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Researcher goes to bat, discovers new winged species

The Bayou City is home to some impressive bat colonies, but University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) researcher Dr. Amy Baird's latest discovery spreads its wings more than 2,000 miles away.

This year’s World Cities Day theme, “Changing the world: innovations and better life for future generations”, focuses on how urban governance can be used to achieve sustainable development.

UNDP supports Seychelles to put together 'Blue' financial plan

Ultimately, up to 400,000 km2, around 40 percent of its marine environment, will be protected and marine resources will be managed in a sustainable way for the benefit of the people of Seychelles.

New species of beetle named after activist Greta Thunberg

A new species of beetle will be officially named today (Friday 25th October 2019) in honour of the environmental activist, Greta Thunberg.

Nova Scotia lobsters still in sweet spot despite climate change

Group of scientists predicted impacts on Canada's most valuable fishery.For the first time, Canadian scientists have attempted to predict the impact of a warming ocean caused by climate change on the lucrative Nova Scotia and New Brunswick lobster fishery on the Scotian Shelf.

Special cells contribute to regenerate the heart in zebrafish

It is already known that zebrafish can flexibly regenerate their hearts after injury. An international research group led by Prof. Nadia Mercader of the University of Bern now shows that certain heart muscle cells play a central role in this process. The insights gained could be used to initiate ...

$85 million initiative to scale up agroforestry in Africa announced

Amid a deluge of news during the U.N. Climate Summit last month, one major announcement went largely uncovered, yet is among the most important initiatives aimed at reducing the effects of climate change revealed during the events in New York City.

Can we save kelp forests by eating sea urchins?

As ocean temperatures rise, purple sea urchins are proliferating and devouring kelp forests off the California and Oregon coasts, destroying rich marine ecosystems. One project aims to restore kelp forests by turning urchins into a delicacy.

Saving Our Oceans: A Plea for Action

This week, world leaders gather in Norway to focus on the health of our oceans at a critical time. For island nations such as the Federated States of Micronesia, threatened as never before by climate change, seriousness of purpose isn’t elective, it’s existential.

Restoring the richness of prehistoric oceans

Scientists are reconstructing the world’s once ‘pristine’ prehistoric oceans in order to stimulate further biodiversity.As a growing global concern, ocean conservation is a priority for many environmentalists. However, researchers say that we don’t know what the oceans were like before major imp ...

This Fisherman Wants Us To Use The Oceans To Fight Climate Change

As a fisherman who has been working on the high seas since he was 14, Bren Smith has seen just how precarious life in and around the ocean can be.

How Antarctic krill fertilize the oceans and even store carbon

Krill are best known as whale food. But few people realize that these small, shrimp-like creatures are also important to the health of the ocean and the atmosphere. In fact, Antarctic krill can fertilize the oceans, ultimately supporting marine life from tiny plankton through to massive whales a ...

Call for Posters on Sustainable Wildlife Management in parallel with SBSTTA 23

Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/SBG/FS/88424 (2019-091)
To: CBD National Focal Points, SBSTTA Focal Points, indigenous peoples and local communities, and relevant organizations

Sycomore AM launches Next Generation fund

Sycomore Asset Management, the €8bn French manager, has launched a balanced fund focused on companies with business models deemed compatible with sustainable growth objectives.

UN, WWF and world’s insurers unite to launch first insurance industry guide to protect UNESCO World Heritage Sites

The first guide for the insurance industry to protect our world’s priceless and irreplaceable assets was launched today at a major event by UN Environment’s Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in São Paulo, Brazil, convening leading insurers, investors and banks.

Best way to protect ocean fisheries? Let nations profit from them

Overfishing is a major problem for the world's oceans, but a strategy adopted nearly 50 years ago has helped protect fisheries: giving nations exclusive rights to waters 200 miles offshore and letting them police their own fish stocks.

Behind The Power Of Giant Sharks

Led by Christopher L. Lawson, a PhD Candidate in the School of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Queensland, a group of scientists set out to learn more about the bioenergetics models for shark and rays. “A bioenergetics model describes the energy requirements of an animal and how energy ...

Making conservation 'contagious'

New research reveals conservation initiatives often spread like disease, a fact which can help scientists and policymakers design programs more likely to be taken up.

The nitrogen dilemma: can we reduce fertilisers and still feed the world?

When nitrogen-based fertiliser runs into water systems it can result in toxic algae blooms, leading to oxygen depletion and vast oceanic ‘dead zones’. Evidence suggests their use also contributes to air pollution, increased rates of cancer and reduced biodiversity, as well as emitting nitrous ox ...

The 5 lessons from New York Climate Week to help us combat deforestation

Post-New York Climate Week and the Sustainable Development Impact Summit running alongside the UN General Assembly, it's an opportune moment to reflect on the climate crisis and deforestation's role in it.

Q&A with Christiane Paulus from the German Ministry for Environment

As Germany’s director general for nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources at the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), Christiane Paulus is a champion for landscape restoration and conservation not only on her home front but also abroad.

Rural women are an indisputable force behind efforts to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity all over the world, and as such they are critical players in building climate resilience.

This year, World Food Day calls for action across sectors to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible to everyone. It is a reminder that without healthy nature and biodiversity, we cannot have quality nutrition, and without quality nutrition we cannot have good health.

Sustainable Ocean Initiative (SOI) Training of Trainers Workshop

14 - 18 October 2019, Seocheon, Republic of Korea

The untapped potential of citizen science to track progress on the Sustainable Development Goals

“We are currently almost five years into the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, yet we do not have sufficient data for tracking the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals,” says Jillian Campbell, the Statistician leading UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) work on monitorin ...

Does sustainable development have an elephant in the room?

The inherently unequal relationship between the developed and developing world is hindering sustainable development.

Global network of financial centres plan huge growth in sustainable finance and launches regional programme for Africa

Geneva, 10 October 2019 – Maintaining the momentum of the Secretary-General’s Climate Summit last month, a global network of 30 financial centres – accounting for $61.3 trillion in equity market capitalization and representing 80 percent of global equity markets – today agreed to mainstream gree ...

Can oceans turn the tide on the climate crisis?

As we pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the world is warming at an alarming rate, with devastating consequences. While our vast oceans are helping to take the heat out of climate change, new research shows that they are absorbing a lot more atmospheric carbon dioxide than previousl ...

A model of modern sustainable agriculture – with a nudge from Thomas Jefferson

A late, hot and dry growing season keeps Nat Ratchen busy in a one-acre vegetable garden in the shadow of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.

The Amazon Bioeconomy: Exploiting The Rainforest To Save It

The best way to preserve the planet's largest tropical rainforest is to intervene in a responsible and proportionate way, which also means giving it economic significance and value alongside its ecological relevance. Beyond avoiding deforestation, this would create social value for the Amazon by ...

Finance for a farming revolution

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, clean up water supplies, prevent the loss of biodiversity, mitigate fire and flood risk and meet the nutritional requirements of a growing population the world must improve its regenerative and sustainable agricultural practices – new tools and support from th ...

The IPCC’s Special Report on Climate Change and Land: What’s in it for Africa?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems in August 2019.

What the fight against climate change means for Loch Lomond – Simon Jones

Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park is investing in nature by encouraging tree planting, keeping peatlands healthy, and working to enable people to travel to the park in more sustainable ways, writes Simon Jones.

Literature sheds light on the history and mystery of the Southern Ocean

If you look at a globe, you'll see that the Southern Hemisphere is bluer than the Northern Hemisphere. A huge 80% of it is ocean compared to 60% of the North.

British lawyer comes to India chasing moths

Growing up in a family of entomologists, bankruptcy lawyer Mark Sterling was always interested in moths. He could never quite “kick the habit” despite being busy rescuing troubled businesses. Now, at 61, the retired Briton is back to chasing moths-and his pursuit has brought him to India.

New king cricket species discovery in Costa Rica

A group of four Texas A&M Department of Entomology undergraduate students took their knowledge from the classroom and put it to use in discovering a new species of king cricket during a recent study abroad trip to Costa Rica.

Europe wants the causes of biodiversity decline translated into politics

Butterflies, bees, flies – some of whose species we no longer see around anymore because they have become extinct as a result of extensive, densely asphalted areas in between green areas. Plant species that are disappearing, an ocean full of plastic which causes fish to die because they eat it a ...

Planting Forests, Key To Sustainable Living

Everyone is committed to making their lives more sustainable in the midst of global climate challenges. But oftentimes, people forget that the simplest of things will help mitigate global warming. Keeping forests, for one, can help lessen carbon storage in the atmosphere. The United Nations have ...

Ha Long city develops sustainable tourism

Ha Long city in the northeastern province of Quang Ninh is striving to develop sustainable tourism, especially promoting the world natural heritage site of Ha Long Bay.

Malin Pinsky seeks to explain how climate change alters ocean life

Malin Pinsky had the first of two lightbulb moments while standing on the bridge of a research ship crossing the churning Drake Passage, which separates the tip of South America and Antarctica. It was 2003, and Pinsky was five months out of his undergraduate studies in biology and environmental ...

Safeguarding the world's largest tuna fishery

Understanding the impact of modern fishing techniques is critical to ensure the sustainability of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) tuna fishery—the largest tuna fishery in the world that accounts for 55% of the total tropical tuna catch and provides up to 98% of government revenue fo ...

Coral bleaching is caused by more than just heat

Analysis of reef damage in the Indo-Pacific during the 2016 El Nino reveals that several stressors influence bleaching.Scientists in the Indian and Pacific Oceans used the El Nino of 2016—the warmest year on record—to evaluate the role of excess heat as the leading driver of coral bleaching and ...

The hidden ark: How a grassroots initiative can help save fish from extinction

Freshwater fish are a highly diverse group representing nearly half of all fish species. Due to accelerating human activities, they are also the most threatened vertebrate group, and are disappearing faster than they can be described. Currently, half of all freshwater fish species are still not ...

Island reveals rising tide of plastic waste

A remote island in the southern Atlantic Ocean has helped reveal the scale of the problem of plastic waste facing our seas. Some 75% of bottles washed ashore on Inaccessible Island, in the South Atlantic, were found to be from Asia - with most made in China.

As ocean fears gather pace, WTO fishing talks stall

The oceans are under siege, campaigners warn, and fish stocks could collapse unless a global deal is struck swiftly to ban harmful fisheries subsidies. The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, can’t agree on who will head the committee to discuss the issue, according to sources close to the nego ...

What climate change in the Arctic means for the rest of us

The Arctic, a summer of heat, melting and fire was rounded off by news that 2019 saw the second-lowest ever minimum extent of sea ice. That’s the point in early autumn each year when scientists say that the Arctic Ocean will begin to freeze again. By that measure, only 2012 had less sea ice than ...

Marine protected areas key to sustainable fishing in PH

The effective management of marine protected areas (MPA) in coastal communities across the Philippines would help achieve sustainable fishing that could ensure the livelihood of small fisherfolk, as well as food security, an expert said.

Ocean ecosystems take two million years to recover after mass extinction

Around 66m years ago, a giant asteroid struck the Earth, causing the extinction of the dinosaurs, ammonites, and many other species.

Episode 190: Ambition, angst and action at Climate Week, Danone CEO prioritizes biodiversity

ENGIE Impact, part of the giant French energy company ENGIE, is a consulting and analytics company that already manages energy and wastewater services for more than 1,000 clients. Next up: a new offering it has dubbed zero carbon as a service. We talk with Clinton Moloney, managing director of s ...

Trudeau promises 25 per cent protection of land, oceans by 2025

The Liberals’ week of climate announcements continued on Thursday, as leader Justin Trudeau committed to a new environmental target — protecting 25 per cent of Canada’s land and oceans by 2025.