Findings from a new paper published in Cat News have identified the first ever report of Pallas’s cat on Mount Everest, in the Sagarmatha National Park in Nepal. This groundbreaking finding is a result of the 2019 National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Everest Expedition, the most comprehensive single scientific expedition to the mountain in history. From April 7 […]
Enviro
Amazon heat drives Tibet temperatures: climate tipping elements connected half around the globe
January 26, 2023 – While the Amazon rainforest and the Tibetan Plateau sit on different sides of the globe, scientists now discovered that changes in the South American ecosystem can trigger changes in the vicinity of the Himalayas. Both are tipping elements, hence large-scale elements of the planetary machinery that are sensitive to global warming […]
Giant iceberg breaks away from Antarctic ice shelf
Satellite imagery confirms an enormous iceberg, around five times the size of Malta, has finally calved from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice Shelf. The new berg, estimated to be around 1550 sq km and around 150 m thick, calved when the crack known as Chasm-1 fully extended northwards severing the west part of the ice shelf. This […]
The single oil spill that can disrupt the global energy supply
January 23, 2023 – Over the last year, the world’s energy market has been highly volatile. The warmer-than-average winter in Europe helped avoid a gas crisis this year, but the forecast for the next winter is unclear as instabilities persist. More than 20% of global liquefied natural gas exports originate from a single port in […]
Collision risk and habitat loss: wind turbines in forests impair threatened bat species
January 20, 2023 – In order to meet climate protection goals, renewable energies are booming – often wind power. More than 30,000 turbines have already been installed on the German mainland so far, and the industry is currently scrambling to locate increasingly rare suitable sites. Thus, forests are coming into focus as potential sites. A […]
Global Warming Reaches Central Greenland
January 18, 2023 – At high elevations of the Greenland Ice Sheet, the years 2001 to 2011 were 1.5 °C warmer than in the 20th century and represent the warmest decade in the last thousand years. A temperature reconstruction from ice cores of the past 1,000 years reveals that today’s warming in central-north Greenland is surprisingly […]
New Harvard study puts a number on what ‘Exxon knew’ decades ago about climate science
Cambridge, MA, January 12, 2023 — Climate projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists between 1977 and 2003 were accurate and skillful in predicting subsequent global warming and contradicted the company’s public claims, a new Harvard study shows. In the first ever systematic assessment of the fossil fuel industry’s climate projections, researchers at Harvard University and the Potsdam Institute […]
Forests recovering from logging act as a source of carbon
January 9, 2023 – Tropical forests that are recovering from having trees removed were thought to be carbon absorbers, as the new trees grow quickly. A new study, led by Imperial College London researchers, turns this on its head, showing that the carbon released by soil and rotting wood outpaces the carbon absorbed by new […]
It would take 23 million years for evolution to replace Madagascar’s endangered mammals
January 10, 2023 – In many ways, Madagascar is a biologist’s dream, a real-life experiment in how isolation on an island can spark evolution. About 90% of the plants and animals there are found nowhere else on Earth. But these plants and animals are in major trouble, thanks to habitat loss, over-hunting, and climate change. […]
Ozone layer recovery is on track, helping avoid global warming by 0.5°C
DENVER/NAIROBI/GENEVA, 9 January 2023 – The ozone layer is on track to recover within four decades, with the global phaseout of ozone-depleting chemicals already benefitting efforts to mitigate climate change. This is the conclusion of a UN-backed panel of experts, presented today at the American Meteorological Society’s 103rd annual meeting. Examining novel technologies such as […]
COP15: Canadian Mining Corp Belo Sun Stock Takes Major Hit Before Finance Day at U.N. Biodiversity Summit
December 13, 2022 – As the United Nations’ 15th summit on biodiversity in Montreal, Québec enters its last week of negotiations for global targets, Canadian mining company Belo Sun has once again demonstrated the perils of investing in the destruction of the Amazon, as its share prices have dropped precipitously following protests and advocacy from […]
Reindeer Population Wins Endangered Species Protection in Time for Holidays
WASHINGTON, December 12, 2022— The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protected the Dolphin and Union caribou today as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. This specific population of barren-ground caribou (Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) — also known as reindeer — inhabits the Arctic regions of Canada’s northern territories. The endangered listing restricts trade in Dolphin and Union caribou […]
Droughts are associated with increase in suicides in the U.S.
December 12, 2022 – Droughts may increase the rate of suicide in the United States, according to new research being presented at AGU’s Fall Meeting on 13 December in Chicago and online. The health impacts of drought are less understood than impacts from other types of natural disasters due to their slower nature compared to hurricanes, tornadoes […]
Americans Are Flocking to Wildfire: U.S. Migration Study
Americans are leaving many of the U.S. counties hit hardest by hurricanes and heatwaves—and moving towards dangerous wildfires and warmer temperatures, finds one of the largest studies of U.S. migration and natural hazards. The ten-year national study reveals troubling public health patterns, with Americans flocking to regions with the greatest risk of wildfires and significant […]
Climate change will cause Pacific’s low-oxygen zone to expand even more by 2100
WASHINGTON, November 29, 2022 — For thousands of kilometers along the western coasts of the Americas, low-oxygen waters known as oxygen minimum zones stretch out into the Pacific. In part due to climate change, this oxygen-starved region is likely to get wider and deeper, expanding by millions of cubic kilometers by the end of the […]
We discovered a new species of owl – but we already think it’s in danger
‘Otus bikegila’, the new species of owl discovered in Central Africa. Martim Melo, Author provided Bárbara Freitas, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC); Angelica Crottini, Universidade do Porto, and Martim Melo, Universidade do Porto As part of an international team of scientists we have confirmed a new species of owl after decades of speculation that […]
To prevent the next pandemic, restore wildlife habitats
Preserving and restoring natural habitats could prevent pathogens that originate in wildlife from spilling over into domesticated animals and humans, according to two new companion studies. The research, based in Australia, found that when bats experience loss of winter habitat and food shortages in their natural settings, their populations splinter and they excrete more virus. […]
NASA Study: Rising Sea Level Could Exceed Estimates for U.S. Coasts
By 2050, sea level along contiguous U.S. coastlines could rise as much as 12 inches (30 centimeters) above today’s waterline, according to researchers who analyzed nearly three decades of satellite observations. The results from the NASA Sea Level Change Team could help refine near-term projections for coastal communities that are bracing for increases in both […]
Greenland’s Largest Ice Sheet Thinning Rapidly
The loss of ice from Greenland’s largest basin is occurring much faster and could contribute up to six times more to global sea-level rise by 2100 than climate models currently project, according to a study led by Dartmouth professor Mathieu Morlighem with researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the University of California, Irvine. The […]
There’s room for improvement in a popular climate-smart agricultural practice, Stanford-led study shows
The promise for American agriculture is tantalizing: healthier soil, more carbon kept in the ground, less fertilizer runoff, and less need for chemicals. The reality of planting cover crops during the off-season – a much-touted and subsidized approach to climate change mitigation – is more complicated, according to new Stanford University-led research. The study, published Nov. 8 […]