Tim Radford – Higher sea levels and diminishing deposits of estuary silt will endanger the survival of many mangrove forests across the Pacific Ocean.

In less than one human lifetime, some of the planet’s richest and most vital coastal habitats could disappear. Sea-level rise is expected to flood and drown the mangrove forests of much of the Indo-Pacific. These subtropical and tropical intertidal forests – home to huge varieties of fish, birds and insects, and natural buffers that protect coasts and estuaries during tropical …

Andrea Germanos – Humankind Has Halved the Number of Trees on the Planet

The good news: there are over 3 trillion trees covering the Earth—that’s far higher than the 4 billion estimated just two years ago, a team of international researchers has found. But here’s the bad news: there were far more trees—46 percent more—before human civilization got hold, with an estimated 15 billion trees being lost own each year, with just 5 …

Severe droughts could lead to widespread losses of butterflies by 2050

Widespread drought-sensitive butterfly population extinctions could occur in the UK as early as 2050 according to a new study published today in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change. However, the authors conclude that substantial greenhouse gas emission reductions combined with better management of landscapes, in particular reducing habitat fragmentation, will greatly improve the chances of drought-sensitive butterflies flying until at …

Nafeez Ahmed – Beyond Extinction – Transition To Post-Capitalism Is Inevitable

In Margaret Atwood’s powerful essay [It’s Not Climate Change It’s Everything Change] on the reality of climate change and its implications for the future of oil-dependent industrial civilization she tells two vastly distinct stories of our future. The first is a tale of dystopia – a future so bleak, it would make Hollywood moguls looking for the next science fiction …

Deirdre Fulton – Scientists Identify ‘Triple Threat’ Endangering US Coastal Cities

A trio of phenomena attributed at least in part to climate change—sea-level rise, storm surges, and heavy rainfall—poses an increasing risk to residents of major U.S. cities including Boston, New York, Houston, San Diego, and San Francisco, according to new research published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. “Call it a triple threat,” Steven Meyers, a scientist at the …

Welcome to an extreme, warming world By David Suzuki

My hometown, Vancouver, is in a rainforest, so we celebrate sunny days. People I talk to are enjoying the recent warm, dry weather [9], but they invariably add, “This isn’t normal” — especially with all the smoke from nearby forest fires. With no mountain snowpack and almost no spring rain, rivers, creeks and reservoirs are at levels typically not seen until fall. …

GMO Bacon? ‘Genetically Modified’ Pigs on the Horizon – Christina Sarich

Are you ready for modern-made ‘GMO’ bacon? With the near-future possibility of gene-modified pigs coming to your local grocery store, this may be yet another biotech reality. Molecular biologist Jin-Soo Kim at Seoul National University showed off pictures of hogs in the publication Nature just weeks ago. These genetically modified pigs were made to have bizarrely large backsides, considered the most edible part of the …

Climate change is turning male dragon lizards into females

A climate-induced change of male dragons into females occurring in the wild has been confirmed for the first time, according to University of Canberra research recently published on the cover of international journal Nature. The researchers, who have long studied Australia’s bearded dragon lizards, have been able to show that a reptile’s sex determination process can switch rapidly from one determined …

The Future Of Understanding Human Immunity Will Rest On Our Knowledge of Bacteria and Inflammation by MAE CHAN

Throughout the world, we will see proliferating technologies that will eventually assist in a greater understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the incredible interactions between nutrition and immunity. The short-sighted conventional medical approach of inserting microorganisms into the body will be replaced by our understanding of new aspects in the complex relationships between bacteria and inflammatory processes which ultimately cause …

Researchers Find Textbook-Altering Link Between Brain, Immune System – JOSH BARNEY

In a stunning discovery that overturns decades of textbook teaching, researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist. That such vessels could have escaped detection when the lymphatic system has been so thoroughly mapped throughout the body is surprising on its own, …