A new paper makes Ted Cruz’s favorite chart obsolete, as atmospheric temperatures set a new record

Wolsingham, Weardale The sexual success of thalloid liverworts has ensured their survival for millions of yearsPeering down at the emerald lobes of Pellia epiphylla liverwort covering the sides of the ditch, I could see this had recently been the site of intense sexual activity.On mild, wet days, tiny pockets embedded in the plant’s surface release swarms of swimming male sex cells, each only a few thousandths of a millimetre long. Powered by two lashing flagellae, they gyrate in the surface film of water and swim towards chemical attractants released by egg cells, hidden under a flap of tissue near the tip of the flat green thallus. Most fall by the wayside, exhausted, but a few, perhaps aided by rain splash, reach their destination. The evidence of success – small, round spore capsules resulting from fertilisation – was plain to see. Continue reading...

From Nasa’s experimental X-planes to Google’s airship, there’s plenty of innovation but the emissions-intensive industry has a long way to goInsects may not seem the most obvious problem to tackle when trying to make aviation more sustainable. But avoiding them on takeoff could help cut airlines’ fuel bills and emissions by up to 10%.It’s already an idea that NASA has explored. Last year it tested hi-tech coatings to make dead insects slide off wings, with one design delivering a 40% reduction in insect residue. Continue reading...

Authors of analysis say the rise in global temperatures slowed between 2001 and 2014. Cue misinterpretation from climate science denialistsDid global warming really slow down for a decade or so in the 2000s and does it really matter if it did?New analysis written by a group of well regarded climate scientists appeared in a journal a couple of weeks ago, arguing that global warming did slowdown. Continue reading...

Colonies found by Victorian government but conservationists say sightings ‘don’t change anything on the ground’Reports that more than 200 new colonies of Leadbeater’s possum have been recorded in Victoria have been played down by conservationists, who say the sightings “don’t change anything on the ground” for the critically endangered species.The wild population of the tiny possum has contracted to an estimated 1,500 individuals, driven by the loss of its habitat of old growth mountain ash forests in Victoria’s central highlands by bushfire and logging. Continue reading...

We need to act now to stop the poaching and trafficking driving many species towards extinction. This means increased penalties for criminals as well as reducing demandAnimals, according to many traditions, were once protected from a global flood by entering the shelter of an ark.

A juvenile bull shark was seen by morning walkers while it swam in the shallows of Perth’s Swan river. The video, shot from the foreshore, shows the shark near the Royal Perth Yacht Club marina. The foreshore is a popular picnic area and members of the yacht club were alerted to the shark’s presence. Mature bull sharks are known for their aggressive nature and have used sections of the Swan river as nursing grounds Continue reading...

With Tasmania’s hydropower plants idle due to low rainfall, and a faulty cable connecting the state to the mainland grid, it’s clear a better long-term solution is neededThe timing couldn’t have been any worse. On 20 December 2015, the undersea cable connecting Tasmania with mainland Australia malfunctioned, leaving the island state’s energy infrastructure stranded without help – just when it was needed most.

Utah, Colorado and Texas are being aggressively pumped for oil and natural gas, producing methane leaks in quantities much higher than previously thought – and little is being done to contain the problemWhen Stephen Conley, an atmospheric scientist and pilot, saw an emissions indicator skyrocket in his Mooney TLS prop plane, he knew he had found a significant methane leak. His gas-detecting Picarro analyzer indicated he was flying through a plume of gas escaping at 900kg per hour. The colorless, odorless gas was enough to cover a football field to a height of 20 feet in a single day. But this flight wasn’t over the highly publicized Aliso Canyon in Los Angeles; Conley was circling the Bakken Shale, a rock formation in western North Dakota that has been aggressively pumped for oil and natural gas.Day in and day out, small leaks in oil and gas producing regions like the Bakken Shale are emitting methane in quantities that collectively rival or even exceed Aliso Canyon. New figures released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last month indicate the potent greenhouse gas is being emitted from leaks across the US in quantities “much larger” than previously thought. Continue reading...

Paula Kahumbu: Advances in the war against wildlife crime are in danger of floundering in a mire of corruption

But critics take the billionaire investor to task for saying, in an annual shareholder letter, that fears about the negative impact of climate change on Berkshire Hathaway’s insurance business are unfoundedEnvironmental advocacy groups have criticized billionaire businessman Warren Buffett for his recent claims that climate change will be a manageable and profitable risk for the insurance industry.

New research addresses the economic costs of damages associated with sea level rise

Wenlock Edge Snowdrops live on, left to fend for themselves in the woodsA dog barks from a house where I once lived. There are snowdrops flowering there that were so familiar and now I’m a stranger. I walk into the ruins of a garden that has been reclaimed by the woods, where the gardener has been estranged for a hundred years. There are clumps of single and double snowdrop varieties that were once highly prized and are now abandoned, rarely seen. They appear as breaths of history.Whether the snowdrops grew here before the house was built, no one knows. They appear to have been here forever, but there are no records by English herbalists of what the French monasteries called perce-neiges, snowpiercers, growing in the wild in Britain before 1770. Until they found their way into woods and stream banks, snowdrops were for burial grounds, graves, shrines, marking dwellings of the dead. That’s what these abandoned flowers do now. Continue reading...