The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
This 5th June will be the 40th World Environment Day, marked by a world far removed from the hopeful, easy-on-commitment atmosphere of the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm that inspired the ‘WED’ at its first anniversary. What we probably share is the irony — 1973 …
Chemical manufacturer Orica has been charged with 279 environmental offences for allegedly discharging excessive levels of cyanide into Gladstone Harbour. Queensland Environment Minister Andrew Powell says his department has commenced prosecution action against the company for wilfully contravening development conditions during operations at its Yarwun facility, near Gladstone in central …
egotiators meeting in New York struggled to achieve demonstrable progress on narrowing down an outcome document to forward to this month's Rio+20 summit, sparking questions among observers about what to expect at the high-profile UN gathering.
The reef and associated beachrock from certain Gulf of Mannar islands (Rameswaram, Kurusadai, Shingle and Appa Island) were studied to assess the diagenetic evidences. Sixty samples were collected from marine terraces and reef platforms. The samples comprised of coral rubbles, shell fragments and lithic fractions. The presence of corals in …
n the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), 1,200 new species have been discovered in the past 20 years, while on the island of Borneo, scientists have discovered 600 new species in that same time span. The Himalayan mountain range is another biodiversity hotspot with an incredible spectrum of flora and fauna, …
India's marine fisheries are in a state of crisis, despite official statements that there is still scope or fish landings to increase. 90% of India's fish resources are at or above maximum sustainable levels of exploitation. This report builds on existing arguments and makes a strong case for a range …
The growing risks and impacts of climate change and the accompanying loss of ecosystem services require the world to urgently invest in a new development paradigm. As the UN’s global development network, UNDP recognizes the increasing urgency of mainstreaming climate change into sustainable development planning at all levels, linking development …
Since 1991, UNDP-GEF’s International Waters Programme has been supporting over one hundred countries that share some of the world’s largest and most important aquatic ecosystems to work cooperatively in addressing the agreed priority environmental and water resource concerns facing such waterbodies. International Waters – Delivering Results is the fourth in …
BHP Billiton on Thursday cleared the last external hurdle for a planned $10 billion expansion of its Port Hedland harbour in Western Australia that would help the world's biggest miner double output of iron ore. BHP won environmental approval from the federal government for the project, clearing the way for …
China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Monday that the country will start amassing a compensation fund to be used in cases of marine oil pollution from July this year. According to a regulation jointly issued by the MOF and the Ministry of Transport (MOT), receivers or agencies of mineral oil …
The captain and the navigation officer of a container ship that smashed into a reef off a popular New Zealand holiday resort were jailed on Friday for causing the country's worst environmental disaster in decades. The two men, captain Mauro Balomaga and navigation officer Leonil Relon, both Filipino nationals, were …
The world’s coral reefs are being degraded, and the need to reduce local pressures to offset the effects of increasing global pressures is now widely recognized. This study investigates the spatial and temporal dynamics of coral cover, identifies the main drivers of coral mortality, and quantifies the rates of potential …
The mystery surrounding the deaths of at least 877 dolphins in Peru deepened on Wednesday as the government said human activity was not to blame but failed to pinpoint a natural cause for the massive die-off. A final report from the Peruvian government's Ocean Institute, which manages one of the …
Environmental scientists have known that high levels of the toxic element, mercury, have been accumulating in the Arctic Ocean for some time. It was believed to be mostly caused by atmospheric sources stemming from the combustion of coal. However, a new study from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied …
The National Biodiversity Authority will come out with targets for protecting the diversity of living organisms in time for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in India in October, according to its Chairman, Dr Balakrishna Pisupati. The Authority is consulting with the Ministry of Environment, non-government …
Coastal seagrass can store more heat-trapping carbon per square mile (kilmometre) than forests can, which means these coastal plants could be part of the solution to climate change, scientists said in a new study. Even though seagrasses occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world's oceans, they can hold up …
Robot "fish" developed by European scientists to improve pollution monitoring moved from the lab to the sea in a test at the northern Spanish port of Gijon on Tuesday. The developers hope the new technology, which reduces the time it takes to detect a pollutant from weeks to seconds, will …
A huge swath of the waters off Antarctica must be protected from fishing and other industries, environmental groups said on Monday. More than 40% of the region needs to be given protection before one of the world's last true frontier areas is damaged irreparably by human activity, the Antarctic Ocean …
All are aware of the tragic loss of biodiversity that this planet is current going through in various ecosystems. However, a new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report shows that when good policies are in place, natural ecosystems can sustain themselves and thrive. NOAA has released its annual report, …
The vast swirl of plastic waste floating in the North Pacific has grown 100-fold over the last 40 years, according to a research paper published Wednesday. And scientists warned the killer soup of microplastic — particles smaller than five millimetres – threatened to alter the open ocean’s natural environment. In …
