The Guardian
Scientists say most diverse coral site ever seen on Great Barrier Reef discovered
In a space no longer than 500 metres, researchers say they recorded at least 195 different species of corals
A team of researchers says it has discovered the most diverse coral site ever recorded on the Great Barrier Reef.
Great Barrier Reef Legacy, a non-profit organisation that conducts research trips on the reef, and scientist Charlie Veron, known as the godfather of coral, have identified the site on the outer reef.
Continue reading...Pollutionwatch: remembering world's deadly smogs
There are memorials in Belgium and the US – but London chooses not to mark the deadliest of all
Early winter was the time for smog in the UK. Most of the deadly smogs in London and Glasgow happened during November and December, but these were not unique to the UK. In Liège in Belgium’s Meuse valley, you can find a small statue dedicated to those who died in a winter smog in 1930. Smoke was trapped in the valley for five days. Hundreds of people experienced breathing problems and about 60 died suffering from painful chests, coughing and breathlessness and, in some cases, foaming at the mouth and vomiting before heart failure.
In Donora, Pennsylvania, you can visit a museum dedicated to the 1948 smog that engulfed the steel town. It began on a Tuesday night and by Friday people were crowding into medical centres and hospitals, and firefighters were using breathing apparatus to treat people with oxygen. Sixteen people died and more than 600 were left ill in a town of 14,000.
Continue reading...Trump rolls back climate change rule that restricted new coal plants
EPA says change to require efficiency efforts instead of carbon capture will encourage ‘clean coal’ in the US and worldwide
The Trump administration is rolling back a climate change regulation that restricted new coal plants.
The change is mostly symbolic – but nevertheless sends a strong signal. Companies in the US are not building plants that burn coal because burning natural gas is cheaper and creates less pollution. Renewable power has also eaten into coal’s market share.
Continue reading...The 'great dying': rapid warming caused largest extinction event ever, report says
Up to 96% of all marine species and more than two-thirds of terrestrial species perished 252m years ago
Rapid global warming caused the largest extinction event in the Earth’s history, which wiped out the vast majority of marine and terrestrial animals on the planet, scientists have found.
Related: Save millions of lives by tackling climate change, says WHO
Continue reading...Compared to the threat of climate change, Brexit is a distraction | Letters
For an organisation that ran the inspiring “Keep it in the ground” campaign, it was a shame you didn’t make David Attenborough’s warning about the collapse of civilisation (Report, 4 December) the lead story on your front page. To have no mention anywhere of the 12 years we (at best) have to make any difference is a shocking omission. Climate change is the greatest issue the world is facing and readers can’t have the message highlighted enough.
Can I also ask that you don’t print any letters suggesting that all we need to do is turn our thermostat down and consume more responsibly? As Naomi Klein illustrates in This Changes Everything, the idea that climate change can be solved by personal responsibility alone is a fallacy (and one of the reasons why we are in this mess).
Continue reading...Bird photo of the year 2018: your chance to vote for the winner
The only poll that matters – bird of the year – will return early in 2019. In the mean time you can vote for the people’s choice in the BirdLife Australia Photography awards
• Magpie edges out ibis to win bird of the year 2017
Continue reading...Calls for inquiry into protected Queensland wetlands development assessment
FOI documents show Josh Frydenberg rejected department advice that developing the area was ‘unacceptable’
Environment groups have called for an independent probe into the government’s assessment of an apartment and marina development on protected wetlands in Queensland.
It comes after revelations the former environment minister Josh Frydenberg rejected advice from the environment department that the development was “clearly unacceptable”.
Continue reading...Friskier frogs: endangered species gets a sex appeal boost
Australian researchers have a new way to increase desire in the northern corroboree frog
Australian researchers are applying a sex hormone to the skin of the critically endangered northern corroboree frog in a world-first treatment to encourage females to accept less desirable mates in captivity.
A trial conducted by the University of Wollongong and Taronga zoo found that, by administering the hormone to both a male and female frog before pairing them off, researchers could increase the chance that they would accept their allocated partner from about 22% to 100%.
Continue reading...Sea levels may rise more rapidly due to Greenland ice melt
Run-off from vast ice sheet is increasing due to manmade global warming, says study
Rising sea levels could become overwhelming sooner than previously believed, according to the authors of the most comprehensive study yet of the accelerating ice melt in Greenland.
Run-off from this vast northern ice sheet – currently the biggest single source of meltwater adding to the volume of the world’s oceans – is 50% higher than pre-industrial levels and increasing exponentially as a result of manmade global warming, says the paper, published in Nature on Wednesday.
Continue reading...'Brutal news': global carbon emissions jump to all-time high in 2018
Rapid cuts needed to protect billions of people from rising emissions due to increase in use of cars and coal
Global carbon emissions will jump to a record high in 2018, according to a report, dashing hopes a plateau of recent years would be maintained. It means emissions are heading in the opposite direction to the deep cuts urgently needed, say scientists, to fight climate change.
The rise is due to the growing number of cars on the roads and a renaissance of coal use and means the world remains on the track to catastrophic global warming. However, the report’s authors said the emissions trend can still be turned around by 2020, if cuts are made in transport, industry and farming emissions.
Continue reading...Save millions of lives by tackling climate change, says WHO
Global warming and fossil fuel pollution already killing many, UN climate summit told
Tackling climate change would save at least a million lives a year, the World Health Organization has told the UN climate summit in Poland, making it a moral imperative.
Cutting fossil fuel burning not only slows global warming but slashes air pollution, which causes millions of early deaths a year, the WHO says. In a report requested by UN climate summit leaders, the WHO says the economic benefits of improved health are more than double the costs of cutting emissions, and even higher in India and China, which are plagued by toxic air.
Continue reading...South Western Railway relents and allows use of reusable cups
Rail operator said ‘safety aspect’ was involved in giving those on board disposable cups
A rail operator has done a U-turn and agreed to let passengers use their own reusable cups for hot drinks bought on board its trains after criticism by environmental campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
South Western Railway changed its policy after the chef complained on Twitter during a journey that buffet car staff – employed by catering company Rail Gourmet – had “refused” to pour tea into his refillable cup.
Continue reading...Lost lands? The American wilderness at risk in the Trump era
Exclusive: a new study reveals the scale of how public lands are being opened up to the energy industry. The Guardian heard from three communities on the frontlines
In the great expanses of the Grand Staircase-Escalante national monument, the silence hits you first. Minutes pass, smooth and unbroken as glass. The smallest sound – a breath of wind, a falling rock – can seem as loud as passing traffic.
Colter Hoyt knows this landscape well. As an outdoor guide, he walks the monument almost daily. Yet these days he is full of fear. This remote paradise of red rocks, slot canyons and towering plateaus faces an uncertain future, following a controversial presidential proclamation that removed 800,000 acres from the monument and opened land up for potential energy development.
Continue reading...Beef-eating 'must fall drastically' as world population grows
Current food habits will lead to destruction of all forests and catastrophic climate change by 2050, report finds
People in rich nations will have to make big cuts to the amount of beef and lamb they eat if the world is to be able to feed 10 billion people, according to a new report. These cuts and a series of other measures are also needed to prevent catastrophic climate change, it says.
More than 50% more food will be needed by 2050, according to the World Resources Institute (WRI) report, but greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture will have to fall by two-thirds at the same time. The extra food will have to be produced without creating new farmland, it says, otherwise the world’s remaining forests face destruction. Meat and dairy production use 83% of farmland and produce 60% of agriculture’s emissions.
Continue reading...'We're sounding the alarm': half of Canada's chinook salmon endangered
Prospects for species look dire as federal science body finds that only one of the country’s 16 populations is believed to be stable
Half of Canada’s chinook salmon are endangered, with nearly all other populations in precarious decline, according to a new report, confirming fears that prospects for the species remain dire.
The report by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada concluded that eight of the country’s 16 populations are considered endangered, four are threatened, one is of special concern and the health of two remain unknown.
Continue reading...Royal Society publishing photography competition 2018 winners
The Royal Society’s annual photography competition celebrates “the power of photography to capture science in its many forms”
Continue reading...Trump's disbelief won't stop dangerous climate change
Republican platform is not only at odds with science but potentially US voters in 2020
“I don’t believe it,” said Donald Trump when asked about the fourth national climate assessment, authored by 13 government agencies and hundreds of the US’s top climate scientists. His administration had tried to hide the report, publishing it on Black Friday when many Americans were either recovering from a Thanksgiving food coma or stampeding department store sales.
The administration’s plan backfired badly – the latest alarming climate science report became front-page news. Numerous Republican politicians were asked about it on TV news and politics shows, and their answers demonstrated that Trump’s climate science denial continues to pervade the GOP.
Continue reading...Students left hanging during Canberra trip to confront Morrison on climate change
Group rallies outside Parliament House after being told they needed to have a prearranged meeting organised
High school students from across Australia calling for emergency action on climate change have travelled to Canberra to confront the prime minister after he criticised them for skipping school to stage national strikes.
Students from Scott Morrison’s southern Sydney electorate of Cook – as well as Townsville, Melbourne and Brisbane – arrived at Parliament House on Wednesday morning to meet with him.
Continue reading...Terrawatch: Roman records show lasting effects of pollution
Sediment cores drilled from Swiss lake reveal it took 300 years to bounce back after Romans departed
All over the world lakes are in trouble. An excess of nutrients – from fertilisers, detergents and sewage – is upsetting the balance of life, leading to algal blooms and bottom-water dead-zones. Many places are now trying to clean up their act, but how long does it take for a lake to recover?
Sediment cores drilled from a Swiss lake reveal how long it took for the lake to bounce back after the Romans departed, and indicate we might have to wait centuries for today’s polluted lakes to become properly fresh again.
Continue reading...U-turn on eco-tax rise gives President Macron fuel for thought
Defeat by gilets jaunes will make others think twice before taking similar steps to cut emissions
Emmanuel Macron’s defeat by the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement over a proposed eco-tax rise is likely to come as a painful lesson for environmental policymakers at this week’s UN climate talks in Katowice.
After the most violent protests in Paris for half a century, the French president has been forced to postpone a planned eco-tax rise on fuel, showing how ecological measures can have explosive consequences if there is any suggestion they are being used to “greenwash” austerity.
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