Environment
Emissions need to be halved to avoid 3C warming
Emissions need to be halved by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius but temperatures are on track to reach double that by the end of the century even if countries' current plans are fully implemented, research by scientists shows. A group of European researchers, Climate Action Tracker, tracks countries' progress towards the globally agreed aim of limiting warming to well below 2C and a more ambitious target of 1.5C. Public concerns about climate change are growing and have...
Mersey ‘more polluted than the Great Pacific Garbage patch’
Every UK river tested by Greenpeace found to contain microplastics
EU issues ‘green’ investment guide to help combat climate change
Europe sought to increase the flow of money into businesses that tackle climate change on Tuesday with the publication of European Commission guidelines on what qualifies an investment as environmentally friendly. The European Union has agreed to substantial reductions of carbon emissions by 2030 and its executive wants the bloc to reduce them to zero by 2050 to help stop global warming, the rise of average worldwide temperatures. In order to cut emissions by 2030, many sectors of the economy,...
Southeast Asia should ban foreign trash imports – environmentalists
Environmental groups called on Tuesday for Southeast Asian countries to ban waste imports from developed countries to help tackle a pollution crisis, as regional leaders prepare to meet this week in Bangkok. Southeast Asia has seen a staggering spike in imports of plastic and electronic waste from developed countries after the world's top recycler, China, banned imports, causing millions of tonnes of the trash to be diverted to less regulated countries. Thailand will from Thursday host four days of meetings...
Boaty McBoatface’s maiden mission sheds light on rising sea temperatures
Data collected from the submarines's first expedition will help climate scientists build more accurate predictions of the effects of climate change on rising sea levels
Great apes ‘facing extinction’ as deforestation and mining destroys their natural habitat
Between 2001 to 2015, 160 million hectares of forest were lost in the tropics due to human activities
Carbon pricing ‘essential’ to stem global warming, pope tells energy leaders
Pope Francis said on Friday that carbon pricing was "essential" to stem global warming, his clearest statement to date in support of the practice. In an address to energy executives at the end of a two-day meeting, he also called for "open, transparent, science-based and standardised" reporting of climate risk and a "radical energy transition" away from carbon to save the planet. Carbon pricing, via taxes or emissions trading schemes, is used by many governments to make energy consumers pay...
‘Tame the nightmare’: U.S. writer McKibben pushes climate strike
Bill McKibben, a U.S. author and leading figure in global climate activism, has challenged adults to join a youth-led general strike in September, saying bold action may yet prevent civilisation being cut off "at the knees." Inspired by 16-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg's success in mobilising hundreds of thousands of children to walk out of classrooms, veteran campaigner McKibben, 58, wants to light an equivalent fire under his own generation. "People have risen to crises before. It was our parents'...
Alaskans find more dead seals along warming Arctic Sea
At least 60 dead seals have been discovered along beaches of the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea in northwestern Alaska, and scientists are trying to determine what caused their deaths, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Wednesday. The dead seals – bearded, spotted and ringed seals – have been found at sites ranging from southern edge of the Bering Strait region to the Chukchi coastline above the Arctic Circle, NOAA's Fisheries said. Ice in the Bering and...