The Guardian
Great Barrier Reef suffers 89% collapse in new coral after bleaching events
Study shows dramatic fall in baby coral numbers but also change in type of coral
The number of new corals on the Great Barrier Reef crashed by 89% after the climate change-induced mass bleaching of 2016 and 2017.
Scientists have measured how many adult corals survived along the length of the world’s largest reef system and how many new corals they produced in 2018 in the aftermath of severe heat stress and coral mortality.
Continue reading...2018 was boom year for renewables despite political chaos, report finds
Clean Energy Australia snapshot shows investment in large-scale projects has doubled to $20bn
Despite Canberra remaining locked in ongoing partisan war about emissions reductions, and Malcolm Turnbull losing the prime ministership after a conflagration about energy policy, 2018 was a boom year for renewable energy, according to the latest Clean Energy Australia report.
The new assessment, to be released Thursday, finds the amount of renewable energy capacity committed in Australia during 2018 increased 260% on 2017, with 14.8 GW underway in 2018 compared to 5.6 GW in 2017.
Continue reading...Edinburgh science festival charity bans fossil fuel sponsorship
Edinburgh Science faced protests from activists for taking money from oil firms
The charity running the Edinburgh international science festival is to ban sponsorship from oil companies including Shell and Total after protests by climate campaigners.
Edinburgh Science said on Wednesday it realised its commitment to educating people on climate change was substantially compromised by accepting money from fossil fuel companies.
Continue reading...Scientists invent 'transparent wood' in search for eco-friendly building material
New material could replace plastic or glass in construction of energy-efficient homes
In an era of glass and steel construction, wood may seem old-school. But now researchers say they have given timber a makeover to produce a material that is not only sturdy, but also transparent and able to store and release heat.
The researchers say the material could be used in the construction of energy-efficient homes, and that they hope to develop a biodegradable version to increase its eco-friendly credentials as an alternative to plastic, glass or even cement.
Continue reading...Plastic in paradise: the battle for the Galápagos Islands' future – video
The Galápagos Islands are supposedly one of the most pristine locations on the planet, but plastic pollution arriving by sea is threatening this unique habitat and wildlife. Leah Green travels to the islands to see how our reliance on plastic is affecting even the most remote of locations, and to see how the archipelago is hoping to lead the worldwide fight against plastic
Continue reading...'Very, very unusual': Australian skink lays eggs, then gives birth to live baby
In world first, Sydney researchers observe lizard’s egg laying and live birth three weeks later from a single litter
Skinks may be much stranger than previously thought after researchers discovered a lizard that laid eggs and gave birth to live young in the one pregnancy.
Researchers at the University of Sydney observed a three-toed skink lay three eggs and weeks later give birth to a live baby.
Continue reading...Let nature heal climate and biodiversity crises, say campaigners
Restoration of forests and coasts can tackle ‘existential crises’ but is being overlooked
• Read the letter from campaigners
The restoration of natural forests and coasts can simultaneously tackle climate change and the annihilation of wildlife but is being worryingly overlooked, an international group of campaigners have said.
Animal populations have fallen by 60% since 1970, suggesting a sixth mass extinction of life on Earth is under way, and it is very likely that carbon dioxide will have to be removed from the atmosphere to avoid the worst impacts of global warming. Trees and plants suck carbon dioxide from the air as they grow and also provide vital habitat for animals.
Continue reading...A natural solution to the climate disaster | Letters
The world faces two existential crises, developing with terrifying speed: climate breakdown and ecological breakdown. Neither is being addressed with the urgency needed to prevent our life-support systems from spiralling into collapse. We are writing to champion a thrilling but neglected approach to averting climate chaos while defending the living world: natural climate solutions. This means drawing carbon dioxide out of the air by protecting and restoring ecosystems.
Related: The natural world can help save us from climate catastrophe
Continue reading...Parents around the world mobilise behind youth climate strikes
‘We owe it to our kids’: parents from 16 countries demand urgent climate action
Parents and grandparents around the world are mobilising in support of the youth strikes for climate movement that has swept the globe.
Under the banner Parents for the Future, 34 groups from 16 countries on four continents have issued an open letter. It demands urgent action to fight climate change and prevent temperatures rising by more than 1.5C, beyond which scientists say droughts, floods and heatwaves will get significantly worse.
Continue reading...Country diary: field horsetail shoots rise and prepare to swish
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear: This ancient, tenacious plant has already weathered three mass extinctions
Every April, rocket-shaped, yellow, nine-inch reproductive shoots of field horsetail (Equisetum arvense), tipped with small cones, erupt through this patch of waste ground beside Mill Road car park on the bank of the river Tyne. They’ll soon wither, after they’ve released their payload of spores. Then forests of green, corrugated stems and whorls of thread-like leaves, shaped like miniature Christmas trees, will rise from their creeping underground stems.
Continue reading...Toxic air will shorten children's lives by 20 months, study reveals
Global air pollution crisis is taking its greatest toll on children in south Asia
The life expectancy of children born today will be shortened by 20 months on average by breathing the toxic air that is widespread across the globe, with the greatest toll in south Asia, according to a major study.
Air pollution contributed to nearly one in every 10 deaths in 2017, making it a bigger killer than malaria and road accidents and comparable to smoking, according to the State of Global Air (SOGA) 2019 study published on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Coalition's climate solutions fund must last a further five years
The $2bn promised for Australia’s greenhouse gas abatement projects will be spread over 15 years, not 10, Tuesday’s budget revealed
The Coalition plans to spend its $2bn “climate solutions fund” over 15 years, not 10, as promised when it unveiled the rebadged emissions reduction policy in February.
The decision, revealed in Tuesday’s budget, effectively cuts the amount spent per year from $200m to $133m over the life of the fund, which pays polluters to implement greenhouse gas abatement projects.
Continue reading...What we must do to turn the tide on plastic pollution | Letter
This move by the EU (European parliament votes to ban single-use plastics, theguardian.com, 27 March), is certainly a start, but it’s not far enough to only ban certain items and increase recycling promises. We need to ban single-use plastic bottles if we are to start turning the tide on plastic in our environment, and especially the dangers of microplastics in our water supply. As there were more than 480bn plastic bottles made worldwide in 2016, it will soon be the case that stopping using single-use plastics will not be enough.
While there is technology that effectively removes plastics and microplastics from water, which we install to raise money for our causes, we cannot rely solely on “saviour” technologies. In the wake of Blue Planet there were many that seemed to appear on a weekly basis, but these are either in development or simply not ready.
Continue reading...Should we stop using the word ‘cyclist’?
A recent study found many drivers see people who use bikes as less than human. Part of the problem is the language we use
As the repair man rummaged around in my gas oven, I tried to explain something to him about cyclists.
“We ‘cyclists’ are no more a homogenous group than you ‘vannists,’” I said.
Continue reading...Japan's war on whales isn't over – the Australian government must keep fighting | Darren Kindleysides
Australia’s global leadership on whale conservation will be tested as Japanese hunters move to a different hemisphere
Japan’s whaling fleet arrived back at the port of Shimonoseki on the weekend with a barbaric tally of 333 dead whales that are no longer swimming freely in the Southern Ocean.
If the work of the Japanese whalers is anything like last year, more than 100 pregnant females and 50 or so juveniles will have been killed. But from now on, things are different.
Continue reading...Murray-Darling water plan: Labor says it's prepared to override states
Tony Burke says the ailing health of Australia’s greatest river system would be a priority for any federal ALP government
The ALP is preparing to use federal powers under the Water Act and its influence with the two Labor-controlled basin states to drive better environmental outcomes if it wins government in May.
The opposition spokesman on the environment and water, Tony Burke, told Guardian Australia he would immediately convene the ministerial council and outline what he wants to achieve.
Continue reading...France accused of failing to protect endangered birds
Official complaint lodged with EU says rules breached on hunting and trapping
Bird protection campaigners are to lodge an official complaint with the European Union accusing France of breaking rules on hunting and trapping and failing to protect endangered species.
The Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux (LPO) is using the 40th anniversairy of the EU’s “bird directive”, which outlaws the “massive or non-selective” killing of birds to highlight what it deems cruel and illegal methods.
Continue reading...Insects have ‘no place to hide’ from climate change, study warns
Analysis of 50 years of UK data shows woodlands are not havens, while changing emergence times damage nature and farming
Insects have “no place to hide” from climate change, scientists have said after analysing 50 years’ worth of UK data.
The study found that woodlands, whose shade was expected to protect species from warming temperatures, are just as affected by climate change as open grasslands.
Continue reading...Air pollution falling in London but millions still exposed
No breach of annual limits so far in 2019, after 2017’s first breach within five days
Two million people in London are living with illegal air pollution, according to the most recent data. However, nitrogen dioxide levels are falling and could reach legal levels within six years.
In 2017, London saw its first breach of annual pollution limits just five days into the new year and in 2018 it occurred within a month. However, three months into 2019, no such breaches have taken place. In 2016, the last year in which Boris Johnson was mayor of London, there had been 43 breaches by this time.
Continue reading...Butterfly numbers fall by 84% in Netherlands over 130 years – study
European insect populations shrink as farming leaves ‘hardly any room for nature’
Butterflies have declined by at least 84% in the Netherlands over the last 130 years, according to a study, confirming the crisis affecting insect populations in western Europe.
Researchers analysed 120,000 butterflies caught by collectors between 1890 and 1980 as well as more recent scientific data from more than 2 million sightings to identify dramatic declines in the country’s 71 native butterfly species, 15 of which have become extinct over the last century.
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