15 October 2019 (Swiss Academy of Sciences) – During the summer heatwaves of 2019, glacier melt rates reached record levels. This led to another year of major losses of ice volume, as reported by the Cryospheric Commission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences. Switzerland’s glaciers have thus shrunk by 10 per cent over the past […]
By Todd Woody 8 October 2019 (National Geographic) – As global fish stocks that feed hundreds of millions of people dwindle, nations are scrambling to finalize by year’s end an international agreement to ban government subsidies that fuel overfishing. Yet as negotiations at the World Trade Organization resume this week in Geneva, Switzerland, new research shows that governments have […]
GLAND, Switzerland, 27 September 2019 (IUCN) – Over half (58 percent) of Europe’s endemic trees are threatened with extinction, according to assessments of the state of the continent’s biodiversity published today by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The introduction of invasive species, unsustainable logging and urban development are key threats causing the […]
By Kasha Patel 19 September 2019 (NASA) – In 1963, the Spanish government under Francisco Franco built the Valdecañas Reservoir in order to bring water and electricity to underdeveloped parts of western Spain. However, the creation of the reservoir flooded some inhabited areas as well as large stone (megalithic) monuments. After fifty years underwater, one […]
By Dr. Eberhard Faust and Ernst Rauch 8 August 2019 (Munich Re) – When temperature records are broken or major weather disasters strike, people ask whether climate change has anything to do with it. One thing is clear: individual events themselves cannot be attributed directly to climate change. One needs to look at overall trends. […]
By Andrew Freedman 16 September 2019 (The Washington Post) – The Northern Hemisphere just had its hottest summer on record since 1880, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data released Monday. NOAA found the average global surface temperature taken by thousands of thermometers, buoys and other sensors on land and sea tied with that of 2016 […]
2 Sep 2019 (Juice Media) – The Government™ has made an ad about the state of the world as we enter the third decade of the 21st century, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative. Global Climate StrikeWorldwide Rebellion A feedback loop is the scientific term for when a species uses its own ignorance to screw […]
By Guy Davies 27 August 2019 LONDON (ABC News) – A senior government official said Brazil would reject the $22 million G-7 countries promised to help fight the wildfires raging in the Amazon. Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni told Globo News, a Brazilian publication, that Brazil would reject the $22 million aid package, suggesting that the money […]
By Toby Luckhurst 18 August 2019 (BBC News) – Mourners have gathered in Iceland to commemorate the loss of Okjokull, which has died at the age of about 700. The glacier was officially declared dead in 2014 when it was no longer thick enough to move. What once was glacier has been reduced to a […]
By Siobhán O’Grady 9 August 2019 (The Washington Post) – Pope Francis called for a united Europe in an interview published by Italian daily La Stampa on Friday, saying recent political rhetoric has echoed that of Nazi Germany. “I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934,” he said. “ ‘Us […]