climate change tagged posts

Fish similar to those made famous by the movie Finding Nemo are shrinking to cope with marine heatwaves, a study has found. The research recorded clownfish living on coral reefs slimmed down drastically when ocean temperatures rocketed in 2023. Scientists say the discovery was a big surprise and could help explain the rapidly declining size of other fish in the world’s oceans.

A growing body of evidence suggests animals are shape shifting to cope with climate change, including birds, lizards and insects.

“Nemos can shrink, and they do it to survive these heat stress events,” said Dr Theresa Rueger, senior lecturer in Tropical Marine Sciences at Newcastle University.

The researchers studied pairs of clownfish living in reefs off Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea, a hot spot of marine ...

Australia’s coral reefs, including the lesser-known subtropical systems, are hit hard as the world faces its fourth, and most intense, global coral bleaching event on record, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) said on Monday.

Even typically resilient reefs, like those surrounding Lord Howe Island off Australia’s east coast, the world’s southernmost coral reef, are suffering, despite initially escaping mass bleaching seen elsewhere across Australia this year, said a UNSW press release.

More than 83 percent of the world’s reefs have experienced extreme heat stress since January 2023, which is the fourth global coral bleaching event, according to the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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When the UK became the first major economy in the world to commit to reducing its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, there was so little disagreement among MPs it was simply ‘nodded through’ without a vote, external. Six years on, the political climate is very different, the consensus at Westminster has shattered and reaching net zero is fast becoming a political dividing line. Labour has committed itself to an extra deadline: reaching clean power by 2030.

The Greens and Liberal Democrats want to hit net zero faster, the Conservatives are slamming the brakes on their policy and, for the first time, there is now a mainstream party, Reform UK, openly questioning the need to reach net zero at all.

Even a former Labour prime minister, Sir Tony Blair, has said that existing global a...

The year was 2025. The world was on the brink of a climate catastrophe, and the need for urgent action had never been more pressing. Inspired by the book “I Ran the World,” a group of activists launched a groundbreaking campaign to mobilise millions of people around the world to demand immediate and decisive action on climate change.

The campaign, dubbed “Get2COP,” was centred around a revolutionary app that allowed users to create virtual journeys to the COP30 conference in Brazil. By tracking their steps, runs, or bike rides, participants could contribute to a collective effort to reach COP30 virtually from wherever they lived in the world.

Their purpose? To deliver a message to the policymakers and leaders of the world that something must be done – now!

The app was designed to...

In the vibrant depths of the ocean, a tiny, brightly colored fish played a crucial role in maintaining the delicate balance of the underwater world. This was the parrotfish, a seemingly insignificant creature with a remarkable ability to save the planet.

Parrotfish were nature’s underwater gardeners. Their strong teeth, resembling a beak, allowed them to scrape algae and other parasites from the surface of coral reefs. As they nibbled away, they unwittingly helped to keep the reefs clean and healthy. But their contribution went far beyond simple maintenance.

Coral reefs were often compared to underwater cities, teeming with life. They provided shelter for countless marine species, from tiny shrimp to majestic sharks...

A study of samples taken from inside the bodies of centuries-old coral has revealed the threat climate change now poses to the Great Barrier Reef. Researchers in Australia say temperatures in and around the vast coral reef over the past decade are the highest recorded in 400 years. Extreme heat has already caused five mass bleaching events in the past nine years alone. Writing in the journal Nature, external, the scientists behind the study say increased temperatures, driven by climate change, now pose an “existential threat” to this natural wonder of the world.

“The science tells us that the Great Barrier Reef is in danger – and we should be guided by the science,” Prof Helen McGregor, from the Universit...

Fuelled by climate change, the world’s oceans have broken temperature records every single day over the past year, a BBC analysis finds. Nearly 50 days have smashed existing highs for the time of year by the largest margin in the satellite era. Planet-warming gases are mostly to blame, but the natural weather event El Niño has also helped warm the seas.

The super-heated oceans have hit marine life hard and driven a new wave of coral bleaching.

The analysis is based on data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Service.

Copernicus also confirmed that last month was the warmest April on record in terms of global air temperatures, extending that sequence of month-specific records to 11 in a row.

For many decades, the world’s oceans have been the Earth’s ‘get-out-of-jail card’ when i...

Inside the bodies of humpback whales are clues about how climate change is transforming Antarctica. Our BBC science team crossed the Southern Ocean, with the researchers, on a mission to follow and study the giant whales of this remote, frozen wilderness. At 03:00 in the morning there is an almighty crash. Every drawer in our cabin is flung open and contents hurled against the wall. We hit a 12-metre wave.

I’m not a seafarer; this is alarming, but apparently not unusual on the Drake Passage – the stretch of the notoriously rough Southern Ocean we are on. We’re aboard a 200-passenger tourist ship, with a team of wildlife scientists, on our way to the Antarctic Peninsula.

One of the researcher...

Fuelled by climate change, the world’s oceans have broken temperature records every single day over the past year, a BBC analysis finds. Nearly 50 days have smashed existing highs for the time of year by the largest margin in the satellite era. Planet-warming gasses are mostly to blame, but the natural weather event El Niño has also helped warm the seas. The super-heated oceans have hit marine life hard and driven a new wave of coral bleaching. The analysis is based on data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Service.

Copernicus also confirmed that last month was the warmest April on record in terms of air temperatures, extending that sequence of month-specific records to 11 in a row.

For many decades, the world’s oceans have been the Earth’s ‘get-out-of-jail card’ when it comes to c...

The world is not doing enough to protect coral reefs, the United Nations’ special envoy for the ocean said last week, in defence of the marine ecosystems that protect biodiversity, sustain underwater life, and produce some of the oxygen we breathe. In an interview with The Associated Press on the sidelines of an international ocean conference in Greece, Peter Thomson suggested that all significant coral reefs should be included in marine protected areas under what is known as the “30×30” initiative, a plan to designate 30% of the world’s land and ocean areas as protected areas by 2030.

Top reef scientists announced last week that coral reefs are experiencing global bleaching for the fourth time—and the second time in just 10 years—as a result of warming oceans amid human-...