The world’s coral reefs are being sickened by plastic and micro-plastic pollution and debris — everywhere from the Great Barrier Reef to the Caribbean — according to a new study published in the journal Science.
The ocean acidification that’s now occurring, as a result of increasing anthropogenic levels of carbon dioxide emissions, will led to cascading losses of biodiversity in many marine habitats and ecosystems, according to new research from the University of British Columbia and its partners. The new work is some of the first to investigate the likely
Specific coral genotypes (“individuals”) can live for more than 5,000 years (at the least) according to new research from the National Marine Fisheries Service, Penn State, and Dial Cordy & Associates. The findings — based on research focused on elkhorn corals (Acropora palmata) living around Florida and in the Caribbean — mean that corals are
The hows and by-whoms of the creation of the some of the first reefs on the planet has been somewhat cloaked in mystery, but now new research has shed a bit more light on the subject. One of the oldest reefs in the world — built 550 million years ago, now located on dry land
I’d like to be / under the sea / in an octopus’s garden/ in the shade Well, we may never get to live out Ringo’s maritime fantasy, but we can still share in the wonders and beauty of the world’s coral reef’s…thanks now to the Global Reef Record — a survey of the world’s most
The current global hope regarding climate change is that we can minimize the warming to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, however this will not be enough if we want to save the coral reefs that are so necessary in the overall health of the oceans. Only if we look to drastically and speedily halt
Update: Depressed by this news. Check out: “A Transformation From Environmental Grief to Environmental Action,” which will be on Google+ on Wednesday, 3/12/2004 at 11:00 am PST. The gist: environmental news can be depressing. How do you maintain your resolve to fight for a better environmental future? A new report issued by the International Union for Conservation of
President Obama, speaking at the annual “Chevron remembers Nagasaki” memorial service, today praised the US oil giant for its role “in helping all of us learn from history.” Speaking in San Fransisco moments before the crowd-pleasing pyrotechnic recreation of the 1944 blasts in Japan, Obama cited the role of the oil industry in working
In what could lead to a milestone in genetic ‘engineering’ in the wild, a microbiologist and her team is trying to help stressed coral reefs adapt to climate change and pollution by promoting “beneficial bacteria growth”. To do this, researches are experimenting with a form of gene therapy. Corals offer several important ecosystem services. Corals
Along with the many top activism stories I’ve shared in the past couple weeks, here are several more I keep forgetting to get to because I was saving them on email and not in my normal places. Check them out:
Here are some top global warming and environmental stories from the last day or so: Global Warming Politics Anti-Koch Rally (or Rallies) A great video on the Koch Brother Billionaire Bash protests and Uncloak Koch Rally from the other 98%: More on Schmitt We covered a couple pieces going into depth on astronaut Harrison Schmitt’s
We’ve covered coral bleaching, the devastation of coral reefs and their relationship to global warming here on Planetsave numerous times over the past few years. For clear reasons: this is a true global environmental catastrophe with numerous harmful ramifications. Dr Jeff Masters of WunderBlog delves into the harsh coral reef collapse of 2010 and future
I just wrote a few weeks ago on the possibility of coral reefs getting completely wiped out by 2100. Now, a couple recent research articles document the extensive damage to coral reefs around the world in 2010 alone, and it is pretty bad (understatement). Coral Bleaching in Caribbean Eli Kintisch of ScienceNOW writes: Scientists studying
This post is part of our participation in Blog Action Day 2010, which is on the topic of Water. A recent report out by the Institute of Physics (IOP) finds that weak global climate change targets are likely to result in all coral reefs dying off by 2100. The great importance of this matter is,
A short video on Wired discusses the unique and interesting creatures that are seahorses and their near extinction due to unsustainable fishing practices. Used in Chinese medicine, and a common by-catch in industrial fisheries, especially trawling fisheries, seahorses are endangered and quickly getting closer to extinction.
Although there has been some local, positive improvements in stemming or reversing biodiversity loss (primarily in protected areas), globally, the findings in this aggregate analysis show that the rate of increase in biodiversity loss is stable.
In this talk, Jackson continuously returns to the three major factors that are dramatically altering our oceans: over-fishing, pollution, and climate change. These factors, he notes, do not arise and operate in isolation, but rather, they feedback into each other and “synergize” to make for a major, impending, ecological disaster.
One of the biggest issues facing us right now is global warming. Its effects on animals and on agriculture are indeed frightening, and the effects on the human population are even scarier. The facts about global warming are often debated in politics and the media, but, unfortunately, even if we disagree about the causes, global warming effects are real, global, and measurable. The causes are mainly from us, the human race, and the effects on us will be severe.
The loss of coral reefs around the world is being blamed on the mass amounts of CO2 in our planets oceans, and the resulting acid that is keeping the reefs and other crustaceans from calcifying.
The recent news that Lake Mead has a 50-50 chance of going dry in the next 13 years was scary enough, but there doesn’t seem to be any shortage of ominous Earth news these days. Based on recent research, here are some of the odds we’re facing: Amount of coral reefs that will be in
Most of Earth might be covered with water, but the large population of bipedal animals that crowd the planet’s land masses is doing its best to leave its imprint on the oceans as well. A new study from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) finds that humans have had a heavy impact on more
While coral reefs around the world are increasingly threatened by pollution, climate change and development, scientists in Bonaire are investigating a coral reef success story. Aimed at kicking off the International Year of the Reef, the Bonaire 2008 expedition launched earlier this month and runs through Jan.30. A team of researchers from several universities is
