Climate change

Climate change is depleting deep sea oxygen, but tides are helping to keep the ocean healthy

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Heat, Wind, Water, Climate change, Farm, Research, Animal, Growth, Nutrient, Phytoplankton, Reproduction, Oxygen, Nature Communications, Celtic Sea, Aquaculture

That’s one reason an oxygen deficit deep in the oceans is a problem – and climate change is making it worse.

Key Points: 
  • That’s one reason an oxygen deficit deep in the oceans is a problem – and climate change is making it worse.
  • This is important because creatures in the ocean are reliant on oxygen to survive in the same way as animals on land are.
  • The tides act to stir up deep water nutrients, which promote the growth of microscopic plants known as phytoplankton.
  • Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue.

Planting trees in grasslands won’t save the planet – rather protect and restore forests

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
AFR100, Radiation, Employment, Meat, Climate change, Eucalyptus, Risk, Livestock, Climate, Economic development, Milk, Tree, Local, Afforestation, Life, Carbon, Biodiversity, Tourism, Water, Ecosystem, Fire, Great Green Wall, Recreation, Soil, Agriculture

Many of these tree planting projects target Africa’s rangelands (open grasslands or shrublands used by livestock and wild animals).

Key Points: 
  • Many of these tree planting projects target Africa’s rangelands (open grasslands or shrublands used by livestock and wild animals).
  • Our goal is to protect and promote rangelands that combat desertification and support economic
    growth, resilient livelihoods and the sustainable development of pastoralism.
  • In pursuit of this goal, we reviewed all the scientific studies we could find on the effects of planting trees in rangelands.

Why rangelands matter

  • Rangelands provide critical ecosystem services, but these are lost when open grassy vegetation is converted to forest or plantation.
  • Many rangelands are too dry, steep or rocky to grow crops but are suited for livestock grazing to produce meat, milk and fibres such as wool.
  • Read more:
    When tree planting actually damages ecosystems

    The ecosystem services provided by rangelands are generally overlooked while those provided by forests and trees are assumed to be far superior.

Afforestation in the wrong places often fails

  • This is a suitable form of land use for those environments, which would be harmed by planting trees.
  • Tree planting projects are commonly portrayed as reforestation, which implies that the target areas have lost their original forest cover.
  • In fact, planting trees in rangelands that naturally have low tree cover is afforestation.
  • This often fails because they don’t have enough rainfall throughout the year to support high tree cover.

Afforestation can be damaging to people, water and climate

  • Despite being portrayed as supporting local economic development and ecosystem restoration, afforestation projects often exclude existing land users and limit their access to land and resources.
  • Rangeland afforestation also reduces streamflow and lowers water tables as trees use much more water than grasses.

What is a better solution?

  • If these initiatives were focused on degraded forest instead, three-quarters of degraded forests could be restored.
  • In rangelands, the best approach is to protect and enhance their existing carbon stores rather than replacing them with forests or plantations.


Susanne Vetter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

A global plastics treaty is being negotiated in Ottawa this week – here’s the latest

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Negotiation, Climate change, Waste management, Environment, Recycling, Non-governmental organization, Risk, Left–right political spectrum, Reuse, Sale, Food, Plastic, Restaurant, Cosmetics, Collection

To make matters worse, the global trade in plastic waste tends to push waste to parts of the world with the least capacity to manage it.

Key Points: 
  • To make matters worse, the global trade in plastic waste tends to push waste to parts of the world with the least capacity to manage it.
  • The global plastics treaty focuses on ending plastic pollution, not eliminating the use of plastics.

Divisive positions

  • Negotiators must make rapid and significant progress this week towards a comprehensive treaty.
  • There is a broad division between countries, ranging from “low-ambition” countries which have hindered progress to a high-ambition coalition (led by Rwanda and Norway).
  • Or will it be a weaker treaty, with voluntary and country-led measures that focus mainly on waste management and pollution prevention (the “downstream” stages)?

Voices in the room

  • There is ongoing dialogue regarding which voices are in attendance and influencing governments.
  • If industry has such a large presence, there is considerable work to be done to amplify the voices of civil rights groups, NGOs and evidence-based contributions from academics.

Financing implementation

  • Without financial support, there is a significant risk that even well-intentioned measures could falter.
  • A well-structured financial framework could ensure transparency and accountability through a mixture of private and public finance or novel mechanisms such as plastic pollution fees.

Shifting away from waste management

  • There is a strong argument by the petrochemical and fossil fuel industry and some lower-ambition countries that the treaty should focus on waste management, improved collection, recycling and removal technologies.
  • But plastic production is so great that solutions to prevent or manage plastic waste and pollution cannot keep up, and will only reduce global plastic pollution by 7% in the long term.

Reuse as a potential early victory

  • Not to be confused with recycling or refill, reuse emphasises the repeated use of items in their current form, curtailing the demand for new plastic production for single-use products or packaging.
  • Reuse would be relatively agreeable for most countries, especially when compared to divisive measures such as caps on production or outright bans on certain items or materials.


Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 30,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.
Antaya March receives funding from the Flotilla Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme. Cressida Bowyer receives funding from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Steve Fletcher receives funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Flotilla Foundation, the UK Government and the United Nations Environment Programme. He currently serves as the NERC Agenda Setting Fellow for Plastic Pollution.

Ecosystems are deeply interconnected – environmental research, policy and management should be too

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Rain, Nature, Trust, River, Microplastics, Climate change, Soil, Tree, Research, Movement, Policy, Science, Ecosystem, Forestry

Is it because we don’t have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change?

Key Points: 
  • Is it because we don’t have enough information about how ecosystems respond to change?
  • Specifically, we investigate solutions to environmental and societal problems that stem from the disparities between scientific research, policy and management responses to environmental issues.


Our work’s standing among global research aimed at stopping ecosystem collapse has been recognised as one of 23 national champions in this year’s Frontiers Planet Prize.

Read more:
Our oceans are in deep trouble – a 'mountains to sea' approach could make a real difference

More holistic solutions

  • The challenges focused on environmental issues were deliberately created to concentrate on separate ecosystem and management domains (marine, freshwater and land).
  • We focus on solutions where social and ecological connections are at the forefront of environmental management practices and decisions.
  • Most of the microplastics found along coasts and in harbours are blown or washed off the land.
  • This leads to lags in decision making which create undesirable environmental outcomes that are difficult to return from.

Cyclones as a real-world example

  • The exposed soil associated with clear felling was left draped in woody debris to protect it from rain.
  • However, Cyclone Gabrielle hit in February last year, with extreme rainfall washing both soil and woody debris into streams.
  • The debris also clogged harbours and coastal beaches, smothered seafloor habitats, destroyed fisheries and affected cultural and recreational values.
  • This real-world example demonstrates the severe consequences of lags in information flow and management responses.

Living with nature, not off it

  • Living within planetary boundaries requires a paradigm shift in behaviours, including the way we link science and management to on-the-ground action.
  • Crucially, we need to increase the speed at which new research is taken up and rapidly transition this into action that improves environmental outcomes at local scales.
  • This behavioural shift underpins the way to a more integrated, broad-scale ability to act and stay within planetary boundaries.
  • Rebecca Gladstone-Gallagher receives funding from philanthropy, Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), including from the National Science Challenges, the Marsden Fund and the Rutherford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowships.
  • Conrad Pilditch receives funding from Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), including the National Science Challenge Sustainable Seas, Marsden Fund and regional councils.

Vastly bigger than the Black Summer: 84 million hectares of northern Australia burned in 2023

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Research, Climate change, Season, Conference, Burns, Government, Great Sandy, Black Summer, Social media, Foot, History, Wildfire, Arson, Atmosphere, Fire, Rain, Animal, NT, Weather, Coal

Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through 10 million hectares in southeast Australia.

Key Points: 
  • Fires burned across an area eight times as big as the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires that tore through 10 million hectares in southeast Australia.
  • My research shows the 2023 fires burned more than 84 million hectares of desert and savannah in northern Australia.
  • In just a few weeks of September and October, more than 18 million hectares burned across the Barkly, Tanami and Great Sandy Deserts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.

Why did this happen?

  • When it dries out, grass becomes fuel for fires.
  • For example, you can see the pattern of more fire following wet years repeating at periodic intervals over the past 20 years of fire in the Northern Territory.
  • In this way, La Niña is the major driver of these massive fires in the desert.
  • In the NT alone, more than 55 million hectares burned in 2011, compared with 43 million in 2023.

How can fires be managed?

  • The sophisticated use of fire in Australia’s highly flammable tropical savannas has been recognised as the world’s best wildfire management system.
  • It also hinders the spread of fire because areas subject to more recent fire have insufficient fuel to carry new fires for many years.
  • Even though large fires still ripped through these deserts in 2023, by mapping the fuel reduction fires and overlaying the spread of subsequent wildfires, we can see the 2023 fires were limited by previous burns.
  • For example, the fire spread animation below shows fires moving through a complex mosaic comprising fuel of different ages.
  • Read more:
    Invasive grasses are worsening bushfires across Australia's drylands

    The fires of greatest concern to government agencies were the Barkly fires that threatened the town of Tennant Creek.

  • Read more:
    Indigenous rangers are burning the desert the right way – to stop the wrong kind of intense fires from raging

Preparing for the future

  • Desert fire management is still under-resourced and poorly understood.
  • Read more:
    Our planet is burning in unexpected ways - here’s how we can protect people and nature


Rohan Fisher does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

It never rains but it pours: intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australia

Retrieved on: 
Friday, April 19, 2024
Element, Climate change, Coral Sea, Air travel, Warragamba Dam, Research, Flood, River, Channel Country, Great, Water, Atmosphere, Rain, Canal

Now we get flash floods much further inland, such as Broken Hill in 2012 and 2022 and Cobar, Bourke and Nyngan in 2022.

Key Points: 
  • Now we get flash floods much further inland, such as Broken Hill in 2012 and 2022 and Cobar, Bourke and Nyngan in 2022.
  • Flash floods are those beginning between one and six hours after rainfall, while riverine floods take longer to build.
  • Instead, we’re seeing warm, moist air pushed down from the Coral Sea, leading to thunderstorms and floods much further inland.

What’s changing?

  • Inland, flash floods occur when intense rain hits small urban catchments, runs off roads and concrete, and flows into low-lying areas.
  • Early this month, the subtropical jet stream changed its course, triggering a cyclonic circulation higher in the atmosphere over inland eastern Australia.
  • The result was localised extremely heavy rain, which led to the Warragamba Dam spilling and flood plain inundation in western Sydney.
  • These are characterised by a deepening coastal trough and upper-level low pressure systems further west, over inland eastern Australia.
  • Instead, flash floods occurred when slow-moving upper-level low pressure circulations encountered air masses laden with moisture evaporating off the oceans.

Haven’t there always been flash floods?

  • Previously, inland floods tended to come after long periods of widespread rain saturated large river catchments.
  • Inland flash floods were not so common and powerful as in recent decades.
  • What about the famous inland floods which move through Queensland’s Channel Country and fill Kati Thanda/Lake Eyre?
  • These are slow moving riverine floods, not flash floods.


Read more:
Changes in the jet stream are steering autumn rain away from southeast Australia

Short, intense rain bursts are going global

  • Dubai this week had a year’s rain (152 mm) in a single day, which triggered flash floods and caused widespread disruption of air travel.
  • Other parts of the United Arab Emirates got even more rain, with up to 250 mm.
  • In Western Australia’s remote southern reaches, the isolated community of Rawlinna recently had 155 mm of rain in a day.


The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Caring for older Americans’ teeth and gums is essential, but Medicare generally doesn’t cover that cost

Retrieved on: 
Friday, April 19, 2024
Dental care, Radiation, Transplant, Attention, Climate change, Child care, Organization, Congress, Dentistry, Cardiovascular disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, Medicine, Pneumonia, Ronald Reagan, Infection, Federation, Diabetes, Risk, Inflammation, Patient, Conditional sentence, Nursing, Stroke, Hospital, HIV-AIDS, History, Tooth decay, Death, Quality of life, Insurance, House, Periodontal disease, Deficit spending, Atherosclerosis, Health, Pain, Dentist, Medicare Advantage, Senate, Fear, Health insurance

As dentistry scholars, we believe Koop also deserves credit for something else.

Key Points: 
  • As dentistry scholars, we believe Koop also deserves credit for something else.
  • Americans who rely on the traditional Medicare program for their health insurance get no help from that program with paying their dental bills aside from some narrow exceptions.
  • This group includes some 24 million people over 65 – about half of all the people who rely on Medicare for their health insurance.

‘Medically necessary’ exceptions

  • The list of circumstances that would lead patients to be eligible is short.
  • Some examples include patients scheduled for organ transplants or who have cancer treatment requiring radiation of their jaws.
  • But we believe that dental care is necessary for everyone, especially for older people.

Chew, speak, breathe

  • While many working Americans get limited dental coverage through their employers, those benefits are usually limited to as little as $1,000 per year.
  • And once they retire, Americans almost always lose even that basic coverage.
  • Rich Americans with Medicare coverage are almost three times more likely to receive dental care compared to those with low incomes.

Connected to many serious conditions

  • Having diabetes makes you three times as likely to develop gum disease because diabetes compromises the body’s response to inflammation and infection.
  • At the same time, treating diabetes patients for gum disease can help control their blood sugar levels.

Chemo can damage your teeth


Many cancer treatments can damage teeth, especially for older adults. As a result, Medicare has started to reimburse for dental bills tied to tooth decay or other oral conditions after they get chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

More than nice to have

  • Doctors and dentists are educated separately, and doctors learn very little about dental conditions and treatments when they’re in medical school.
  • Most dental electronic health records aren’t linked to medical systems, hindering comprehensive care and delivery of dental care to those in need.
  • Medical insurance was designed specifically to cover large, unpredictable expenses, while dental insurance was intended to mainly fund predictable and lower-cost preventive care.

Medicare Advantage plans

  • Until Medicare expands coverage to include preventive dental services for everyone, alternative plans such as Medicare Advantage, through which the federal government contracts with private insurers to provide Medicare benefits, serve as a stopgap.
  • In 2016, only 21% of beneficiaries in traditional Medicare had purchased a stand-alone dental plan, whereas roughly two-thirds of Medicare Advantage enrollees had at least some dental benefits through their coverage.


Frank Scannapieco is affiliated with The Task Force on Design and Analysis in Oral Health Research, and consults for the Colgate-Palmolive Company. Ira Lamster is a member of the Santa Fe Group. He currently receives consulting fees from Colgate, and research support from the CareQuest Institute.

Press release - Carbon removals: MEPs adopt a new EU certification scheme

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Carbon, Certification, Climate change, Conference, Public, Farmer, Environment, EPP, European Parliament, Parliament, Council, European, Legislation

- Certification framework to boost high-quality carbon removals and counter greenwashing

Key Points: 
  • - Certification framework to boost high-quality carbon removals and counter greenwashing
    - New rules will enable farmers to get paid to remove carbon
    - Public EU registry to ensure transparency
    The law will set up an EU certification framework for carbon removals to boost their uptake and help achieve EU climate neutrality by 2050.
  • Parliament on Wednesday adopted the provisional political agreement with EU countries on a new voluntary certification framework for carbon removals, with 441 votes in favour, 139 against and 41 abstentions.
  • The legislation covers different types of carbon removals, namely permanent carbon storage through industrial technologies, carbon storage in long-lasting products and carbon farming.
  • You can read more about the new rules in the press release after the deal with EU countries.

Press release - Soil health: Parliament sets out measures to achieve healthy soils by 2050

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Health, Climate change, Conference, Environment, Agriculture, Climate, Classification, Food, Parliament, Biodiversity, Commission, Ecosystem, Legislation, Environmental remediation

The new law will oblige EU countries to first monitor and then assess the health of all soils on their territory.

Key Points: 
  • The new law will oblige EU countries to first monitor and then assess the health of all soils on their territory.
  • National authorities may apply the soil descriptors that best illustrate the soil characteristics of each soil type at national level.
  • MEPs propose a five-level classification to assess soil health (high, good, moderate ecological status, degraded, and critically degraded soils).
  • That is why it is our responsibility to adopt the first piece of EU-wide legislation to monitor and improve soil health."

Press release - MEPs approve reforms for a more sustainable and resilient EU gas market

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Electricity, Gas, Climate change, Natural gas, EPP, Risk, Fit for 55, S&D, Official Journal, MEP, European Green Deal, Council, Investment, Hydrogen, Legislation, Renewable energy

MEPs approve reforms for a more sustainable and resilient EU gas market

Key Points: 
  • MEPs approve reforms for a more sustainable and resilient EU gas market
    - New directive will help decarbonise the gas sector to tackle climate change
    - MEPs secured measures to protect vulnerable consumers and to ensure transparency
    - EU countries will be able to restrict imports from Russia
    - To shift away from fossil gas, the legislation will promote biomethane and hydrogen
    On Thursday, MEPs adopted plans to facilitate the uptake of renewable and low-carbon gases, including hydrogen, into the EU gas market.
  • In negotiations with Council on the directive, MEPs focused on securing provisions around transparency, consumer rights, and support for people at risk of energy poverty.
  • Unbundling rules for hydrogen network operators will correspond to existing best practices in the gas and electricity market."
  • It includes provisions to facilitate blending hydrogen with natural gas and renewable gases, and greater EU cooperation on gas quality and storage.