US and Russia ally with Saudi Arabia to water down climate pledge

The

Guardian
Move shocks delegates at UN conference as ministers fly in for final week of climate talks. More here

DDT in Alaska meltwater poses cancer risk for people who eat lots of fish

Science Today -  University of Maine

Mt. Jarvis, Alaska. Photo by R. McGimsey, U.S. Geological Survey

Children in Alaska whose diet includes a lot of fish from rivers fed by the Eastern Alaska Mountain Range may have a long-term elevated risk for cancer because of insecticides -- including DDT -- in the meltwater. Story here.

RELATED: "Research Suggests Our Past, Prolific Use Of The Insecticide DDT May Still Be Contributing To A Scourge Of Modern-Day Diseases Related To Obesity. - Is a world-wide ban now the only ethical thing to do?"

Greenland ice sheet melt 'off the charts' compared with past four centuries

PHY ORG

An aerial shot of mountains in Greenland. 2006.
Photo by Túrelio.

Surface melting across Greenland's mile-thick ice sheet began increasing in the mid-19th century and then ramped up dramatically during the 20th and early 21st centuries, showing no signs of abating, according to…
More here.

Modern slavery promotes overfishing

More details here.

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Adaptation, speciation and extinction in the Anthropocene

PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B

An Oxfam photo.

Humans have dramatically altered the planet over the course of a century, from the acidity of our oceans to the fragmentation of our landscapes and the temperature of our climate. More here.

Snowpack declines may stunt tree growth and forests' ability to store carbon emissions

ScienceNews

Hoar frost coats trees of the boreal forest in Manitoba, Canada. 

A PinP photo.

Researchers conducting a 5-year-long study examining snow cover in a northern hardwood forest region found that projected changes in climate could lead to a 95 percent reduction of deep-insulating snowpack in forest areas across the northeastern United States by the end of the 21st century. The loss of snowpack would likely result in a steep reduction of forests' ability to store climate-changing carbon dioxide and filter pollutants from the air and water. Story here.