Adam, our new neighbor on the East side of the "Big Beach," is constructing a seawall at the base of the cliff with the goal stopping or minimizing the erosion of red mud into the bay. Over time this should result in a much clearer waters in this area, improving and enhancing its natural beauty. Adam has also done a major project to divert a gully that brought red mud into the bay during the rainy season.
Roatan, Bay Islands of Honduras.
On Earth, the amount of ice lost each year is equal to a monstrous, over six-mile-high ice cube looming over New York City. And this ice loss is accelerating. In research published Monday in the scientific journal The Cryosphere, earth scientists concluded the planet lost a prodigious 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017. This means ice mass is melting away, like a shrinking glacier. Since the 1990s, the rate of annual ice loss has increased by 57 percent. "Over the past three decades, ice has been lost from every corner of our planet," said Andrew Shepherd, a professor of earth observation at the University of Leeds and a coauthor of the research.
The world’s seas are simmering, with record high temperatures spurring worry among forecasters that the global warming effect may generate a chaotic year of extreme weather ahead. Parts of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans all hit the record books for warmth last month, according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information. The high temperatures could offer clues on the ferocity of the Atlantic hurricane season, the eruption of wildfires from the Amazon region to Australia, and whether the record heat and severe thunderstorms raking the southern U.S. will continue. In the Gulf of Mexico, where offshore drilling accounts for about 17% of U.S. oil output, water temperatures were 76.3 degrees Fahrenheit (24.6 Celsius), 1.7 degrees above the long-term average, said Phil Klotzbach at Colorado State University. If Gulf waters stay warm, it could be the fuel that intensifies any storm that comes that way, Klotzbach said.- Bloomberg
[Google translation] Overfishing is the ‘titanic challenge’ in which Honduras must concentrate ‘more efforts’ to recover and ensure the health of its corals, national scientists and conservationists warned, during the presentation of the report ‘Mesoamerican Reef Health’ in Tegucigalpa.- La Tribuna (Spanish)
After two years of research, the Healthy Reefs Initiative (HRI) revealed the results of its monitoring to 73 coral sites in the northern and insular regions of the country.
Ian Drysdale, coordinator of this international scientific organization in Honduras, explained that the objects of study were the live coral cover per square meter, the amount of algae and the biomass (quantity and size) of the fish. This methodology is known as the Reef Health Index (ISA).
Overfishing significantly affected the ISA of Honduras will fall from the highest in the regional rating according to the 2018 report, from “regular to bad” (3.0 to 2.5), and “it is the first time a country has fallen”, ensures the same report and the scientist based in Roatán, Bay Islands.
Climate change and nutrient pollution are driving the oxygen from our oceans, and threatening many species of fish. That's the conclusion of the biggest study of its kind, undertaken by conservation group IUCN. While nutrient run-off has been known for decades, researchers say that climate change is making the lack of oxygen worse. Around 700 ocean sites are now suffering from low oxygen, compared with 45 in the 1960s. Researchers say the depletion is threatening species including tuna, marlin and sharks.- BBC News
Global sea levels are expected to rise between two to seven feet (0.6 meters to 2.1 meters) -- and possibly more -- over the course of the 21st century. And by 2050, land that is currently home to about 300 million people will fall below the elevation of the average annual coastal flood -- meaning they could face severe floods at least once a year. By 2100, land that is home to 200 million people could sit permanently below the high tide line, rendering those coastal areas all but unlivable. "The results indicate that, yes, a great deal more people are on vulnerable land than we thought," said Benjamin Strauss, one of the study's co-authors and CEO of non-profit organization Climate Central. He added that these affected regions need to take immediate action to avoid the impending "economic and humanitarian catastrophe."- CNN
From far away, it almost looks as though the beach is covered in seafoam. But the white bands washing ashore in Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands, are in fact piles of tiny bits of plastic, the latest example of the human-made pollution impacting the world's oceans.- France 24
"I’ve never seen the beach like this,” said MarÃa Celma Argaluza, a 37-year-old teacher and founder of the Océano Limpio Tenerife (Clean Oceans Tenerife) campaign, in a video of the waste she posted on Facebook on March 24. “It makes me want to cry.”
Argaluza criticised the insufficient measures put in place to address the build-up of rubbish along the shores of the Canary Islands.
Because the islands act as a natural barrier to the Gulf Stream and the Canary Current, they become a dumping ground for rubbish floating in the Atlantic Ocean, May Gómez, a biology professor at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, told the Spanish daily newspaper El Pais.
In just the latest reminder of the dangers of pollution in our oceans, a dead whale in Indonesia has been found with 13.2 pounds (six kilograms) of plastic waste in its stomach. The 31.17-foot sperm whale was found near Kapota Island in Wakatobi National Park, southeast of Sulawesi. Park officials found bags, plastic bottles, sandals and 115 plastic cups in the whale's stomach, as well as a sack containing more than 1,000 pieces of string. "Although we have not been able to deduce the cause of death, the facts that we see are truly awful," said Dwi Suprapti, marine species conservation coordinator at WWF-Indonesia, in a statement to CNN.- CNN
The world's oceans are warming at an accelerated rate and are much warmer than scientists thought -- and things could get a lot worse if nothing is done to stop climate change, according to a new study. The data, published in Thursday's edition of the journal Science, shows that the oceans have experienced consistent changes since the late 1950s and have gotten a lot warmer since the 1960s. The oceans are heating up much faster than scientists calculated in the UN assessment of climate change released in 2014.- CNN
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Though a warmer ocean might make for a more pleasant swim, it carries deadly consequences. A warmer ocean causes sea level to rise, bringing problems like dangerous coastal flooding. It leads to the loss of sea ice, heating the waters even further. It can affect the jet stream, allowing cold Arctic air to reach farther south, making winters more intense, and endanger the lives of animals that depend on sea ice like penguins and polar bears. A warmer ocean also contributes to increases in rainfall and leads to stronger and longer-lasting storms like Hurricanes Florence and Harvey.
The mayor of Roatán in the Bay Islands on Tuesday banned the use of plastic straws in restaurants, cafes and shops. The municipality established a fine of 500 to 2,500 lempiras [US$20 to US$103] for those who break the law. Also, repeat offenders will pay, additionally, 10 lempiras per straw found in the establishment and will be exposed to their business being closed. The measure was taken with the aim of protecting the environment, wildlife and coral reefs that are affected by pollution and the use of plastics.- La Tribuna (Spanish)
My name is Greta Thunberg. I am 15 years old. I am from Sweden.- CNN: "Teen tells climate negotiators they aren't mature enough"
I speak on behalf of Climate Justice Now.
Many people say that Sweden is just a small country and it doesn't matter what we do.
But I've learned you are never too small to make a difference.
And if a few children can get headlines all over the world just by not going to school, then imagine what we could all do together if we really wanted to. But to do that, we have to speak clearly, no matter how uncomfortable that may be.
You only speak of green eternal economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess, even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake.
You are not mature enough to tell it like is. Even that burden you leave to us children. But I don't care about being popular. I care about climate justice and the living planet. Our civilization is being sacrificed for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue making enormous amounts of money.
Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.
The year 2078, I will celebrate my 75th birthday. If I have children maybe they will spend that day with me. Maybe they will ask me about you. Maybe they will ask why you didn't do anything while there still was time to act.
You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.
Until you start focusing on what needs to be done rather than what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis.
We need to keep the fossil fuels in the ground, and we need to focus on equity. And if solutions within the system are so impossible to find, maybe we should change the system itself.
We have not come here to beg world leaders to care. You have ignored us in the past and you will ignore us again.
We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time.
We have come here to let you know that change is coming, whether you like it or not. The real power belongs to the people.
Thank you.
The ozone layer, which protects us from ultraviolet light, looks to be successfully healing after gaping holes were discovered in the 1980s. The Northern Hemisphere could be fully fixed by the 2030s and Antarctica by the 2060s. A new United Nations report says it's an example of what global agreements can achieve. The ozone layer had been damaged by man-made chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).- BBC
The fight against single-use plastic has been gathering steam over the past months, but the Caribbean nation of Dominica has taken the crusade to another level. The island nation has announced its aim to completely ban common plastics and single-use Styrofoam cups and food containers -- effective January 2019. Announcing this intention in June's budget address, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said his government wanted to help preserve Dominica's famously beautiful natural landscape. "Dominica prides itself as the "Nature Isle". We must in every way deserve and reflect that designation," reads Skerrit's statement. "The issue of solid waste management affects that perception and we continue to grapple with it."- CNN
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| Giraffes run near a drilling rig. |
Turns out a large chunk of what should be the world's most protected areas are anything but. A new study reports that human activities — such as city sprawl, road construction and farming — are wreaking havoc on some 2.3 million square miles of protected land worldwide, an area about twice the size of Alaska. Forests, parks and conservation areas around the globe are all seeing human impacts, with protected areas in Asia, Europe and Africa — places with massive human populations — seeing some of the worst effects, according to the new research.- USA Today
