Video: Indonesia forest fires on track to emit more CO2 than UK

By Damian Carrington  7 October 2015 (The Guardian) – Fires raging across the forests and peatlands of Indonesia are on track to pump out more carbon emissions than the UK’s entire annual output, Greenpeace has warned. As well as fuelling global warming, the thick smoke choking cities in the region is likely to cause the […]

Four rangers killed by elephant poachers in Garamba National Park, DRC – ‘This brings the number of people to eight who lost their lives defending wildlife in Garamba in 2015 alone’

By Cynthia Walley9 October 2015 (African Parks) – It is with deep regret that African Parks announces the death of  Garamba rangers Anselme Kimbesa Muhindo, Andre Gada Migifuloyo, and Djuma Adalu Uweko, and Colonel Jacques Sukamate Lusengo, the member of  the Congolese Armed Forces (FARDC), who was assisting with patrols. The four men leave their […]

Are we experiencing exponentially increasing sea level rise?

Guest post by Alexander Ač9 October 2015 (Desdemona Despair) – Sea level rise (SLR) is recognized as one of the least adaptable impacts of ongoing climate change. Once a certain area is permanently flooded with saline water, people have to leave. Forever. Thus SLR projections gain a lot of attention not only in the climate […]

The race to save the world’s great trees by cloning them – ‘To preserve those species that have stood the test of time is necessary, but it’s not sufficient’

By  Alison GillespieOctober 6, 2015 (smithsonian.com) – It isn’t hard to find the big tree they call Lady Liberty in Florida. It stands at the end of a boardwalk about 16 miles north of Orlando, along with many gums, oaks, and magnolias in the middle of a small public park. What is hard is photographing […]

Scientists say dramatic worldwide coral bleaching event is underway, beginning in 2014 with ‘the highest thermal stress we’ve ever seen’

By Chris Mooney8 October 2015 (The Washington Post) – For just the third time on record, scientists say they are now watching the unfolding of a massive worldwide coral bleaching event, spanning the globe from Hawaii to the Indian Ocean. And they fear that thanks to warm sea temperatures, the ultimate result could be the […]

Photo gallery: Bangalore’s lake of toxic foam

By Debasish Ghosh1 October 2015 (The Guardian) – IT professional Debasish Ghosh has been documenting toxic foam in the Indian city’s polluted lake system. The snowy froth, a cocktail of chemicals and sewage, has a pungent odour and causes irritation on contact with the skin. Bangalore was once known for its interconnected lake systems which […]

A third of cacti facing extinction due to human encroachment, study finds – ‘The scale of the illegal wildlife trade, including trade in plants, is much greater than we previously thought’

5 October 2015 (AFP) – Thirty-one percent of cacti, some 500 species, face extinction due to human encroachment, according to the first global assessment of the prickly plants, published Monday. The finding places the cactus among the most threatened taxonomic groups on Earth, ahead of mammals and birds and just behind corals, according to the […]

South Carolina flooding is the type of event climate scientists have warned about for years

By Andrew Freedman5 October 2015 (Mashable) – The epic amount of rain that led to deadly, catastrophic flooding across large parts of South Carolina and North Carolina is an example of exactly the type of supercharged storm system climate scientists have been warning about for years as a likely consequence of global warming. This storm, […]

Drought: Rationing is rough in Central California town without water – ‘I’ve never seen this happen before because they would drill down and find a way to help us out’

TULARE COUNTY, 29 September 2015 (CBS) – California’s four year drought has the whole state in a water crisis, but no area has been harder hit than the state’s Central Valley, where the wells have run dry. In the small town of Okieville, in Tulare County, residents are struggling to stay in their homes. At […]

Plastic for dinner: A quarter of fish sold at markets contain human-made debris

24 September 2015 (University of California, Davis) – Roughly a quarter of the fish sampled from fish markets in California and Indonesia contained human-made debris — plastic or fibrous material — in their guts, according to a study from the University of California, Davis, and Hasanuddin University in Indonesia. The study, published today in the […]

Social media & sharing icons powered by UltimatelySocial