Save the Ocean Life and Save Earth

For 110 years, climate change has been in the news. Are we finally ready to listen? Published: August 15, 2022 7.47am BST Linden Ashcroft   Lecturer in climate science and science communication, The University of Melbourne On August 14 1912, a small New Zealand newspaper published a short article announcing global coal usage was affecting our planet’s temperature. This piece from 110 years ago is now famous, shared across the internet this time every year as one of the first pieces of climate science in the media (even though it was actually a reprint of a piece published in a New South Wales mining journal a month earlier). This short 1912 article made the direct link between burning coal and global temperature changes. The Braidwood Dispatch and Mining Journal, National Library of Australia The fundamental science has been understood for a long time American scientist and women’s rights campaigner Eunice Foote is now widely credited as being the first person to demonstr...

2018 Global Disasters Cost $160 Billion; Climate Change a Factor, Report Says By  Pam Wright    weather.com At a Glance A third of the total global cost came from just four events in the United States. California's Camp Fire was the costliest disaster of 2018 at $16.5 billion. Hurricane Michael was second at $16 billion. Disasters cost the world a hefty $160 billion in 2018 and climate change was a factor in the final tally, a new report says. On Tuesday, German Insurance company  Munich Re  released its annual report estimating the cost of disasters that include weather events like tornadoes and hurricanes, wildfires, tsunamis and earthquakes. Globally, damage from disasters amounted to $160 billion, which is less than the $360 billion in damage reported by the company in 2017 but still higher than the $140 billion long-term average. It was the fourth-costliest year since 1980 in terms of insured losses. A third of that total ($80 billion)came from jus...

'We are last generation that can stop climate change' – UN summit Big cuts in carbon emissions and a rise in protection from extreme weather urgently needed Damian Carrington    Environment editor @dpcarrington Mon 3 Dec 2018   00.01 GMT                              Scientists recommend that warming is limited to 1.5C. Photograph: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images The UN climate change summit begins on Monday with a warning that today’s generation is the last that can prevent catastrophic global warming, as well as the first to be suffering its impacts. Almost  200 nations  were set to meet  in Poland  for two weeks, aiming to hammer out a vital agreement to turn the carbon-cutting vision set in Paris in 2015 into reality. Moves to rapidly ramp up action would be another key goal, with current pledges leaving the world on track for a  disastrous 3C of wa...

Deadly heat, wildfires, heavy rain point to global warming: experts Aug 09, 2018   by  Donovan Vincent   Toronto Star This summer’s extreme heat, wildfires, heavy rains, flooding are all indicators of global warming, experts say          Police officers wade through water flooding an underpass on King St. W. during heavy rain in Toronto on Tuesday. - Shlomi Amiga,                 THE CANADIAN PRESS Extreme and deadly heat in Europe, Asia and across Canada and the U.S. Wildfires in California, British Columbia and here in Ontario, in Parry Sound and North Bay. Tuesday night's flood in Toronto that saw more than 70 millimetres of rain dumped downtown in two hours. Climate experts say it's all part of a trend the planet has been experiencing for the past 30 years, one we should expect to continue over the coming decades. "It's not new weather, just a more extreme (version) of the old weather. T...

The planet has seen sudden warming before. It wiped out almost everything! By  CARL ZIMMER The New York Times Fri., Dec. 7, 2018 Some 252 million years ago, Earth almost died. In the oceans, 96 per cent of all species became extinct. It’s harder to determine how many terrestrial species vanished, but the loss was comparable. According to recent research from a global collaboration of scientists, the Antarctic ice sheet has tripled its rate of ice loss over the last 25 years.   ( JILL SCHENSUL  /  TNS ) This mass extinction, at the end of the Permian Period , was the worst in the planet’s history, and it happened over a few thousand years at most — the blink of a geological eye. On Thursday, a team of scientists offered a detailed accounting of how marine life was wiped out during the Permian-Triassic mass extinction. Global warming robbed the oceans of oxygen, they say, putting many species under so much stress that they died off. And we may be repeatin...

How Things Got So Bad for the Great Barrier Reef One of the world's greatest wonder is on the verge of complete collapse. What happened? By  Avery Thompson Oct 25, 2018 GETTY IMAGES  DANIEL OSTERKAMP A Carnival Cruise Line ship accidentally  spilling more than 7,000 gallons  of wastewater in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef is a catastrophic event by any measure, but if you consider the full picture of human toll on this fragile ecosystem, it's tragically unexceptional: A recent  study  found that half the corals in the reef had died over the last two years. Another found that the reef will  likely disappear completely over the next few decades . So how are humans destroying such a sprawling natural feature? And is it already too late to save it? Threats From All Sides A section of the Great Barrier Reef still vibrant with life.   GETTY IMAGES  DANIELA DIRSCHERL The Great Barrier Reef has been around in some form for  nearly half...