Increasing urbanization worldwide is a growing threat to biodiversity. At the same time, flowering plants are often more diverse in cities than in the countryside. This is due to flowering plants and agricultural crops, which are increasingly being grown in cities. A recent study shows that the interactions between plants and pollinators, which are important for agricultural production, are surprisingly dynamic. For example, the plant and bee species involved in pollination vary greatly between the seasons.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
12/07/2023 - 16:13
12/07/2023 - 15:33
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Australia heatwave: temperatures set to soar on weekend
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James Ashby to stand for One Nation in Queensland seat
James Ashby, the chief of staff to One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, will stand for the party in the seat of Keppel at next year’s Queensland state election, AAP reports.
The Nationals are dead in Queensland’s parliament while the Liberals are lurching further left in their attempts to secure inner-Brisbane seats.
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12/07/2023 - 15:24
Justin Trudeau’s government plans to limit emissions through a national cap-and-trade system, a policy first proposed in 2021
Canada will require its fossil fuel industry to cut its emissions between 35% to 38% below 2019 levels starting in 2030, it was announced on Thursday.
The prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government plans to limit emissions from the oil and gas sector through a national cap-and-trade system which he first proposed in his 2021 election campaign, according to the policy announcement.
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12/07/2023 - 14:00
2023 is first year of potential pair of El Niño years and since 1997, every instance of these pairs has led to mass coral mortality
Record-breaking land and sea temperatures, driven by climate breakdown, will probably cause “unprecedented mass coral bleaching and mortality” throughout 2024, according to a pioneering coral scientist.
The impact of climate change on coral reefs has reached “uncharted territory”, said Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, from the University of Queensland, Australia, leading to concerns that we could be at a “tipping point”.
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12/07/2023 - 12:24
Re-examination finds what were taken to be veins of leaves are actually bone growth patterns
Two small, oval fossils thought to be prehistoric plants are actually the remains of baby marine turtles, researchers have revealed.
The fossils, found in rocks dating to between 132 and 113 million years ago, were discovered in Colombia in the middle of the 20th century by Padre Gustavo Huerta, a priest with a penchant for fossil plants.
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12/07/2023 - 09:33
A record 84,000 people are in attendance at the UN climate summit in Dubai, including thousands of activists and members of civil society
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12/07/2023 - 09:00
However the Albanese government has not contributed to a newly created global loss and damage fund at Cop28
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The Australian government has pledged A$150m climate finance for Pacific countries, but has not contributed to a newly created global loss and damage fund.
Nearly 200 countries reached an historic consensus agreement on the first day of the Cop28 climate summit in Dubai to set up the loss and damage fund to help the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries pay for the irreversible impacts of climate disaster.
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12/07/2023 - 09:00
Environment spokesperson Steve Reed plans to tackle vested interests and expose ‘horror’ inflicted on rural communities
Labour will take on vested interests from water companies to housebuilders and farmers in an effort to restore the UK’s degraded natural environment, the party’s environment chief has said.
Steve Reed, the shadow environment secretary, said: “If the Tories want to have an election fight over that, bring it on, because the British people care about the countryside, they care about nature. They care about living in a beautiful country. They value their access to the countryside. The Conservatives are on the wrong side of all that, and to many, many voters that will tip their votes.”
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12/07/2023 - 08:00
Groups seek more time to comment on US Forest Service proposal to store carbon dioxide amid fears over safety and impact
A proposal that would allow industries to permanently stash climate-polluting carbon dioxide beneath US Forest Service land puts those habitats and the people in or near them at risk, according to opponents of the measure.
Chief among opponents’ concerns is that carbon dioxide could leak from storage wells or pipelines and injure or kill people and animals, as well as harm the trees in the forests and their habitat, said Victoria Bogdan Tejeda, attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.
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12/07/2023 - 08:00
Exclusive: Five IPCC report authors say scientists should be allowed to make policy prescriptions and potentially oversee implementation
Senior climate experts are calling for an overhaul of the structure and powers of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in despair at the slow pace of climate action.
Five lead authors of IPCC reports told the Guardian that scientists should be given the right to make policy prescriptions and, potentially, to oversee their implementation by the 195 states signed up to the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC).
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