First successful model simulation of the past 3 million years of climate change – “Our results imply a strong sensitivity of the Earth system to relatively small variations in atmospheric CO2”

By Matteo Willeit 3 April 2019 (RealClimate) – A new study published in Science Advances shows that the main features of natural climate variability over the last 3 million years can be reproduced with an efficient model of the Earth system. The Quaternary is the most recent geological Period, covering the past ~2.6 million years. It is defined […]

Winds carry microplastics “anywhere and everywhere”, even to remote mountaintops – “It’s astounding and worrying that so many particles were found in the Pyrenees”

By Damian Carrington 15 April 2019 (The Guardian) – Microplastic is raining down on even remote mountaintops, a new study has revealed, with winds having the capacity to carry the pollution “anywhere and everywhere”. The scientists were astounded by the quantities of microplastic falling from the sky in a supposedly pristine place such as the […]

Due to humans, extinction risk for 1,700 animal species to increase by 2070 – “Losses in species populations can irreversibly hamper the functioning of ecosystems and human quality of life”

By Kendall Teare 4 March 2019 (Yale News) – As humans continue to expand our use of land across the planet, we leave other species little ground to stand on. By 2070, increased human land-use is expected to put 1,700 species of amphibians, birds, and mammals at greater extinction risk by shrinking their natural habitats, […]

Middle class declining in OECD nations – “Today the middle class looks increasingly like a boat in rocky waters”

10 April 2019 (OECD) – Governments need to do more to support middle-class households who are struggling to maintain their economic weight and lifestyles as their stagnating incomes fail to keep up with the rising costs of housing and education, according to a new OECD report. Under Pressure: The Squeezed Middle Class says that the […]

Yukon warmest it has been in 13,600 years – “This region has been warming at an exceptional rate”

By Blake Eligh 9 April 2019 (University of Toronto) – A new University of Toronto study confirms that recent climate warming in the central Yukon region has surpassed the warmest temperatures experienced in the previous 13,600 years, a finding that could have important implications in the context of current global warming trends. In a study […]

Sea turtles are being born mostly female due to warming – “I can’t deny it: seeing those results scared the crap out of me”

By Craig Welch 4 April 2019 (National Geographic) – She started out studying tree-climbing marsupials, but only after she applied what she knew to marine reptiles did Camryn Allen actually get worried. Allen, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Hawaii, had spent her early career using hormones to track koala bear […]

Big cities, bright lights and up to 1 billion bird collisions each year in the U.S.

By Lindsey Feingold 7 April 2019 (NPR) – Up to 1 billion birds die from building collisions each year in the United States, and according to a new study, bright lights in big cities are making the problem worse. The study, published this month in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, examined two-decades […]

Canada warming at twice the global rate, government report finds – “Northern Canada has warmed and will continue to warm at more than double the global rate”

1 April 2019 (CBC News) – Canada is, on average, experiencing warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, with Northern Canada heating up at almost three times the global average, according to a new government report. The study — Canada’s Changing Climate Report (CCCR) — was commissioned by Environment and Climate […]

Ocean heatwaves threaten survival of dolphins – “The reproductive success of females appears to have not returned to normal levels, even after six years”

1 April 2019 (UZH) – An unprecedented marine heatwave had long-lasting negative impacts on both survival and birth rates on the iconic dolphin population in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Researchers at UZH have now documented that climate change may have more far-reaching consequences for the conservation of marine mammals than previously thought. Shark Bay in […]

Children suffer most from deadly coal pollution in one of Earth’s most polluted cities – “I no longer know what a healthy lung sounds like”

By Beth Gardiner 26 March 2019 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (National Geographic) – Coal is everywhere in Mongolia’s frigid capital. It sits beneath the towering smokestacks of power plants in piles as big as football fields. Drivers haul it through town in the open beds of pickup trucks. Vendors stack yellow bags of the stuff along roadsides, […]

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