pollution – Page 7 – Desdemona Despair

Coastal anemones found side-by-side with pelagic (open ocean) gooseneck barnacles and pelagic bryozoans on a derelict fish crate recovered from the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre. Photo: Linsey Haram / Smithsonian Institution

April 19, 2023

Ocean plastic pollution reaches “unprecedented” levels – The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now so huge and permanent that a coastal ecosystem is thriving on it – “The problem is getting bigger and bigger by the minute”

By Ivana Kottasová 18 April 2023 (CNN) – Scientists have found thriving communities of coastal creatures, including tiny crabs and anemones, living thousands of miles from their original home on plastic debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch – a 620,000 square mile swirl of trash in the ocean between California and Hawaii. In a new study published in the Nature […]

A seagull walks over seaweed that washed ashore on 16 March 2023 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A huge mass of sargassum seaweed formed in the Atlantic Ocean and headed for the Florida coastlines and shores throughout the Gulf of Mexico. The sargassum, a naturally occurring type of macroalgae, spans more than 5,000 miles. Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images

April 18, 2023

Video: Sargassum seaweed hits Florida Keys beaches

By Richard Burkard 17 April 2023 (Knewz) – It sounds like a B-grade movie title: The approach of the 10-million pound blob. Yet it’s real, and it’s forcing swimmers and owners of beachfront property in Florida to take action. Knewz noted in late March that a giant mass of sargassum seaweed was spotted from space. It […]

People up for Easter sunrise services on Cocoa Beach, Florida encountered heavy seaweed, 9 April 2023. Photo: Malcolm Denemark / Florida Today

April 15, 2023

Sargassum seaweed soils Space Coast beaches at record levels in 2023 – “This year’s Sargassum bloom will likely be the largest ever recorded, with major impacts throughout the next few months”

By Jim Waymer 12 April 2023 (Florida Today) – We’re already in the weeds. All that stringy stuff that washed up on Brevard County beaches this past week is just the beginning of what scientists predict will grow into the largest-ever bloom of Sargassum seaweed ever recorded. Sargassum, which the Caribbean Sea delivers seasonally to the Gulf Stream […]

Global monthly mean atmospheric carbon dioxide, 1979-2022. The global surface average for CO2 rose by 2.13 parts per million (ppm) to 417.06 ppm, roughly the same rate observed during the last decade. Atmospheric CO2 is now 50% higher than pre-industrial levels. 2022 was the 11th consecutive year CO2 increased by more than 2 ppm, the highest sustained rate of CO2 increases in the 65 years since monitoring began. Prior to 2013, three consecutive years of CO2 growth of 2 ppm or more had never been recorded. The Global Monitoring Division of NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory has measured carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases for several decades at a globally distributed network of air sampling sites. This graph shows monthly mean abundance of carbon dioxide globally averaged over marine surface sites. Graphic: NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory

April 15, 2023

Greenhouse gases continued to increase rapidly in 2022 – Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide rise further into uncharted levels – “Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at an alarming pace and will persist in the atmosphere for thousands of years”

5 April 2023 (NOAA) – Levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide, the three greenhouse gases emitted by human activity that are the most significant contributors to climate change, continued their historically high rates of growth in the atmosphere during 2022, according to NOAA scientists. The global surface average for CO2 rose by 2.13 […]

Images taken of offshore oil and gas production facilities. (A) Small satellite facilities around a central hub facility. (B) Forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera imagery of hydrocarbon emissions from a central hub facility. Two sources are identified: cold venting and an unknown piece of equipment. (C) Other shallow water facilities. (D) Deep water facilities with flaring. Graphic: Negron, et al., 2023 / PNAS

April 4, 2023

Gulf of Mexico oil worse for climate than thought, study – “Expanding production in shallow waters, the way it’s been done historically, would have disproportionately high climate impacts”

By Drew Costley 3 April 2023 (AP) – Offshore oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico are releasing far more climate-changing methane than official estimates show, according to a new study published Monday. Using data collected from aircraft in part, climate scientists found the additional methane coming from oil and gas platforms in the Gulf […]

This image based on satellite photos shows the massive belt of sargassum seaweed blooming across the Atlantic Ocean and drifting onto beaches in Florida and the Caribbean in February 2023. Graphic: Chuanmin Hu / University of South Florida

March 30, 2023

Record-breaking algae bloom takes aim at Florida beaches – “This year could be the biggest year yet”

By Dinah Voyles Pulver 14 March 2023 (USA TODAY) – Beachgoers in Florida and the Caribbean could be greeted by heavy blankets of smelly seaweed in the weeks ahead as a 5,000-mile swath of sargassum drifts westward and piles onto white sandy beaches. Sargassum, a naturally occurring type of macroalgae, has grown at an alarming rate this winter. The […]

New Year’s Eve 2019: People seek shelter under heavy smoke at the Mallacoota Gymnasium relief centre during the Black Summer bushfires. Photo: Rachel Mounsey / The Sydney Morning Herald

January 2, 2023

Bushfires could kill almost 2500 Australians by 2030 – “This is not the first report saying this sort of thing, but each of the previous ones have to some extent been ignored by government”

By Lachlan Abbott 2 January 2023 (The Sydney Morning Herald) – Increasingly frequent and severe bushfires linked to climate change could kill nearly 2500 Australians and cost the economy billions of dollars by the end of the decade, according to new research. Modelling from Monash University’s Centre for Medicine Use and Safety has estimated 2418 […]

In less than three years, giant northern termites have destroyed the Galaxy Auditorium restaurant in Australia's Northern Territory. Photo: Frances Vinall / The Washington Post

January 2, 2023

Termites in Australia are hungry and marching as the climate heats up – “It’s a matter of when, not if. They’re going to get here, and when they get here, they’re going to cause a lot of problems.”

By Frances Vinall 1 January 2023 TENNANT CREEK, Australia (The Washington Post) – In a forgotten restaurant behind a gas station in this country’s red center, only metal and plastic parts remain unscathed. Chris Cook grabs at a timber door frame, which crumples like paper in his hand. “This has all just collapsed,” says Cook, […]

Ducks swim through an algae bloom in Santuit Pond in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in July 2018. Photo: Steve Heaslip / The Cape Cod Times / Associated Press

January 2, 2023

A toxic stew on cape cod: Human waste and warming water

By Christopher Flavelle 1 January 2023 MASHPEE, Massachusetts (The New York Times) – Ashley K. Fisher walked to the edge of the boat, pulled on a pair of thick black waders, and jumped into the river to search for the dead. She soon found them: the encrusted remains of ribbed mussels, choked in gray-black goo […]

Energy footprints of British households in 2019, from international and domestic aviation (red) and everything else (grey), in the top 10 percent and the bottom 20 percent of incomes. The 102 gigajoules (GJ) used for flying by the average adult in the top 10% of earners in that year was more than the average person in the bottom fifth of earners used for everything, including flying, driving, and heating their homes. Data: Baltruszewicz, et al., 2022 / Ecological Economics. Graphic: Tom Prater / Carbon Brief

December 31, 2022

Richest people in UK use more energy flying than poorest do overall – “There is so much social injustice engrained in those who don’t have enough energy”

By Josh Gabbatiss 14 December 2022 (Carbon Brief) – The wealthiest people in the UK burn through more energy flying than the poorest use in every aspect of their lives, according to new research. The analysis of data from 2019 highlights “significant inequalities” in energy use across the country. Those in the top 10% of […]