coral – Desdemona Despair

The global Living Planet Index, 1970-2020. The LPI is based on 34,836 monitored populations of 5,495 vertebrate species. The white line represents the index value, and the shaded areas represent the statistical uncertainty surrounding the value. Graphic: WWF / ZSL

October 19, 2024

Global biodiversity report shows “catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations – “In just my lifetime, 50 years, we’ve seen a decline of 73 percent in the average size of these wildlife populations”

By Molly McCrea 18 October 2024 (CBS News) – A shocking new report on global biodiversity is detailing what it calls “a catastrophic decline” in wildlife populations ahead of a major international conference on biodiversity. On Monday, 21 October 2024, the United Nations will convene a two-week conference in Cali, Colombia called COP16. On the agenda […]

Meteorologist Steve MacLaughlin of Florida’s NBC 6 posted on Twitter / X on 18 May 2024: “Don’t Say Climate Change!” As Florida is on fire, under water and unaffordable, our state government is rolling back climate change legislation and language. Graphic: Steve MacLaughlin

June 1, 2024

TV meteorologist blasts Florida’s new “Don’t Say Climate Change” law amid oppressive heat

By Rachel Ramirez 21 May 2024 (CNN) – As vast parts of Florida sweltered in oppressive heat over the weekend, South Florida TV meteorologist Steve MacLaughlin criticized the state’s new legislation that deleted most references to climate change from state law, and urged his viewers to vote. “The entire world is looking to Florida to lead in […]

A diver examines bleached coral off the Keppel Islands, Australia, at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef, 5 March 2024. Photo: Renata Ferrari / AIMS / Reuters

April 28, 2024

The widest-ever global coral crisis will hit within weeks, scientists say – “Now we’re at the point where we’re in the disaster movie”

By Catrin Einhorn 15 April 2024 (The New York Times) – The world’s coral reefs are in the throes of a global bleaching event caused by extraordinary ocean temperatures, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and international partners announced Monday. It is the fourth such global event on record and is expected to affect more […]

A map of the world plotted with some of the most significant climate events that occurred during November 2023. Graphic: NOAA/NCEI

December 29, 2023

NOAA reports 2023 hottest year on record, so far – “We will look back at 2023 and think of it as: remember that year that wasn’t so bad?”

By Lauren Sommer 28 December 2023 (NPR) – As 2023 draws to a close, it’s going out on top. “It’s looking virtually certain at this point that 2023 will be the hottest year on record,” says Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit that analyzes climate trends. Though temperature records from December have […]

(a) Linear trends in sea surface temperature (SST) (°C per decade) over the period 1982–2022. (b) Area-averaged time series of SST anomalies (°C) relative to the 1982–2022 reference period for the areas indicated in grey dashed lines in 5(a). Source: Derived from the Copernicus Marine Service remote sensing products available at https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00168 (for 1982–2021) and https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00165 (for 2022). Graphic: WMO

August 20, 2023

Pacific island sea levels rising faster than global average, WMO says – Economic damage in Southwest Pacific due to flooding in 2022 was $8.5 billion, almost triple compared to the previous year

By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber 17 August 2023 GENEVA (Reuters) – Sea levels in the South-West Pacific are rising faster than the global average, threatening low-lying islands while heat damages marine ecosystems, the U.N. meteorological agency said on Friday. In its State of the Climate in the South-West Pacific 2022 report, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said […]

This photo provided by the University of Miami Coral Reef Futures Lab, shows bleaching to elkhorn coral on Thursday, 20 July 2023, in the North Dry Rocks Reef off the coast of Key Largo, Fla. Some Florida Keys corals are losing their color weeks earlier in the summer than has been documented before, meaning they are under stress and their health is potentially endangered, federal scientists said. Photo: Liv Williamson / University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science / AP

July 31, 2023

Florida’s record hot ocean temperatures cause early coral bleaching – Some reefs in the Florida Keys have already lost all their color – “We are at least a month ahead of time, if not two months”

By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder 26 July 2023 (US News & World Report) – Record high ocean temperatures around the Florida Keys are driving coral reefs to lose their color weeks earlier than usual in the latest sign that climate change and El Niño are pushing the world into uncharted territory. On Monday, a buoy in the […]

Dugong (Dugong dugon). Photo: Ahmed Shawky

December 11, 2022

Manatee relative, 700 new species now facing extinction

By Patrick Whittle 10 December 2022 (AP) – Populations of a vulnerable species of marine mammal, numerous species of abalone and a type of Caribbean coral are now threatened with extinction, an international conservation organization said Friday. The International Union for Conservation of Nature announced the update during the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, or COP15, […]

Map showing Biodiversity Intactness Index for the year 2020 at 0.25° resolution. The global average is 77 percent. Data: Natural History Museum, 2022. Graphic: WWF / ZSL

October 27, 2022

WWF’s Living Planet Report 2022 reveals devastating 69 percent average drop in wildlife populations since 1970 – “We have cut away the very foundation of life and the situation continues to worsen”

TORONTO, 12 October 2022 (WWF-Canada) – Monitored wildlife populations — mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and fish — have seen a devastating 69 per cent drop on average since 1970 according to WWF’s Living Planet Report (LPR) 2022. The report highlights the stark outlook of the state of nature and urgently warns governments, businesses and the public to take […]

Elevation of the Great Salt Lake, 1850-2022. As of 29 September 2022, lake levels dropped below where the Saltair station could measure. Graphic: Dr. Carie Frantz / Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences / Weber University

October 21, 2022

The Great Salt Lake is on the brink of collapse – “It’s terrifying”

By Carly Cassella 10 October 2022 (Science Alert) – Without urgent and major interventions, America’s Great Salt Lake could experience ecosystem collapse in the next few years. In a worst-case scenario, according to findings presented at the Geological Society of America’s 2022 Connects Conference in Colorado this past weekend, the world-famous body of salt-water has […]

The location of climate tipping elements in the cryosphere (blue), biosphere (green) and ocean/atmosphere (orange), and global warming levels their tipping points will likely be triggered at 1.5°C. Researchers see signs of destabilisation already in parts of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, in permafrost regions, the Amazon rainforest, and potentially the Atlantic overturning circulation as well. Graphic: Earth Commission / Globaïa

September 25, 2022

World at risk of passing multiple climate tipping points above 1.5°C global warming

8 September 2022 (Stockholm Resilience Centre) – Multiple climate tipping points could be triggered if global temperature rises beyond 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to a major new analysis published in the journal Science. Even at current levels of global heating the world is already at risk of passing five dangerous climate tipping points, and risks […]