Is it hoped discovery of medieval trading town Ravenser Odd can teach people about perils of climate crisis
Hopes are high that a fabled medieval town known as “Yorkshire’s Atlantis” is about to be located and will begin giving up secrets held for more than 650 years.
Ravenser Odd was a prosperous port town built on sandbanks at the mouth of the Humber estuary before it was abandoned and later destroyed and submerged by a calamitous storm in 1362.
Continue reading...Repairs could top $1bn and mayors say roads and bridges shouldn’t just be rebuilt but ‘rebuilt to withstand future disasters’
Commuters across New South Wales and Queensland are dodging gaping potholes and avoiding cracked roads after flooding damaged the states’ road networks, with mayors arguing they will need to be repaired stronger to withstand future disasters.
Many NSW and Queensland councils are scrambling to find funding that could top $1bn in total to repair roads ripped apart by the devastating flood waters.
Continue reading...US military aims for net zero by 2050 but with a carbon footprint greater than some 140 countries critics say it needs radical change
The US military, an institution whose carbon footprint exceeds that of nearly 140 countries, says it wants to go green.
On 8 February, the US army released its climate strategy.
Continue reading...Environment groups say visiting scientists must be given true picture of the reef, ahead of world heritage committee meeting in June
A United Nations monitoring trip to the Great Barrier Reef will land in Queensland later this month just as forecasts suggest the risk of widespread coral bleaching will be at its highest.
Unesco has confirmed two scientists will carry out the mission, requested by the Morrison government, lasting for 10 days from 21 March.
Continue reading...While cause remains unconfirmed, green groups fear the three whales could be the ‘tip of iceberg’ with many more animals hurt
Environmental groups have linked the beaching of three whales in Corfu to seismic testing for oil and gas in the waters off the Greek island.
Two Cuvier’s beaked whales were found stranded at Arillas and Agios Gordios beaches on the west of the island on 20 February. A third beaked whale ran ashore on Agios Gordios beach the day after.
Continue reading...Researchers say the island’s biggest mine is on track to achieve no net loss of forest but that ‘there remain important caveats’
Ambatovy mine on the east coast of Madagascar is an environmental conundrum fit for the 21st century. Beginning operations in 2012, the multibillion-dollar open-pit nickel and cobalt mine is the largest investment in the history of the country, one of the poorest on Earth. About 9,000 Malagasies are employed by the project, owned by the Japanese company Sumitomo Corporation and Korean firm Komir, which mines minerals destined for the world’s electric car batteries. To construct the mine and the 140-mile (220km) slurry pipeline to port on the Indian ocean, 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) of pristine rainforest was cleared, destroying vital habitat of the endangered indri, the largest living lemur, and thousands of other species.
Alongside the land clearing in a country that has lost nearly a quarter of its tree cover since 2000, the mine has been blamed for air and water pollution, as well as health problems in the local population. The smell of ammonia in residential areas and the pollution of drinking water were revealed in a 2017 investigation.
Continue reading...Analysis of satellite observations show forest is losing stability with ‘profound’ global implications
The Amazon is approaching a tipping point, data shows, after which the rainforest would be lost with “profound” implications for the global climate and biodiversity.
Computer models have previously indicated a mass dieback of the Amazon is possible but the new analysis is based on real-world satellite observations over the past three decades.
Continue reading...A new generation of detectors will be many times better at tracking discharges of the dangerous greenhouse gas
Last month, scientists working with data from Tropomi, a monitoring instrument onboard the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-5 satellite, published some startling findings. Writing in the journal Science, the team reported that it had found about 1,800 instances of huge releases of methane (more than 25 tonnes an hour) into the atmosphere in 2019 and 2020. Two-thirds of these were from oil and gas facilities, with the leaks concentrated over the largest oil and gas basins across the world, as well as major transmission pipelines, the team said.
Launched in 2017, Tropomi has been a huge step forward for scientists researching methane, being the first instrument in space that can see plumes of methane emissions directly, says Lena Höglund-Isaksson, a methane researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis . For example, the instrument led to the discovery of huge methane leaks in Turkmenistan that researchers were not aware of before, she says.
Continue reading...A scientific experiment hopes to restore vital nutrients to the ocean by using fake excrement that would once have been produced by the endangered mammal
In a few weeks an international group of scientists will launch an unusual marine research project. They will dust the surface of the Indian Ocean with artificial whale faeces.
The aim of this excremental experiment is straightforward. It is to determine if it is possible to reboot marine ecosystems that have been starved of nutrients and in the process restore dwindling fish populations. It is also hoped the project will help in the battle against the climate crisis.
Continue reading...Surge of estate sales to big firms has driven up prices and increased elitism of land ownership, says report
A drive by wealthy companies to plant forests in the Scottish Highlands to offset their carbon emissions risks creating even greater inequalities in rural areas, a major report has warned.
The analysis says a surge of Highland estate sales to major corporations and cash-rich investors, such as Aviva, Standard Life and BrewDog, has driven up land prices sharply and increased the elitism and exclusivity of land ownership, while they aim to limit climate heating.
Continue reading...Sewage works, airports and seaports among key infrastructure at risk, says intergovernmental report
The UK “is very much not adapted to climate change and not prepared”, according to a lead author of a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The study, published this week and approved by 195 countries, says the worldwide impacts of the climate crisis are more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance of securing “a liveable future for all”.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands of NSW residents are still under evacuation warnings or orders as Hawkesbury-Nepean region remains a major concern; Victoria records 26 Covid deaths, NSW records two. Follow all the day’s news
Resilience NSW commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has told ABC radio that flooding across the state was worst than predicted:
Unprecedented levels [of flooding] experienced up in northern NSW, flood levels that came in well above what was forecasted … And at the same time we’ve still got serious flooding concerns in Hawkesbury and Nepean ...
We’ve also formed up a significant taskforce, comprising of firefighters … the Australian defence force. So working shoulder to shoulder with business owners, with property owners, homeowners ...
Continue reading...Experts and advocates are also exploring new ranking systems to add urgency to the growing disaster of rapidly warming landscapes
Climate scientists from around the world issued dire warnings on Monday, in the latest IPCC report on the dangers posed in the unfolding climate crisis. Among them is extreme heat, a crisis that on average already claims more American lives than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.
Though the impact is already being felt, heatwaves are largely silent killers. Often, the toll is tallied far into the aftermath of an event and is vastly undercounted. Unlike fires and floods that produce immediate and visible destruction, heat’s harmful effects can seem more subtle – even if they are in fact more deadly.
Continue reading...Report says human actions are causing dangerous disruption, and window to secure a liveable future is closing
Climate breakdown is accelerating rapidly, many of the impacts will be more severe than predicted and there is only a narrow chance left of avoiding its worst ravages, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said.
Even at current levels, human actions in heating the climate are causing dangerous and widespread disruption, threatening devastation to swathes of the natural world and rendering many areas unliveable, according to the landmark report published on Monday.
Everywhere is affected, with no inhabited region escaping dire impacts from rising temperatures and increasingly extreme weather.
About half the global population – between 3.3 billion and 3.6 billion people – live in areas “highly vulnerable” to climate change.
Millions of people face food and water shortages owing to climate change, even at current levels of heating.
Mass die-offs of species, from trees to corals, are already under way.
1.5C above pre-industrial levels constitutes a “critical level” beyond which the impacts of the climate crisis accelerate strongly and some become irreversible.
Coastal areas around the globe, and small, low-lying islands, face inundation at temperature rises of more than 1.5C.
Key ecosystems are losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide, turning them from carbon sinks to carbon sources.
Some countries have agreed to conserve 30% of the Earth’s land, but conserving half may be necessary to restore the ability of natural ecosystems to cope with the damage wreaked on them.
Continue reading...From the return of wildlife to the pressures of tourism and the climate crisis, Steven Fuller has seen it all in his nearly 50 years watching over America’s oldest national park
• Read more: Native Americans are at the heart of Yellowstone. After 150 years, they are finally being heard
As “winterkeeper” at Yellowstone national park, Steven Fuller lives in a rustic cedar-shingled cottage, built in 1910, set on a hill a short walk from the majestic Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
On balmier days, with the windows open, he can hear the roar of the 308ft Lower Falls tumbling into the chasm. In autumn, he is treated to the sound of bugling bull elk in rut or, in the middle of night, the howls of wolves.
Continue reading...Report says average 4% of GDP will be spent on adapting to climate breakdown, risking deeper poverty
African countries are being forced to spend billions of dollars a year coping with the effects of the climate crisis, which is diverting potential investment from schools and hospitals and threatens to drive countries into ever deeper poverty.
Dealing with extreme weather is costing close to 6% of GDP in Ethiopia alone, equating to a spend of more than $1 repairing climate damage for every $20 of national income, according to research by the thinktank Power Shift Africa.
Continue reading...Police release video of attack on workers’ equipment at camp of Coastal GasLink, a 400-mile pipeline opposed by First Nation groups
Police in Canada have released footage of axe wielding attackers as they investigate a “calculated and organised” night-time raid on a remote work camp.
Up to 20 people are believed to have attacked Coastal GasLink’s pipeline construction camp last week on Marten Forest Service Road in British Columbia.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Thousands of near-empty planes flown since March 2020, new figures reveal
Almost 15,000 “ghost flights” have departed from the UK, according to newly revealed official figures.
The ghost flights, defined as those with no passengers or less than 10% of passenger capacity, operated from all 32 airports listed in the data. Heathrow was top, with 4,910 ghost flights between March 2020 and September 2021. Manchester and Gatwick were the next highest. There were an average of 760 ghost flights a month over the period, although the data covered only international departure and not domestic flights.
Continue reading...Dramatic spread of native plants over past decade is evidence of accelerating shifts in fragile polar ecosystem, study finds
Antarctica’s two native flowering plants are spreading rapidly as temperatures warm, according to the first study to show changes in fragile polar ecosystems have accelerated in the past decade.
The increase in plants since 2009 has been greater than the previous 50 years combined, coinciding with rapidly rising air temperatures and a reduction in the number of fur seals, according to researchers working on Signy Island in the South Orkney Islands.
Continue reading...Oxfordshire scientists’ feat raises hopes of using reactions that power sun for low-carbon energy
The prospect of harnessing the power of the stars has moved a step closer to reality after scientists set a new record for the amount of energy released in a sustained fusion reaction.
Researchers at the Joint European Torus (JET), a fusion experiment in Oxfordshire, generated 59 megajoules of heat – equivalent to about 14kg of TNT – during a five-second burst of fusion, more than doubling the previous record of 21.7 megajoules set in 1997 by the same facility.
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