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Marine life, fisheries increasingly threatened as the ocean loses oxygen – IUCN report

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International Union for the Conservation of Nature The Daggernose shark, one of several larger species considered especially vulnerable. A NOAA rendering. The loss of oxygen from the world’s ocean is increasingly threatening fish species and disrupting ecosystems, a   new IUCN report   warns. Ocean oxygen loss, driven by climate change and nutrient pollution, is a growing menace to fisheries and species such as tuna, marlin and sharks, according to the report released today at the UN Climate Change conference in Madrid.

Without drastic and immediate action, climate change will spell less food for the vast majority of Earth's population by century's end. Study. by Larry Powell

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A disastrous 2019 growing season in Manitoba included drought, rain and snow at the wrong times. Both seeding and harvesting of food crops like canola (above) were disrupted, yield and quality reduced. A PinP photo. There are few bright spots in this body of research.  If developed countries don't reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate "promptly," it warns, a "perfect storm" will result. Food such as soy, corn, wheat and rice produced by the agriculture sector and seafood by marine fisheries, will go down for about 90 percent of Earth's population - more than seven billion, by 2100. Most of those affected already live in the most sensitive and least developed countries. As overwhelming as the impacts would be, they wouldn't be universal. A scant three percent of the population would actually experience a food production  increase  over the same period. And, if countries actually make those emissions cutbacks (a &q

Re-thinking extinction

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New research  suggests that pollution may be playing a bigger and more ominous role in pushing many of Canada's plants and animals to the brink than earlier thought. by Larry Powell                                               One of the species at risk, the small white lady's slipper,  Cypripedium candidum.  Photo by Mason Brock . Habitat loss, climate change and invasive species are often referred to as significant players in Earth's calamitous descent into a sixth Great Extinction. While those factors obviously play a part, this new study better recognizes the magnitude of the role played by yet another culprit in the piece - pollution. The authors of the research label contamination of our air, soil and water as a "pervasive, often invisible threat to biodiversity in Canada."  And, up until now, the threat it poses, especially to vascular plants (ones that flower, bear fruit and seed), they suggest, has been underestimated by experts in the

Wexit and climate pollution: a tale of two Canadas

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National Observer This PinP photo was taken along a highway construction project in SK. There are already two Canadas when it comes to climate pollution, and they've been heading in opposite directions for years. A successful "Wexit" would split them into two separate countries: One would become the world's most climate polluting country per person, with an economy twice as dirty as China's. Story here.

Earth set to warm 3.2 C by 2100 unless efforts to cut emissions are tripled, new UN report finds

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CBC News Syrian & Iraqi refugees. Photo by Ggia. One expert calls findings of 3.2 C warming 'terrifying.’ Story here.

Greenhouse gas levels at an all-time high - again. A WMO video.

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