A business-as-usual approach to climate change will be “disastrous” for Asia, undoing much of the phenomenal economic growth that has helped it make vast inroads against poverty, the Asian Development Bank said in a report released Friday. A continued reliance on fossil fuels will see the world’s most populous region face prolonged heat waves, rising … Read more
Exceptionally warm years in the Arctic have provoked extra-cold winters and springs further to the south, decreasing crop yields across central Canada and the United States, researchers said Monday. “Our study demonstrates for the first time an apparent linkage between Arctic temperature variations and agricultural productivity in mid-latitudes,” they reported in the journal Nature Geoscience. … Read more
UNESCO said Thursday its World Heritage Committee (WHC) had decided not to place the Great Barrier Reef on its list of sites “in danger” despite concern over coral bleaching. A WHC spokesperson said the Committee, which is meeting in Poland, had made the decision late Wednesday and expressed “deep concern” over two years of back-to-back … Read more
A world that heats up beyond that threshold will face a crescendo of devastating impacts ranging from deadly heatwaves to mass migration caused by rising seas, the experts warned in a commentary published in the science journal Nature. With 1.0 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming so far, ice sheets that could lift oceans … Read more
Australia’s under-pressure Great Barrier Reef is an asset worth Aus$56 billion (US$42 billion) and as an ecosystem and economic driver is “too big to fail”, a study said Monday. The World Heritage-listed reef is the largest living structure on Earth and its economic and social value was calculated for the first time in the Deloitte … Read more
The worst drought in a century is forcing the most stringent water restrictions ever implemented for South Africa’s second largest city. Cape Town has less than 10% of its useable water remaining for its nearly 4 million residents. The city is implementing Level 4 water restrictions, which ask residents to limit daily usage to 100 … Read more
The Great Barrier Reef can no longer be saved in its present form and is damaged beyond repair, scientists have warned. They say coral bleaching in the area is worse than thought, partly because of the ‘extraordinary rapidity’ of global warming. Instead, scientists should be taken to maintain the World Heritage Site’s ‘ecological function’. The … Read more
The Alaskan tundra appears to be emitting more carbon dioxide than it captures, a dynamic that could accelerate climate warming as vast stores of CO2 trapped in Arctic soils are unlocked by rising temperatures. A question scientists have had is whether a warming climate would lead to a greater intake of CO2 through photosynthesis during … Read more
Coral-munching crown-of-thorns starfish can be safely killed by common household vinegar, scientists revealed Thursday in a discovery that offers hope for Australia’s struggling Great Barrier Reef. The predatory starfish is naturally-occurring but has proliferated due to pollution and run-off at the World Heritage-listed ecosystem, which is also reeling from two consecutive years of mass coral … Read more
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may never recover from last year’s warming-driven coral bleaching, said a study Wednesday that called for urgent action in the face of ineffective conservation efforts. Record-high temperatures in 2015 and 2016 drove an unprecedented bleaching episode, which occurs when stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide … Read more
The Great Barrier Reef could be struck by its worst-ever blast of coral bleaching as early as this year, experts have warned. Sea temperatures around the reef near Queensland, Australia, have reached a year-long high, putting coral at risk of extreme heat stress, according to a UN report. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority … Read more
Last year’s unusually potent El Nino produced monster waves that carved away record-breaking swathes of the US West Coast’s beaches, said a study Tuesday, warning that recovery may take years. Erosion at 29 beaches from Washington to southern California during the winter of 2015-16 was 76 percent more than usual, by far the highest rate … Read more
In the past few months, it seems we’ve made great leaps in the race to curb global warming. In early October, 191 countries signed the world’s first agreement to curb greenhouse gas pollution from aviation. On October 15, nearly 200 nations agreed to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, another greenhouse gas. And on November 4, last year’s … Read more
By José Graziano da Silva Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Agriculture, including forestry and fisheries, is the sector most threatened by climate change. At the same time, the agricultural sectors produce a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The transformation of the agricultural sectors to address climate change for adaptation … Read more
The pledge to eradicate hunger and poverty must go hand in hand with rapid transformations of farming and food systems to cope with a warmer world, FAO said today in a new report. Agriculture, including forestry, fisheries and livestock production, generate around a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Agriculture must both contribute more … Read more
Ada Totope in the Greater Accra region is a community with a population of about 3000 persons. It is located on the Ada Peninsula, uniquely sandwiched between the sea and the Songhor Lagoon. The main source of livelihood for residents here is fishing. But today, the sea which used to be their supply of life … Read more