Worldwide displacement hits all-time high as war and persecution increase – Biggest increase ever seen in a single year, situation likely to worsen

GENEVA, June 18 (UNHCR) – Wars, conflict, and persecution have forced more people than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere, according to a new report from the UN refugee agency. UNHCR’s annual Global Trends Report: World at War [pdf], released on Thursday (June 18), […]

Earth’s sixth mass extinction has begun, new study confirms

By James Dyke19 June 2015 (The Conversation) – We are currently witnessing the start of a mass extinction event the likes of which have not been seen on Earth for at least 65 million years. This is the alarming finding of a new study published in the journal Science Advances. The research was designed to […]

Accelerated warming of the continental shelf off U.S. Northeast Coast – ‘The warming rate since 2002 is 15 times faster than from the previous 100 years’

11 June 2015 (WHOI) – A couple of unexplained large scale changes in the waters off the northeast coast of the U.S. have oceanographers perplexed: an accelerated rate of sea level rise compared to most other parts of the world; and the disturbing signs of collapsing fisheries in the region. A new study by physical […]

Floodwaters causing new Gulf of Mexico dead zone off Texas

By Rusty Surette18 June 2015 COLLEGE STATION (KBTX) – Record rainfall totals in many parts of Texas the past few weeks means a record amount of freshwater pouring into the Gulf of Mexico – as high as 10 times the normal rate – and that could lead to huge problems for marine life and commercial […]

Carbon Counter: There is no renewable energy revolution in China – Here are the numbers

17 June 2015 (Carbon Counter) – Last year China installed more new wind and solar capacity than any country in history. This is a fact, and it has led some to talk of China being a “renewables powerhouse” and of there being a “renewables revolution”. But out of context, this fact can be much less […]

What happens when the sea swallows a country?

By Rachel Nuwer17 June 2015 (BBC) – As the seaplane lifts off the water’s surface and begins to climb, paradise opens up beneath us. The deep blue ocean stretches in every direction, but it is punctuated here and there by aquamarine discs of shallow coral reef that give way to the slightest slivers of white […]

A third of the world’s biggest groundwater basins are in distress – Reserves likely far smaller than previously thought

Irvine, California, 16 June 2015 (UCI) – Two new studies led by UC Irvine using data from NASA Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites show that human consumption is rapidly draining some of its largest groundwater basins, yet there is little to no accurate data about how much water remains in them. The result is […]

Toxic algae bloom may be largest ever off U.S. West Coast – ‘We’ve never had to close essentially half our coast’

By Sandi Doughton15 June 2015 (Seattle Times) – A team of federal biologists set out from Oregon Monday to survey what could be the largest toxic algae bloom ever recorded off the West Coast. The effects stretch from Central California to British Columbia, and possibly as far north as Alaska. Dangerous levels of the natural […]

Decade of drought: A global tour of seven recent water crises

By Charles Iceland12 June 2015 (The Guardian) – Every inhabited continent, to varying degrees, has areas where there is extremely high water stress. These are areas where more than 80% of the local water supply is withdrawn by businesses, farmers, residents and other consumers every year. These so-called stressed areas are also the ones most […]

NASA releases detailed global climate change projections through the year 2100

9 June 2015 (NASA) – NASA has released data showing how temperature and rainfall patterns worldwide may change through the year 2100 because of growing concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere. The dataset, which is available to the public, shows projected changes worldwide on a regional level in response to different scenarios of increasing […]

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