Dr Stuart Rowland, a retired principal research scientist who worked for NSW Fisheries for 36 years and remains a mentor to scientists in the agency, says there is a…Continue reading‘The river has been destroyed’: expert says agriculture has overshadowed science in the Murray-Darling Basin
The Anthropocene
A blanket of smog covers Milan, empty reservoirs bake in Sicily and wine production is down in Piedmont as a lack of rain across Italy exacerbates pollution and sparks…Continue readingLack of rain leaves Italy gasping
Ocean currents are driven by winds, tides and water density differences. In the Atlantic Ocean circulation, the relatively warm and salty surface water near the equator flows toward Greenland.…Continue readingOnce melting glaciers shut down the Gulf Stream, we will see extreme climate change within decades
Launched in 2017, Climate Action 100+ aims to work with companies to halve their greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, through governance reforms, the elimination of emission through the value…Continue readingBig firms with $7 tn exit climate investment pressure group
UAE’s state-owned energy company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and British oil and gas firm BP have agreed to create a new gas joint venture (JV) in Egypt.…Continue readingADNOC and BP to create JV for gas development in Egypt
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Bangkok city employees have been told to work from home to avoid harmful air pollution, as a layer of noxious haze blanketed the Thai capital on Thursday. City authorities…Continue readingBangkok says work from home as pollution blankets city
The European Drought Observatory’s map of current droughts in Europe shows the entire Spanish Mediterranean coast in bad shape, with red areas indicating an alert similar to those in…Continue readingWhat will Spain look like when it runs out of water? Barcelona is giving us a glimpse
Global liquefied natural gas demand is forecast to surge 50% by 2040 as the world transitions to cleaner fuel, Shell said in its latest annual LNG outlook. China was…Continue readingLNG demand set to surge 50% by 2040 in clean-fuel transition, says Shell
Oxford university has come under heavy criticism after its £6bn endowment fund increased its investment in fossil fuels just a few years after making a landmark commitment to divestment. About £1…Continue readingOxford under fire for increasing fossil fuel investments
Greenland is part of the Arctic region. It is the world’s biggest island, around 836,330 sq miles in size (2.1 million sq km). Most of the land is covered…Continue readingGreenland’s ice sheet is melting and being replaced by vegetation
The Amazon rainforest could approach a tipping point, which could lead to a large-scale collapse with serious implications for the global climate system. A new Nature study by an…Continue readingAmazon rainforest at a critical threshold: Loss of forest worsens climate change
The devastating drought in the Amazon River Basin that reported in October has continued into Northern Hemisphere winter, which is the heart of the wet season in the southern…Continue readingWhat’s causing the Amazon’s ongoing record drought?
AMOC, which encompasses part of the Gulf Stream and other powerful currents, is a marine conveyer belt that carries heat, carbon and nutrients from the tropics towards the Arctic…Continue readingAtlantic Ocean circulation nearing ‘devastating’ tipping point
TotalEnergies and its partners in Nigeria have commenced production from the Akpo West field in the Gulf of Guinea. Akpo West, which is located 135km off the coast, is…Continue readingTotalEnergies begins production from Akpo West field offshore Nigeria
Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the British Antarctic Survey have uncovered the first direct evidence that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet shrunk suddenly and dramatically at the…Continue readingIce cores provide first documentation of rapid Antarctic ice loss in the past
The new chief of the World Meteorological Organization said it looks to her that the rate of human-caused climate change is accelerating and that warming has triggered more Arctic…Continue readingNew UN weather agency chief says rate of global warming is speeding up
BP’s new boss Murray Auchincloss set out plans to win over shareholders on Tuesday as he pledged to turn the oil major into a “higher value company” even as…Continue readingBP targets boost for returns as it delivers second biggest profit in a decade
Scientists analysed 300 years of ocean temperature records from marine sponges and discovered global warming has increased by 0.5˚C more than was previously estimated. In the study, published in…Continue readingMarine sponges reveal global warming has already exceeded 1.5 degrees
Limiting average global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, above preindustrial levels has been the gold standard for climate action since at least the 2015 Paris…Continue readingNew study says the world blew past 1.5˚C four years ago
There’s no precedent in at least five centuries for how hot and dry the West has been in the last two decades, new research asserts using analysis of tree…Continue readingUS West’s ‘hot drought’ is unprecedented in more than 500 years
Chile began two days of national mourning Monday for at least 122 victims of a raging wildfire, as the search continued for the missing and survivors picked through the…Continue readingChile mourns 122 killed in wildfire inferno, searches for missing
In a warming climate, meltwater from Antarctica is expected to contribute significantly to rising seas. For the most part, though, research has been focused on West Antarctica, in places…Continue readingCurrently stable parts of East Antarctica may be closer to melting than anyone has realized
Exxon posted full-year net income of $36bn, down from $55.7bn the previous year, but otherwise its biggest profit since 2012. Chevron’s net income of $21.4bn was down from $35.5bn…Continue readingExxonMobil and Chevron notch second-biggest annual profits in decade
Fipronil and imidacloprid are highly toxic pesticides that are no longer approved for use in outdoor agriculture, but continue to be widely used in pet flea treatments, typically applied…Continue readingHandwashing is a major source of pet pesticide pollution in UK rivers
The global mean temperature in September 2023 was 0.93° C warmer than the 1991–2020 average, breaking the previous record set in 2020 by a margin of 0.5° C. This…Continue readingThe jump in global temperatures in September 2023 is difficult to explain by natural climate variability alone
The EPA told stakeholders it was ditching specific search requirements for glider den trees, which must currently be retained with a 50-metre logging exclusion zone around each one. Instead,…Continue readingGreater glider put on path to extinction by NSW environmental watchdog
The Queensland government approved the Vulcan South coalmine in the Bowen Basin earlier this month without requiring an environmental impact statement (EIS). But the project still needs approval from…Continue readingTanya Plibersek urged to block ‘climate-wrecking’ Queensland coalmine that would raze koala habitat
Through the process of photosynthesis, trees remove CO2 from the atmosphere to produce new growth. Yet, under stressful conditions, trees release CO2 back to the atmosphere, a process called…Continue readingTrees struggle to ‘breathe’ as climate warms
Shell, Equinor, bp, Total and NEO are among the 17 separate companies which have been offered a total of 24 licences in the second tranche of the 33rd oil…Continue reading24 licences offered in second tranche of 33rd oil and gas licensing round
QatarEnergy has awarded four main engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) contract packages, collectively valued at over $6bn, for the next development phase of the Al-Shaheen field located offshore…Continue readingQatarEnergy awards $6bn worth contracts for further development of Al-Shaheen field
The world’s main system for warning about heat stress on the planet’s coral reefs has been forced to add three new alert categories to represent ever-increasing temperature extremes. Underlying…Continue reading‘Literally off the charts’: global coral reef heat stress monitor forced to add new alerts as temperatures rise
The World Meteorological Organisation confirmed on Tuesday that continental Europe recorded in 2021 its highest ever temperature of 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 Fahrenheit), and warned that new extremes were…Continue readingUN confirms Europe hit record high temperature in 2021
Plastic microparticles released into the environment from common road tires should be treated as a “high concern” pollutant that may exceed chronic safety limits in some heavily contaminated environments,…Continue readingMicroparticles from road tires are ‘high concern’
Located in West Bengal state in eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh, the Sundarbans forest system is a cluster of low-lying islands and represents the largest mangrove ecosystem in the…Continue readingThe Sundarbans dilemma: Islands swallowed by water, and nowhere else to go
“We have the expertise, the supply chains and the teams ready to build Hinkley Point C safely, on time and on budget,” Vincent de Rivaz, then chief executive of…Continue readingHinkley Point C delay deals blow to UK energy strategy
Despite strict EU regulations on plastic recycling, there is little oversight on plastic waste shipped from the EU to Vietnam. About half of Europe’s plastic waste is exported to…Continue readingA large percentage of European plastic sent to Vietnam ends up in nature
The climate crisis turned the drought that struck the Amazon rainforest in 2023 into a devastating event, a study has found. The drought was the worst recorded in many…Continue readingDevastating drought in Amazon result of climate crisis
Rainfall has been lower than the average in Catalonia for the past three years, with the drought lasting more than twice as long as the previous dry spell of…Continue readingHeavens remain shut over Catalonia as three-year drought persists
A total of 144 animals, plants and ecological communities were added to the list, five times more than the yearly average and double the previous record year (2009). “The…Continue readingMore Australian wildlife added to threatened species list in 2023 than ever before
Norway’s annual exploration round, which is known as APA, focuses on the most mature regions of the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The Norwegian Ministry of Energy has awarded ownership…Continue readingNorway awards 62 production licenses in APA 2023 licensing round
“Chronic arsenic poisoning from drinking water … is a real problem, not a theoretical exercise,” said the lead researcher, Dr Seth Frisbie, an emeritus professor of chemistry at Norwich…Continue readingClimate crisis to increase cancer risk for tens of millions of people in Bangladesh
A team of researchers at the University of Sassari, in Sardinia, used GPS collars equipped with motion sensors to track the activity of the Alpine ibex, a species of…Continue readingGlobal heating pushes mountain goats into more nocturnal lifestyle
An Australian court has dismissed an attempt by members of the indigenous population of the remote Tiwi Islands to block a new gas pipeline being built by oil and…Continue readingAustralian court allows Santos pipeline to proceed after dismissing Tiwi Islanders’ case
In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was 1.48 degrees…Continue readingEarth shattered global heat record in ’23 and it’s flirting with warming limit
The U.S., Mexico and countries in the Caribbean are being battered by hurricane-induced ocean waves that have grown in areal size by 80% over the past 40 years, a…Continue readingHurricane waves hitting Americas grow 20% per decade
In recent years, there has been rising concern that tiny particles known as microplastics are showing up basically everywhere on Earth, from polar ice to soil, drinking water and…Continue readingBottled water can contain hundreds of thousands of previously uncounted tiny plastic bits
Tropical raptor species including the martial eagle, the bateleur and the dark chanting goshawk have vanished from swathes of the African continent over the past 40 years, new analysis…Continue readingBirds of prey in Africa experiencing population collapse
Petrobras and its partners have started production from the second phase of development of the Mero field (Mero-2 project) located on the Libra block in the pre-salt area of…Continue readingPetrobras and partners begin production from Mero-2 project offshore Brazil
Warm-water coral reefs are facing unprecedented Anthropogenic driven threats to their continued existence as biodiverse, functional ecosystems upon which hundreds of millions of people rely. We draw upon a…Continue readingAssessment of warm-water coral reef tipping point thresholds
A research study for the Bureau of Transportation Statistics focused on the number of daily trips taken in the United States. In 2021, 52% of all trips, including all…Continue readingMore than Half of all Daily Trips in US Were Less than Three Miles in 2021
How the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) responded to warmer climates in the geologic past has obvious relevance to our understanding of what its future could be as global…Continue readingIce sheet collapse closer than thought
More than 20 stations posted all-time December lows in the early hours of Thursday. They included Hohhot, capital of the northern Inner Mongolia region, where a reading of -29.1…Continue readingMore records tumble as China cold snap persists
Hundreds of thousands of people rely on the Amazon’s rivers and streams for food, transportation and income. But the historically low water levels have forced residents to reimagine their…Continue reading‘Everything is dead’: How record drought is wreaking havoc on the Amazon
Flowers are “giving up on” pollinators and evolving to be less attractive to them as insect numbers decline. A study has found the flowers of field pansies growing near…Continue readingFlowers ‘giving up’ on scarce insects and evolving to self-pollinate
The president of the COP28 climate summit will continue with his oil company’s record investment in oil and gas production, despite coordinating a global deal to “transition away” from fossil fuels.…Continue readingCOP28 president says his firm will keep investing in oil
A climate activist has been jailed for six months after pleading guilty to taking part in a peaceful slow march protest on a London road. The sentence handed to…Continue readingJust Stop Oil activist jailed for six months for taking part in slow march
Global consumption of coal reached an all-time high in 2023, the IEA energy watchdog said Friday, as Earth experienced its hottest recorded year. The International Energy Agency reported that…Continue readingCoal use hits record in 2023, Earth’s hottest year
The failure of COP28 to call for a phase-out of fossil fuels is “devastating” and “dangerous” given the urgent need for action to tackle the climate crisis, scientists have said. One…Continue readingFailure of Cop28 on fossil fuel phase-out is ‘devastating’, say scientists
My colleagues and I overlaid the projections of climate models with data on the geographic distributions of more than 35,000 species on land and in the ocean. We found…Continue readingClimate change research: If warming approaches 2°C, a trickle of extinctions will become a flood
Climate agreement may fail to result in falls in oil and gas production. The world’s largest oil producers have saluted the COP28 agreement’s focus on an “orderly” move away…Continue readingBig oil welcomes COP28 call to move away from fossil fuels in ‘orderly’ way