NEW YORK, 9 December 2016 (UNICEF) – An estimated 535 million children – nearly one in four – live in countries affected by conflict or disaster, often without access to medical care, quality education, proper nutrition and protection, UNICEF said today. Sub-Saharan Africa is home to nearly three-quarters – 393 million – of the global […]
By Ed Yong 2 December 2016 (The Atlantic) – In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned 19 common chemicals from common antibacterial washes, because manufacturers hadn’t shown that they were safe in the long run, or any better than plain soap and water. In October, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated a rule […]
24 November 2016 (Washington Post) – National Geographic asked a global community of photographers to share their stories about climate change. Photos were submitted through Your Shot, National Geographic’s online photo community, and then editors’ selections were chosen to be in an exhibit at the Conference of the Parties 22 Climate Summit in Morocco. [more] […]
29 November 2016 (AFP) – A mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef this year killed more corals than ever before, scientists said Tuesday, sounding the alarm over the delicate ecosystem. The 2,300-kilometre (1,400-mile) long reef—the world’s biggest—suffered its most severe bleaching in recorded history, due to warming sea temperatures during March and April, […]
CHERNOBYL, Ukraine, 29 November 2016 (AP) – Workers completed a massive shelter over the Chernobyl nuclear plant’s exploded reactor on Tuesday, one of the most ambitious engineering projects in the world that one expert said had closed “a nuclear wound.” The half cylinder-shaped shelter was locked in place over the plant’s reactor No. 4 after […]
By Camila Domonoske 30 November 2016 (NPR) – An annual study released by the Brazilian government estimates that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon has increased by 29 percent over last year. That’s the second year in a row that deforestation in the Amazon quickened; last year, the pace rose by about 24 percent. […]
2 December 2016 (Columbia University) – The Arctic’s frozen ground contains large stores of organic carbon that have been locked in the permafrost for thousands of years. As global temperatures rise, that permafrost is starting to melt, raising concerns about the impact on the climate as organic carbon becomes exposed. A new study is shedding […]
By Stephanie Smail12 December 2016 (ABC) – Global methane gas emissions are growing at the fastest rate in decades and food production could be to blame, new analysis has revealed. Nearly 100 scientists from around the world have compiled data for the Global Methane Budget, which shows the biggest spike in methane concentrations in the […]
[Longtime Desdemona readers will recall the ”libricide” against Canadian fisheries science by the Harper government in 2013. –Des] By Brady Dennis 13 December 2016 (Washington Post) – Alarmed that decades of crucial climate measurements could vanish under a hostile Trump administration, scientists have begun a feverish attempt to copy reams of government data onto independent […]
By Sarah Kaplan 15 December 2016 SAN FRANCISCO (Washington Post) – Activism wasn’t originally on the agenda for Stephen Mullens, a meteorologist at the University of Oklahoma. He’d come to the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union — the first major gathering of the world’s earth and climate scientists since the election of Donald […]
