Environment

July, 2016

• 13 July

  China condemned for massive coral reef destruction

  

  International judges today condemned China’s great ‘water grab’ of the South China Sea – not least for its destruction of over 100 sq.km of pristine coral reefs, dredged and ground up to build artificial islands, and the ransacking of their wildlife, from endangered sea turtles to giant clams…
• 13 July

  Ocean warming and acidification impact on calcareous phytoplankton and reduce its ability to sequester atmospheric CO2

  

  Researchers from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the University of Cambridge and the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom warn of the negative impacts of rapid ocean warming and ocean acidification on coccolithophores, and consequently in the regulatory processes of …
• 12 July

  Black market caviar threatens California’s giant fish

  

  When wildlife officers with California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife raided two houses in the Sacramento area earlier this year, they found a live sturgeon gasping for breath, barely alive, on the floor in the garage of one. And in the other they discovered more than 20 jars of caviar, …
• 12 July

  Risk of ‘sea desertification’ challenges Vietnam

  

  ‘Sea desertification’ is a new terminology used to describe the area where all sea creatures cannot live because of poor natural conditions, water quality and land. According to experts from the General Department of Sea and Islands, there are six factors which can lead to sea desertification. First, climate change…
• 12 July

  Damage wrought by acidic oceans hurts more than marine life, lasts longer than

  

  A milky white cloud blooms in the Barents Sea, so vast it can be seen from space.It’s not the result of some toxic chemical spill or the sinking of a dairy-filled tanker – it’s the handiwork of millions of microscopic algae, doing what their kind have done for millions of years. The …
• 11 July

  Massive mangrove die-off on Gulf of Carpentaria worst in the world, says expert

  

  Climate change and El Niño have caused the worst mangrove die-off in recorded history, stretching along 700km of Australia’s Gulf of Carpentaria, an expert says. The mass die-off coincided with the world’s worst global coral bleaching event, as well as the worst bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef, in which …
• 8 July

  Arctic sea ice crashes to record low for June

  

  From mid-June onwards, ice cover disappeared at an average rate of 29,000 miles a day, about 70% faster than the typical rate of ice loss, experts say. That means a vast expanse of ice – an area about twice the size of Texas – has vanished over the past 30 …
• 8 July

  Australia’s vast kelp forests devastated by marine heatwave, study reveals

  

  A hundred kilometres of kelp forests off the western coast of Australia were wiped out by a marine heatwave between 2010 and 2013, a new study has revealed. About 90% of the forests that make up the north-western tip of the Great Southern Reef disappeared over the period, replaced by seaweed turfs, …
• 8 July

  Global fish production approaching sustainable limit, UN warns

  

  Global fish production is approaching its sustainable limit, with around 90% of the world’s stocks now fully or overfished and a 17% increase in production forecast by 2025, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Overexploitation of the planet’s fish has more than tripled since the 1970s, with 40% …
• 7 July

  Bangladesh coal plant threatens World Heritage mangrove: petition

  

  The world’s largest mangrove forest, a World Heritage Site, should be listed as endangered due to a coal-fired power plant under construction in Bangladesh, urged a petition signed by 50,000 people and submitted to the UN Wednesday. Classified by the UN’s culture and science organ, UNESCO, in 1997 as a natural …
• 7 July

  Metals from cigarette butts may pose potential threat to marine environment

  

  Littered cigarette butts may be an important source of metal contaminants leaching into the marine environment and potentially entering the food chain, suggests research published online in the journal Tobacco Control. Cigarette butts are the most common form of litter found in the marine environment, with an estimated 5 trillion or …
• 6 July

  Climate scientists: Australian uranium mining pollutes Antarctic

  

  Uranium mining in Australia is polluting the Antarctic, about 6,000 nautical miles away. University of Maine climate scientists made the discovery during the first high-resolution continuous examination of a northern Antarctic Peninsula ice core. Until World War II, most of the uranium input to the atmosphere was from natural sources, says the …