Cambodia to bring wild tigers from abroad in fight against extinction

A plan to fight the extinction of wild tigers in Cambodia would require importing the big cats from abroad, in what conservationists say would be the first transnational tiger reintroduction.

The last tiger seen in the wild in Cambodia was in its east in 2007, Un Chakrey, communications manager for the conservation group WWF-Cambodia, said on Wednesday. Poaching and the loss of habitat have wiped out tigers in Cambodia, and the species is considered functionally extinct there, with no breeding pairs, WWF-Cambodia said.

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NASA is facing a climate change countdown

Like so much of Florida, the Space Coast — a 72-mile stretch along the Atlantic — is feeling the threat of climate change. Some of the erosion is caused by the churning energy of ocean currents along the coastline. Hurricane Sandy, whose power was almost certainly strengthened by climate change, took a big bite in 2012, flattening an already damaged dune line that provided protection from the Atlantic’s battering.

A rising sea level will bring even greater risk over time — and perhaps sooner than most researchers expected. According to a study published last week, warming pressure on the Antarctic ice sheet could help push sea levels higher by as much as five or six feet by the end of this century.

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Did Exxon Mobil mislead the public about global warming?

American oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil is under investigation by the Attorneys General of several US states and territories for its alleged attempts to mislead investors and the public about climate change.

The coalition announced their intentions Tuesday at a conference attended by Attorneys General from California, Illinois, Iowa, the US Virgin Islands, and Washington, D.C. The conference was led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and co-sponsored by Vermont’s Attorney General William Sorrell.

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Hundreds of whales killed for ‘scientific research’ in Japan

A Japanese research fleet has killed hundreds of whales, including pregnant ones, in the name of scientific research. According to a report, Japanese researchers have killed more than 300 whales for a scientific research in the Antarctic.

Commercial hunting of whales has been banned by the United Nations (UN) since 1986, but that does not include the killing of whales for scientific research. While the Japanese researchers have claimed that they killed the pregnant whales to determine the age of maturity of the whales, many have pointed to the fact that the leftover meat is actually sold in the market.

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Bacteria could be speeding up the darkening of Greenland’s ice

A single species of bacteria could be about to accelerate the melting of Greenland. A photosynthesising microbe from a genus called Phormidesmis has been identified as the guilty party behind the darkening of Greenland.

It glues soot and dust together to form a grainy substance known as cryoconite. As the surface darkens, the Greenland ice becomes less reflective, more likely to absorb summer sunlight and more likely to melt.

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Startling images reveal devastating coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef

Startling images have emerged of devastating coral bleaching unfolding across parts of the Great Barrier Reef, as the marine park authority overseeing the environmental icon has raised its response to the highest level possible.

The severe bleaching event has again prompted concern about the damage climate change is doing to the world heritage protected reef, one of Australia’s most important tourist sites, with scientists and green groups calling for Australia to lift its game in tackling global warming.

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Trees deal with climate change better than expected

The bend-don’t-break adaptability of trees extends to handling climate change, according to a new study that says forests may be able to deal with hotter temperatures and contribute less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than scientists previously thought.

In addition to taking in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, plants also release it through a process called respiration. Globally, plant respiration contributes six times as much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere as fossil fuel emissions. Until now, most scientists have thought that a warming planet would cause plants to release more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which in turn would cause more warming.

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Zero carbon emissions target to be enshrined in UK law

The UK will enshrine in law a long-term goal of reducing its carbon emissions to zero, as called for in last year’s historic Paris climate deal.

Responding to former Labour leader Ed Miliband’s call to put the target into law, energy minister Andrea Leadsom told parliament on Monday: “The government believes that we will need to take the step of enshrining the Paris goal for net zero emissions in UK law. The question is not whether but how we do it.”

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An evangelical movement takes on climate change

John Muir was a fervent believer. Not just in science or conservation or the National Park Service, which he championed. The founder of the Sierra Club and father of American environmentalism also believed in God. “The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God,”

Muir wrote in his 1897 essay “The American Forests.” “[For centuries] God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools.”

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Northern hemisphere temperature breaches a terrifying milestone

Preliminary February and early March temperatures are in, and it’s now abundantly clear: warming is going into overdrive.

As of 3 March, it appears that average temperatures across the northern hemisphere breached 2°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in recorded history, and probably the first time since human civilisation began thousands of years ago.

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New satellite mapping a ‘game changer’ against illegal logging

Taken from outer space, the satellite images show illegal loggers cutting a road into a protected area in Peru, part of a criminal enterprise attempting to steal millions of dollars worth of ecological resources.

With the launch of a new satellite mapping system on Wednesday, governments and environmentalists will have access to hard evidence of these types of crimes almost in real time as part of a push by scientists to improve monitoring of tropical deforestation.

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Preparing for the inevitable sea-level rise

Between 1901 and 2010, global sea levels rose an average of 0.19 meters, or roughly seven inches. Over the next century, they’ll continue to rise—but at this point, that’s one of the few things scientists know for certain. Less understood is how fast they’ll rise, or where in the world these changes will be the most pronounced—information that will be crucial in helping coastal communities adapt to climate change.

“This is the burning question,” said Andrea Dutton, an assistant professor of geology at University of Florida. “How quickly will the sea levels rise, and by how much?”

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To protect natural resources, put a price tag on them, say scientists

Scientists expect that climate change will dramatically impact the environment and dislocate many species – such as plants, trees and fish – which will have to move from their current habitats to new ones in order to adapt. And where those species go, so goes the their economic value.

This is already happening with fish, reports Rutgers University marine biologist Malin Pinsky, some of which are moving toward the cooler poles as global temperatures rise, a trend that might benefit commercial fishermen near the poles, but harm the ones in non-polar regions who currently depend on the resource for their livelihoods.

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Science confirms it: Denial of climate change is all about the politics

Some clarity is being offered in the form of a new analysis published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, which reviews all the existing literature on climate change beliefs and pulls out the broad conclusions that can be drawn from all the combined research. The findings highlight two major ideas about the public’s feelings on climate change. First, the analysis suggests that out of all the personal characteristics examined by scientists so far, political affiliations, worldviews and values were the most significant predictors of a person’s beliefs about climate change. Second — and perhaps somewhat disheartening — a person’s belief in climate change doesn’t necessarily translate into big support for climate-friendly action.

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Scientists just discovered where the Earth is most sensitive to climate swings

New research published Wednesday in the journal Nature reaffirms that key regions of the globe that have been a source of major climate worry to researchers — such as the Amazon rainforest and the forests of the global north — are exquisitely sensitive to swings in climate. And it also identifies some new and similarly vulnerable ecosystems that will bear very close watching.

“Understanding how ecosystems are going to respond to climate variability is an important feature that we still don’t have a lot of information on,” said Alistair Seddon, the study’s lead author and a biologist at the University of Bergen in Norway.

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Europe’s climate change goals ‘need profound lifestyle changes’

European countries should prepare for a far-reaching debate on the “profound lifestyle changes” required to limit climate change, according to a leaked European commission document.

The commission will tell foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday that a Europe-wide debate is needed on how to limit global warming to 1.5C, according to a staff working document for ministers seen by the Guardian.

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What does High Court’s emissions regulation freeze really mean?

The US Supreme Court announced Tuesday it would temporarily block progress on emissions regulations backed by President Obama while legal issues surrounding the plan are being decided.

The Court, which voted 5 to 4 in favor of the freeze, was divided along ideological lines. Its five conservative justices agreed with the stay, while the four liberal-leaning justices would have denied the delay request, according to the Court’s stay order.

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Shark attacks hit record high in 2015, global tally shows

Sharks attacked people 98 times in 2015, a spike in unprovoked attacks that set a new record as human populations rise, researchers found in an annual global tally released on Monday.

Six people were killed by sharks, including a snorkeler in Hawaii. Two deaths were recorded off the Indian Ocean island of Réunion, and shark attack victims also died in Australia, Egypt and New Caledonia, according to data submitted by scientists worldwide.

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Higher temperatures may doom many trees

Drought is projected to intensify in frequency and severity, bringing with it more wildfires, insect-induced tree mortality and a host of economic impacts as global temperatures rise, according to a comprehensive scientific assessment released by the U.S. Forest Service.

Simply put, the report released Monday synthesizes a growing body of research that finds that drought is not good for America’s forests.

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Exploitation of endangered species feared as China revisits wildlife law

A proposed revision to China’s Wildlife Protection Law is being criticized by conservationists who fear it could legitimize the commercial exploitation of endangered species, such as tigers, bears and pangolins.

“This is not a step forward,” said Toby Zhang, director of Ta Foundation, an animal protection organization based in Beijing. “This is a surrender to the wrong and the benighted.”

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Yahoo Japan sold 12 tonnes of elephant ivory in two years, activists claim

Internet company Yahoo has been accused of aiding in the slaughter of elephants by allowing the trade of ivory on its Japanese auction site.

Activist network Avaaz has launched a petition calling for an end to Yahoo’s “bloody secret” of permitting sales of ivory. The petition, which has more than 1m signatures, urges Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer and Yahoo Japan head Manabu Miyasaka to “urgently stop all ivory sales from sites/platforms in Japan and all other markets”.

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Tree frog thought extinct rediscovered in India

For more than a century, two mysterious tree frog specimens collected by a British naturalist in 1870 and housed at the Natural History Museum in London were assumed to be part of a vanished species, never again found in the wild. Until now.

A group of scientists, led by renowned Indian biologist Sathyabhama Das Biju, has rediscovered the frogs and also identified them as part of a new genus — one step higher than a species on the taxonomic ranking. Not only have they found the frogs in abundance in northeast Indian jungles, they believe they could also be living across a wide swath of Asia from China to Thailand.

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Ocean will contain more plastic than fish by 2050

Water bottles, Tupperware containers and even children’s toys are made of the same thing: plastic. Pretty soon, you can add the ocean to that list, according to a new report.

In fact, the ocean is expected to contain more plastic than fish by 2050, according to a report by the World Economic Forum and Ellen MacArthur Foundation.

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NASA satellite to measure rise in sea level across most of world’s oceans

NASA has launched a satellite into orbit that it says will be able to measure the rise in sea level across 95 per cent of the Earth’s ice-free oceans, and help scientists predict extreme weather events linked to global warming.

The “Jason-3” satellite was launched aboard a rocket in California on Sunday and it will be fully operational after a six-month testing phase, the U.S. space agency said in a statement.

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Climate change may be culprit in animal die-offs across the globe

On the chilly shores of Alaska’s Prince William Sound, tens of thousands of battered bird carcasses are washing up. The birds, all members of a species known as the common murre, appear to have starved to death, wildlife officials said Tuesday. Their black and white bodies lie strewn across the slick rock, or else bob in the shallow waters nearby.

Seven thousand miles away, on a sandy beach in southern India, more than 100 whales were discovered mysteriously stranded on shore this week. Already at least 45 of them are dead, according to the BBC, dried out and overheated by exposure to the sun. More may soon die if they can’t be safely returned to the ocean. The area hasn’t seen this big a stranding in more than 40 years.

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Giant icebergs are slowing climate change, research reveals

Giant melting icebergs may be a symbol of climate change but new research has revealed that the plumes of nutrient-rich waters they leave in their wake lead to millions of tonnes of carbon being trapped each year.

Researchers examined 175 satellite photos of giant icebergs in the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica and discovered green plumes stretching up to 1,000km behind them. The greener colour of the plumes is due to blooms of phytoplankton, which thrive on the iron and other nutrients shed by the icebergs.

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What does the Paris agreement mean for the world’s other 8 million species?

The word “biodiversity” is employed once in the Paris agreement’s 32 pages. “Forests” appears a few times, but “oceans”, like biodiversity, scores just a single appearance. There is no mention of extinction. Wildlife, coral reefs, birds, frogs, orchids, polar bears and pikas never show up anywhere in the document.

This is hardly surprising: the landmark agreement in Paris – the boldest yet to tackle climate change (which is saying something, but not nearly enough) – was contrived by one species for the benefit of one species.

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Arctic passageways let species mingle

One whale spotted in the wrong ocean seemed merely odd. But a second misplaced whale looked more like a sign of an ecological shake-up: Pacific Ocean fauna moving into the Atlantic Ocean and vice versa. As the Arctic’s icy barriers melt, new waterways may soon allow many formerly separated animals to move and mix.

“We do believe we’re seeing a faunal exchange,” says Seabird McKeon of the Smithsonian Marine Station in Fort Pierce, Fla.

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El Niño: why predictable climate event still has the scientists guessing

El Niño is one of the most predictable climate events on the planet, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but it also has a way of keeping climate scientists guessing.

In March the oceanographers predicted the current event could be the weakest on record, but in August the same agency warned it could be the strongest.

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Endangered Species Act turns 42

The Endangered Species Act turned 42 on Monday, marking over four decades of plant and animal conservation in the United States.

The act was signed into law on Dec. 28, 1973 by President Richard Nixon, who had urged Congress to expand the protection of imperiled species. Under the ESA, species deemed in danger of extinction qualify for strict protections, including bans or limitations on imports and hunting, as well as severe penalties for violation.

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U.S. bread basket shifts thanks to climate change

In September 2014, a group of leading plant and agricultural researchers sat down at Washington University in St. Louis to discuss a looming question — how will agriculture in the Midwest be affected by climate change?

This wasn’t just an academic exercise. Midwestern farmers grow the majority of the country’s corn and soybeans, and scientists had predicted that yields could take a substantial hit from changing weather patterns, with potential impacts on food prices and farmers’ earnings. Even though lots of researchers have studied how climate change could affect agriculture in the country’s “bread basket,” discussions have been siloed.

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Scientists say climate change could cause a ‘massive’ tree die-off in the U.S. Southwest

In a troubling new study just out in Nature Climate Change, a group of researchers says that a warming climate could trigger a “massive” dieoff of coniferous trees, such as junipers and piñon pines, in the U.S. southwest sometime this century.

The study is based on both global and regional simulations — which show “consistent predictions of widespread mortality,” the paper says — and also an experiment on three large tree plots in New Mexico.

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Earth’s lakes are warming faster than its air

It took almost two weeks for negotiators from 195 countries to finally pass the landmark climate accord this weekend after several espresso-fueled all-nighters and long, passionate debates over the meaning of a single word, such as “shall.”

But the story of how the deal came together started long before that — in December 2009, with the failure of the last such summit meeting, in Copenhagen.

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A climate deal, 6 fateful years in the making

It took almost two weeks for negotiators from 195 countries to finally pass the landmark climate accord this weekend after several espresso-fueled all-nighters and long, passionate debates over the meaning of a single word, such as “shall.”

But the story of how the deal came together started long before that — in December 2009, with the failure of the last such summit meeting, in Copenhagen.

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Greenpeace subterfuge tests climate research

A sting operation by the environmental group Greenpeace suggests that some researchers who dispute mainstream scientific conclusions on climate change are willing to conceal the sources of payment for their research, even if the money is purported to come from overseas corporations producing oil, gas and coal.

Over a period of several months, two Greenpeace employees posed as representatives of energy companies and offered to pay prominent commentators on climate change to write papers that extolled the benefits of coal and carbon emissions. The Greenpeace workers also asked that the payments not be disclosed.

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Jane Goodall just called out Republicans on climate change

At the major climate summit in Paris on Monday, renowned conservationist Jane Goodall called for Republicans in Congress to back down from opposing an international agreement on climate change.

“Success [at the Paris climate summit] would be a binding agreement to limit carbon,” she said, in a briefing with reporters. But “a binding agreement isn’t much use unless it leads to actions and implementation. So there has to be a commitment to go back to your nation and follow through.”

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Climate change already impacting migration patterns around the world

Climate change is already contributing to an increase in migration around the world, a report released Wednesday shows, as events ranging from rising seas to droughts make parts of places like coastal Bangladesh and Pacific Island nations uninhabitable.

There is no widespread consensus on how many climate refugees will be created in the coming decades. The United Nations estimates 200 million by 2050, while other estimates run as high as 1 billion.

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Two-thirds of Americans want U.S. to join climate change pact

A solid majority of Americans say the United States should join an international treaty to limit the impact of global warming, but on this and other climate-related questions, opinion divides sharply along partisan lines, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Two-thirds of Americans support the United States joining a binding international agreement to curb growth of greenhouse gas emissions, but a slim majority of Republicans remain opposed, the poll found. Sixty-three percent of Americans — including a bare majority of Republicans — said they would support domestic policy limiting carbon emissions from power plants.

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2015 to be hottest year on record – until next year: WMO

This year will be the hottest on record and 2016 could be even hotter due to the El Niño weather pattern, the World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday, warning that inaction on climate change could see global average temperatures rise by 6 degrees Celsius or more.

WMO director-general Michel Jarraud said it was still possible for a global climate summit starting in Paris on Monday to agree steps to could keep the rise within 2C (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial times, a target set down in 2010 to try to prevent a dramatic increase in extreme weather.

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California public school textbooks mislead students on climate, study says

US lawmakers are to decide whether to ban personal care products containing microbeads – minuscule pieces of plastic considered harmful to the environment – after proposed legislation was approved by a bipartisan committee.

Microbeads, typically under 5mm in size, are used as abrasive exfoliants in products such as toothpastes and facial cleaners. They often evade water filtration systems and flow into rivers, lakes and streams, where they can be mistaken for food by fish. Pollutants can bind to the plastic, causing toxic material to infect fish and, potentially, the humans that consume them.

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Congress to vote on bill to ban microbead hygiene products in US

US lawmakers are to decide whether to ban personal care products containing microbeads – minuscule pieces of plastic considered harmful to the environment – after proposed legislation was approved by a bipartisan committee.

Microbeads, typically under 5mm in size, are used as abrasive exfoliants in products such as toothpastes and facial cleaners. They often evade water filtration systems and flow into rivers, lakes and streams, where they can be mistaken for food by fish. Pollutants can bind to the plastic, causing toxic material to infect fish and, potentially, the humans that consume them.

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Two countries reveal how divided the world is on climate change

Costa Rica, known for its white-sand beaches and cloud-draped forests, is a meager contributor to global climate change. Its largest provider of electricity, which relies almost entirely on hydropower, can go months without burning any fossil fuels. Yet, despite its miniscule role in warming the climate, this Central American country is among the nations trying hardest to curb greenhouse gases.

An ocean away, Australia is another story. This coal-rich nation spews more CO2 per capita than almost every other country, putting it nearly on par with the United States. But Australia lacks Costa Rica’s ambition, and its carbon-cutting goal is less aggressive than the U.S. government’s.

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Coal ‘isn’t going anywhere’ despite renewables boom, says industry head

Coal isn’t going anywhere, according to the boss of the World Coal Association (WCA), who said “sensible” investors should keep their money in the fossil fuel and avoid “political” moves to divest.

Coal is the most polluting fossil fuel and the industry has suffered heavily from the rapid rise of renewables in Europe and of shale gas in the US, with the threat of a greater crackdown on carbon emissions to come at a crunch UN climate change summit in Paris in December.

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World’s climate about to enter ‘uncharted territory’ as it passes 1C of warming

Climate change is set to pass the milestone of 1C of warming since pre-industrial times by the end of 2015, representing “uncharted territory” according to scientists at the UK’s Met Office.

2015 is also set to be the hottest on record, as the temperatures are so far beating past records “by a country mile”, they said. The World Meteorological Organization further announced on Monday that 2016 would be the first year in which the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is over 400ppm on average, due to the continued burning of fossil fuels.

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Poorer nations’ demand for climate-change aid weighs on Paris talks

Poorer nations’ demand that wealthier countries help bankroll their transition to cleaner energy has emerged as the biggest obstacle for world leaders seeking to reach an agreement on emissions at a summit that begins this month.

World leaders arrive in Paris in late November with the aim of negotiating an agreement to slash carbon dioxide emissions beyond 2020. But many developing countries say highly industrialized nations haven’t yet pledged enough to help them transition to lower-carbon energy or to prepare for the effects of for a more adverse climate.

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Why hunting of Yellowstone grizzly bears could resume

Grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park area saw unprecedented growth this year after being granted protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1975, causing many hunting enthusiasts to call for the population’s delisting.

A study published in the journal Molecular Ecology last week found “independent demographic evidence for Yellowstone grizzly bear population growth since the 1980s.” The scientists studied 729 bears and found that genetic diversity in the population was stable and the effective population, also known as “the number of bears passing genes to the next generation,” had quadrupled.

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Climate change threatens an iconic desert tree

Close your eyes and imagine a species living in a harsh environment threatened by climate change. If you conjured up a polar bear, Cameron Barrows has a suggestion: Consider, instead, the Joshua tree—the gnarly icon of the Southwest’s Mojave Desert that looks like it sprang from a Dr. Seuss book.

“Animals living in the Arctic get a lot more attention than plants in arid lands, but desert plants like the Joshua tree are also threatened by a changing climate,” says Barrows, a research ecologist at the University of California, Riverside’s Center for Conservation Biology.

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Climate change could soon push Persian Gulf temperatures to lethal extremes

The region that gave birth to civilization six millennia ago could soon witness a grim milestone in the history of urban development: the first cities to experience temperatures too extreme for human survival.

A scientific study released Monday predicts that parts of the Persian Gulf could see lethally hot summers by the end of the century, thanks to human-induced global warming that is already contributing to soaring temperatures around the globe.

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Climate change is going to be expensive—for everybody

Climate change will hit every level of an economy. Mentally and physically people work worse when they are hot. Rising seas and fiercer storms chew up infrastructure. And agricultural effects like crop failures reach far beyond borders. But all that stuff is years away, right?

Wrong. As deniers like to say, climate is always changing. And it turns out that these changes show up in the economic record. The new study compared annual temperature to annual GDP for every country.

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Climate change could leave sea turtles without mates

Sea turtles might be facing an unusual problem: too many girls.

Unlike a human baby, whose X and Y chromosomes determine whether it will be born a boy or a girl, a sea turtle’s sex is defined during egg incubation periods. Warmer temperatures lead to a higher proportion of females while cooler conditions result in more males.

A new Florida Atlantic University study published by Endangered Species Research finds that conditions such as heavier rains and temperature shifts are impacting loggerhead sea turtle sex ratios, potentially influencing future reproduction rates for the species.

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