Nearly every sea turtle born on the beaches of Florida in the past four years has been female. The spike in female baby turtles comes as a result of…Continue readingGlobal heating means almost every sea turtle in Florida now born female
Tag: biodiversity
The eastern two thirds of Antarctica is covered by an ice sheet so large that if it melted the sea would rise by 52 meters (170 feet). An estimated…Continue readingTroubling new research about East Antarctica
The hippopotamus is one of the world’s heaviest land animals; males can weigh as much as 1,800kg, and they are often found in large groups. The animals are especially…Continue readingCall for hippos to join list of world’s most endangered animals
A team of researchers have found that the global forest area has declined by 81.7 million hectares from 1960 to 2019, equivalent to an area of more than 10%…Continue readingNew study finds global forest area has declined by 81 million hectares from 1960 to 2019
Mangroves are enormously valuable coastal ecosystems. Healthy mangrove ecosystems not only buffer shorelines against rising sea levels, but they also provide valuable protection against erosion, abundant carbon sinks, shelter…Continue readingClimate change killed 40 million Australian mangroves in 2015. Here’s why they’ll probably never grow back
In the last two years, fires have consumed nearly 20% of them, according to the Forest Service. In Kings Canyon, hundreds of giant sequoias have burned to death —…Continue readingGiant Sequoias Are Built to Withstand Fire, But Not These Fires
The 127-gram hatchling was found lying on its back in a rockpool near Sydney’s Tamarama beach. It was missing one of its four flippers, had a chip in another,…Continue readingTurtle pooed ‘pure plastic’ for six days after rescue from Sydney beach
Illegal ivory poaching once posed a significant threat to Kenya’s elephants. But now the giants of the animal kingdom are facing an even bigger risk: climate change. As Kenya…Continue readingClimate change is killing more elephants than poaching
The health of Australia’s environment is poor and has deteriorated over the past five years due to pressures of climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and mining. The…Continue readingAustralia State of the Environment Report
At a sprawling landfill near Madrid, hundreds of white storks dodge garbage trucks as they look for scraps of food among the mountains of multicoloured garbage bags. The birds…Continue readingStorks give up migrating to live on landfill in Spain
In 2015, French oil giant TotalEnergies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the governments of Uganda and Tanzania, to drill…Continue readingOil drilling to go ahead in Ugandan park despite threat to nature
The migratory monarch butterfly, a North American icon with a continent-spanning annual journey, now faces the threat of extinction. Thursday’s decision by the International Union for Conservation of Nature…Continue readingWhy monarch butterflies, now endangered, are on the ‘edge of collapse’
No organism on Earth is known to live as long as the Great Basin bristlecone pine. The oldest documented tree, a well-hidden specimen nicknamed “Methuselah,” after the long-lived biblical…Continue readingScientists rush to save 1,000-year-old trees on the brink of death
Salmon famously travel hundreds of miles upstream to reach their home waters to spawn, but climate change is shrinking their destination. A new study offers high-resolution details on how…Continue readingClimate change is shrinking and fragmenting salmon habitat
Millions of native animals, including wallabies, green rosellas, cockatoos and wombats have been killed in Tasmania, Australia, under property protection permits. In Tasmania, landowners can obtain property protection permits…Continue readingMillions of native animals killed under Tasmania’s property protection permits
One of the world’s biggest gliding mammals – the once common greater glider – has been pushed closer to extinction and is now officially endangered. The nocturnal marsupials, which…Continue readingGreater glider now endangered as logging, bushfires and global heating hit numbers
Unless urgent action is taken, emissions are expected to cause the planet to continue heating rapidly over the next few decades, prompting the global average temperature to overshoot the…Continue readingEven temporarily overshooting 2°C would cause permanent damage to Earth’s species
Scientists have been able quickly to prove that record-breaking temperatures are no natural occurrence. A study published last month showed that the south Asian heatwave was made 30 times…Continue readingBurning planet
Scientists estimate that Australia’s east coast estuaries are warming four times faster than anywhere else in the world. Prof Maria Byrne from the Sydney Institute of Marine Science says…Continue readingExperts warn the NSW South Coast marine environment is undergoing a ‘dynamic state of change’
Land clearing in New South Wales (NSW), Australia continues to exceed the long-term average. 51,400 hectares (127,012 acres) of woody vegetation was cleared across the state in 2020, a…Continue readingEmissions warning: calls to stop ‘skyrocketing’ land clearing in NSW
When the U.S. Forest Service started an intentional fire in the Santa Fe National Forest in early April, the aim was to reduce the risk of a destructive blaze.…Continue readingForest Service says it failed to account for climate change in New Mexico blaze
In a study just released in the journal Communications Earth and Environment, Dr. Armineh Barkhordarian confirms that this systematic warming pool is not the result of natural climatic variations—but…Continue readingSystematic warming pool discovered in the Pacific due to human activities
In the shallow waters and seagrass meadow of Spain’s Ebro delta, there are almost no solid surfaces for creatures to latch on to. That’s where the fan mussel (Pinna…Continue readingMollusc mass mortality event
Antarctic ice sheets are melting, the continent’s climate is changing, and the Southern Ocean is warming, becoming more acidic and losing oxygen. Locally, changing climates are already affecting the…Continue readingAntarctic is changing dramatically, with global consequences
After two years of delays, governments had been scheduled to meet in Kunming, China, for COP15 in late April to negotiate this decade’s targets to halt and reverse the…Continue reading‘Sleeping through extinction’: China urged to end delays to COP15 summit
Australia’s tropical rainforest trees have being dying at double the previous rate since the 1980s, seemingly because of global heating, according to new research that raises concerns tropical forests…Continue readingAustralia’s tropical rainforests have been dying faster for decades in ‘clear and stark climate warning’
Since 2000, more than 71 million hectares of dry forest have been destroyed, an area about twice the size of Germany. Many hotspots of deforestation are concentrated in South…Continue readingTropical dry forests disappearing rapidly around the globe
Spanning more than 179,000 km2 (69,000 square miles) in Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, the Pantanal boasts one of the highest concentration of flora and fauna in South America while…Continue readingThe Pantanal, the world’s largest wetland, is at risk of collapse
The Reef snapshot: summer 2021-22, quietly published by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on Tuesday night after weeks of delay, said above-average water temperatures in late summer…Continue reading‘Devastating’: 91% of reefs surveyed on Great Barrier Reef affected by coral bleaching in 2022
Satellite images show a total area of destroyed forest cover of 1,012.5 square kilometres (391 square miles) from April 1 to 29, with the last day of the month…Continue readingBrazil deforestation shatters April record
The world’s birds, described as the planet’s “canaries in the coalmine”, are disappearing in large numbers as the colossal impact of humanity on the Earth grows, a global review…Continue reading‘Canaries in the coalmine’: loss of birds signals changing planet
The number of flying insects in Great Britain has plunged by almost 60% since 2004, according to a survey that counted splats on car registration plates. The results from…Continue readingThe number of flying insects in Great Britain has plunged by almost 60% since 2004
Oyster fisheries in Australia and North America survived for up to 10,000 years prior to colonisation, sustaining First Nations communities even under intense harvest. Oyster fisheries have declined globally…Continue readingPrecolonial First Nations oyster fisheries sustained millennia of intense harvests
21% of reptile species are threatened with extinction, including more than half of turtles and crocodiles. More than 40% of amphibians, 25% of mammals and 13% of birds could…Continue readingOver 21% of reptile species at risk of extinction
Pristine rainforests were once again destroyed at a relentless rate in 2021, according to new figures, prompting concerns governments will not meet a COP26 deal to halt and reverse…Continue reading‘Relentless’ destruction of rainforest continuing despite Cop26 pledge
Coral reefs are rapidly declining due to local environmental degradation and global climate change. In particular, corals are vulnerable to ocean heating. Hotter oceans can kill corals via expulsion…Continue readingPast the precipice? Projected coral habitability under global heating
Half of all river basins across the world are now “severely affected” by water diversion projects, which can exacerbate drought conditions and lead to human conflict. About the same…Continue readingDead rivers, polluted oceans: Industry adds to world’s mounting water crisis
In this mysterious woodland the cloud drapes over mountain ridges and “the trees are dwarfed and wind-sculpted, gnarled and heavily laden with mosses,” said J Alan Pounds, an ecologist…Continue readingLost golden toad heralds climate’s massive extinction threat
As one of the world’s most famous game reserves, Murchison Falls National Park is home to some of the largest populations of elephants, giraffes, lions and leopards anywhere on…Continue readingThe oil giants drilling among the giraffes in Uganda
Scientists from the University of Illinois tracked species of birds in a protected forest reserve in central Panama to determine if and how populations had changed from 1977 to…Continue readingBird populations in Panama rainforest in severe decline
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is experiencing its sixth massive bleaching event as climate change has warmed the ocean, raising concerns over whether one of the world’s natural wonders is…Continue readingClimate warming has dealt yet another blow to the Great Barrier Reef
Transocean Ltd. announced today that it has purchased a minority interest in Ocean Minerals Ltd., a company engaged in the exploration of seabed resources containing metals critical to the growing renewable…Continue readingTransocean Ltd. Invests in Exploration of Seabed Minerals to Support the Renewable Energy Supply Chain
15 years after its was first discovered in a New York cave, white-nose syndrome has decimated the nation’s population of northern long-eared bats, reducing their numbers to almost nothing.…Continue readingA disease more lethal than covid-19 has nearly wiped out northern US long-eared bats
The Amazon is approaching a tipping point, data shows, after which the rainforest would be lost with “profound” implications for the global climate and biodiversity. Novel statistical analysis shows…Continue readingAmazon rainforest tipping point is looming
Although Africa has contributed relatively little to the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, the continent has suffered some of the world’s heaviest impacts of climate change. This will only get…Continue readingAfrica, already suffering from warming, will see worse
Carbon emissions from tropical deforestation this century are far higher than previously thought, doubling in just two decades and continuing to accelerate, according to a study. The world’s forests…Continue readingDeforestation emissions far higher than previously thought
The gang-gang cockatoo, the animal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory, will be officially listed as a threatened species after a large decline in its numbers due to the…Continue readingGang-gang cockatoo threatened species
The Mekong dolphin population has long been IUCN red-listed as Critically Endangered. The last known river dolphin in the transboundary pool on the Cambodia-Laos border was found dead on…Continue readingDeath of the last known river dolphin in the transboundary pool in the Mekong between Laos and Cambodia
The remote continent is becoming increasingly accessible—during the 2019-20 season, the number of sightseeing visitors reached 74,000, with the vast majority travelling by ship. All activity in Antarctica—be it…Continue readingEach Antarctic tourist effectively melts 83 metric tons of snow
Research prompts warnings humanity is ‘financing its own extinction’ through subsidies damaging to the climate and wildlife. From tax breaks for beef production in the Amazon to financial support…Continue readingWorld spends $US1.8 trillion a year on subsidies that harm environment
The Australian government has officially listed thekoala as endangered after a decline in its numbers due to land clearing and catastrophic bushfires shrinking its habitat. The environment minister, Sussan…Continue readingKoala listed as endangered after Australian governments fail to halt its decline
The ubiquitous dams around the world are built to guard against extreme flooding, meet steadily increasing water demands and provide hydroelectric power. They also alter river ecosystems — such…Continue readingDams alter river temperatures and endanger fish, yet 3,700 more will be built
Container ship accidents at sea should be considered the “oil spills of our time”, warned environmental organisations that found a toxic mix of metals, carcinogenic and other harmful chemicals…Continue reading‘Oil spills of our time’: experts sound alarm about plastic lost in cargo ship disasters
Plastic pollution at sea is reaching worrying levels and will continue to grow even if significant action is taken now to stop such waste from reaching the world’s oceans,…Continue readingPlastic pollution in oceans on track to rise for decades
Plastic has infiltrated all parts of the ocean and is now found “in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale” wildlife group WWF said. Tiny fragments of plastic…Continue readingWorld must work together to tackle plastic ocean threat: WWF
Healthy-looking ochre sea stars have minimal genetic difference from those displaying symptoms of sea star wasting syndrome, say Oregon State University researchers who examined whether genetic variation was the…Continue readingThe largest marine wildlife disease event in history
Just 15.5% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact, according to new research that calls for urgent conservation measures to protect what remains and restore sites that are…Continue readingBarely 15% of the world’s coastal regions remain ecologically intact
By 2080, around 70% of the world’s oceans could be suffocating from a lack of oxygen as a result of climate change, potentially impacting marine ecosystems worldwide. The new…Continue readingClimate change has likely begun to suffocate the world’s fisheries
Coral reefs support a quarter of all marine life, including more than 4,000 species of fish. They also provide a source of income or food to half a billion people. One…Continue readingLast refuges for coral reefs to disappear above 1.5˚C of global warming
The research published in Nature Communications is the first of its kind and combines analysis of previous forest fire sites with eight drivers of fire activity including climate, fuel…Continue readingNew research links Australia’s forest fires to climate change