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June swoon: US breaks another monthly temperature record
Average temperature of 71.8F is 3.3F above 20th-century average for the month and comes amid a string of climate- and weather-related calamities
The US experienced its warmest ever June last month, with a scorching summer set to compound a string of climate-related disasters that have already claimed dozens of lives and cost billions of dollars in damage this year.
Worldwide, heat records have been broken for 13 months in a row, an unprecedented streak of warmth that has stunned climate scientists and heightened concerns over the future livability of parts of the planet.
Continue reading...Australia's vast kelp forests devastated by marine heatwave, study reveals
About 90% of forests off the western coast were wiped out between 2011 to 2013, posing a threat to biodiversity and the marine economy, say scientists
A hundred kilometres of kelp forests off the western coast of Australia were wiped out by a marine heatwave between 2010 and 2013, a new study has revealed.
About 90% of the forests that make up the north-western tip of the Great Southern Reef disappeared over the period, replaced by seaweed turfs, corals, and coral fish usually found in tropical and subtropical waters.
Continue reading...Arctic sea ice crashes to record low for June
From mid-June onwards, ice cover disappeared at an average rate of 29,000 miles a day, about 70% faster than the typical rate of ice loss, experts say
The summer sea ice cover over the Arctic raced towards oblivion in June, crashing through previous records to reach a new all-time low.
The Arctic sea ice extent was a staggering 260,000 sq km (100,000 sq miles) below the previous record for June, set in 2010. And it was 1.36m sq km (525,000 sq miles) below the 1981-2010 long-term average, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
Continue reading...Ministers reject second request to use banned bee-harming pesticides
Campaigners welcome decision to turn down National Farming Union’s application for ‘emergency’ use of neonicotinoids for oil seed rape, reports ENDS
An application to use neonicotinoid pesticides to protect winter oilseed rape has been refused by government for the second time.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) concluded that the request did not meet the criteria for emergency use of two seed treatment agents to fight cabbage stem flea beetle, according to a statement issued by the National Farming Union (NFU) on 5 July.
Continue reading...Christiana Figueres nominated for post of UN secretary general
UN’s former climate change chief, who was a key architect of the Paris climate agreement, joins long list of candidates to succeed Ban Ki-moon
One of the chief architects of the global accord on climate change signed last year in Paris has been nominated for the post of secretary general of the United Nations.
Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), won plaudits from around the world at the successful conclusion of the Paris talks in December. The summit saw all of the world’s nations agree for the first time to a binding commitment to avoid dangerous levels of global warming.
Continue reading...The final image sent by doomed Japanese Hitomi satellite
Satellite eye on Earth: June 2016 – in pictures
The impact of India’s drought, a remote volcanic eruption and an oasis in the Sahara and were among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month
Stagnant lakes stretch east-west across the upper reaches of the Volga river delta in southern Russia. The lakes are trapped by sandy mounds, left behind after the Caspian Sea’s level rose then fell in the wake of the last ice age.
Continue reading...Gone fishing: Gannet makes record breaking 1,700-mile trip
Week-long foraging trip from the Channel Islands to Scandinavian waters and back is the longest recorded for the species, conservationists say
A gannet has returned home after a fishing trip of almost 1,700 miles (2,700 km), the longest recorded for the species, conservationists said.
Cosmo, a northern gannet which lives on Alderney in the Channel Islands, made the foraging trip up the English Channel, across the North Sea and into Scandinavian waters - and back - in less than a week.
Continue reading...Giant panda cub tries to find his feet
EU boiler energy label confusion set to continue
Rightwing MEPs vote to slow down the introduction of the new rules that could delay simple, colour-coded system until 2030
Householders in Europe buying a new boiler could face confusing energy labels until as late as 2030, after rightwing MEPs voted to slow down an introduction of the new rules in the European parliament on Wednesday.
The current labelling system means a product rated at A+ may be the least efficient appliance in its class due to the introduction of A+++ labels, prompting a European commission proposal to replace the grading with a simpler A-G format.
Continue reading...Climate scientists are under attack from frivolous lawsuits | Lauren Kurtz
Climate Science Legal Defense Fund is forced to defend climate scientists against constant frivolous lawsuits
Today’s climate scientists have a lot more to worry about than peer review. Organizations with perverse financial incentives harass scientists with lawsuit after lawsuit, obstructing research and seeking to embarrass them with disclosures of private information.
On June 14th, an Arizona court ruled that thousands of emails from two prominent climate scientists must be turned over to the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E), a group that disputes the 97% expert consensus on human-caused climate change and argues against action to confront it. E&E and its attorneys are funded by Peabody Coal, Arch Coal, and Alpha Natural Resources, coal corporations with billions of dollars in revenue.
Bornean orangutan declared ‘critically endangered’ as forests shrink
Mongabay: New IUCN assessment shows hunting and habitat loss are the biggest drivers, with experts warning ‘conservation is failing’
The Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) is now critically endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This change means that both species of orangutan now face an “extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.”
“This is full acknowledgement of what has been clear for a long time: orangutan conservation is failing,” Andrew Marshall, one of the authors of the assessment, told Mongabay. Regardless of any positive outcomes of past conservation efforts, they have not achieved the only meaningful goal: a stable or increasing population.
Continue reading...Bob Katter raises funding for Galilee basin railway in talks with Turnbull
Katter says he raised the issue in negotiating his support for a possible minority Coalition government, but says it would be ‘unacceptable’ for Indian miner Adani to own it
Bob Katter has canvassed federal funding for the Galilee basin railway in talks with Malcolm Turnbull but says it would be “totally unacceptable” for the Indian coalminer Adani to own it.
Katter said he raised the issue as a factor of his support for a possible minority Coalition government with Turnbull in Brisbane on Thursday but “we’ve done no deals”.
Continue reading...Cautious green light for fracking
Fracking 'will break UK climate targets unless rules are made stricter'
Government advisers also say more action would be needed to cut emissions in other areas to cope with full-scale fracking
Shale gas production will break the UK’s climate change targets unless there is stricter regulation now, according to the government’s official advisers.
More action to cut carbon emissions in other areas would also be needed to cope with full-scale fracking, despite the government already struggling to meet existing commitments.
UN: Global fish consumption per capita hits record high
Conservation heartbreak for endangered bird
Australia wind energy industry turns a corner – thanks to states
A green tunnel through wetland's swaying reeds
Witton-Le-Wear, Durham Vegetation towers above my head and I hear reed warblers delivering their incessant songs like gossips
With the easy grace of a circus trapeze artist the reed bunting delivers his five-note scratchy song with gusto from the top of his swaying reed stem, issuing a confident challenge to any who doubt that this is his territory.
Related: Country diary: A regional dialect may be the way to a reed warbler's heart
Continue reading...Dong Energy to build world’s lowest cost offshore wind farm
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