Topics tagged with 'Science'

"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.

Mapping US coastlines may ‘drive more equality’ in climate adaptation policy
2 Sep 2022
A Canadian technology company is building aerial imagery of US shorelines which could be used to help coastal communities mitigate climate change.

Zombie ice from Greenland will raise sea level 27 centimetres
1 Sep 2022
Greenland’s rapidly melting ice sheet will eventually raise global sea level by at least 27 centimeters -- more than twice as much as previously forecast — according to a recent study.

Lakes are disappearing across the Arctic as the climate crisis worsens: Study
1 Sep 2022
The Arctic has experienced loss before. As the area warms almost four times more quickly than the rest of the world, glaciers melt, wildlife dies, and habitat loss is accelerating at an unprecedented rate.

A crop-by-crop comparison of urban vs conventional farms yields turns up some surprising results
1 Sep 2022
Roof-grown lettuces and warehouse-cultivated tomatoes could be more than just a frivolous foodie trend: a new study finds that crops cultivated in cities can be up to four times more productive per square meter, than those grown in conventional agricultural fields.

Living in timber cities could cut emissions, without using farmland for wood production
31 Aug 2022
Housing a growing population in homes made out of wood instead of conventional steel and concrete could avoid more than 100 billion tons of emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 until 2100, a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research shows.

What’s the chance of meeting Paris climate goal? Just 0.1%: study
30 Aug 2022
Climate scientists say there’s a 0.1% chance of keeping warming below 1.5° Celsius by 2100, as called for in the Paris Agreement.

Fact check: What role does climate change play in extreme weather events?
30 Aug 2022
After scorching heat waves withered crops and dried up mighty rivers in the Northern Hemisphere, catastrophic super flooding in Pakistan has so far killed more than a 1,000 people, displacing millions more.

Climate intervention: a possible hope in the face of humanity’s biggest problem
30 Aug 2022
The rapid reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions to net zero is the only practical way to halt climate change. But thanks to two centuries of burning fossil fuels, we have created a warmer climate that will endure for generations. As a result, humanity will be faced with an important decision: do we live on a hot planet with all the problems that brings, or do we intervene to try to cool things down?

Paleoclimate study shows warming oceans could lead to a spike in seabed methane emissionsC
29 Aug 2022
The slowdown of a key ocean current could release methane that is frozen in layers of organic seabed sediments along some of the world’s coastlines, a new study shows.

The energy required for adaptation calls for stronger mitigation efforts
26 Aug 2022
A new study published today in Nature Communications by researchers from the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, the European Institute on Economics and the Environment and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine finds that adapting to climate change will require more energy than previously estimated, leading to higher energy investments and costs.

Kiwis feature prominently among signatories of climate change denying Declaration
25 Aug 2022
Two New Zealanders, one with historic ties to the fossil fuel industry, feature prominently among the more than 1100 signatories of the grandly titled World Climate Declaration.

Can Southern Africa grow without fossil fuels?
25 Aug 2022
If current trends in the energy system continue, wind and solar will outcompete other power sources on cost and rapidly come to dominate the electrical grid in Southern Africa, according to a new study.

China's unprecedented 70-day heatwave is breaking multiple records
24 Aug 2022
China's more than two-month long heatwave has dried up as many as 66 rivers, including the critical Yangtze River, the world's third longest waterway.

Flooding wetlands could be the next big carbon capture hack
24 Aug 2022
Arriving at the tidal wetlands of Mungalla Station on the coastline of northern Queensland, ornithologist Simon Kennedy from the not-for-profit BirdLife Australia is greeted by a welcome cacophony. “You start hearing honks and quacks and twitters and noises coming from there,” he says of the area’s diverse and thriving bird populations, “whereas it’s very quiet elsewhere.”

Up to 90% of marine species could be at high or critical risk from GHGs: study
24 Aug 2022
The fate of nearly all marine species could be at risk of extinction by the end of the century if greenhouse gases continue to be emitted at current rates, scientists are warning in a new study.

New satellite will see how much carbon is being stored in forests
23 Aug 2022
In a dust-free cleanroom in Stevenage, the European Space Agency's BIOMASS satellite is finally taking shape.

How a humpback whale superhighway is offering warnings about climate change
22 Aug 2022
During winter Australia's east coast becomes a migratory superhighway for humpback whales, a so-called "blue corridor".

Organic dairy farming can store carbon and reduce GHG emissions: study
19 Aug 2022
A new study in the August issue of the Journal of Cleaner Production reveals that it is possible for farms to sequester carbon and reduce their overall greenhouse gas emissions. A University of Wisconsin Madison research group unveiled a dairy lifecycle assessment conducted on Organic Valley farms that shows small organic dairy farms, which focus on grazing and organic production techniques, are low greenhouse gas champions.

Climate-resilient breadfruit might be the food of the future
18 Aug 2022
In the face of climate change, breadfruit soon might come to a dinner plate near you.

Carbon capture rate overstated: IEEFA
18 Aug 2022
The efficacy of industrial carbon capture technology is being overstated, according to new research from US think tank the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).