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 …
The U.S. Department of Interior on Thursday unveiled its final regulations on drilling in the U.S. Arctic Outer Continental Shelf to boost safety in the environmentally sensitive region. The rules set safety standards for exploratory drilling on the U.S. Arctic Outer Continental Shelf for vessels on Alaska's Beaufort and Chukchi …
A hundred kilometres of kelp forests off the western coast of Australia were wiped out by a marine heatwave between 2010 and 2013, a new study has revealed. About 90% of the forests that make up the north-western tip of the Great Southern Reef disappeared over the period, replaced by …
Moules-frites and moules mariniere will be largely consigned to the pages of culinary history by the end of the century, scientists have predicted. The increasing acidity of the oceans due to climate change means that farming or fishing for mussels will be commercially unviable by 2100. Researchers at Washington University …
Plastic waste found on the beach at Sarstangen on Prince Carls Forland, on the west coast of Svalbard, Norway. Plastic dumped into the seas around the UK is carried to the Arctic within two years, scientists have revealed, where it does “extreme harm” to the fragile polar environment. Marine plastic …
Florida has declared a state of emergency due to the blue-green algae outbreak on the Florida coastline. This causes the waterways and beaches of Florida to be flooded with toxic elements that affects the lives of the marine animals and triggers skin rashes. Florida Governor declared a state of emergency …
There was a period during the last ice age when temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere went on a rollercoaster ride, plummeting and then rising again every 1,500 years or so. Those abrupt climate changes wreaked havoc on ecosystems, but their cause has been something of a mystery. New evidence published …
One of the biggest environmental disasters to hit Vietnam was caused by a unit of a Taiwanese conglomerate leaking toxic waste into the sea, the Hanoi government said on Thursday, ending months of mystery and rare public outrage. Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a subsidiary of Formosa Plastics, has promised $500 …
A dead dugong, with injuries researchers say are consistent with entanglement in a fishing net or line, has been found near Townsville, raising concerns about lack of oversight over fishing practices in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Found on Wednesday last week near Saunders beach, just north of Townsville, …
The long-finned, tiger-striped lionfish may be one of the most stunning swimmers in the sea — but it’s also becoming one of the most problematic. Originally a native of the Indo-Pacific ocean region, this predatory tropical fish has already invaded the southern Atlantic coast of the U.S., the Gulf of …
What if the way things smell started to change? What if food inexplicably lost its aroma and your house no longer had its familiar homely scent? It would certainly be off-putting, but you’d probably manage. However, many animals depend on their sense of smell much more than we do, so …
The Great Barrier Reef could be considered again for an “in danger” listing by the United Nations World Heritage Committee following the devastating bleaching this year, the Guardian can reveal. The news came as a group of prominent lawyers, scientists and NGOs wrote to the committee, urging it to ask …
Pipelines carrying crude oil to ports in British Columbia may spell bad news for salmon, according to a new University of Guelph-led study. Exposure to an oil sands product - diluted bitumen - impairs the swimming ability and changes the heart structures of young salmon. The research will be published …
West Africa nations must crack down on foreign fleets fishing illegally off its Atlantic coastline and build up their fisheries to protect the livelihoods of millions of people, a leading thinktank said on Wednesday. Overfishing by foreign vessels is driving many species toward extinction and destroying the livelihoods of fishing …
Ornaments made from the shells of endangered giant clams, renowned in China for having auspicious powers and the luster of ivory, have become coveted luxuries, a trend which has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem of the South China Sea. China banned harvesting of giant clams last year but in the …
An international team of scientists and coral reef experts have, in a letter to the Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, urged greater action to protect the iconic Great Barrier Reef — a region that is currently witnessing its worst bleaching event on record. The letter, signed by past and present …
Coral in every major reef region across the world has already experienced bleaching, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts that temperatures in much of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans could reach a point at which significant bleaching of corals is present this summer. NOAA’s Coral Reef …
A Dutch foundation has developed floating barriers to try to collect trash from the world's oceans, and will launch a 100 meter-long prototype in the North Sea this week to see how it fares during storms. The Ocean Cleanup Foundation's 21-year-old Chief Executive Boyan Slat, who first had the idea …
Despite a proliferation of legal instruments related to the environment, environmental challenges such as ecosystem degradation, climate change and species loss continue to accelerate. At local, national and global scales, environmental legal systems are not consistently achieving the goals for which they were designed. A publication by the IUCN Environmental …
The first time professor Sherri Mason cut open a Great Lakes fish, she was alarmed at what she found. Synthetic fibers were everywhere. Under a microscope, they seemed to be “weaving themselves into the gastrointestinal tract”. Though she had been studying aquatic pollution around the Great Lakes for several years, …
If the bleaching continues on the Great Barrier Reef, tourists say they will pack their bags and go elsewhere, taking with them an estimated $1bn a year and costing 10,000 jobs in regional Queensland, according to a new poll. The majority of Chinese tourists, and about a third of UK …
