The venerable Times Atlas Of The World, updated and much loved since Victorian times has shot itself in the foot. The so-called ‘most authoritative atlas in the world’ stands accused of scaremongering and falsely exaggerating the effects of climate change. Harper Collins, the publishers, in promoting the £150 13th edition, announced that it had depicted Greenland in an altogether new way.
Read more...
Fish stocks in the waters around the UK are profoundly changing due to warming waters resulting from climate change. Traditional cold water fish species like cod and haddock are being harmed whereas other more exotic warm water stocks are on the increase, according to research published this week in Current Biology journal. So British consumers can expect to be presented with more red mullet, grey gurnard, red gurnard, John Dory, lemon sole, dab and hake.
Read more...
A very hot summer has caused Arctic sea ice to melt to near-record lows, said scientists from the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) on Thursday. Scientists say that it would only take two more weeks of high temperatures and/or changing winds to bring the polar region’s ice coverage to the lowest level since 1979 when satellite measurement commenced. The sea ice cover in the Arctic is now 36% lower than the average minimum for 1979-2000. Whilst the NSIDC stressed that the figure was preliminary, and that the final numbers would be published in early October.
Read more...
The US State Department said on Friday said a pipeline carrying Canada’s tar sands oil in Alberta to refineries in Texas poses little environmental risk, thereby paving the way for the approval by the Obama administration of the proposed $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline. Environmental campaigners had spent the last week at a sit-in at the White House to protest, with 100 people being arrested. The Canadian government meanwhile, and oil companies with a stake in tar sands production, hit back with an intense lobbying effort.
Read more...
