The Guardian
‘For us, the land is sacred’: on the road with the defenders of the world’s forests
Of the many thousands of participants at the Bonn climate conference which begins on 6 November, there will arguably be none who come with as much hope, courage and anger as the busload of indigenous leaders who have been criss-crossing Europe over the past two weeks, on their way to the former German capital.
The 20 activists on the tour represent forest communities that have been marginalised over centuries but are now increasingly recognised as important actors against climate change through their protection of carbon sinks.
Continue reading...Coral bleaching badly affected reefs of Kimberley, study finds
Up to 80% of Kimberley’s inshore reef bleached in El Niño heatwave of 2016, with about 29% of the coral at Rottnest, off Perth, also affected
Up to 80% of coral in inshore reefs in the Kimberley was bleached during the global mass bleaching event that also affected 93% of the Great Barrier Reef in the summer of 2016-2016, according to new research.
Led by scientists from the University of Western Australia and published in Scientific Reports this week, the research found between 57% and 80% of corals in the Kimberley, particularly at Montgomery Reef, the largest inshore coral reef in Australia, were bleached in April 2016.
Continue reading...Country diary: a storm here is a spectator sport of the utmost drama
Castlemartin, Pembrokeshire To see how many features I once climbed have been battered away by wave and wind is a salutary lesson in human ambition
Meadowsweet still flowered along lanes through an obscenity of tank ranges; grasses riffled and glistened in the verges; far offshore, Lundy dipped in and out of view. Nowhere’s better in stormy weather than south Pembrokeshire’s Castlemartin peninsula. Here the elemental interplay of land and sea is slow-motion spectator sport of the utmost drama.
I was there when Storm Ophelia was at her raging height, to watch sculpting forces of weather at work on massively bedded, malleable limestone. In my decades as a rock climber, pioneering routes on this coast obsessed me. To look east from the Green Bridge of Wales and see how many of the features I had climbed have been battered away by wave and wind is a salutary lesson in human ambition.
Continue reading...US report finds climate change 90% manmade, contradicting Trump officials
Major report by government agencies goes against senior members of Trump administration and finds evidence of global warming stronger than ever
A comprehensive review by 13 US federal agencies concludes that evidence of global warming is stronger than ever and that more than 90% of it has been caused by humans.
The conclusion contradicts a favorite talking point of senior members of the Trump administration.
Continue reading...Ahead of Bonn we look at a 3C world, plus climate change and a new species of ape – green news roundup
The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox
Continue reading...The week in wildlife – in pictures
Millions of fruit bats, migrating cranes and a new species of orangutan are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world
Continue reading...What do Jellyfish teach us about climate change? | John Abraham
A new study shows that the biological effects of two ecosystem changes can be greater than their individual impacts
What do Jellyfish teach us about climate change?
A lot. At least that’s what I learned after reading a very recent paper out in the journal Global Climate Change. The article, “Ocean acidification alters zooplankton communities and increases top-down pressure of a cubazoan predator,” was authored by an international team of scientists – the paper looks at impacts of climate change on life in the world’s oceans.
Continue reading...Palaszczuk says she will veto federal Adani loan as she accuses LNP of 'smear'
Queensland premier says the LNP ‘intends to smear me and my partner’ over his work for PwC on Adani’s application for funding through Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility
The Queensland government will veto Adani’s application for a $1bn commonwealth loan to build a rail line for its massive Carmichael mine, Annastacia Palaszczuk has said.
Palaszczuk said the dramatic move, amid her campaign for re-election, came in response to what she believed was a federal Coalition plan to “smear” her and her partner, Shaun Drabsch, over his role in Adani’s loan application to the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (Naif).
Continue reading...From Miami to Shanghai: 3C of warming will leave world cities underwater
An elevated level of climate change would lock in irreversible sea-level rises affecting hundreds of millions of people, Guardian data analysis shows
Hundreds of millions of urban dwellers around the world face their cities being inundated by rising seawaters if latest UN warnings that the world is on course for 3C of global warming come true, according to a Guardian data analysis.
Related: The three-degree world: the cities that will be drowned by global warming
Continue reading...Lincolnshire's coast and farms will sink with 3C of warming
As sea levels rise, the county’s low-lying farm plains and coastline would flood, changing the entire shape of eastern England forever
Lincolnshire’s flat, low-lying agricultural plains, which stretch north from the fens, curling around the Wash to Skegness and Grimsby, have long been a frontline of mankind’s battle to claim and protect food-producing land from the sea.
But with sea levels rising, a managed retreat is underway that threatens to become a full-scale rout if global temperatures rise by 3C. The UN warns that they will unless governments take far more drastic action to reduce emissions.
Continue reading...Dramatic rise in plastic seabed litter around UK
Average of 358 items per square kilometre found in 2016, of which more than three-quarters were plastic
There has been a dramatic rise in the amount of litter found on the seabed around Britain, according to new government data.
An average of 358 litter items were found per square kilometre of seabed in 2016, a 158% rise on the previous year, and 222% higher than the average for 1992-94.
Continue reading...Country diary: ancient associations surface in church by the Wharfe
Ilkley, Wharfedale, West Yorkshire It is tempting to see the outward beauty and lethal potential of the river in the oversized eyes of a weathered stone relic
On this darkening evening, the sky above Wharfedale is wild and oceanic, and the river Wharfe is its turbulent likeness, swollen with rain and surging urgently eastwards. An excoriating wind, the kind that makes you grimace, whips brass, bronze, and copper foliage into the water for the current to swallow, hastening winter’s approach with every gust.
The sound and fury is suddenly muffled as I enter the centuries-brewed silence of Ilkley’s All Saints church. In the church’s collection of Anglo-Saxon crosses is an altar stone on which a figure is carved out of rough millstone grit. She wears a pleated robe and holds what appear to be two snakes in her hands. Her oversized eyes may have looked out on the world for almost two millennia.
Continue reading...More coral bleaching feared for Great Barrier Reef in coming months
The next event, if it occurs, may not be as damaging as the previous two, but could ruin the chances of coral recovery
The Great Barrier Reef could face more bleaching in the coming months, following unprecedented mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017, which are believed to have killed half the coral.
Forecasts stretching to February are pushing the science to its limits, leaving significant uncertainty. But scientists say there is reason to be concerned, and some bleaching is very likely, although it won’t be anything like what happened during the past two years.
Continue reading...Nature@work photo competition winners - in pictures
The European Environment Agency invited European citizens to capture how nature benefits them in a competition called Nature@work. Here are the winning images, announced this week
Continue reading...Six things we learnt at cycling's Six Day London
As the cycling event returns to the capital for the third year we get the trackside word on the races, the music and which riders like to party hardest
The lights are low and the music is loud. The beer is flowing and some of the world’s best riders are whipping round the wooden boards of Lee Valley velodrome in one of the many furious and fast paced races of the Six Day London event, now in its third year.
Night after night, thousands of people crowded to the velodrome to watch elite riders fight it out for laps and points to a background of flashing lights and a clubbing soundtrack. And like a club, the action is not just centre-stage; there’s something going on in every corner. Here are six lessons from Six Day London.
Continue reading...Climate change 'will create world's biggest refugee crisis'
Experts warn refugees could number tens of millions in the next decade, and call for a new legal framework to protect the most vulnerable
Tens of millions of people will be forced from their homes by climate change in the next decade, creating the biggest refugee crisis the world has ever seen, according to a new report.
Senior US military and security experts have told the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) study that the number of climate refugees will dwarf those that have fled the Syrian conflict, bringing huge challenges to Europe.
Continue reading...Country diary: mighty oaks and many, many, doomed acorns
Hollingside wood, Durham city Acorns’ chances of survival make lottery odds look attractive as most will be eaten by insects, birds and small mammals
This wood was last clear-felled in 1799, then replanted with beech and oak. Silver birch, horse chestnut, sycamore and holly have since found their own way in. On the southern slopes the oldest trees, straight-trunked with lofty crowns, tower above the understorey like the pillars and vaulted roof of a cathedral, inspiring a sense of reverence.
The raised voice of a distant dog-walker seemed almost like sacrilege, breaking the stillness of a tranquil afternoon. I sat on a fallen branch under an oak, to listen to the sounds of the woodland.
Continue reading...Huge private sector investment puts Paris climate target in reach, says report
Global investment could hold the key to fighting climate change, with one trillion dollars already invested in solutions such as renewables and energy efficiency, says International Finance Corporation
At least one trillion dollars are being invested globally in ways to reduce the threat of climate change, including renewable power, energy efficiency, and public transport around the world.
Continue reading...Pregnant sharks and rays likely to abort their young if captured
New research has found a quarter of pregnant sharks and rays lose their pups when caught, threatening some species
Australian researchers have found a quarter of pregnant sharks and rays abort their pups when captured, revealing a little-known risk to the survival of the slow-growing animals.
An analysis of recorded instances of sharks and rays either aborting their pups or undergoing a premature birth once captured found 24% of pregnant females across 88 species lost their young. In some species, such as the pelagic stingray, the rate of abortion on capture was 85%.
Continue reading...Fracking protest injunction based on 'flimsy evidence'
Ineos exaggerated the threat posed by protesters to justify its temporary legal action, court hears
A multinational firm has been accused of using “flimsy and exaggerated” evidence when it obtained an “astonishingly broad” injunction against all anti-fracking protesters, a court has heard.
Petrochemicals giant Ineos is seeking to enforce a sweeping injunction to prevent any protester from obstructing its fracking operations. Campaigners face being jailed, fined or having their assets seized if they break the injunction.
Continue reading...