News

Great Barrier Reef: former board member describes $444m grant as 'unthinkable'

Michael Myer says size of grant ‘unheard of’ as Josh Frydenberg refuses to say where idea originated The environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, would not say whose idea it was to award a $444m government grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, on the same day a former member of the foundation’s board described the allocation as “unthinkable”. »

The bigger questions about reef foundation's $444 million windfall

There is no guarantee that spending on making the Great Barrier Reef more "resilient" will succeed. »

Dimming sunlight to slow global warming may harm crop yields: study

Spraying a veil of sun-dimming chemicals high above the Earth to slow global warming could harm crop yields in an unintended side-effect of turning down the heat, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday. »

With the world on fire, we must act now to tackle climate change | Letters

Kim and Nick Hoare fear for their son’s future after his farm was destroyed by wildfires, and Prof Tom Spencer calls for a much deeper debate about how to deal with rising sea levels On Monday we received the distressing news that the agro-forestry farm where our son and his partner live in Portugal has been destroyed by wildfires. Thankfully no lives were lost. »

Reflecting sun's rays would cause crops to fail, scientists warn

Research shows geoengineering method intended to combat climate change would have adverse effect on agriculture. Proposals to combat climate change by reflecting the sun’s rays back into space would cause widespread crop failure, cancelling out any benefits to farming from the reduction in warming, according to new research. »

Global warming may become unstoppable even if we stick to Paris target

There could be a planetary threshold beyond which the earth will keep warming even if we stop pumping out more fossil fuels - the so-called 'Hothouse Earth' scenario. »

NSW declared 100% in drought as farmers fear relief package ‘too late’

A total of 77% of the state is either in drought or drought affected, while 23% is experiencing intense drought. The entire state of NSW is now impacted by drought, official figures show. A drier-than-expected June and July has left many farmers with failing crops, a short supply of water and diminishing livestock feed. Continue reading... »

Mojave Desert birds crashed over the last century due to climate change

More than 100 years ago, biologists conducted a thorough survey of birds in the Mojave Desert. A recent resurvey shows that the species richness of the desert habitat has dropped by 43 percent over the past century, on average, at the sites revisited. »

Forests crucial for limiting climate change to 1.5 degrees

Trying to tackle climate change by replacing forests with crops for bioenergy power stations that capture carbon dioxide (CO2) could instead increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, scientists say. »

Caribbean states beg Trump to grasp climate change threat: 'war has come to us'

As warming temperatures caused by climate change is strengthening hurricanes, leaders in the region plead with Trump to rejoin the Paris climate deal. »

Don’t despair – climate change catastrophe can still be averted | Simon Lewis

The future looks fiery and dangerous, according to new reports. But political will and grassroots engagement can change this This is the summer when, for many, climate change got real. The future looks fiery and dangerous. Hot on the heels of Trump, fake news and the parlous state of the Brexit negotiations, despair is in the air. »

Children are highly vulnerable to health risks of a changing climate

Children and adolescents are more vulnerable to climate-related disasters because of their anatomic, cognitive, immunologic, and psychologic differences compared to adults. Researchers set out some specific challenges associated with the impacts of climate change on the world's 2.3 billion children and suggest ways to address their under-prioritized needs. »

Wetter soil is leading to reduced methane gas absorption

A new paper finds that the existing effects of global warming are decreasing the soil's ability to absorb methane gas. The paper details findings from a study that measured forest-soil uptake of methane gas in a variety of locations and settings over a 13- to 27-year span and detected decreases of 53 to 89 percent. »

Rain-on-snow flood risk to increase in many mountain regions of the western U.S., Canada

Flooding caused by rain falling on snowpack could more than double by the end of this century in some areas of the western United States and Canada due to climate change. »

Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state

Leading scientists warn that passing such a point would make efforts to reduce emissions increasingly futile. A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a “hothouse” state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile, a group of leading climate scientists has warned. »

Earth at risk of heading towards 'hothouse Earth' state

An international team of scientists is showing that even if the carbon emission reductions called for in the Paris Agreement are met, there is a risk of Earth entering what the scientists call 'hothouse Earth' conditions. »

US wildfires: smoke billows and we're stuck indoors – this is how we live now

The pool is closed, the kids can’t play outside – we’re all trying to avoid harmful smoke from wildfires burning far away. Last week my kids went to a nature daycamp in Klamath Falls, Oregon, near the California border, where we live. It was meant to be a week of roaming the hills, learning about local species like fence lizards and sagebrush. »

The GOP and Big Oil can't escape blame for climate change | Dana Nuccitelli

The New York Times magazine blames ‘human nature,’ but the true culprits have already been fingered Last week’s issue of the New York Times magazine was devoted to a single story by Nathaniel Rich that explored how close we came to an international climate agreement in 1989, and why we failed. »

This week in climate news (5 August 2018)

The most popular articles from the past week. »

Heatwave and climate change having negative impact on our soil say experts

The recent heatwave and drought could be having a deeper, more negative effect on soil than we first realized say scientists. That's because organisms in soil are highly diverse and are responsible not only for producing the soil we need to grow crops, but also provide humans with many other benefits, such as cleaning water and regulating greenhouse gas emissions. »