With nine million hectares (22.2 million acres) already gone up in smoke—11 times the average for the last decade—the absolute annual record set in 1989 has been surpassed. Authorities…Continue readingWildfires ‘off the charts’ in Canada as temperatures climb
Tag: biodiversity
As of Wednesday, more than eight million hectares (20 million acres) of forests and grasslands had burned across Canada, breaking an annual record of 7.3 million hectares set in…Continue readingCanada wildfire smoke chokes millions in North America
Britain’s rivers are under the spotlight because of an untreated sewage crisis, and the pendulum of floods and droughts that are the hallmark of a warming world. But hidden…Continue readingOpinion: We have forgotten what a ‘natural’ river even looks like
Rob Blakers says he was ‘surprised then furious’ that trees in foraging and feeding habitat for birds, whose numbers are down to just 750, were being destroyed.Continue readingWildlife photographer arrested in Tasmanian forest where swift parrot habitat is being logged
Earth lost an area of carbon-absorbing rainforest larger than Switzerland or the Netherlands in 2022, most of it destroyed to make way for cattle and commodity crops. That is…Continue readingFootball pitch of tropical forest lost every 5 seconds
After an estimated 20 elephant deaths and countless other wild animals perishing due to single-use plastics in the past decade, officials say a law banning many such items is…Continue readingJumbo problem: Sri Lanka’s battle with plastic pollution
Much of the ice lost in 2022 had been present since 2000, when high-quality records began. If this trend persists, the consequences for the climate and for Southern Ocean…Continue readingFractured foundations: How Antarctica’s ‘landfast’ ice is dwindling and why that’s bad news
Ecowende is going to build a wind farm that will be in harmony with nature, with minimal impact on birds, bats and marine mammals, and with a thriving underwater…Continue readingWind farms currently degrading nature
The Australian federal environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, has approved habitat clearing for a defence housing development in Darwin despite acknowledging there is a significant risk for what has been…Continue readingTanya Plibersek approves habitat clearing in Darwin despite risk to endangered bird
Trillions of dollars of subsidies for fossil fuels, farming and fishing are causing “environmental havoc”, according to the World Bank, severely harming people and the planet. The “toxic” subsidies…Continue readingVast fossil fuel and farming subsidies causing ‘environmental havoc’
Already, the Beijing office of Greenpeace is sounding the alarm. In the first three months of 2023, provincial governments in China approved more new coal-fired electricity generation than they…Continue readingChina ramps up coal power while pushing for renewables
The slow-down of the Southern Ocean circulation, a dramatic drop in the extent of sea ice and unprecedented heatwaves are all raising concerns that Antarctica may be approaching tipping…Continue readingAntarctic tipping points: The irreversible changes to come if we fail to keep warming below 2˚C
The Arctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by the 2030s, even if we do a good job of reducing emissions between now and then. That’s the worrying conclusion…Continue readingArctic Ocean could be ice-free in summer by 2030s, with global, damaging and dangerous consequences
Environmental groups are suing the US Environmental Protection Agency over pesticide-coated seeds they say have “devastating environmental impacts” and are spread largely without regulatory oversight. The suit alleges the…Continue readingEPA sued over pesticide-coated seeds’ ‘devastating impacts’ on US wildlife
Norway’s government is readying plans to open an area of ocean nearly the size of Germany to deep-sea mining as it seeks to become the first country to extract…Continue readingNorway seeks to open vast ocean area to deep-sea mining
DuPont scientists found PFAS enlarged lab rats’ livers and likely caused birth defects in workers. Still, the company told its employees the cancer-linked compounds are “about as toxic as…Continue readingChemical industry used big tobacco’s tactics to conceal evidence of PFAS risks
Countries didn’t get around to talking about plastic until the third day out of five, stuck in a prolonged debate over voting rules and points of procedure — led…Continue readingGlobal plastic treaty talks limp on despite blockade by oil-rich countries
Concentrations of plastics in round-the-world race through remote ocean environments found to be up to 18 times higher than during previous event in 2017-18.Continue readingMicroplastics found in every sample of water taken during Ocean Race
More than 800m trees have been cut down in the Amazon rainforest in just six years to feed the world’s appetite for Brazilian beef, according to a new investigation,…Continue readingMore than 800m Amazon trees felled in six years to meet beef demand
“Our data show the impacts of climate change are running ahead of schedule,” said lead author Kathryn Gunn, of the Australian Science agency CSIRO and Britain’s Southampton University. The…Continue readingDangerous slowing of Antarctic ocean circulation sooner than expected
Analysis shows area includes 9,000 hectares where there was already active logging as pressure grows on government to end practice.Continue readingMore than 40,000 hectares of nationally vital koala habitat marked for potential logging in NSW
The researchers were able to identify the country of origin for 232 objects, with the largest percentage being from Japan at 33.6%. China was next at 32.3% followed by…Continue readingMore than 90% of identifiable trash in North Pacific Garbage Patch comes from just six countries
Rapid economic growth, urbanisation and changing lifestyles in communist Vietnam have led to a “plastic pollution crisis”, according to the World Bank. A report in 2022 estimated 3.1 million…Continue readingVietnam battles plastic blight in idyllic Ha Long Bay
It is the first time the previously unknown biodiversity of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a mineral-rich area of the ocean floor that spans 1.7m sq miles between Hawaii and…Continue readingMore than 5,000 new species discovered in Pacific deep-sea mining hotspot
A new study found that the feces of four primate species living in Uganda’s Kibale National Park, including chimpanzees and red colobus monkeys, contained significant levels of pesticides and…Continue readingEndangered chimpanzees contaminated with pesticides and flame retardants
Of 1,006 river and lake sites with data, 814 were found to have these toxic mixtures, according to analysis of data collected by the government’s Environment Agency. The data…Continue readingChemical cocktails harmful to wildlife found in 81% of English rivers and lakes
Seventeen species that were once commonly found in pastures and meadows across 22 countries, including the small copper, common blue and meadow brown, declined by 36% on average between…Continue readingEurope’s grassland butterfly population down more than a third in 10 years
The dangerous and destructive myths of conventional economics include the claims that: Since planetary boundaries have already been exceeded and low-income countries must develop, social justice demands that the…Continue readingSaving humanity: Here’s a radical approach to building a sustainable and just society
Residents have watched ruefully for years as solar plants crept over the horizon, bringing noise and pollution that’s eroding a way of life in their desert refuge. Kevin Emmerich…Continue readingHow solar farms took over the California desert: ‘An oasis has become a dead sea’
50 researchers, 40 years, 28 countries, 550 million fewer birds.Continue readingIntensive farming is biggest cause of bird decline in Europe, study says
Earlier this year, researchers found that summertime fires in boreal forests had expanded since 2000, and contributed close to a quarter of total carbon emissions from wildfires in 2021,…Continue readingWildfires in forests of Canada and Russia put climate scientists on alert
Researchers complain that the oxygen problem doesn’t get the attention it deserves, with ocean acidification and warming grabbing the bulk of both news headlines and academic research. Just this…Continue readingAs Ocean Oxygen Levels Dip, Fish Face an Uncertain Future
Diana Stralberg, a researcher in Edmonton for the Canadian Forest Service, explained that human-caused climate change is making the fire season longer and causing “extreme fire weather conditions” to…Continue reading‘Perfect storm’ of heat, dryness fuel western Canada’s extreme wildfires
The drought that has left some 4.35 million people in the Horn of Africa in dire need of humanitarian aid – with 43,000 in Somalia estimated to have died…Continue readingGlobal warming made Horn of Africa drought possible: WWA study
Life in the ocean’s “twilight zone” could decline dramatically due to climate change, new research suggests. The twilight zone (200m to 1,000m deep) gets very little light but is…Continue readingTwilight zone at risk from climate change
The deepest parts of the Pacific Ocean have rested undisturbed for millennia. But now creatures living thousands of metres beneath the surface may be confronted by new visitors: companies…Continue reading‘Playing with fire’: the countdown to mining the deep seas for critical minerals
We analyzed fire danger trends in different elevation bands of the Western U.S. mountains from 1979 to 2020. Fire danger describes conditions that reflect the potential for a fire…Continue readingFire danger in the high mountains is intensifying, shows study of four decades of data
The devastation of areas like the Buriganga comes into greater focus in the run-up to Earth Day, when people worldwide mobilise in support of protecting the environment.Continue readingPhotos: Life along a ‘dead’ river in Bangladesh
The UK has lost 40m birds since 1970 and Europe as a whole has lost 600m birds since 1980. The British figures, especially for farmland species such as skylark…Continue readingLook up, listen, and be very concerned. Birds are vanishing – and their crisis is our crisis
Data shows 48% of species declined between 2015 and 2020 with woodland birds faring worst.Continue readingUK bird numbers continue to crash as government poised to break own targets
Nine new species of fish are now on the brink of extinction, with scientists calling for urgent action to control invasive freshwater species.Continue reading‘Underwater and overlooked’: number of critically endangered fish species in Australia doubles
The temperature of the world’s ocean surface has hit an all-time high since satellite records began, leading to marine heatwaves around the globe, according to US government data.Continue reading‘Headed off the charts’: world’s ocean surface temperature hits record high
The United States is Earth’s punching bag for nasty weather. Blame geography for the U.S. getting hit by stronger, costlier, more varied and frequent extreme weather than anywhere on…Continue reading“Buckle up. More extreme events are expected,” says head of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The race for high-tech metals has sparked a cobalt boom in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has come at a steep human cost. In an e360 interview,…Continue readingFor Your Phone and EV, a Cobalt Supply Chain to a Hell on Earth
New research by Australian scientists suggests 40% slowdown in just three decades could alter world’s climate for centuries.Continue readingMelting Antarctic ice predicted to cause rapid slowdown of deep ocean current by 2050
More than 100,000 hectares burned in MacDonnell Ranges area, which has been declared a federal priority for threatened species conservation.Continue readingEnvironmental ‘tragedy’ as fires burn through one-fifth of Northern Territory national park in Australia
The proposed US goal to double electricity transmission lines and build a separate electric vehicle charging network while also expanding solar and wind production to move to 100% renewable…Continue readingThe squeeze on powering the open road
Businesses want to trawl for nickel, manganese and cobalt to build electric cars and windfarms.Continue readingDeep-sea mining for rare metals will destroy ecosystems, say scientists
The fight for a healthy Darling-Baaka River is becoming a ‘recurring nightmare’ for the communities that depend on it.Continue readingAt Menindee, NSW, Australia, the lifeblood of the people has turned to bitter sludge
Ecologists say some bodies of water may already have passed the tipping points from which they may never recover.Continue reading‘Like you’re in a horror movie’: pollution leaves New Zealand wetlands irreversibly damaged
Report says 435,000 hectares have been degraded through logging since 2000, affecting 244 threatened species.Continue readingMore than half NSW forests lost since 1750 and logging ‘locking in’ species extinction, study finds
Four straight years of flooding, an unprecedented phenomenon linked to climate change, has swamped two-thirds of South Sudan but nowhere more dramatically than Bentiu, a northern city besieged by…Continue reading‘Uncharted territory’: South Sudan’s four years of flooding
Increasing ocean temperatures present ‘existential threat’ with knock-on effects for ecosystems and commercial fisheries, researchers say.Continue readingDecline of more than 500 species of marine life on Australian reefs ‘the tip of the iceberg’, study finds
Worryingly, the rate of mountain forest loss seems to be accelerating: the annual rate of loss increased by 50% from 2001–2009 to 2010–2018, when we lost approximately 5.2 million…Continue readingMountain forests are being lost at an accelerating rate, putting biodiversity at risk, warns study
