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 …
Many of the Caribbean's coral reefs could vanish in the next 20 years, according to a report published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Data from more than 35,000 surveys suggests that habitats have declined by more than 50% since the 1970s. The report's authors believe …
Dumped dredge spoil in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park could travel further than previously thought, affecting coral. Three million cubic metres of dredge spoil will be dumped in waters 20km from the reef following a Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) decision on the expansion of the Abbot …
'The public administration ministry will prepare a comprehensive draft and place it before the cabinet again' The cabinet yesterday refused to separately approve three proposed acts for public servants, and instructed the authorities concerned to prepare a comprehensive act by compiling the three drafts. “The drafts of the three different …
After more than a year of delays, BP has paid the first 100 of about 10,000 medical claims filed by Gulf Coast residents and cleanup workers affected by the 2010 oil spill. Payments to cover the costs of treatment for skin and respiratory ailments and other human-health impacts from the …
Plastic junk is floating widely on the world's oceans, but there's less of it than expected, a study says. Such ocean pollution has drawn attention in recent years because of its potential harm to fish and other wildlife. The new work drew on results from an around-the-world cruise by a …
The Caribbean is a sprawling sea of deep nutrient-poor waters punctuated by great oases of biomass production and diversity of species, otherwise known as coral reefs. These reef systems circumscribe the shallow seafloor surrounding islands and delimit the continental shelf edge abutting contiguous landmasses: They also populate sunken and receding …
When Palestinians in the Gaza Strip seek some relief from the grind of life in an enclave plagued by conflict and hardship, they usually need to look no further than their sandy beaches. But this summer access to the cooling waters of the Mediterranean is gradually being closed off to …
Governments should set a five-year deadline to crack down on over-fishing and pollution or parts of the oceans may have to be declared off-limits to industrial fishing, an expert commission said on Tuesday. The Global Ocean Commission, a group of senior politicians formed in 2013, urged rescue measures including a …
Anemonefish, Amphiprion melanopus, in their nest on the Great Barrier Reef off Queensland. Disquiet is growing over the destruction of their coral-based habitat The UN has expressed concern about Australia’s management of the Great Barrier Reef amid growing international pressure against industrial developments that conservationists say are threatening the world’s …
The US plans to create the world's biggest marine protected area (MPA) in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The White House will extend an existing protected area, known as the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Fishing and drilling would be banned from an area that could eventually cover …
0.000001 – one hundred thousandth – is a number so small that to most people it seems like nothing at all. Yet four and a half years since the Marine Act of 2009 came into force – legislation that was heralded as the saviour of UK seas – this is …
A new study by researchers at the University of Bristol and Plymouth Marine Laboratory has shed light on how different species of marine organisms are reacting to ocean acidification. Since the Industrial Revolution, nearly 30 per cent of all the carbon dioxide produced by manmade emissions has been absorbed by …
Deep-sea ecosystem processes play a key role in global functioning of the planet. These functions are largely dependent upon deep-sea biodiversity. Industrial fisheries, after the depletion of fish stocks and destruction of the marine habitats on continental shelves, are now rapidly moving deeper into the ocean interior. We show here …
The US secretary of state, John Kerry, launched a new global effort on Wednesday to save oceans “under siege” from over-fishing, plastic pollution and climate change. Kerry said he hoped to build momentum for the protection effort at a two-day summit at the State Department next week. The 16-17 June …
For as long as humans have existed, we have relied on oceans to sustain life on earth. Our marine ecosystem is responsible for generating most of the oxygen we breath, regulating our climate, providing much of the world with a vital food source and a pharmacopoeia of potential medicines. Also, …
The removal of the Costa Concordia threatens to pollute the pristine waters around the Italian island of Giglio where the ship capsized two years ago, according to a new report which has angered local officials and environmentalists. The technical report prepared by the ship's parent company, Costa Cruises, says that …
The economic and ecological role of the high seas should no longer be ignored, argues a new report. The high seas perform the equivalent of billions of dollars of work in removing carbon from our atmosphere and are critical to commercially valuable fisheries, according to the study, which was commissioned …
Climate change-induced sea-level rise in the world's 52 small island nations - estimated to be up to four times the global average - continues to be the most pressing threat to their environment and socio-economic development with annual losses at the trillions of dollars due to increased vulnerability. An immediate …
Oceans and seas are crucial to sustainable development as they contribute to all aspects of our life on this planet. Although they provide numerous economic, social and environmental benefits, oceans and seas are facing a multitude of local and global challenges caused by human activity and climate change. These include …
KARACHI: Environmentalists, wildlife experts and other stakeholders at a public hearing of a coal power project to be built at Port Qasim declared its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report ‘highly flawed’ stating that it seemed to have been prepared in haste. The public hearing was organised by the Sindh Environment …
