Carbon cycle

Migrating animals face collapsing numbers – major new UN report

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 12, 2024

The first ever State of the World’s Migratory Species report, released today by the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, showed that the conservation status of many migratory species is getting worse.

Key Points: 
  • The first ever State of the World’s Migratory Species report, released today by the United Nations Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, showed that the conservation status of many migratory species is getting worse.
  • The convention maintains a list of migratory species that are already in need of protection.
  • More than one in five (or 22%) of the already threatened migratory species now face extinction.

Which species are listed?

  • There are 4,508 species in the world that are migratory, and the convention lists 1,189.
  • What must be done

    My research has pointed out that migratory species undertake remarkable journeys that connect diverse habitats across the globe.

  • The report found that the threatened migratory species occurring in Africa, Asia and North America are experiencing the fastest declines.
  • Of the migratory species that the convention lists as needing some level of protection, 97% are under threat of extinction.

Migratory animals’ habitats are being destroyed

  • In Africa, 79% of new cropland over the past few decades has been established by destroying the natural vegetation where many migratory animals lived, the report says.
  • The report also points out that pollution and introducing alien invasive species into habitats of natural vegetation put pressure on these indigenous species.

Why migratory species are important

  • Migratory species consume tons of food daily.
  • For example, deep-sea creatures, particularly tiny zooplankton, migrate from deep waters to the surface at night to feed on phytoplankton.
  • Tiny marine animals are key to working out its climate impacts

    Protecting migratory species goes beyond conserving biodiversity; it is crucial for ensuring a healthier future for our planet.

What to do about it

  • This includes expanding protected areas used by migratory species, taking down fences and making more effort to connect protected areas to each other.
  • Stronger laws, enhanced international collaboration to curb illegal activities, and reducing bycatch in fisheries are urgently required, says the report.
  • This report marks a significant step towards creating a conservation roadmap for migratory species.
  • He is a senior Statistician at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
  • He is also affilicated with the One Mara Research Hub (OMRH) and the Greater Serengeti-Mara Conservation Society; both devoted to securing the future of the magnificient Greater-Serengeti Mara Ecosystem.

NASA Launches New Climate Mission to Study Ocean, Atmosphere

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 8, 2024

NASA confirmed signal acquisition from the satellite about five minutes after launch, and the spacecraft is performing as expected.

Key Points: 
  • NASA confirmed signal acquisition from the satellite about five minutes after launch, and the spacecraft is performing as expected.
  • "Missions like this are supporting the Biden-Harris Administration's climate agenda and helping us answer urgent questions about our changing climate."
  • From hundreds of miles above Earth, the PACE mission will study the impact of tiny, often invisible things: microscopic life in water and microscopic particles in the air.
  • The PACE mission is managed by NASA Goddard, which also built and tested the spacecraft and the ocean color instrument.

Dangerous climate tipping points will affect Australia. The risks are real and cannot be ignored

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 6, 2024

The ice sheets, Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic ocean circulation are among nine recognised global climate tipping elements.

Key Points: 
  • The ice sheets, Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic ocean circulation are among nine recognised global climate tipping elements.
  • Once a tipping point is crossed, changes are often irreversible for a very long time.
  • Read more:
    Climate tipping points are nearer than you think – our new report warns of catastrophic risk

What are climate tipping points?

  • Climate scientists have known for a while, through paleoclimate records and other evidence, that there are “tipping elements” in the climate system.
  • Triggering climate tipping points would lead to changes in addition to those commonly included in climate projections.
  • Triggering one tipping point may trigger other tipping points.


Read more:
Antarctic tipping points: the irreversible changes to come if we fail to keep warming below 2℃

Grappling with deep uncertainties

  • Researchers from Australian science agencies and universities came together last year to consider what global climate tipping points could mean for Australia.
  • We considered the nine global climate tipping points – and one of the most relevant regional tipping points for Australia, coral reef die-offs – as defined in a recent scientific review.
  • There are deep uncertainties about what conditions would trigger tipping points, how they would play out and their likely impacts.
  • Along with recognising the most urgent point – that deep emission cuts will limit the chances of triggering tipping points – our conclusions cover three areas.
  • We need more research We need to expand research on paleoclimate records, theory and process understanding, observations, monitoring and modelling.
  • Australia leads world-class research, including on Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, the carbon cycle, weather processes and ecosystems.
  • Read more:
    Climate 'tipping points' can be positive too – our report sets out how to engineer a domino effect of rapid changes


Michael Grose receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program and the Australian Climate Service. Andy Pitman receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Federal Investment Supports Building Novel 14-Storey Mass-Timber Academic Tower at the University of Toronto

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, January 18, 2024

The University of Toronto's Academic Wood Tower project is one of many examples of innovative technologies being used to create resilient and low-carbon buildings, while preventing carbon emissions.

Key Points: 
  • The University of Toronto's Academic Wood Tower project is one of many examples of innovative technologies being used to create resilient and low-carbon buildings, while preventing carbon emissions.
  • The Government of Canada is pleased to help get this tower built, right here in Toronto."
  • "As a global university, we have a responsibility — and an opportunity — to show the world how to positively shape urban environments.
  • Ambitious projects like these are why U of T is increasingly regarded as a global leader in sustainability."

How industrial agriculture is disturbing the nitrogen cycle and undermining conditions for life on Earth

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Six of our nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed – and industrial agriculture are the main culprit.

Key Points: 
  • Six of our nine planetary boundaries have now been crossed – and industrial agriculture are the main culprit.
  • This notion of overstepping boundaries is clear in regard to the best-known limit of them all: that of climate change.
  • Yet in the case of the planetary boundary for nitrogen, exceeding the threshold is different, as it is the industrialisation of agriculture that is largely, and more complexly, responsible for breaking the limit.
  • But how can agriculture affect the nitrogen cycle?

The natural nitrogen cycle

  • First, we need to understand the natural cycle of carbon and nitrogen – two of the main elements that form living matter.
  • So, the boundaries of the nitrogen cycle have to remain local: any loss of nitrogen brings about a risk of soil depletion, which jeopardises continued plant growth.
  • The amount of nitrogen that is lost in the atmosphere and in groundwater is therefore considerable, and this loss makes nitrogen the main limiting factor in plant growth.
  • They do so through a symbiotic association with bacteria that have enzymes needed to convert molecular nitrogen into proteins.
  • It is this symbiotic fixation that offsets the natural environmental loss of nitrogen and ensures that terrestrial ecosystems function perennially.

Farming and fertilisation

  • Each time plants are harvested, the nitrogen contained in them is carried far away from the plot of soil where it came from.
  • That is the purpose of fertilisation.
  • There are many methods of fertilisation.
  • Indeed, this method was the basis of traditional systems of polyculture and livestock farming.
  • They quickly made traditional polyculture and livestock farming obsolete and paved the way to intensified and specialised agriculture, which was henceforth coupled with the heavy chemical industry.

Environmental nitrogen loss

  • In this accelerated flow of nitrogen, what causes trouble is the environmental nitrogen loss that results from it.
  • Indeed, the more nitrogenous fertilisers are used to increase crop yields, the less the added nitrogen is effective and the greater the losses through leaching and volatilisation.
  • What we call the nitrogen surplus is the excess of nitrogen put into the soil in relation to the quantity actually taken away through harvesting.

Feeding the world without ruining it

  • But can we reasonably scale down intensive farming without jeopardising the food security of a world that will have 10 billion mouths to feed by 2050?
  • Yet we can only do so if three major structural changes are made to the entire agrifood system at the same time as intensive agriculture is toned down.
  • On the contrary, this model of agriculture has now been clearly identified as a factor that disturbs the Earth’s system profoundly.
  • AFP and The Conversation France have maintained their editorial independence at every stage of the project.


Gilles Billen ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.

Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Holds Christening and Handover Ceremony in Shimonoseki for Demonstration Test Ship for Liquefied CO2 Transport

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, November 28, 2023

TOKYO, Nov 28, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group company based in Yokohama, today held a christening and handover ceremony for a demonstration test ship to transport liquefied carbon dioxide (LCO2).

Key Points: 
  • TOKYO, Nov 28, 2023 - (JCN Newswire) - Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd., a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) Group company based in Yokohama, today held a christening and handover ceremony for a demonstration test ship to transport liquefied carbon dioxide (LCO2).
  • The ship will be used for the "CCUS R&D and Demonstration Related Project / Large-scale CCUS Demonstration in Tomakomai / Demonstration Project on CO2 Transportation" (the demonstration projects) being conducted by Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
  • The ceremony took place at the Enoura Plant of MHI's Shimonoseki Shipyard & Machinery Works in Yamaguchi Prefecture, in the presence of the ship owner Sanyu Kisen Co., Ltd. and other related parties.
  • As part of this effort, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding will actively pursue commercialization of LCO2 handling systems, and as a marine systems integrator, aim to achieve decarbonization.

New Benchmark Study Highlights Impacts of Nickel and Cobalt Mining on Critical Forested Carbon Sinks Amid Battery Metals Boom

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Resulting vegetation change also causes carbon sequestration services loss of 4.8g and 6.5g of CO2e respectively for nickel, and 9.3g of CO2e for cobalt per year.

Key Points: 
  • Resulting vegetation change also causes carbon sequestration services loss of 4.8g and 6.5g of CO2e respectively for nickel, and 9.3g of CO2e for cobalt per year.
  • The full study can be downloaded here and a summary document here .
  • While awareness is growing of the direct carbon emissions from metals mining and processing, lifecycle assessments do not often assess the impacts of land-use change on carbon sinks in specific regions.
  • An earlier peer-reviewed study – published in the Journal of Cleaner Production – found that sourcing critical battery metals from seafloor nodules could drastically reduce the lifecycle climate change impacts when compared to land ores.

Equinor and Captura partner to develop ocean carbon removal

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, November 1, 2023

LOS ANGELES and STAVANGER, Norway, Nov. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, multinational energy company Equinor, and Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) company Captura, announced a partnership to develop industrial scale solutions to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the ocean.

Key Points: 
  • LOS ANGELES and STAVANGER, Norway, Nov. 01, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, multinational energy company Equinor, and Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) company Captura, announced a partnership to develop industrial scale solutions to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the ocean.
  • Captura’s DOC solution enhances this natural carbon removal capability, without increasing CO2 levels in the ocean.
  • We’re thrilled to be joining forces with the Equinor team to continue driving towards climate relevant carbon removal."
  • Captura is also working with Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal project developer, to build DOC plants in Canada.

Seed Group steps toward a greener future via strategic partnership with Bluebell Index

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 31, 2023

As a strategic partner, Seed Group is poised to collaborate closely with Bluebell Index to expand its outreach and impact.

Key Points: 
  • As a strategic partner, Seed Group is poised to collaborate closely with Bluebell Index to expand its outreach and impact.
  • Leveraging its extensive network and influential position, Seed Group will facilitate Bluebell Index in reaching the right audience and establishing connections with key decision-makers in both the government and the private sector.
  • Together with Seed Group, Bluebell Index will make meaningful strides in promoting environmental sustainability and technological innovation in the region.
  • Hisham Al Gurg, CEO of Seed Group and the Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, said, "We are thrilled to welcome Bluebell Index to our growing ecosystem of strategic partners.

Seed Group steps toward a greener future via strategic partnership with Bluebell Index

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, October 31, 2023

As a strategic partner, Seed Group is poised to collaborate closely with Bluebell Index to expand its outreach and impact.

Key Points: 
  • As a strategic partner, Seed Group is poised to collaborate closely with Bluebell Index to expand its outreach and impact.
  • Leveraging its extensive network and influential position, Seed Group will facilitate Bluebell Index in reaching the right audience and establishing connections with key decision-makers in both the government and the private sector.
  • Together with Seed Group, Bluebell Index will make meaningful strides in promoting environmental sustainability and technological innovation in the region.
  • Hisham Al Gurg, CEO of Seed Group and the Private Office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, said, "We are thrilled to welcome Bluebell Index to our growing ecosystem of strategic partners.