climate change tagged posts

Abnormally warm waters are stressing Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, causing large parts of the usually colorful reef to turn a ghostly white. Aerial surveys detected catastrophic coral bleaching on around 60 percent of the reef’s corals, reports Darryl Fears for the Washington Post.

The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef system in the world, stretching for 1,429 miles over an area of approximately 133,000 square miles. The sprawling ecosystem is made up of individual reefs formed over thousands of years, which have been repeatedly stressed by recent marine heatwaves. Now, the Great Barrier Reef appears to be suffering its fourth mass bleaching in the last seven years. 

Despite their plant-like appearance, corals are animals made up of hundreds to thousands of tin...

The UN Secretary General says the rush to use fossil fuels because of the war in Ukraine is “madness” and threatens global climate targets. The invasion of Ukraine has seen rapid rises in the prices of coal, oil and gas as countries scramble to replace Russian sources. But Antonio Guterres warns that these short-term measures might “close the window” on the Paris climate goals. 

He also calls on countries, including China, to fully phase out coal by 2040.

In his first major speech on climate and energy since COP26, Mr Guterres makes no bones about the fact that the limited progress achieved in Glasgow is insufficient to ward off dangerous climate change.

Scientists believe that keeping the rise in global temperatures under 1...

Dead corals are being recorded in aerial surveys across the Great Barrier Reef in what the marine park’s chief scientist says is a widespread and serious bleaching event on the world heritage icon. Aerial surveys have covered half of the 2,300km reef, with the worst bleaching observed in the park’s central region off Townsville, where corals on some reefs are dead and dying. The unfolding bleaching comes ahead of a 10-day UN monitoring mission to the reef due to start on Monday.

Leading reef scientist Prof Terry Hughes said this week a sixth mass bleaching event was now unfolding on the reef, adding to events in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017 and 2020.

Dr David Wachenfeld, chief scientist at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, told Guardian Australia: “There is certainly a risk we ar...

A leading Ukrainian scientist says war is “closing the window of opportunity” for the world to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Dr Svitlana Krakovska, who is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), spoke to me on Zoom from her apartment in Kyiv.

“It’s amazing how the people of Ukraine united against one enemy,” she said. 

“If we all unite against climate change, we can survive as a civilisation.”

Dr Krakovska was taking part in the final stages of approving the IPPC’s latest major assessment on the impacts of climate change when the invasion made it impossible for her to continue her work. 

“Everything stopped,” she said. “I can’t think about climate change, because I can’t think about anything other than to try to survive.”

But, desc...

Among the countless disastrous consequences of climate change will be the degradation and loss of coral reefs, which will affect about 4.5 million people in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, said a report. As a result of environment stress, coral reefs in Asia are getting bleached and dying, the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report on Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, released on February 28, said.

The rise in temperature of seawater is affecting the functioning of symbiotic algae of corals and its bacterial consortia, which is resulting in bleaching and mortality of corals.

Corals, under stress, expel the symbiotic algae from their tissues, which causes them to turn completely white. This is known as coral bleaching.

The 5^th UN Environment Assembly concluded today in Nairobi with 14 resolutions to strengthen actions for nature to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. The Assembly is made up of the 193 UN Member States and convenes every two years to advance global environmental governance.

The world’s ministers for the environment agreed to establish an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee with the mandate to forge an international legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said this was most significant environmental multilateral deal since the Paris accord.

“Against the backdrop of geopolitical turmoil, the UN Environment Assembly shows multilateral cooperation at its best,” said Espen Barth Eide, the...

By now, many symptoms of climate change, from heat-fueled superstorms to rising sea levels, are impossible to ignore. But there’s another, less-visible consequence of global warming that is just as disturbing: the staggering loss of plants and animals and the countless benefits they provide. 

In a new report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), researchers from 67 countries warned that warming is putting a large portion of the world’s biodiversity and ecosystems at risk of extinction, even under relatively conservative estimates. Never before has an IPCC report — considered the gold standard for climate science — revealed in such stark detail how climate change is harming nature. 

What ails wildlife ails us, the authors wrote...

It’s crunch time! After a two-year pandemic-driven delay, world leaders will meet at the United Nations Intergovernmental Conference (IGC4) in just weeks to decide if our oceans are worth protecting. If world leaders can agree on a Global Ocean Treaty that protects 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030, it will be one of the biggest conservation victories in human history.

Nearly 5 million people globally have signed the petition to world leaders – asking for a strong Global Oceans Treaty. Will you add your name to amp up the pressure during this crucial moment? Take action: Demand a strong global oceans treaty before IGC4 begins on March 7th. 

As Greenpeace USA’s Ocean Campaign Director, I have sailed around the world to sound the alarm for our dying oceans and confron...

“The planet is facing a triple crisis — climate disruption, biodiversity loss and pollution,” the United Nations Secretary-General said, adding that “we need the international community to intensify efforts to protect the ocean.”

Speaking at the recent One Ocean Summit, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, “The ocean shoulders much of the burden. It serves as a giant carbon and heat sink. As a result, the ocean is growing warmer and more acidic, polar ice is melting and global weather patterns are changing. Ocean ecosystems are suffering. So, too, are the communities who rely on them. More than 3 billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. The number of marine species is dropping. Coral reefs are dying.

“Coastal ecosystems have...

Big banks are pumping billions into new oil and gas production despite net zero pledges, campaigners have said. Banks including HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank are still backing new oil and gas despite being part of a green banking group, ShareAction said. Investors should force banks to demand green plans from fossil fuel firms before funding them, it said. HSBC and Barclays said they were focused on achieving environmental goals.

“Net zero” means not adding to greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere by cutting and trying to balance out emissions.

If the Earth is to avoid damaging environmental effects, including more extreme weather, it needs to limit average global warming to below 1.5 degrees centigrade.

To achieve this, we need to get to net zero by 2050, experts have sa...