You will save the Earth by sharing and/or tweeting (corny right?)
A wet July and August in Britain put a dampener on our midsummer butterflies
I am still seeing butterflies almost daily, sunning themselves when they can and feasting on late-flowering ivy. Most are red admirals, a large, dark and powerful presence sailing through autumnal skies or feeding on rotten fruit in orchards.
It has been a vintage red admiral year, with numbers up by 75% on 2016 in Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count. But sadly it has not been a vintage butterfly summer.
Related: 2016 could be worst year on record for British butterflies, experts warn
Continue reading...26-year study reveals natural biological factors kick in once warming reaches certain point, leading to potentially unstoppable increase in temperatures
Warming soils are releasing more carbon into the atmosphere than previously thought, suggesting a potentially disastrous feedback mechanism whereby increases in global temperatures will trigger massive new carbon releases in a cycle that may be impossible to break.
The increased production of carbon comes from the microbes within soils, according to a report in the peer-review journal Science, published on Friday.
Related: Slow-freezing Alaska soil driving surge in carbon dioxide emissions
Related: Ultimate bogs: how saving peatlands could help save the planet
Continue reading...My heart belongs to Queensland but it has been broken by the latest land clearing data. We stopped it once, we must again
Queensland is again back in the news for all the wrong reasons. Coal capital, One Nation on the rise and now once again a world beater at clearing the bush.
For 30 years, Queensland was my home. I left for love and to start a family but my heart stayed in the state. The beauty of the rainforests, the splendour of the reef, the vast forested wildness of Cape York and the expanses of the outback all left an indelible impact. I also miss the honesty, directness and the no nonsense approach of Queenslanders.
Related: Coalition split over intervention in Queensland land clearing
Continue reading...Prince says catastrophic hurricanes must be seen as consequence of climate change and welcomes growing awareness of plastic pollution
The world’s oceans are at last receiving the attention they deserve, as the scale of plastic pollution is finally becoming clear, the Prince of Wales has said, hailing this growing awareness as the first step to saving the marine environment.
Prince Charles said it had taken years for the enormity of the problem to emerge, but promised to make it a key priority of his campaigning, alongside rainforests.
Related: Fish mistaking plastic debris in ocean for food, study finds
Related: Ocean plastic pollution in Scotland – in pictures
Continue reading...Deputy premier brands Australia ‘deforestation hotspot’ after a 45% jump in her state’s reef catchment clearing
Queensland underwent a dramatic surge in tree clearing – with the heaviest losses in Great Barrier Reef catchments – in the year leading up to the Palaszczuk government’s thwarted bid to restore protections.
Figures released on Thursday showed a 33% rise in clearing to almost 400,000 hectares in 2015-16, meaning Queensland now has two-thirds the annual rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Related: Queensland to use satellites to ensure native woodlands are not cleared
Related: Murdered environment officer’s family says land-clearing law change would diminish his life
Continue reading...Interior department had moved to delay to 2019 methane regulation governing oil and gas production on federal land
Rebuffing the Trump administration, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Interior Department to reinstate an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands.
The order by a judge in San Francisco came as the Interior Department moved to delay the rule until 2019, saying it was too burdensome to industry. The action followed an earlier effort by the department to postpone part of the rule set to take effect next year.
Related: Methane emissions from cattle are 11% higher than estimated
Related: Republicans fail to repeal methane regulations for drilling on public lands
Continue reading...Climate change blamed as continent logs hottest September day on record, with average maximum temperature of 33.47C
Australian temperature records tumbled again in September this year, with the country experiencing the hottest day since records began, and New South Wales breaking that record twice within a few days.
As always, particular weather events caused the records to be broken. But in a special climate statement, the Bureau of Meteorology said climate change also played a role, and earlier research has shown global warming has massively increased the chance of these records being broken.
Related: Hot start to Australian summer forecast after record-breaking spring
Related: Australian cities to have 50C summer days by 2040, study says
Continue reading...Climate Council finds agreement among experts and authorities that there are no technological or economic obstacles to a grid powered by renewables
Politics is the only barrier to modernising Australia’s ageing electricity system, according to a synthesis report by the Climate Council.
The council found there was agreement among a series of major independent reports that there were no technological or economic barriers to a clean, secure, affordable and reliable grid.
Related: How Australia's climate policies came to be poisoned by pragmatism
Related: 13 ways Frydenberg sold 'climate policy' to coal-loving MPs
Related: China’s emissions trading scheme puts Australian companies on notice
Continue reading...In the 2014 Melbourne heatwave, 167 people died. Emergency departments can’t deal with this problem alone
A new study warning Australia’s major cities are likely to reach highs of 50C by 2040 – even if the world meets its target of limiting warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels – is yet more evidence that without immediate and urgent action we are facing a looming public health crisis during heatwaves and other extreme weather events.
The study follows recent unseasonable heat across New South Wales, with Sydney experiencing its hottest ever September day, as well as the doubling of record-breaking summer temperatures in Australia in the past 50 years. This new normal has hospital health professionals particularly bracing for the coming summer.
Related: Australian cities to have 50C summer days by 2040, study says
Are we going to take the health of our population and our ecosystem seriously ...?
Related: A new shock doctrine: in a world of crisis, morality can still win | Naomi Klein
Continue reading...The launch of China’s national carbon market could also harm the competitiveness of Australian products
For a brief and shining moment in 2012, Australia was at the global forefront of climate change action, as one of the first countries to implement a carbon pricing mechanism. It lasted only two years, and was repealed amid much fanfare by the Abbott government in July 2014.
During its time, Australian companies and industries exposed to the carbon pricing mechanism took a long hard look at the emissions liabilities embedded within their supply chains and worked to reduce them.
Related: No wonder the government tries to hide its emissions reports. They stink | Greg Jericho
Related: How Australia bungled climate policy to create a decade of disappointment | Mark Butler
Related: Alan Finkel’s emissions target breaks Australia’s Paris commitments
Continue reading...Now everyone can fight climate change. Together our small changes will have a huge impact. Join our community today and get free updates on how you can fight climate change everyday!
Empowering you to fight climate change! Our focus is on helping people understand how climate change is being caused and encouraging them to take action everyday.
This site is powered by renewable energy | 2020 What's Your Impact, a registered non-profit organization.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.