Kangaroos flee bushfires in Monaro, New South Wales, 30 December 2019. Photo: Mitchell Lyons / 7 News / News.com.au

Nearly 500 million animals killed in Australia bushfires since September 2019 – 30 percent of koalas incinerated by “unfightable” fires in New South Wales – Thousands of fire-injured sheep shot on Kangaroo Island

By Marnie O’Neill 1 January 2020 (News.com.au) – There are concerns that entire species of plants and animals may have been wiped out by bushfires following estimations that 480 million animals may die as a result of the crisis. Ecologists from the University of Sydney estimate almost half a billion mammals, birds and reptiles may […]

Arctic surface temperature anomaly, 1958-2019, relative to the 1981-2010 baseline. Data: NOAA/ESRL Physical Science Division (WRIT Tool: +67°N). Graphic: Zachary Labe

2019 was hottest year on record in Russia, 2nd hottest in Arctic Circle – Warmest New Year’s Eve on record in Anchorage

MOSCOW, 30 December 2019 (AFP) – This year was the hottest ever registered in Russia, the country’s weather chief said on Monday, as climate change pushes global temperatures to record highs. “This year in Russia was the hottest for the entire period of instrumental observations,” the head of the Gidromedtsentr weather service, Roman Vilfand, told […]

Repparfjord is near the northernmost point of Norway. On 30 November 2019, Norway greenlit a copper mine that will dump two million tons of tailings in Arctic fjord each year. Photo: Thomas Nilsen / The Barents Observer

Norway greenlights copper mine that will dump two million tons of tailings in Arctic fjord each year – “Dumping of mining waste will kill every living thing on the ocean floor in the immediate area and disturb spawning grounds over a much greater distance”

ByThomas Nilsen 30 November 2019 (The Barents Observer) – “Allowing this to happen with a protected national salmon fjord doesn’t make sense at all,” said Silje Lundberg, head of Naturvernforbundet. The organisation is the Norwegian branch of Friends of the Earth. Lundberg said the planned dumping of tailings from the copper mine to the fjord […]

Toni Doherty rescues a koala from a bushfire in New South Wales, 19 November 2019. Video: Guardian News

Video: Woman risks life to save burnt koala from Australia bushfire – “I knew if we didn’t get him down from the tree, then he would have been up there amongst the flames”

By Eric Todisco 20 November 2019 (People) – Amid the raging bushfires in South Wales, Australia, a hero emerged to save the life of a young koala. [Warning: Desdemona has a pretty thick skin when it comes to doom, but this video made me weep like a child. –Des] The dramatic rescue was caught on […]

A koala with burns suffered from Australia’s unprecedented early bushfires receives treatment for dehydration at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital in November 2019. Photo: Saeed Khan / AFP / Getty Images

Koalas are not functionally extinct, but they need our help

By Jackson Ryan 24 November 2019 (CNET) – The koala is one of the most iconic Australian marsupials. The grey fuzzballs spend nearly all their time in the trees, surviving on a diet of toxic gum leaves and a healthy routine of extended naps. As Australia suffered through unprecedented bushfires in the past two weeks, […]

Summary of polar bear population status in 2019 by regional subpopulation, showing populations with decreasing trends. Graphic: IUCN / SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG)

Scientists update status of polar bear populations with 2019 data

By Dag Vongraven 20 September 2019 (PBSG) – At the last meeting of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) in Anchorage in 2016, the group agreed that there was a need for new and documented criteria for the assessment of status and trends of polar bear populations. Work to develop a new set of […]

Smoke rises from the Darwank fires near Forster-Tuncurry on the New South Wales mid north coast, 30 October 2019. Photo: Martin Von Stroll

Hundreds of koalas perish as Australia bushfires rage – “This is just a national tragedy”

By Amy Woodyatt 30 October 2019 (CNN) – More than 350 koalas are feared to have been killed by bushfires in Australia’s New South Wales state, animal experts say. The blazes — which have been burning near the coastal township of Port Macquarie since Monday — have destroyed more than 2,000 hectares (4,492 acres) of […]

An African elephant in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Photo: Martin Bureau

Dozens of elephants starve to death in historic Zimbabwe drought – “The situation is dire. We are desperately waiting for the rains.”

21 October 2019 (AFP) – At least 55 elephants have died in a month in Zimbabwe due to a lack of food and water, its wildlife agency said Monday, as the country faces one of the worst droughts in its history. More than five million rural Zimbabweans — nearly a third of the population — […]

Southern resident orca J16 makes a rainbow while surfacing in Puget Sound. Photo: Miles Ritter

Orca task force adds 13 recommendations at final meeting as “biological extinction” looms

By Bellamy Pailthorp 8 October 2019 (KNKX) – Their goal is clear: to prevent Puget Sound’s iconic Southern Resident killer whales from going extinct. Solving that problem is anything but simple. The task force convened by Gov. Jay Inslee to save the orcas added 13 new recommendations this week, at its final meeting. The additions […]

Diagram showing an open-loop Marine Exhaust Gas Cleaning System that removes sulfur and nitrogen compounds from a ship’s engine exhaust and dumps them into the surrounding water. Graphic: Tritech Engineers

Thousands of ships fitted with “cheat devices” to divert poisonous pollution into sea – “In the North Sea and some parts of the Channel, the water quality has already been heavily degraded”

By Wil Crisp 30 September 2019 (The Independent) – Global shipping companies have spent billions rigging vessels with “cheat devices” that circumvent new environmental legislation by dumping pollution into the sea instead of the air, The Independent can reveal. More than $12bn (£9.7bn) has been spent on the devices, known as open-loop scrubbers, which extract […]

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