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COP24: Canada must double NDC, curb oil output to meet 1.5 C target -report
Great Barrier Reef shows signs of resistance against bleaching events, scientists say
Washington state omits carbon pricing from new climate package
‘A legitimate zoo?’ How an obscure German group cornered global trade in endangered parrots
Exclusive: A secretive organisation based in a German village has amassed one of the world’s largest collections of rare parrots. How did Martin Guth, a former nightclub manager, persuade governments to authorise the export of so many endangered species?
It’s an unlikely spot for a zoo – down an unmade, dusty road, amid a wood to the east of the German capital Berlin.
But here in the village of Tasdorf, hundreds of the world’s most endangered and rare parrot species are said to be housed at the headquarters of the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots (ACTP).
Continue reading...Australia gave endangered birds to secretive German ‘zoo’, ignoring warnings
Exclusive: government issued export permits for more than 200 rare and endangered parrots, despite concerns they were being offered for sale rather than exhibited
The Australian government has permitted the export of hundreds of rare and endangered parrots to a German organisation headed by a convicted kidnapper, fraudster and extortionist, despite concerns the birds could be sold at a huge profit.
An investigation by Guardian Australia has revealed that the Berlin-based Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots received permission to export 232 birds between 2015 and November 2018 – more than 80% of all the live native birds legally exported from Australia in the same period.
Continue reading...EU Market: Prices climb to 5-day high near €21 as UK’s Brexit vote postponed
Intern Carbon Pricing and Climate Policy, South Pole – London
Climate Advisor, Natural Resources Defense Council – San Jose, USA
Project Development Specialist, Government of Jamaica – Kingston
Executive Secretary, UN Convention to Combat Desertification – Bonn
Senior Sustainable Energy Finance Specialist, BASE – Basel
Private Sector Expert, European Forest Institute -Kuala Lumpur
How whale sharks saved a Filipino fishing town and its sea life
Diving tours run by former fishermen have lifted the villagers out of poverty and given new protection to overfished marine life
Fishermen-turned-entrepreneurs who have been financing the protection of endangered whale sharks in the Philippines have hit on a successful scheme to help lift their coastal community out of poverty, new research has found.
A group of 58 fishermen from the town of Oslob who were struggling to feed their families turned to the world’s largest fish species to set up a community based dive company in 2011. It has since become an international hotspot for tourists to swim with the sharks, attracting more than 750,00 visitors in the first five years and amounting to $18.4m (£14.7bn) in ticket sales over the same period.
Continue reading...Protesters disrupt US panel's fossil fuels pitch at climate talks
Official event praising coal, oil and gas met with laughter and chants of ‘shame on you’
A Trump administration presentation extolling the virtues of fossil fuels at the UN climate talks in Poland has been met with guffaws of laughter and chants of “Shame on you”.
Monday’s protest came during a panel discussion by the official US delegation, which used its only public appearance to promote the “unapologetic utilisation” of coal, oil and gas. Although these industries are the main source of the carbon emissions that are causing global warming, the speakers boasted the US would expand production for the sake of global energy security and planned a new fleet of coal plants with technology it hoped to export to other countries.
Continue reading...COP24 Roundup: Monday, Dec. 10
City frogs have sexier calls than country frogs, study finds
Researchers discover urban male túngara frogs call more, and with more complex vocalisations, than rural peers
Living in a forest might sound romantic, but city life makes males more attractive to the opposite sex – at least if you are a túngara frog.
Researchers have discovered that urban males of the species have more attractive calls than their rural peers.
Continue reading...Himalayan and other Asian glaciers put the brakes on
Surviving Great Barrier Reef corals have higher heatwave resistance
‘Ecological memory’ shows cumulative impact of climate change, say scientists
Great Barrier Reef corals that survived bleaching in 2016 were more resistant to a second marine heatwave the following year, “astonished” scientists have observed.
A study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, outlines how a process called “ecological memory” emerged in the northernmost reefs during back-to-back heatwaves in 2016 and 2017.
Continue reading...