Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Former secretary of state accuses oil and gas companies of ‘business as usual’ at major climate summit in New York Countries are ignoring commitments they made less than a year ago to shift away from fossil fuels and to provide aid to those most vulnerable to the climate crisis, a host of leading figures have admitted during a gloomy start to a major climate summit in New York. Al Gore, the former US vice-president, and John Kerry, the former US secretary of state and climate envoy, have led the condemnation of the largest greenhouse gas emitters, led by China and the US, for failing to follow a UN pact signed in Dubai by nearly 200 countries in December to “transition away” from oil, coal and gas. Continue reading...

The new head of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty on Cop29 and why activism is not winning enough Top climate scientists have long warned that swiftly curbing fossil fuel production will be necessary to avert climate catastrophe. Yet international climate treaties have failed to include such commitments. Despite pressure from vulnerable nations and activists, in the agreement signed at international climate talks last year, world leaders failed to commit to a fossil fuel “phase-out”, instead calling for a “transition away” from coal, oil and gas. Its a longstanding problem: the 2015 Paris agreement does not even mention that fossil fuels are responsible for global heating. That paradox led climate-vulnerable nations and civil society groups to launch the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative. First dreamed up following the Paris climate talks and officially launched in 2019, the proposed treaty would include concrete plans for the phase-out of fossil fuels, complementing the Paris agreement. It has been endorsed by 13 countries including Colombia and vulnerable island nations such as Vanuatu, as well as hundreds of elected officials, 118 cities and municipalities, and thousands of organizations. Inspired in part by the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which aimed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, the initiative calls on nations to agree to halt the expansion of coal, oil and gas. Continue reading...

Researchers working in Finland propose that the unique light environment of the Earth's Polar regions creates conditions that result in circumpolar hybrid zones around the North and the South Poles. These extreme conditions increase the synchrony of reproductive phenology among species, i.e., force all species into a smaller window for reproduction. This will sustain biodiversity in the long term.

There’s a war brewing between those who want to plan for future challenges and those who want to turn back the tide Sign up for the Rural Network email newsletter Join the Rural Network group on Facebook to be part of the community The leadership of Australian farming is a club that has strict rules. Like the classic movie Fight Club, the first rule about farm club is you don’t talk about farm club. But that doesn’t always work out well for farmers. There are clever people in the leadership club who are loath to speak out. Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter Continue reading...