Category: climate change

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Scientists Say That North America Has Lost 3 Billion Birds in the Last 50 Years

We’ve heard all about the plight of the bees that are disappearing at an alarming rate across the world, but the situation with birds doesn’t look too great, either.

A new article in the journal Science estimates that North America has lost a quarter of its bird population – roughly 3 billion birds – in the past 50 years. The researchers looked at populations of 529 different bird species since 1970 to reach their conclusion. They collected data from surveys with the help of volunteer bird spotters and combined that with ten years worth of data on flocks of migrating birds detected by 143 different weather radar installations.

Ken Rosenberg of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology said, “We saw this tremendous net loss across the entire bird community. By our estimates, it’s a 30% loss in the total number of breeding birds. But we also knew that other bird populations were increasing. And what we didn’t know is whether there was a net change.”

The data showed that more than 90% of the losses came from only a dozen bird families, including warblers, blackbirds, finches, and sparrows. Meadowlarks and red-winged blackbirds are two examples of common birds that have seen their numbers decrease.

The news isn’t entirely bad, though; some bird populations have increased, such as raptors (influding bald eagles), and waterfowl. Rosenberg continued, “The numbers of ducks and geese are larger than they’ve ever been, and that’s not an accident. It’s because hunters who primarily want to see healthy waterfowl populations for recreational hunting have raised their voices.”

Mike Parr, another one of the study’s authors, said, “We’re making the wrong moves now to sustain nature for the future, and this is an indication that nature is unraveling and that ecosystems are highly stressed. Our generation is going survive it, and probably the next generation will, but who knows where the tipping point is.”

The researchers say that climate change played only a small role in the overall loss of the birds so far, but it is likely to become more of a threat in the future because of rising seas, draughts and wildfires.

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Meet 5 Teenagers Who Have Changed the World

Some people believe that you have to have a lifetime of knowledge and experience to change the world, or even to try – but these 5 teenagers don’t have any time to listen to that kind of crap because they’re too busy actually changing the world.

From gun rights to climate change to terrorism, there’s no problem too daunting…and honestly maybe their lack of experience gives them just the right amount of idealism needed to actually get sh*t done.

I just wish – I truly wish – that their passion and activism hadn’t so often been sparked by personal trauma.

But if you have to go through something terrible, using your experience and pain to stop other people from going through the same thing seems like the healthiest way to deal.

5. Emma Gonzalez

It was February, 2018 when a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and gunned down 17 people in cold blood.

Many of the teens who survived that day have gone on to support a campaign against gun violence, but 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez emerged a leader from the beginning. She co-founded the gun-control advocacy group Never Again MSD and, shortly after her classmates were buried, gave a powerful speech at the March for Our Lives rally in Washington D.C.

Since then, her work and others’ have encouraged lawmakers in Florida to pass a Public Safety Act, which raised the age to buy a firearm from 18 to 21 and instituted a three-day waiting period for most weapons. She is still working to prevent gun violence, and Never Again is going strong.

4. Jack Andraka

When he was only 15, Jack Andraka invented what appeared to be a new, cheap way to detect pancreatic cancer. He won $75k at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for the test, which he created after reading free science papers on the internet.

The test is still undergoing official studies, but if it works like he imagines, it could save lives and millions of dollars.

3. Malala Yousafzai

At the tender age of 11, Malala Yousafzai wrote and published a diary about her life under Taliban rule in Pakistan. Though the diary was anonymous, she began to speak publicly at home about her passion for girls’ education.

Three years later, when she was 14, a Taliban gunman shot her in the face on a bus to put a stop to her activism.

Amazingly, Malala survived the attack, and though she can never return home, she works tirelessly on behalf of underprivileged girls around the world.

In 2014, she became the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and her passionate acceptance speech is one for the ages.

“This award is not just for me. It is for those forgotten children who want education. It is for those frightened children who want peace. It is for those voiceless children who want change. I am here to stand up for their rights, to raise their voice. It is not time to pity them.”

2. Amika George

Amika read an article about girls in the U.K. who couldn’t afford menstrual products and was astounded that there were so many in her home country living in such poverty.

When she was 17 she founded #FreePeriods, organized a protest of over 2,000, and demanded the government take appropriate action.

In response, the U.K. government announced in March of 2019 they would be funding free sanitary products in all English schools and universities.

1. Greta Thunberg

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Here we go again… As you may have noticed, the haters are as active as ever – going after me, my looks, my clothes, my behaviour and my differences. They come up with every thinkable lie and conspiracy theory. It seems they will cross every possible line to avert the focus, since they are so desperate not to talk about the climate and ecological crisis. Being different is not an illness and the current, best available science is not opinions – it’s facts. I honestly don’t understand why adults would choose to spend their time mocking and threatening teenagers and children for promoting science, when they could do something good instead. I guess they must simply feel so threatened by us. But the world is waking up. See you in the streets this Friday! #fridaysforfuture #schoolstrike4climate #climatestrike #aspiepower

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This 16-year-old Swedish girl has dedicated her young life to being an activist for climate change activism across the world.

In 2018 she began striking – alone – on the steps of the Swedish parliament in Stockholm in an attempt to get them to take meaningful, immediate action.

Since her solitary striking began, more than 1 million teens have joined her by walking out of their classrooms around the world.

“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago. We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with. We have to make our voices heard.”

She recently spoke at the UN, and it’s really worth watching:

 

These teens are an inspiration, for sure – they make 18-year-old me look like a lazy loafing loser.

Do you believe young people can make a real difference? How can you not?!

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20 Interesting Signs from the Youth-Led World Climate Strike

Many people around the world admit that human emissions are slowly killing the planet via climate change, but no one seems to do anything. Scared for their futures, young people have been pushing the people in charge to not just agree, but to at least try to save us all from a fiery death.

Enter the recent youth-led global climate strike, a movement that numbered in the millions all over the globe. Participants everywhere hope their protest were heard by the UN during their Climate Summit (Greta Thunberg, a leader of the movement, shared some amazing words that made me tear up a little), and if these 20 signs have anything to say about it, these kids will be impossible to ignore.

20. It doesn’t seem like this should be asking too much.

19. I mean it takes a lot to get us out of the house.

18. Priorities, man.

Image Credit: Twitter

17. She’s walking the walk.

16. Incorporating a bit of our history lessons, there.

Image Credit: Twitter

15. Points for relevance.

Image Credit: Twitter

14. And justice for all.

13. Just a little something to think about.

Image Credit: Twitter

12. It’s so hot out you might not be able to feel this burn for much longer.

Image Credit: Twitter

11. I think this one is my favorite.

Image Credit: Twitter

10. That’s not at all romantic.

Image Credit: Twitter

9. On so many levels.

Image

Image Credit: Twitter

8. Fighting for the unborn on a whole other level.

7. A more perfect mashup has ever been conceived.

Image Credit: Twitter

6. It’s always a good time for a well-crafted pun.

Image Credit: Twitter

5. Who knew Mario Bros. would teach us so much about real life?

4. It’s quite backward.

3. My new favorite meme making an appearance.

2. I could not have bigger heart eyes for this sign.

Image Credit: Twitter

1. You are not alone.

 

It’s time to make a change, y’all. If it doesn’t start from the top, we’ll start it from the bottom. Consider looking into ways you can reduce your carbon footprint.

Are you impressed by the world’s youth campaigning for change? Are you inspired? Let us know how you plan to help in the comments!

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A Tree-Planting Search Engine Saw a 1150% Increase in Use After the Amazon Rainforest Fires

Step aside, Google. An eco-friendly search engine saw a 1150% increase in daily downloads in a single day after the Amazon rainforest fires.

Ecosia is a search engine that uses 80 percent of its profits from advertisements to plant millions of trees in Brazil, Ethiopia, and other emerging economies, Business Insider reports. The website claims to have planted 65 million trees to date – an impressive number.

Usually, Ecosia sees about 20,000 downloads per day. But recently, large swaths of the Amazon went up into flames in an urgent environmental disaster. As more people became aware of what was going on, people began using Ecosia en masse in an attempt to help combat the damage.

Photo Credit: iStock

On August 22, the company experienced 250,000 downloads in a single day, but the record-breaking moment was bittersweet for Ecosia.

“We had our team meeting and people were, on the one side, very happy because of the numbers but also very sad because of the forest fires,” Christian Kroll, Ecosia’s chief executive, told Business Insider. “So it’s both exciting and a tragic occurrence.”

The sudden burst in popularity is largely thanks to word-of-mouth. The app is frequently mentioned by Instagram and Twitter users who are spreading the word about the rainforest fires. Ecosia is now the top-ranked iOS app in Brazil.

Photo Credit: iStock

The Amazon rainforest experienced over 72,000 fires this year so far, an 83 percent increase from 2018. This is partly because of dry weather, and party because Brazil’s new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has walked back a decade’s worth of environmental protections. His actions have given cover to thousands of illegal farmers and ranchers to light fires to burn down forest to create more arable land for them to use. It’s a difficult situation because many of them have no other way to earn income, but the damage they’ve done to the forest – and thus to the world – is enormous.

Christian says he was inspired to start Ecosia after learning about environmental damage during his travels to South America and Nepal.

“In my opinion, planting trees helps people and the environment at the same time,” he said. He’s right.

He founded Ecosia in 2009, but it doesn’t do all that search work on its own. It partners with Microsoft’s search engine Bing to power its search results and display ads.

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A Giant Raft of Pumice Floating in the Pacific Ocean Might Help Heal the Great Barrier Reef

If you don’t know, pumice is a volcanic rock that is light enough to float. A raft of pumice as big as Manhattan is drifting in the Pacific Ocean, and it could be bringing healing marine organisms as it heads toward the Great Barrier Reef.

The famous reef has been heavily damaged by several recent bleaching events that scientists believe were much more severe than usual because of climate change. Coral bleaching is when environmental factors like temperature stress the coral so much that it expels the algae it symbiotically cohabitates with. That algae is the coral’s food, and without it, it can’t eat. It also loses its color, which is why the phenomenon is called bleaching.

Bleaching doesn’t automatically kill coral, but it does make it very, very vulnerable, and corals often die after bleaching events.

Photo Credit: Acropora, CC BY-SA 3.0

Back to the raft!

Crabs, corals and tons of microorganisms have made their homes on the enormous pumice raft. If it reaches the reef, these animals could help replenish its loss of marine life.

The rock is from an underwater volcano that erupted near Tonga. It was discovered by Australian sailors days after the eruption, according to NASA Earth Observatory.

Photo Credit: NASA

The sailors on their way to Vanuatu on the ROAM catamaran described finding volcanic rocks in various sizes floating together. The collection of rock was so dense that it hid the ocean.

They made a video to show the phenomenon.

Pumice is filled with holes and cavities, and it floats much like icebergs – with only 10% visible on top of the water.

Over the next ten months, the pumice raft will float toward Australia’s ailing reef, hopefully bringing along a much-needed infusion of marine life.

Report of Volcanic Rubble Slick dangerous to vessels.Catamaran ROAM sailing to Fiji encountered volcanicrocks…

Posted by Sail Surf ROAM on Thursday, August 15, 2019

Queensland University of Technology professor Scott Bryan, who specializes in geology and geochemistry, estimates the rock raft is moving at a speed of six to 19 miles a day, driven primarily by ocean currents as well as waves and wind.

He has seen events like this one happening before. The beneficial part is how the trillions of pieces of rock can redistribute sea animals. However, there is also the risk of introducing invasive species to new environments.

While the crabs and other mobile animals can easily hop from the raft onto reefs and find new homes, corals have more of a challenge.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

Coral needs to reach a reproductive age so they can spawn and release larvae into the Great Barrier Reef. If the pumice raft reaches the reef, then gets water logged enough to sink, the coral can easily begin to grow and create a new part of the reef, complete with all the animals that sank too.

Because of the marine heat waves of 2016 and 2017 and the ensuing bleaching, many of the world’s great reefs began to die; the Great Barrier Reef lost approximately half of its coral, and much more is in danger. The presence and direction of this new pumice raft is good news. Let’s hope it makes it far enough to help.

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Teen Activist Greta Thunberg Faces Cruel Jokes About Drowning as She Sails Across the Atlantic to Battle Climate Change

Is there anything worse than Grade A Internet trolls?

Greta Thunberg is 16 years old and has made it her life’s work (so far) to raise awareness for, and to do her best to combat, climate change around the world.

Apparently, this makes grown ass people with keyboards think it’s okay to joke about a teenaged girl drowning in a boating accident, because that’s the world we’re living in today.

Thunberg wanted to attend the United Nations climate change summits in the United States and Chile, but wanted to a find a responsible way to do it – air travel is the most carbon intensive form of transportation. So she landed on boat travel in order to minimize her carbon emissions.

The Malizia II, a racing yacht that employs solar panels to power her underwater turbines, offered her a ride, which she accepted. She and her father set out from Portsmouth (in the United Kingdom) on a two-week sail to the States.

Good for her, right?

You would think that most adults would feel that way, but, sadly, there are plenty who don’t.

It turns out that grown-ups who have dug into their (incorrect) positions about climate change being non-anthropological feel the need to attack a child in order to defend their own insecurities.

Like radio personality Julia Hartley-Brewer, who thinks being irresponsible is…funny?

And this totally gross comment from U.K. media personality Arron Banks.

Luckily, there are just as many people (if not more) ready to defend Greta and her actions.

As it should be.

True to form, Greta seems to be soldiering on and enjoying her trip.

And, I assume, the bleak pleasure of knowing she’s right.

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July 2019 Was the Hottest Month on Record…so Far

If you thought July was hotter than usual, you were right.

According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), July was not only the hottest July of all time, but the hottest month since we began keeping such records back in 1880.

The average global temperatures were nearly a full degree Celsius over the 20th-century average.

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So I want to talk about packaging ?When I first had the idea about selling my artwork one of my biggest concerns was my packaging and how it would effect the environment! Therefore, after doing some research I found a company @ecocraft_ltd . Eco craft produce bio-degradable packaging bags made from potato/corn starch. They look and feel exactly like cellophane bags,however, are sustainable making my products have a better impact on the environment,meaning less single use plastic!! ? Therefore, all my prints will be packaged using these green bags along with all my postage envelopes that can be recycled. ??? • • #illustration #illustrationartists #climatechange #climatechangeisreal #fightforclimatechange #fightagainstplastic #thereisnoplanetb

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July 2019 came right after the hottest June ever recorded, which saw temperatures climb 2 full degrees Celsius over average for the time.

9 of the 10 hottest Julys have occurred since 2005, so despite statements from some public leaders that global warming is a hoax, the data points to the contrary. This July, as a matter of fact, was the 415th consecutive month with above-average temperatures across the globe.

Also according to NOAA, satellite data for July shows the lowest polar ice levels ever recorded – one more reason for concern, if you ask Professor of Climate Science Richard Allan.

“Just as one swallow does not make a summer, one record month does not tell us much on its own since the fickle nature of weather systems and the slow sloshing about of the ocean can sometimes temporarily warm or cool the planet. However, the clustering of recent record hot years and months, the longer-term warming trend and our understanding of the physics of the atmosphere and oceans confirms that our climate is heating up, it’s our fault, and the way to stop this is to reduce and begin removing emissions of greenhouse gases.”

Full stop.

Now, let’s agree to do something about it before it’s too late.

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Take a Look at Iceland’s First Dead Glacier Captured in Satellite Images

This is scary and sad at the same time.

The Okjökull glacier was dead, declared Oddur Sigurðsson, a geologist in the Icelandic Meteorological Office back in 2014.

By then, the glacier had mostly disappeared.

Fast forward five years and Sigurðsson and other scientists are hiking to the old summit to place a plaque commemorating it upon the volcano it once dominated. It is officially the first glacier lost to climate change.

These dramatic satellite images show the tragic change of the glacier between 1986 and 2019.

 

The Okjökull glacier is only one of Iceland’s receding glaciers, many of which are also changing at dramatic rates. According to Sigurðsson, glacier conditions all around the world are on the decline due to the impending climate crisis.

He has been documenting the vanishing of approximately 56 out of the 300ish smaller glaciers in the northern part of Iceland.

Here is the image of the Okjökull glacier in September, 1986.

Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Here is the image of the glacier taken August, 2019.

Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Every continent, except for Australia which does not have glaciers, is experiencing the loss of glaciers, some slow, others much quicker.

Alex Gardner, a NASA glaciologist, told Mashable, “We’re not trying to figure out whether the glaciers will melt in the future. We’re just trying to find out how much and how fast.”

Since 2001, 18 of the 19 warmest years on record have occurred. The warm temperatures have thinned the rivers of ice that create the glaciers.

Photo Credit: Vojife

Sigurðsson calculated that in 1890 the Okjökull glacier occupied 16 square kilometers, or 6 square mile. By 1945, it was dwindling, and it eventually died in 2014. Now, only small amounts of snow and ice exist along the slope.

Assuming warming trends continue along with unchanged rates of carbon emissions – which seems to be our trajectory unless something dramatic happens in the global political landscape – Iceland will see a decline in its glaciers of 40 percent by the end of the century.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, all of Iceland’s ice masses could disappear by 2200, if not sooner.

In the meantime, Sigurðsson is taking on the sad task of tracking all the living glaciers, especially those in retreat.

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A Group of Heartbroken Scientists Wrote a Eulogy to Iceland’s First Disappeared Glacier

Scientists everywhere are in agreement that the climate of the world is changing rapidly, and that the results, should the problem go unchecked, will be disastrous. One of the first casualties are the world’s glaciers, like Iceland’s Okjokull (aka Ok), which officially melted away back in 2014.

Scientists at Rice University will install a plaque containing a eulogy for Ok, which will no doubt serve as a reminder for generations to come that there were those among us who tried very hard to do something.

Cymene Howe produced a 2018 film titled Not Ok that documented the glacier’s demise.

“This will be the first monument to a glacier lost to climate change anywhere in the world. By marking Ok’s passing, we hope to draw attention to what is being lost as Earth’s glaciers expire.”

Image Credit: Rice University

The plaque reads:

“Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier.
In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path.
This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done.
Only you know if we did it.”

The plaque will also mark 2019 as the year the world hit 415ppm Co2 levels.

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Not Ok. ⁣ After a rocky climb to the summit of Ok yesterday, I stood amidst a vast field of newly exposed volcanic rock, staring at this icy blue puddle in the central crater. It was hard to fathom that just a few years ago, a glacier named Ok (pronounced ‘awk’) existed right here in the surrounds of this crater. ⁣ ⁣ In 2014, Okjökull was first Icelandic glacier to officially lose its glacial status as a result of human induced climate change, and is now considered only as a mountain. A new memorial plaque will soon be placed at the summit with the following words: ‘In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it’.

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Not Ok‘s co-producer, Dominic Boyer, has high hopes that awareness can still be raised in time to make a difference.

“We wanted to create a lasting memorial to Ok, a small glacier that has a big story to tell. Ok was the first named Icelandic glacier to melt because of how humans have transformed the planet’s atmosphere. Its fate will be shared by all of Iceland’s glaciers unless we act now to radically curtail greenhouse gas emissions.”

According to the research done for the film, all of Iceland’s 400-ish glaciers could face the same fate as early as 2200.

Glaciers are the largest freshwater reserves on Earth and are also invaluable for the insights they provide into Earth’s atmosphere. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as other parts of the world, and record temperatures are being recorded all over the globe. Wildfires are becoming common from Siberia to Greenland and sea ice is decreases rapidly, putting different animal species in danger.

“One of our Icelandic colleagues put it very wisely when he said, ‘Memorials are not for the dead; they are for the living,” said Howe. “With this memorial, we want to underscore that it is up to us, the living, to collectively respond to the rapid loss of glaciers and the ongoing impacts of climate change. For Ok glacier it is already too late; it is not what scientists call ‘dead ice.’”

Here’s hoping that when people read the plaque 100 years in the future, it marks the beginning of serious, focused action to reverse climate change and not the beginning of the end of the world as we know it.

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In the Last Two Years, Scientists Have Discovered over 50 Species of Plastic-Eating Fungi

This is great news!

If you feel a pang of guilt every time you throw a piece of plastic away and start spiraling into anxiety about the impending climate apocalypse — here is some news that may brighten your day.

Plastic is infamous for its ability to pollute the environment for years and years without degrading. But because the planet is magical, there are certain organisms that can degrade plastic. Dozens and dozens of them, apparently.

In 2011, students at Yale discovered a plastic-eating fungus in Ecuador called Pestalotiopsis microspora. This fungus can digest polyurethane, even in an air-free environment (like the bottom of a landfill).

Photo Credit: iStock

This breakthrough was already good news, but as researchers continued to turn their attention to the subject, it became clear that Pestalotiopsis microspora is not unique among fungi in its ability to degrade plastic.

Researchers at Utrecht University were able to achieve a similar result with Oyster mushrooms and Split gill mushrooms in the lab; this process even resulted in an edible end product. In 2017, scientist Sehroon Khan and his team found another biodegrading fungus in a landfill in Pakistan called Asperillus tubigensis, which is capable of breaking down polyester polyurethane (packing foam).

Sehroon and his team went on to find over 50 other species of plastic-eating fungus since 2017.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Scientists still have a long way to go before this research is applicable on a large scale as a means of plastic recycling.

Still, this is proof that anything is possible here on Planet Earth. You never know where new solutions are going to come from.

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