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Loss of monkeys and birds in tropical forests driving up carbon emissions
Overhunting affects seed dispersal and thus survival of hardwood trees, resulting in drastic reduction in Earth’s natural carbon storage, study finds
Large fruit-eating monkeys and birds in tropical forests have been revealed as surprising climate change champions, whose loss to over-hunting is driving up carbon emissions. This is because their seed-spreading plays a vital role in the survival of huge, hard-wooded trees.
Tropical forests store 40% of all the carbon on the Earth’s surface and the slashing of trees causes about 15% of the greenhouse gases that drive global warming.
Continue reading...Kellingley colliery closure: 'shabby end' for a once mighty industry
The last deep coal mine in Britain closes today, drawing to an end a series of closures in an industry once known as King Coal
When the last shift of underground miners emerges at Kellingley colliery in North Yorkshire on Friday, it will bring down the final curtain on one of Britain’s most successful and enduring industries.
Coal has been dug out of the ground since pre-Roman times. It fuelled the Industrial Revolution and was still providing 40% of power for electricity generation as little as three years ago.
Continue reading...Second Saharan dust cloud to hit England and Wales this weekend
Cocktail of Saharan dust and diesel fumes prompts officials to issue health warning for Saturday as unseasonably warm weather continues
A further spell of air pollution caused by a cocktail of Saharan dust and diesel fumes is expected to hit England and Wales on Saturday as temperatures remain unseasonably warm.
Parts of eastern, central and southern England are already being affected by a moderate pollution episode on Thursday, causing officials to warn adults and children with lung problems to reduce physical activity outdoors.
Continue reading...The 19th-century whaling logbooks that could help scientists understand climate change
The public are being enlisted to read through detailed logs of whaling ships which include records of ice flows and weather conditions
Maritime historians, climate scientists and ordinary citizens are coming together on a project to study the logbooks of 19th-century whaling ships to better understand modern-day climate change and Arctic weather patterns.
The crew of whaling ships kept meticulous daily logbooks of weather conditions during their often years-long voyages searching the globe for whales, valued for their light-giving oil, said Michael Dyer, a senior maritime historian at the New Bedford whaling museum in Massachusetts, which is supplying much of the data.
Continue reading...Saharan dust cloud bound for UK prompts health warning
Older people, asthma sufferers and those with breathing difficulties are most at risk as pollution levels expected to rise
A Saharan dust cloud is expected to settle over parts of the UK on Thursday, prompting health experts to issue warnings to elderly people and those who suffer from breathing problems.
High levels of pollution are expected over southern and central England, with Lincolnshire bearing the brunt of the cloud.
Continue reading...National Clean Air Agreement released
Reef 2050 Plan Implementation Strategy - Edition 2
Partnerships for the Reef
Australian newspaper cartoon depicting Indians eating solar panels attacked as racist
Cartoon in News Corp paper by veteran Bill Leak described by critic as ‘shocking ... and unequivocally racist, drawing on base stereotypes of third world people’
A cartoon in the Australian depicting starving Indians chopping up and eating solar panels sent to the developing nation in an attempt to curb carbon emissions has been condemned as “unequivocally racist”.
Drawn by the veteran cartoonist Bill Leak, Monday’s cartoon was his response to the climate deal signed in Paris at the weekend. India is the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse emitter.
Continue reading...Solar Towns (Round 3) now open
Solar Towns (Round 3) now open
Paris climate deal: nearly 200 nations sign in end of fossil fuel era
Two decades of talks have come to this: an ambitious agreement to hold states to emissions targets – but already low-lying countries are worried
Governments have signalled an end to the fossil fuel era, committing for the first time to a universal agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to avoid the most dangerous effects of climate change.
After 20 years of fraught meetings, including the past two weeks spent in an exhibition hall on the outskirts of Paris, negotiators from nearly 200 countries signed on to a legal agreement on Saturday evening that set ambitious goals to limit temperature rises and to hold governments to account for reaching those targets.
Continue reading...Paris climate deal: key points at a glance
The goal of 1.5C is a big leap below the 2C agreed six years ago in Copenhagen. Here’s what the agreement means for global emissions and the future of the planet
Governments have agreed to “pursue efforts” to limit warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels: something that would have seemed unthinkable just a few months ago.
Continue reading...James Hansen, father of climate change awareness, calls Paris talks 'a fraud'
The former Nasa scientist criticizes the talks, intended to reach a new global deal on cutting carbon emissions beyond 2020, as ‘no action, just promises’
Mere mention of the Paris climate talks is enough to make James Hansen grumpy. The former Nasa scientist, considered the father of global awareness of climate change, is a soft-spoken, almost diffident Iowan. But when he talks about the gathering of nearly 200 nations, his demeanour changes.
Related: John Kerry rejects leading climate scientist's claim Paris talks were 'fraud'
Continue reading...Rehabilitated Siberian tiger plays with cubs in wild – video
A Siberian tiger called Zolushka is filmed in the Bastak nature reserve in east Russia playing with two young cubs. Zolushka was found orphaned in 2012 and after a year of rehabilitation was retuned to the wild. Now it seems Zolushka has given birth to cubs in the wild. The Siberian tiger is one of the most endangered species in the world with as few as 500 left in the wild
Continue reading...Commonwealth Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery - Agency application 2015
Victorian Scallop (Ocean) Fishery - Application 2015
Australia on the spot over Adani mine and funding of Attenborough reef series
Scientist who features in BBC series says Australia’s positions on reef and coal are incompatible, but environment minister Greg Hunt fails to address contradiction at Paris screening
A leading scientist who features in David Attenborough’s new series about the Great Barrier Reef has told the Australian government it cannot expand coal exports and continue to claim to be protecting the reef.
The government is planning a big tourism campaign to run at the same time as the new series screens around the world.
Continue reading...Cameron government rejected flood risk warnings from climate advisers
Committee on Climate Change had warned in October that the government must take action to protect homes from risk of flooding
The UK government was warned by its official climate change advisers in October that it needed to take action on the increasing number of homes at high risk of flooding but rejected the advice.
The decision not to develop a strategy to address increase flooding risk came just a few weeks before Storm Desmond brought about severe flooding in Cumbria, Lancashire and other parts of the north west causing an estimated £500m of damage.
Continue reading...Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of North Face, dies after Chile kayak accident
Millionaire behind adventure brand and Esprit, who ploughed fortune into saving South American ecosystems, suffers hypothermia from falling into lake
Douglas Tompkins, co-founder of the North Face outdoor company who poured millions into conservation, has died after falling into near-freezing waters during a kayak accident in southern Chile.
Tompkins, 72, was taken with acute hypothermia to a hospital in Coyhaique after high winds flipped his adventure kayak during a trip across Lake General Carrera in Patagonia on Tuesday, reports said. He died about six hours after arriving at hospital in the regional capital.
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