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Scale and speed of loss much higher than predicted, threatening inundation for hundreds of millions of people

Greenland’s ice sheet is melting much faster than previously thought, threatening hundreds of millions of people with inundation and bringing some of the irreversible impacts of the climate emergency much closer.

Ice is being lost from Greenland seven times faster than it was in the 1990s, and the scale and speed of ice loss is much higher than was predicted in the comprehensive studies of global climate science by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, according to data.

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Pakistan has set up a national committee to assess the role and scope of a potential domestic carbon market as well as entering into a bilateral deal that could see the nation supply offsets to China’s national emissions trading scheme.

Ten species with improved numbers in IUCN red list unveiled amid call for more biodiversity focus at COP25

The Guam rail, a flightless bird typically about 30cm long, usually dull brown in colour and adorned with black and white stripes, has become a rare success story in the recent history of conservation.

Previously extinct in the wild, the bird has been saved by captive breeding programmes and on Tuesday its status was updated on the IUCN red list of threatened species to critically endangered, along with nine others whose numbers have recently improved.

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Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Agency has released new greenhouse gas emission guidelines for big-emitting projects, confirming expectations by backing down from a previous proposal to introduce mandatory offsetting but keeping carbon credits on the table as a compliance option.

We explore the impact of ice, wind and plate tectonics on who we are today.

The high-level segment of the UN climate summit kicked off Tuesday as national ministers descended on the Spanish capital, with the Paris Agreement’s market-based Article 6 text still requiring a substantial amount of work. Below is a running summary of those efforts, as well as other happenings at the summit.

The Vice President for Policy is a key executive management position at the Climate Action Reserve and is responsible for overseeing the development of new and the maintenance of existing greenhouse gas reduction methodologies (including offset protocols and ex ante Climate Forward methodologies), managing the Reserve’s consulting and advisory services program, and providing strategic advice and guidance to support the Reserve’s existing and new initiatives.

New Zealand's NZX and Germany-based EEX are joining forces in a bid to run the auction platform for New Zealand’s reformed ETS and will together explore other partnership opportunities in the country and elsewhere, the exchanges announced Tuesday.

The ASBN and Arup collaborated to facilitate a discussion around how technological transformation impacts the way we need to think about designing our city and it’s built form to be sustainable, liveable and vibrant.

The discussion includes a group of noted urban design, transport planning, sustainability and mobility technology experts to as part of a panel discussion about the challenges this technological transformation in transport will present Adelaide, how we need to consider transport design more closely in step with land use and built form and the steps we could take to direct the city to a more liveable and sustainable future.

Short presentation by Daniel Osbourne, Senior Transport Planner at Arup, is followed by a panel discussion featuring the following personnel.

/ Diana Loges – Transport Principal at Arup
/ Amelia McCabe - Psychologist & User Researcher at Global Centre for Modern Ageing
/ Dr Charlie Hargroves - Senior Research Fellow at Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute and the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre
/ Daniel Bennett – Director of DJB_LA

Event Date: 13.11.2019

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Presenter and Panel Bio

/ Daniel Osborne - Senior Transport Planner | Arup
Urban transportation plan-gineer. Daniel brings a strong data driven approach to planning, design and policy development, informed by the work of globally recognised thought leaders. Key skills in public transport infrastructure and network design, human scaled street design and spatial driven data analysis. Daniel is a big fan of challenging conventional wisdom.

/ Diana Loges - Transport Principal | Arup
For the past 20+ years Diana has worked to plan, develop and delivering transport projects in Australia and our region. While this has included major infrastructure in the regions and cities, Diana's speciality has been tricky projects – the first integrated transport projects, the projects that were strategically important, those that were politically sensitive. Complexity, poison chalices and the ‘hard road’ is what she does. But the creative element has always been there.
Diana is a holistic thinker. She connects ideas together. And while her various random ideas have always been welcomed, it is now that they are becoming the main game.

/ Amelia McCabe - Psychologst & User Researcher | Global Centre for Modern Ageing
Amelia is a registered psychologist and a user researcher with a passion for human centered design and aged care. Amelia specialises in the integration of empirical research and user-experience (including facilitating co-design workshops) to deliver commercial insights and enterprise-based reports to clients. This has led to opportunities to present at Australian and international conferences.

/ Dr. Charlie Hargroves - Senior Research Fellow | Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute and the Sustainable Built Environment National Research Centre
Dr Hargroves is an internationally renowned expert in sustainable economic development working with the business, university, government and civil society sectors with experience in the Middle East, United States, Europe and Asia and is a Full Member of the Club of Rome. In 2001 Dr Hargroves co-founded The Natural Edge Project and has co-authored 5 international books that have sold over 85,000 copies in 6 languages along with numerous book chapters, academic papers, and industry reports. Two of the books were ranked 5th and 12th among the ‘Top 40 Sustainability Books in 2010’ by the Cambridge Sustainability Leaders Program.

/ Daniel Bennett - Director | DJB_LA
Daniel has design and strategy experience spanning 20 years and his work is multi-award winning.
His background in landscape architecture and urban design strategy has been focused on shaping better cities through infrastructure, including leading roles on Sydney’s light rail (NSW), Canberra’s capital metro (ACT), Gallipoli Underpass (SA), Adelaide’s light rail expansion (Coast to Coast Light Rail, North Terrace Tram Extn and the King William Street tram upgrade, all in SA), the Seaford rail extension (SA), as well as the O'bahn City Access Project (SA).

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This event was a collaboration between the Adelaide Sustainable Building Network (ASBN) and Arup.

EVENT MEDIA PARTNER
Environmental Science Media

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has called for the current bushfire situation to be treated as a national security issue.

Investigation showing Brazilian beef industry tied to Amazon destruction prompts demands for firms to scrutinise supply chains

• Revealed: fires three times more common in Amazon beef farming zones
• World Bank urged to rethink investment in one of Brazil’s big beef companies

There is growing support in the UK and Europe for laws that would make due diligence on issues such as deforestation and human rights abuses mandatory for large businesses.

NGOs have been pushing for regulatory action for at least a decade. But this year governments and, more surprisingly, the private sector have swung behind the cause.

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UN experts say it is impossible to rule out that cattle raised on illegally deforested land end up in supply chain of Minerva

• Revealed: fires three times more common in Amazon beef farming zones
• Calls grow for laws requiring firms to reveal links to deforestation

The World Bank should reconsider its investment in one of Brazil’s biggest beef producers because of the industry’s links to deforestation and the climate crisis, according to two UN-appointed experts.

Minerva is Brazil’s second largest beef exporter, and some of its product is supplied, both directly and indirectly, by cattle farmers based in the Amazon rainforest.

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Investigation reveals 70% of Nasa fire alerts were in the estimated buying zones of beef companies, some of which export to UK

• Calls grow for laws requiring firms to reveal links to deforestation
• World Bank urged to rethink investment in one of Brazil’s big beef companies

Fires were three times more common in beef-producing zones than in the rest of the Amazon this summer, according to a new analysis.

The findings once again draw attention to the links between Brazil’s powerful beef industry and the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, just as the world debates climate change at COP25.

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Dangerous smoke haze hangs over the city of Sydney as the New South Wales fire danger risk is raised from ‘very high’ to ‘severe’. Sydney air quality is 11 times the hazardous level due to the ongoing bushfires.

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Seventy-three years after the first underwater nuclear explosion, scientists return to map the site.

Sydney GP Dr Kim Loo says poor patients are worst affected as AMA warns of possible long-term increase in asthma cases

A Sydney GP working in the suburbs hardest hit by bushfire smoke plaguing NSW has said she is devastated for her patients, many of them unable to afford air filters, air-conditioning or masks.

Dr Kim Loo works in Rouse Hill, which along with Richmond and St Mary’s on Tuesday recorded some of the highest levels of ultra-fine PM2.5 particles, small enough to enter the lungs and bloodstream. On Tuesday afternoon the 24-hour average index for Rouse Hill stood at 430, with anything above 200 rated “hazardous”.

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Sea level rise, erosion and cruise ships are worsening Venice’s flood problem. But corruption nearly scuppered the solution. By Neal E Robbins

I was in Venice when the acqua alta struck on 28 October 2018. I noted in my diary: “It happened today. The first big acqua alta of the year, with a siren at 09.17, followed by two steady tones. One tone is for 1.1 metres, two 1.2 metres, three 1.3 metres and four 1.4 metres or more. The tidal chart says the level should peak just after noon. At 12.30 I put on my green rubber boots. Stepping out along the canals, I found the water above my ankles and immediately had to re-learn how to walk. Walking at normal speed causes the water to splash over your boots and on to your legs. I slowed down, finding I also needed to watch out for little waves from the boats on the canal, which rode up right over the submerged pavement.

“Tourists used bin bags or fluorescent pink plastic booties over their shoes, walked barefoot or just got their shoes wet. Judging by the laughs and picture taking, high water looked fun, but not for the tourists who held heavy suitcases to their chests to keep them dry as they walked. One woman, who had given up, was dragging hers through the water. They looked really stressed. People carried small dogs and children, while a man hefted an old woman on to one of the raised board walkways set up for pedestrians. Many shops are open, some with thigh-high ‘flood’ barriers at the door, even as clerks mop up, pushing water out with wiper blades on sticks or setting up pumps to spew water back out on to the street. In a pizzeria, waiters shuffled through the water to serve customers.

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Unprecedented fires are devastating koalas along Australia's east coast. These sudden drops in population put the survivors at risk of inbreeding. Ryan R. Witt, Conjoint Lecturer | Conservation Biology Research Group, University of Newcastle Chad T. Beranek, PhD candidate, University of Newcastle John Clulow, Associate Professor, University of Newcastle John Rodger, Emeritus Professor, University of Newcastle & CEO FAUNA Research Alliance, University of Newcastle Lachlan G. Howell, PhD Candidate | Conservation Biology Research Group, University of Newcastle Robert Scanlon, PhD Candidate in Restoration Ecology, University of Newcastle Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Atlassian co-founder says industry should be motivated by idea that $20bn Sun Cable project could supply Singapore power below Australian prices.

The post Some ‘crazy folks’ behind Mike Cannon-Brookes $20B Sun Cable project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Working group comes as new federal drought coordinator Shane Stone refuses to be drawn on climate change’s impact on drought

Agriculture ministers have agreed to establish a new drought working group to better coordinate the country’s assistance to farmers, amid criticism that the current system is too confusing.

Following a meeting of state and territory agriculture ministers in Moree in NSW on Tuesday, federal drought minister David Littleproud announced the new working group would be set up and would report back to government in February.

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