Environment

March, 2019

• 5 March

  Ocean heat waves are killing underwater life, threatening biodiversity

  

  A new study published today in Nature Climate Change found that the occurrences of marine heat waves have substantially grown in the past three decades, and it’s becoming clearer how deadly warmer temperatures are for biodiversity.
• 2 March

  Warming oceans are depleting global fish stocks

  

  According to a new study, increased temperatures shrank the number of fish hauled from the ocean by 4.1% between 1930 and 2010 — that’s without taking into account overfishing which is still the primary threat to fish stocks.
• 1 March

  Despite export bans global seahorse trade continues

  

  The new research from UBC indicates that many nations with bans apparently continued to export dried seahorses, thus neither meeting their obligations under CITES nor enforcing the trade bans.

February, 2019

• 28 February

  Humanity producing potentially harmful chemicals faster than they can test their effects, experts warn

  

  Humans and wildlife face escalating risks from potentially harmful chemical because the production of new compounds is outstripping capacity to test their toxicity, experts warned.  
• 28 February

  Record-breaking February weather is due to warming of the Arctic, says climate expert

  

  “Evidence suggests that the warming of the Arctic is destabilising the jet stream, which is bringing up warm air to Europe and forcing down cold air from the polar regions in some other parts.”
• 27 February

  Iceberg twice the size of New York City is set to break away from Antarctica

  

  Once a rapidly spreading rift intersects with another fissure, an iceberg of at least 660sq miles is set to be loosened, Nasa says. 
• 27 February

  Australia greenlights dumping 1 million tons of sludge in Great Barrier Reef waters

  

  Despite strict laws on dumping waste, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) gave the go-ahead. A loophole was found – the laws don’t apply to materials generated from port maintenance work.
• 27 February

  World’s deepest waters becoming ‘ultimate sink’ for plastic waste

  

  The world’s deepest ocean trenches are becoming “the ultimate sink” for plastic waste, according to a study that reveals contamination of animals even in these dark, remote regions of the planet.
• 26 February

  The ocean is running out of breath, scientists warn

  

  Widespread and sometimes drastic marine oxygen declines are stressing sensitive species—a trend that will continue with climate change. 
• 26 February

  High CO2 levels can destabilize marine layer clouds

  

  At high enough atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, Earth could reach a tipping point where marine stratus clouds become unstable and disappear, triggering a spike in global warming, according to a new modeling study.
• 22 February

  Ocean acidification shown to have negative impact on fish skeletons

  

  The first-of-its-kind study suggests that continued ocean warming and acidification could impact everything from how fish move to how they eat. The findings are described in a Jan. 9 paper published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 
• 21 February

  Earth may be 140 years away from reaching carbon levels not seen in 56 million years

  

  A new study finds humans are pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate nine to 10 times higher than the greenhouse gas was emitted during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a global warming event that occurred roughly 56 million years ago.