Increase of plant species on mountain tops is accelerating with global warming

By Peter F. Gammelby 4 April 2018 (Aarhus University) – It is not as lonely at the top as it used to be. At least not for plants which, due to global warming, are increasingly finding habitats on mountain tops that were formerly reserved for only the toughest and most hardy species. A large international […]

UN forest accounting loophole allows CO2 underreporting by EU, UK, US – “There may not be a pathway to 1.5 degrees anymore — at all. Carbon capture and storage is a fantasy.”

By Justin Catanoso 2 May 2018 (Mongabay) – For the past ten years, Mary Booth, an ecologist with the Partnership for Policy Integrity in Pelham, Massachusetts, has immersed herself in the complex, nuanced, politically charged world of international carbon emissions accounting models as if the planet’s fate depends on it. In many ways, it does. […]

Press freedom continues global decline in 2018 – U.S. falls to 45th due to Trump hostility to reporters – “The unleashing of hatred toward journalists is one of the worst threats to democracies”

25 April 2018 (RSF) – The 2018 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), reflects growing animosity towards journalists. Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders, and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of journalism pose a threat to democracies. [Читать на русском / Read in Russian] […]

London has warmest April day in nearly 70 years, as enormous heat dome stalls over Europe

By Jason Samenow 19 April 2018 (The Washington Post) – While abnormally cold weather continues to grip the Eastern United States, a full-fledged dose of summer weather has overtaken much of Europe.An enormous heat dome, parked over Germany, has covered a large part of the continent in record or near-record warmth.High temperatures in the 70s […]

Atlantic circulation that helps warm Europe is at its weakest for more than 1500 years

12 April 2018 (UCL News) – In the first comprehensive study of ocean-based records, published in Nature, scientists have observed a marked weakening of Atlantic circulation over the past 150 years. This weakening correlates with the end of the Little Ice Age, around 1850 AD, and the onset of the industrial revolution when glaciers and […]

Iceland resumes poaching endangered fin whales after two-year pause – “This decision is not based on real market needs and is not in line with public opinion polls on whaling, which doesn’t belong in modern times”

17 April 2018 (AFP) – Icelandic whaling company Hvalur said Tuesday it would resume its controversial hunt of endangered fin whales after a two-year suspension, sparking angry protests from animal rights activists. The only company in Iceland that hunts fin whales, Hvalur packed away its harpoons in 2016 because of commercial difficulties in Japan, its […]

Can we make green roofs more biodiverse?

By Leslie Nemo 13 April 2018 (CityLab) – Every time Kelly Ksiazek-Mikenas scrambled onto a new green roof, it was hard to tell exactly where she was. The city below was definitely Berlin or Neubrandenburg, but the expanse of scraggly greens ahead of her looked a lot like the green roofs in Chicago, her home. […]

Tropospheric ozone pollution declining in Europe and U.S. but rising in East Asia

5 February 2018 (University of Edinburgh) – Potentially harmful levels of the air pollutant ozone are present in many regions around the world, a widespread study has shown. Levels of ozone in the troposphere – the lower region of the atmosphere – have decreased in much of Europe and the US over the past 15 […]

France’s bird population collapses due to pesticides – “The situation is catastrophic. Our countryside is in the process of becoming a veritable desert.”

20 March 2018 (AFP) –  Bird populations across the French countryside have fallen by a third over the last decade and a half, researchers have said. Dozens of species have seen their numbers decline, in some cases by two-thirds, the scientists said in a pair of studies – one national in scope and the other […]

Why current negative-emissions strategies remain “magical thinking”

21 February 2018 (Nature) – Decarbonization of the world’s economy would bring colossal disruption of the status quo. It’s a desire to avoid that change — political, financial and otherwise — that drives many of the climate sceptics. Still, as this journal has noted numerous times, it’s clear that many policymakers who argue that emissions […]

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