday that hints at big gaps in scientific understanding of modern climate change. The Arctic "would have looked very similar to the vegetation we now see in Florida," said Appy Sluijs of Utrecht University in the Netherlands who led an international study. Evidence of palms has never been found so far north before. The scientists, sampling sediments on a ridge ... |
| United Kingdom: Freezer to preserve threatened coral: Click here |
| Sunday Times: Corals from tropical oceans are to be placed in deep freeze at a British zoo to preserve them for posterity as they face destruction from rising greenhouse gas levels. The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is planning the first global "coral cryobank', where hundreds of samples from each species would be stored in liquid nitrogen. The decision follows research showing that most coral reefs will be largely dead by 2040, wiped out by a combination of rising temperatures and ... |
| N.J. coastal windfarms prompt wildlife concerns: Click here |
| Star-Ledger: Years ago, it would have been hard to stir up an argument over the need for solar panels or windmills to boost the state`s production of clean energy. These days they can be a contentious issue, dividing many of the region`s most active environmental groups. The Sierra Club, the New Jersey Environmental Federation and Environment New Jersey have long pushed the state for tighter controls on development in coastal areas where, among other creatures, rare and endangered migrating ... |
| Fishing in Troubled Waters: Click here |
| Inter Press Service: |
| Mississippi turning: A river with a life of its own: Click here |
| Independent (UK): There's a great inadvertent truth hanging on the wall in the gloomy basement of the river museum in Memphis. A large panel welcomes the visitor to an exhibit titled: "War on the Mississippi". In fact, it's a section devoted to the ironclad gunboats that helped to turn the tide of the civil war in favour of the Union. But it could just as well describe America's fraught relationship with the mighty river that drains half of the continental United States. Long before there was a "war on ... |
| African leaders emphasise plight of 'environmental refugees': Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: African leaders recognised climate change as a major cause of human displacement during a two-day summit on the plight of the continent's refugees which closed Friday in Kampala. Several African nations adopted a document on the rights of the continent's 17 million internally-displaced persons (IDP), refugees and returnees. "The important thing about this convention is that it applies to conflict and climate as causes of displacement," the United Nations High Commissioner for ... |
| Scientists struggle to protect Chesapeake Bay shoreline: Click here |
| Voice of America: Every year erosion and sea level rise are claiming about two meters of shoreline along the Chesapeake Bay on the East Coast of the United States. There have been many efforts to control the loss of land over the years, with mixed results. Now, a new approach for restoration called "living shores" has scientists hopeful. This beach looks healthy and inviting. But until a month ago, none of this was here. All of it was man-made, with an open invitation to every living creature in the ... |
| Lebanese don snorkels in world climate change protests: Click here |
| Agence France-Presse: Hundreds of Lebanese, many wearing snorkels, held demonstrations Saturday in key archaeological sites nationwide to mark an international day of protests about global warming. Protesters gathered at Roman ruins in central Beirut, in the ancient eastern city of Baalbek and along the coast, carrying placards bearing the logo 350 to call for carbon emissions cuts to 350 parts per million (ppm). Organisers expect up to 800 people to take part in the day-long protests which are due ... |
| Ethiopia's climate 27 million years ago had higher rainfall, warmer soil: Click here |
| Physorg: Thirty million years ago, before Ethiopia's mountainous highlands split and the Great Rift Valley formed, the tropical zone had warmer soil temperatures, higher rainfall and different atmospheric circulation patterns than it does today, according to new research of fossil soils found in the central African nation. Neil J. Tabor, associate professor of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and an expert in sedimentology and isotope geochemistry, calculated past ... |
