Nearly 21,000 monitored populations of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians, encompassing almost 4,400 species around the world, have declined an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016, according to the World…Continue readingAnimal populations worldwide have declined nearly 70% in just 50 years
Tag: impact
Across the region, the price of historic dryness is being measured in lost crops, a slowdown in mining, surging transportation costs and shortages of energy in a region heavily dependent on…Continue readingIn South America, the climate future has arrived.
Nature is being destroyed at a rate never before seen in human history, that rate is accelerating and almost all of the destruction is caused by humans. Australia is ranked third in the…Continue readingBiodiversity loss caused by Australian society
An international team of researchers has created a model that estimates the effects on the world’s oceans over the past century by fish and their excrement. The model showed that the…Continue readingModel suggests fish fecal carbon sequestering in the ocean has declined by half over the past century
Protecting trees is key to meeting ambitious climate goals, with tropical rainforest loss accounting for about eight percent of annual carbon dioxide emissions, according to monitoring platform Global Forest Watch. Indonesia,…Continue readingUN deforestation prevention scheme collapses
Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, recorded rainfall of 185mm, about seven times the pre-2010 average for October. Shanxi is a land-locked province SW of Beijing. About 1.75 million people have been…Continue readingFloods in China
What the US Forest Service once characterized as a four-month-long fire season starting in late summer and early autumn now stretches into six to eight months of the year. Wildfires are…Continue reading2021 wildfires in western U.S.
Almost half of Britain’s natural biodiversity has disappeared over the centuries, with farming and urban spread triggered by the industrial and agricultural revolutions being blamed as major factors for this loss.…Continue readingNearly half of Britain’s biodiversity has gone since industrial revolution
Unusually powerful sandstorms have left at least six people dead in Sao Paulo in recent weeks, local media said, as southeastern Brazil grapples with severe drought. Scenes of huge orange dust…Continue readingExtreme drought in Brazil triggers fatal sand storms
Rossiglione, Italy, ended up with a mind-boggling 34.8 inches (883.8 mm) of rainfall over the course of 24 hours. The annual rainfall total for the nearby city of Genoa itself tops…Continue reading34 inches of rain in 24 hours breaks continental record
Up to 14½ inches (368mm) fell in Al Khaburah, which is just to the west of where the storm came ashore. The city of about 40,000 people averages between three and…Continue readingTropical Cyclone Shaheen produced as much as four years’ worth of rain in Oman
In the nearly half-century since the U.S. Endangered Species Act came into force, only 11 other species have ever been delisted because they disappeared. A million plants and animals are in…Continue readingThe Anthropocene causes 23 species to be declared extinct
Russia has endured its worst forest fire season in the country’s modern history. Fires have destroyed more than 18.16 million hectares (45 million acres) of Russian forest in 2021, setting an…Continue readingRussia forest fire damage worst since records began
Koalas 30% decline of total population in 3 years; the state of New South Wales was worst with a 41% decline in 3 years. Now extinct in 47 electorates and only…Continue readingAustralian society devastating wildlife
Single-use plastics formed the majority of litter in this study. And in general, litter hotspots were associated with socioeconomic factors such as a concentration of built infrastructure, less national wealth, and…Continue readingData from 29,798 clean-ups around the world uncovers some of the worst litter hotspots
A severe drought, coupled with extreme temperatures, have sustained several major fires for much of August. As of 14 September, more than 7,000 wildfires have been recorded, burning over 900,000 hectares…Continue readingCalifornia continues to burn
Over the past 25 years, the transition to solid-state LED lighting has been accompanied by rapid increases in light pollution, by up to 270% globally, and 400% in some regions. “Without…Continue readingRapid increase in global light pollution
The world’s coral reef cover has halved since the 1950s, ravaged by global heating, overfishing, pollution and habitat destruction, a trend that is projected to continue as the planet continues to…Continue readingHalf of global coral cover destroyed since the 1950s
260 Spanish troops are assisting firefighters battling a raging blaze that has emptied out villages and burned through forestland for days. “We have talked for a long time about the consequences…Continue readingMilitary deployed to fight fires in Spain
The pollution, emissions and clean-up costs of plastic produced in 2019 alone exceeded the annual GDP of India. It estimated that unless there is concerted international action, this cost will double…Continue readingSocial cost of 2019’s plastic more than GDP of India
Climate change is amplifying war, civil unrest, displacement, poverty, hunger and water scarcity in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria and Mali. Noor Ahmad Akhundzadah, a professor of hydrology at Kabul University: “Now there…Continue readingWar and Warming
Russia’s forestry agency says fires this year have torn through more than 50 million acres (173,000 square kilometres, 67,000 square miles), making it the second-worst season since the turn of the…Continue readingWildfires in Russia spread to central regions
The government said 200,000 hectares (495,000 acres) had burned in just two days.Continue readingWildfires devastate Bolivian nature reserves
“There is no place in the United States where you shouldn’t be resetting your expectations about Mother Nature disrupting your life,” said Roy Wright, president of the Insurance Institute for Business…Continue readingTennessee floods show a pressing climate danger across America: ‘Walls of water’
Rain has fallen on the summit of Greenland’s huge ice cap for the first time on record. Temperatures are normally well below freezing on the 3,216-metre (10,551ft) peak, and the precipitation…Continue readingRain falls on peak of Greenland ice cap for first time on record
John Battles, a professor of forest ecology at the University of California, Berkeley, said the fires are behaving in ways not seen in the past as flames churn through trees and…Continue readingFires harming California’s efforts to curb climate change
The Dixie Fire has scorched more than 940 square miles (2,434 square kilometers, 602,000 acres) in the northern Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades since it ignited on July 13 and eventually…Continue readingFueled by winds, largest wildfire moves near California city
Friday August 12: The heavy rainfall, expected to continue through Friday night, has brought about 20 inches (510mm) of rain to areas of Hubei since Wednesday, officials said. Four people were…Continue readingFlooding in China kills 21, as thousands escape to shelters
The Dixie fire raging through northern California has destroyed another 550 homes, becoming one of the most destructive in state history. The fire, the largest wildfire burning in the US, has all but leveled the town…Continue readingDixie fire burns 550 more homes, becoming one of most destructive in California history
The southern Murray-Darling Basin occupies the southern half of NSW and northern Victoria. It receives most of its water from rain in the cooler months that fills dams, with any overflow…Continue readingThe Murrumbidgee River’s wet season height has dropped by 30% since the 1990s, and the outlook is bleak
Rising sea levels and climate change are posing serious threats to the population and economy of several Asian coastal cities—Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Manila and Shanghai, among them. Threats come from a…Continue readingAs Asian cities sink, managed retreat must be tabled
As of Friday, more than 100 large fires were burning across 14 states. Smoke from Oregon’s Bootleg Fire, one of the nation’s largest at more than 413,000 acres burned, has already…Continue readingIn a summer of smoke, a small town wonders: ‘How are we going to do better than survive?’
The Paraná River, one of the main commercial waterways in South America, has reached its lowest level in nearly 80 years due to a prolonged drought in Brazil that scientists attribute…Continue readingDrought hits South America river, threatening vast ecosystem
The Mediterranean will be hit by ever fiercer heatwaves, drought and fires supercharged by rising temperatures, according to a draft United Nations assessment that warns the region is a “climate change…Continue readingMediterranean faces fiercer heatwaves, drought, fires: UN draft report
The Andes mountain range is facing historically low snowfall this year during a decade-long drought that scientists link to global warming. “Here we are seeing a process of long-term decrease in precipitation,…Continue reading‘Mega-drought’ leaves many Andes mountains without snow cover
The fire is one of 100 active large blazes in the United States, mostly torching parts of Western states that have been plagued by exceptional heat and drought, exacerbated by climate change. Those…Continue readingDixie Fire destroys much of California town as officials warn: ‘You MUST leave now’
Since 28 July, 180 fires have broken out in Turkey, while more than 100 were still burning in Greece. In Italy, the number of large wildfires is estimated to have tripled this summer…Continue readingWildfires continue to rage across southern Europe
The Klamath Basin in the western U.S. was once a string of pristine wetlands but in the middle of the 19th century settlers began diverting the three big rivers feeding the system…Continue readingYoung farmers in Klamath Basin lose hope
With more than a month to go in Siberia’s annual fire season, wildfires fuelled by summer heatwaves, have swept through more than 1.5 million hectares.Continue readingFighting Siberia’s wildfires – in pictures
Climate change is warming the Arabian Sea. The higher water temperatures are causing the air above to become warmer and hold more moisture. “We are seeing a three-fold rise in widespread extreme…Continue readingIndia monsoon death toll climbs
British Columbia declared a state of emergency on Monday, with more than 5,700 people under an evacuation order. “I have been living here in Ashcroft for almost 25 years now and I…Continue readingMore residents flee as fires ravage western Canada
A year’s worth of rain – 640mm – fell in just three days.Continue readingDeath toll rises and thousands flee homes as floods hit China
The Siberian Times reported the first fire in the beginning of May outside Oymyakon in north-east Yakutia, which is known as “the pole of cold” for its record low temperatures. “Little by little,…Continue reading‘Airpocalypse’ hits Siberian city as heatwave sparks forest fires
The world is facing unprecedented levels of drought.Continue readingThe current drought is worldwide. Here’s how different places are fighting it.
The intensity and scale of the floods in Germany this week have shocked climate scientists, who did not expect records to be broken this much, over such a wide area or…Continue readingClimate scientists shocked by scale of floods in Germany
918,000 acres were burned by 67 large fires across the Western United States. So far this year, 2 million acres has been burned by 34,000 fires. In Canada, fires have burned more…Continue readingThe Bootleg Fire in Oregon is among more than 60 wildfires in the U.S.
In Siberia, 2 million acres of forest has been destroyed. The city of Yakutsk hit 35˚C at one point; and the region’s city of Verkhoyansk, seen as one of the coldest places on…Continue readingSiberia wildfires: Russian army planes and thousands of firefighters battle blazes
The intensity of the fires in California and Oregon is “not something you used to see” so early in the season.Continue readingAmerican west stuck in cycle of ‘heat, drought and fire’
The figures are based on projections of a population growth of about 4.5 billion over the same period, and a temperature rise of about 3.7˚C by 2100.Continue readingClimate crisis ‘may put 8 billion at risk of malaria and dengue’ by 2080
Flooding in New York City “has already become more frequent than in the past, and as long as we continue to warm the planet, we can expect more of this, not less”.Continue readingNew York City warned ‘climate change is here’ as storm floods streets and subway
“Ice loss here could be catastrophic and irreversible on centennial time scales.”Continue readingThis melting glacier was already the biggest source of sea level rise. Then things got worse.
“In the past, we may have had one fire in the summer that was notable. Now 50% of our fires are notable—and what I mean by notable is something that really, really exceeded…Continue readingDrought-hit ‘tinderbox’ California braces for fires in months ahead
“Nothing looks good.”Continue readingPreparing for summer wildfire season