By Shreya Dasgupta11 May 2016 (mongabay.com) – Coral reefs around the world are in deep trouble. Last month, scientists reported that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef corals were experiencing “the worst mass bleaching event in its history”. Of the 500 coral reefs they observed while flying over 4,000 kilometers (~2,485 miles) of the Great Barrier Reef, […]
By Zena Tahhan13 May 2016 (Al Jazeera) – Iraqi civilians and officials have voiced concern over the humanitarian situation in the country’s western cities of Fallujah and Ramadi. “The situation is deteriorating every day – the shortage of food is becoming worse,” a member of the Anbar Province’s security committee, Rajeh Barakat al-Issawi, told Al […]
12 May 2016 (UN) – More than 80 per cent of people living in urban areas that monitor air pollution are exposed to air quality levels that exceed guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO), with populations in low-income cities the most at risk for respiratory diseases and other long-term health problems. Some 98 […]
By Ed Yong 12 May 2016 (The Atlantic) – Every year, flocks of red knots criss-cross the globe. In the summer, these shorebirds breed in the Arctic circle, making the most of the exposed vegetation and constant daylight. Then, anticipating the returning ice and continuous night, they fly to the opposite end of the world. […]
10 May 2016 (UMD) – Beekeepers across the United States lost 44 percent of their honey bee colonies during the year spanning April 2015 to April 2016, according to the latest preliminary results of an annual nationwide survey. Rates of both winter loss and summer loss—and consequently, total annual losses—worsened compared with last year. This […]
12 May 2016 (UN) – The food security and nutrition situation in Yemen will turn into a humanitarian disaster unless urgent funding is accessible for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to deliver timely aid in the April/May cereal and vegetable planting season and the summer fishing season, and vaccinate livestock before winter, the United […]
11 May 2016 (Siberian Times) – Dramatic social media messages from villagers – “Forests are burning!”, “Nothing to breathe in Bagdarin village!”, “Turka village is on fire!” Warming weather has unleashed a wave of forest fires, with the Republic of Buryatia, and regions TransBaikal and Amur badly hit. In one day alone 10,000 hectares of […]
By Michael Slezak11 May 2016 (The Guardian) – The world is hurtling towards an era when global concentrations of carbon dioxide never again dip below the 400 parts per million (ppm) milestone, as two important measuring stations sit on the point of no return. The news comes as one important atmospheric measuring station at Cape […]
By Ian Lovett 9 May 2016 LOS ANGELES (The New York Times) – With California entering its fifth year of a statewide drought, Gov. Jerry Brown moved on Monday to impose permanent water conservation measures and called on water suppliers to prepare for a future made drier by climate change. Under the governor’s executive order, […]
[Follow #SOTWP on Twitter for live updates during the State of the World’s Plants Symposium (11-12 May 2016).] By Damian Carrington9 May 2016 (The Guardian) – One in five of the world’s plant species is threatened with extinction, according to the first global assessment of flora, putting supplies of food and medicines at risk. But […]
