Topics tagged with 'Science'
Climate change will force up to 113m people to relocate within Africa by 2050: new report
7 Nov 2022
Adapting to a world that is warmer than today is a huge undertaking, even if the most ambitious temperature ceiling is met. Increasing climate risks mean that millions of Africans could be uprooted or trapped where they are due to climate change.
Carbon removal mustn’t become a new frontier for injustice
7 Nov 2022
As preparations accelerate for the UN climate negotiations in Egypt, Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), a largely under-acknowledged issue with widespread, widely varying implications, must be addressed.
What is blue carbon and why is it vital for mitigating Canada's carbon emissions?
7 Nov 2022
Marlow Pellatt spent time on Vancouver Island, taking samples of soil from deep underground and wading through water to understand the biodiversity in the area. To an onlooker, it may seem like he’s playing in mud, but he’s actually researching how important coastal ecosystems are in Canada’s fight against climate change.
Scientists look at biogas potential of partly digested grass
4 Nov 2022
Kiwi scientists are converting partly digested grass from the stomachs of slaughtered cattle into biogas, which they hope could be used to heat commercial greenhouses.
One third of glaciers in World Heritage Sites will disappear by 2050: new study
4 Nov 2022
A third of all glaciers in World Heritage Sites are on course to melt away by 2050, according to new research.
Half Rutherford Fellowships awarded to climate research
3 Nov 2022
Climate research is a major focus for New Zealand’s foremost scientists, with six of this year’s twelve Rutherford fellowships awarded to climate-related projects, to the tune of $4.8 million.
Whaling’s link to climate change
3 Nov 2022
Media release: Royal Society Te Apārangi | Whales can store vast amounts of carbon throughout their lifetime. When they die, they bring that carbon with them to the bottom of the sea, where they sustain the local food web or get buried, effectively trapping carbon for centuries to millennia.
Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average
3 Nov 2022
Temperatures in Europe have increased at more than twice the global average over the past 30 years – the highest of any continent in the world.
Climate change will produce more rainbows
3 Nov 2022
If you’ve ever been to Hawaii, you know it has an abundance of rainbows. And maybe it’s no surprise that researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have been studying rainbows.
Whanganui Awa’s legal personhood inspires scientists' call for recognition of rights of the Ocean
2 Nov 2022
Scientists arguing for the Ocean to be recognised as living being with intrinsic legal rights have cited the precedent of the Whanganui Awa in a recently published scientific article.
African scientists call for nature-based solution to climate crisis
1 Nov 2022
Harnessing Africa's vast natural resources, including tropical forests, coastal mangroves and peatlands, offers a cheaper and sustainable pathway to a greener and resilient future for the continent, scientists said on Monday.
96% of humans feel global warming: study
31 Oct 2022
Whether they realized it or not, some 7.6 billion people - 96 percent of humanity - felt global warming's impact on temperatures over the last 12 months, researchers have said.
Greenhouse gases reach a new record
28 Oct 2022
The three main greenhouse gases hit record high levels in the atmosphere last year, the U.N. weather agency said Wednesday, calling it an "ominous" sign as war in Ukraine, rising costs of food and fuel, and other worries have elbowed in on longtime concerns about global warming in recent months.
What would climate scientists do with $100 million
21 Oct 2022
Who’s best placed to decide which climate tech is most likely to help save the world — and therefore deserves the most funding? Climate scientists are top of the list.
Ocean warming rates to quadruple by 2090 if climate change not mitigated: study
19 Oct 2022
A new comprehensive review of global ocean temperature data has allowed researchers to paint a clear picture of ocean warming since the 1950s, and predict future warming scenarios.
Tracing anthropogenically emitted carbon dioxide into the ocean
19 Oct 2022
Researchers labeled anthropogenically emitted carbon and tracked it with an ocean circulation model to determine whether it winds up in the sky or the sea.
Climate anxiety is spreading all over the planet
18 Oct 2022
If you’re feeling anxious about climate change, the common wisdom goes, there’s an antidote: Take action. Maybe you can alleviate your worries by doing something positive, like going to a protest, becoming an advocate for mass transit, or trying to get an environmental champion elected.
Future emissions from ‘country of permafrost’ potentially devastating
18 Oct 2022
By the end of this century, permafrost in the rapidly warming Arctic will likely emit as much carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as a large industrial nation, and potentially more than the U.S. has emitted since the start of the industrial revolution.
World needs to eat less meat: no two sides about it
17 Oct 2022
For years, the reality of climate change was presented in newspaper articles as an open debate. Coverage attempted to offer “both sides” a voice, including scientific experts alongside climate deniers (who often had financial interests in fossil fuels). That false balance has largely improved, with most media coverage on the topic acknowledging the role fossil fuels play in climate change.
CSIRO abruptly scraps globally recognised climate forecast programme
17 Oct 2022
Australia’s premier science organisation abruptly scrapped a fully-funded, globally recognised programme to predict the climate in coming years without consulting an advisory panel that had praised its “good progress” only weeks earlier.
"Sobering" report highlights climate impacts on NZ's marine environment
13 Oct 2022
A “sobering” new report highlighting marine heatwaves, acidifying oceans, sea level rise, and damaging storms, is a warning to reduce emissions faster, according to experts.
50% of Earth’s coral reefs face climate change threat by 2035
12 Oct 2022
Under a worst-case scenario, half of coral reef ecosystems worldwide will permanently face unsuitable conditions in just over a dozen years, if climate change continues unabated. That is one of the findings from new research published on October 11, in PLOS Biology by University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa researchers. Unsuitable conditions will likely lead to the corals dying off and other marine life will struggle to survive due to disruptions in the food chain.
Future heatwaves will lead to large ‘loss of life’, report warns
11 Oct 2022
Heatwaves will become so extreme in parts of Africa and Asia within decades that human life there will be unsustainable, a new report by the United Nations and the Red Cross has warned.
Climate change and deforestation may drive tree-dwelling primates to the ground, large-scale study shows
11 Oct 2022
A large-scale study of 47 species of monkeys and lemurs has found that climate change and deforestation are driving these tree-dwelling animals to the ground, where they are at higher risk due to lack of preferred food and shelter, and may experience more negative interaction with humans and domestic animals.
Methane blowout craters in Siberia are ‘canary in a coal mine for global climate’
11 Oct 2022
Gases released from methane craters on Siberia's Yamal and Gydan peninsulas as well as the immense amounts of carbon dioxide released from wildfires in the region can accelerate global warming, experts have warned.
Phantom forests: why ambitious tree planting projects are failing
7 Oct 2022
It was perhaps the most spectacular failed tree planting project ever. Certainly the fastest. On March 8, 2012, teams of village volunteers in Camarines Sur province on the Filipino island of Luzon sunk over a million mangrove seedlings into coastal mud in just an hour of frenzied activity.
Climate risk index shows threats to 90% of the world’s marine specie
7 Oct 2022
By Daniel G. Boyce - The Conversation | Climate change impacts marine life through a bewildering web of complex pathways.
Funding win for biotech startup aiming to reduce emissions with dairy alternatives
6 Oct 2022
Precision fermentation startup Daisy Lab is the first recipient of funding from a new initiative set up to reduce the failure rate of local social enterprises.
The world should fast track green energy. But not because of climate change
5 Oct 2022
A rapid transition to green energy is likely to save the world trillions of dollars compared to sticking with the current fossil fuel-based energy system, according to a new analysis.
NIWA predicts strengthening marine heatwave
4 Oct 2022
Climate change is continuing to influence Aotearoa New Zealand’s weather, with NIWA warning the coming marine heatwave could rival last year’s high temperatures, and the marine sector “should monitor the system closely”.
A Nord Stream disaster every day
4 Oct 2022
A half-mile wide maelstrom is swirling in the Baltic Sea as an estimated 300,000 metric tons of gas violently erupts from the sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines. Most of this gas is likely methane, a gas normally invisible to the eye that is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat over 20 years. The swirling froth recalls Hurricane Ian, another catastrophe that’s just devastated Florida.
Scientists hopeful tiny ocean zooplankton will help tell if climate change targets are met
3 Oct 2022
Scientists have found some of the smallest animals in the ocean are having a big impact in the fight against climate change.
Bitcoin climate impact greater than gold mining, study shows
30 Sep 2022
Bitcoin is less “digital gold” and more “digital beef”, according to a study that suggests the cryptocurrency has a climate impact greater than that of gold mining and on the level of natural gas extraction or rearing cattle for meat.
Termite invasion could eat into NZ economy and environment
28 Sep 2022
As the planet heats, termites could move further out of the tropics, decaying more wood and releasing more carbon dioxide like "tiny cows", according to a new study in the journal Science.
Scientists urge top publisher to withdraw faulty climate study
28 Sep 2022
A fundamentally flawed study claiming that scientific evidence of a climate crisis is lacking should be withdrawn from the peer-reviewed journal in which it was published, top climate scientists have told AFP.
How could positive 'tipping points' accelerate climate action?
23 Sep 2022
As catastrophic climate change tipping points loom, could positive shifts toward green action also be speeding up?
How colonialism spawned and continues to exacerbate the climate crisis
22 Sep 2022
We currently live in an epoch that geologists call the Holocene, which began soon after the last major ice age ended around 11,700 years ago. But for over two decades, some scientists have argued that the label is far too antiquated. In 2000, the term “Anthropocene” — ‘anthropo’ for human and ‘cene’ for new — gained prominence. It highlights how human activities dominate the Earth’s land, atmosphere, and oceans, significantly impacting its climate and natural ecosystems.
Mangroves keep carbon in the soil for 5,000 years
21 Sep 2022
On top of all the other dazzling biology, mangrove forests are massive carbon sinks. According to new research on a Mexican mangrove forest, they can keep carbon out of the atmosphere for millennia.
California's dairy farm methane capture scheme may have "unintended consequences"
20 Sep 2022
Scientists and environmentalists say more data is needed on ammonia emissions resulting from California's dairy farm methane capture scheme.
Research predicts big climate change impacts on marine mammals
19 Sep 2022
Media release - A new Department of Conservation report predicts that climate change could have a major impact on some of New Zealand’s marine mammals.
China lost its Yangtze River dolphin. Climate change is coming for other species next
19 Sep 2022
They called it the "Goddess of the Yangtze" -- a creature so rare that it was believed to bring fortune and protection to local fishermen and all those lucky enough to spot it.
Climate ‘points of no return’ may be much closer than we thought
16 Sep 2022
In climatology, a tipping point is defined as a rise in global temperature past which a localized climate system, or "tipping element" — such as the Amazonrainforest or the Greenland ice sheet — starts to irreversibly decline. Once a tipping point has been reached, that tipping element will experience runaway effects that essentially doom it forever, even if global temperatures retreat below the tipping point.
Eat more fish: when switching to seafood helps — and when it doesn’t
16 Sep 2022
Replacing meat with certain types of sustainably sourced seafood could help people to reduce their carbon footprints without compromising on nutrition, finds an analysis of dozens of marine species that are consumed worldwide.
Tropical wetlands emit more methane than previously thought
15 Sep 2022
Since 2007, the world's atmospheric methane concentration has risen at an accelerated rate, but scientists aren't exactly sure why.
World on brink of five ‘disastrous’ climate tipping points, study finds
9 Sep 2022
The climate crisis has driven the world to the brink of multiple “disastrous” tipping points, according to a major study.
Southern Ocean takes on the heat of climate change
8 Sep 2022
In the past 50 years, the oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat caused by our carbon dioxide emissions, with one ocean absorbing the vast majority.
Greenhouse gases, sea sevels hit record highs in 2021
7 Sep 2022
Greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, and ocean heat all hit record highs in 2021, according to an international science report.
Why defusing 'carbon bombs' offers a promising new agenda for tackling climate change
6 Sep 2022
A carbon bomb is a fossil fuel extraction project, such as a coal mine, that can cause over a metric gigaton of CO₂ emissions during its lifetime. That's a billion tons—more than twice the UK's annual emissions from a single project.
Global turbulence may herald 'giant leap' to a greener era, says top scientist
2 Sep 2022
As rocketing energy and food prices fuel inflation and social discontent in many countries, the world may have entered a period of "big turbulence" that could force a green transition in the global economy, said a leading environmental scientist.