Photograph by: Enric Sala, National Geographic
January 8, 2020
As we begin the year 2020, wildfires rage from the Arctic to Australia, icecaps melt, and fierce storms and floods lash our cities. This is already “the new normal.” At the same time, in politics and media, truth struggles to prevail against lies. It’s a dangerous moment. Sean Hawkey, a photographer for ecumenical organisations including the World Council of Churches (WCC), selected photos from his archive as a reflection on a decade of work.
January 7, 2020
When the United Nations welcomed heads of state to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, a global consensus was reached to take vital steps to save the planet. To that end, more than 170 nations gave their support to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. But was not the only treaty at the summit. There was also a Convention on Biological Diversity. The climate change treaty is well understood internationally — even if the Trump administration and its congressional allies continue to engage in dangerous denialism and obstruction.
January 6, 2020
The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William has announced the Earthshot Prize: an ambitious set of challenges to inspire a decade of action to repair the planet. In what is set to be a “super year” for the environment, with crucial summits including the Convention on Biodiversity in China and the COP26 Climate Change Conference in the UK, Prince William will team up with global partners on a decade-long project that reaches every corner of the earth.
January 6, 2020
A new study, accepted in Environmental Research Letters, has found that diverse natural forests with a mix of tree species are more reliable and stable at absorbing and storing carbon than plantations dominated by just a few tree species, both over time and across diverse conditions. The study was co-authored by scientists from Columbia University's Earth Institute and its Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology.
January 3, 2020
Nature Conservancy’s Lynn Scarlett says a series of international agreements in 2020 could set the stage for more sustainable economies by 2030
Imagine a massive container ship moving across the ocean at top speed, headed straight for a rocky island. The island is one mile away, which might seem far off, but turning a large ship moving at high speeds takes considerable effort. There’s still time for the ship to avoid running aground, but only if it starts the turn now.
This is the situation all of us are in today. The imminent collision we face is a world wrecked by climate breakdown and biodiversity loss, and the container ship – well, we’re all on that ship, and the engine of the current global economy is driving us straight toward the rocks.
January 2, 2020
China on Wednesday began a 10-year fishing ban on key areas of the Yangtze River to protect biodiversity in the country's longest river, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Starting from this year, the ban will be observed in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River basin, which will also be expanded to all natural waterways of the river and its major tributaries from no later than Jan. 1, 2021.
January 2, 2020
Australia is in the grips of a massive wildfire disaster, intensified by record heat and drought. The military has been called in to evacuate thousands from their homes, and thick plumes of smoke have reached as far as New Zealand, more than 1,000 miles away. While bush fires are an annual occurrence in Australia and deadlier fires have occurred there, this fire season began unusually early and is projected to last for months. Australia just had its hottest and driest year on record, and December was one of the top two hottest months in the country’s history.
January 2, 2020
As apocalyptic wildfires continue to rage across Australia, the loss of life in the region is reaching staggering numbers. Ecologists at the University of Sydney now estimate that nearly half a billion animals and plants have been wiped out since the fires began several months ago.
January 2, 2020
Incessant political turmoil in the United Kingdom, United States, and other nations will likely last well into the new year, complicating many researchers’ work. The U.K. election last month made the country’s departure from the European Union a near-certainty, and its scientists now face losing EU science grants and scientific collaborators. In the United States, a presidential election in November will determine the role of scientists in future policy deliberations; many experts on climate change and other environmental issues assert that the Trump administration has ignored scientific evidence.
January 1, 2020
The UAE Nation Brand hit a record of 10.6 million votes from 185 countries as the campaign drew to a close to announce the logo that will represent the UAE and lead the country’s inspiring story towards the next 50 years.
Voters have contributed to planting 10 million trees to empower communities in areas affected by climate change in Nepal and Indonesia as the UAE had promised to plant a tree for every vote as part of the campaign.
December 31, 2019
At the end of a tumultuous decade for biodiversity, in which a report based on the most comprehensive study of life on Earth warned that “nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history”, we spoke to some of the world’s leading voices on the environment about their greatest fears for the next decade – and also their hopes. As the IPBES report’s authors noted: “It is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global.”
December 30, 2019
Columnist Kirsty-Jo Muddiman shares her top tips on how to be more eco-friendly in the New Year.
December 30, 2019
Most climate scientists will be quick to say that 2019 was the year that Greta Thunberg truly became a force to be reckoned with. The 16-year-old Swedish activist staged solo “Fridays for Future” school strikes that triggered a global phenomenon drawing millions of people into the streets to protest climate inaction. The teen has since become the face of that newly energized climate movement and was recently named Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
December 29, 2019
As concern about climate change reaches new levels, Canada has a rare opportunity to be a bigger percentage of the climate solution than it is a percentage of the problem.
December 29, 2019
A ceaselessly growing human population and an ever-expanding world economy based on the unsustainable demands of a few over-consuming nations, have already caused habitat degradation, forest fragmentation, and forest loss that are unprecedented in human history. Throughout the tropics, large tracts of forest have been converted to monocultures by industrial agriculture and degraded by the extraction of fossil fuels, metals, minerals, and other natural resources. This has resulted in significant declines in biodiversity.
