UK
Eye-popping fossil fish found in cattle field


Jonathan Amos - BBC Science Correspondent
Fri, July 29, 2022 

Pachycormus: It looks like it is going to jump out at you

A ferocious-looking fossil fish has been unearthed from a remarkable new Jurassic dig site just outside Stroud, in Gloucestershire.

The creature - a tuna-like predator called Pachycormus - is beautifully preserved in three dimensions.

With its big teeth and eyes, it gives the impression it is about to launch an attack.

The specimen was identified by prolific West Country fossil-hunters Neville and Sally Hollingworth.

"It was a real surprise because, when you find fossils, most of the time they've been pressed flat through pressure over time," Neville told BBC News.

"But when we prepared this one, to reveal its bones bit by bit, it was amazing because we suddenly realised its skull was uncrushed.


"Its mouth is open - and it looks like it's coming out at you from the rock."

Listen: Fossil-hunters Neville and Sally Hollingworth on their find


Ancient fossil is earliest known animal predator


Huge fossilised ‘sea dragon’ found in UK reservoir

The English longhorn cattle are standing on top of an early Jurassic clay layer containing abundant fossils

The couple found the fish head in a grassy bank behind a cow shed in the village of Kings Stanley.

It had been encased in one of the many limestone nodules that were falling out from an exposed clay layer.

The landowner, Adam Knight, had no idea his English longhorn cattle were grazing on top of a rich fossil seam, recalling a time, 183 million years ago, when his farm would have been lying under warm tropical ocean waters.

Mr Knight gave permission to Neville and Sally, and a team led from the University of Manchester, to investigate the bank further.

A digger was brought in to extract hundreds more of the nodules, which were carefully cracked open to see what they held inside.

The landowner allowed the team to investigate the bank further

The haul included more fish, squids and even the bones of two ichthyosaurs, hugely successful marine reptiles that looked a bit like a large dolphin.

"We've got the whole food chain," palaeontologist Dean Lomax, from Manchester, said.

"So this Pachycormus would have been eating the smaller fish and squids.

"And then, the ichthyosaurs would have been eating the Pachycormus."

Interestingly for a marine setting, there is also fossilised wood and insects in the clay layer, suggesting land was not that far away.

Play with a 3D model of Pachycormus here.

The finds are likely to keep researchers busy for a number of years.

There is particular interest because the specimens were extracted from a rare UK example of a time slice in the early Jurassic - the Toarcian Stage.

It is known for exceptional preservation, including of soft tissues, and the team has a fish, for example, in which it is possible to see the stomach contents.

"The last comparable exposure like this was the so-called Strawberry Bank Lagerstätte, in Somerset, in the 1800s - that got built over," Sally said.

"The Court Farm site allows scientists to do modern research with fresh, in-situ material."

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Remarkable detail: The soft tissues are preserved in the fish

The Hollingworths are celebrated for their extraordinary ability to identify highly productive fossil locations.

They recently uncovered the remains of mammoths in the nearby Cotswold Water Park, featured in a BBC documentary fronted by Sir David Attenborough.

They also made headlines with the discovery of thousands of fossilised echinoderms - starfish, sea urchins and brittle stars - in a quarry in the north of the county.

"These sites tell you there are still many nationally and indeed internationally significant fossil discoveries yet to be made in the UK," Dr Lomax said.

The intention is to stage a public display of the fossils at the Boho Bakery Café, which is very close to Court Farm, in October.

Neville and Sally Hollingworth are renowned for finding exceptional fossils in the area

Scientists have now sequenced ancient herpes DNA from the rotting teeth of human remains

Paola Rosa-Aquino
Wed, July 27, 2022

One of the samples of ancient herpes DNA in a new study came from a male between 26 and 35 years old, excavated in Holland. The man was a fervent pipe smoker.  Dr Barbara Veselka

Researchers sequenced the genome of a strain of ancient herpes from four human remains.

Before this study, genetic data for herpes only went back to 1925.

Researchers said the advent of kissing roughly 5,000 years ago may have helped the virus flourish.

Researchers, who for the first time successfully sequenced the genome of an ancient herpes strain, say our modern-day strain of the virus arose around 5,000 years ago.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, researchers looked at the remains of four individuals stretching over a thousand-year period. They extracted herpes DNA from their rotting teeth, as the viral infection often flares up with mouth infections, and sequenced its genome, or the complete set of genetic information. Then researchers compared the ancient DNA to modern-day herpes samples.

The oldest sample dates back to the late Iron Age, around 1,500 years ago, and came from an adult male excavated in Russia's Ural Mountain region. Two other skeletal remains were found in the United Kingdom, a female dating to the sixth or seventh century, and a male from the late 14th century. The final sample came from the skeletal remains of an adult male excavated in Holland, who most likely died during a French attack on his village in 1672.

Herpes simplex virus 1, or HSV-1, is prevalent among modern humans, as it spreads easily and is a lifelong disease once infected. Two-thirds of the global population younger than age 50 carry the strain, according to the World Health Organization. Still, ancient examples of HSV-1 have been hard to find.

Another sample in the new study came from a young adult male from the late 14th century, buried in the grounds of medieval Cambridge.

Craig Cessford/Cambridge Archaeological Unit

Before this study, genetic data for herpes only went back as far as 1925, but scientists knew the virus' history stretched back millennia. Comparing the ancient samples with herpes samples from the 20th century allowed researchers to put a timeline on the virus' evolution.

"The world has watched COVID-19 mutate at a rapid rate over weeks and months. A virus like herpes evolves on a far grander timescale," Charlotte Houldcroft, co-author of the study and genetics researcher at the University of Cambridge, said in a press release. "Facial herpes hides in its host for life and only transmits through oral contact, so mutations occur slowly over centuries and millennia."

Facial herpes detected in the ancient DNA may have coincided with the advent of mouth-to-mouth kissing, which has not always been a common practice, researchers wrote in the new study. Kissing as a sign of affection began during the Bronze Age, and may have spread westward, from South Asia into Europe and Eurasia.

Centuries later, the researchers said, Roman Emperor Tiberius tried to ban kissing at official functions to limit the spread of disease — a decree that may have been related to herpes.

"Every primate species has a form of herpes, so we assume it has been with us since our own species left Africa," Christiana Scheib, co-author of the study and researcher at the University of Cambridge, said in a press release. "However, something happened around 5,000 years ago that allowed one strain of herpes to overtake all others, possibly an increase in transmissions, which could have been linked to kissing."

Now researchers aim to track the virus even further back in time, into early human history. "Neanderthal herpes is my next mountain to climb," Scheib added.

Monkeypox treatment maker prepared to ramp up manufacturing, CEO says

Anjalee Khemlani

·Senior Reporter

Fri, July 29, 2022 

Monkeypox cases are rising rapidly across the U.S., and while the federal government is poised to declare the outbreak a public health emergency, cases globally are putting pressure on supplies of potential vaccines and treatments.

Tecovirimat, known by its brand TPOXX, is the only available treatment — though it has only been tested for use against smallpox, a related virus. TPOXX maker SIGA Technologies (SIGA) is now fielding a surge of requests from countries looking for supply.

In the past two years, the company has produced and delivered 360,000 courses — each of which entails 2 pills a day for 14 days — for the U.S. to replenish the stockpile, which now has just under 2 million courses.

Aside from the U.S., Canada was the only other country that was stockpiling courses, according to SIGA CEO Phil Gomez.

Monkeypox Virus. 3D Render

"We do have a lot of inquiries coming in from dozens of countries that are now trying to catch up and establish stockpiles," he told Yahoo Finance on Friday.

The company has a total of $56 million in new orders of treatment courses this year, from a half dozen countries and entities, and anticipates about half of the orders to be delivered by September.

"We're certainly working with our network to expand manufacturing, but we were anticipating a large number of orders over the next few years, so we have product available and in our supply chain to advance in response to these orders," Gomez said.

Public health emergency

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already announced a public health emergency globally, as more countries continue to report cases and deaths. There are now more than 16,000 cases in 75 countries.

But vaccines, treatments and even testing continue to be limited in availability both abroad and in the U.S., despite federal governments' efforts and reassurances about available tools. In African countries, where the disease has been endemic for some time, vaccines are not available.

Despite the stockpile, TPOXX remains elusive as the burden of the regulatory process deters or confuses providers. The FDA and CDC have asked that paperwork be done to collect safety data on the use of the pill, since it is not approved for monkeypox.

TPOXX is available both intravenously and as a pill and was approved by the FDA for use against smallpox in 2018, after which the U.S. government began to stockpile doses.

The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) is looking to begin clinical trials for monkeypox in coming months, Gomez said.

Monkeypox is largely transmitted through close physical contact with skin or mucus and saliva. It is not considered a sexually transmitted disease, but is largely circulating among men who have sex with men, prompting the WHO to caution the community to reduce the number of partners for now to help curb the spread. The first case in a pregnant woman was recently reported in the U.S.

Health care providers who do not regularly treat LGBTQ+ patients are struggling to identify cases, often testing for other STDs first, which could lead to missed diagnoses that aren't already symptomatic.

Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, chills and skin lesions. A positive case requires weeks-long isolation — much longer than COVID-19.

The virus has been endemic in parts of Africa, and two specific strains, known as clades, are circulating there. The West African clade, which is in circulation globally, has a low mortality rate, while the Congo Basin clade has a higher mortality rate.

But countries like Brazil and Spain have reported deaths, spurring concern about the ability to contain the disease globally.

"Unfortunately, I think the original perception that this was going to be a self-limiting infection with not a lot of morbidity and mortality just hasn't played out," Gomez said, saying the response continues to be slow.

As with COVID-19, concerns about access to life-saving drugs and vaccines globally and equitably have grown. SIGA has already donated treatment courses in Africa, and is in discussions with the WHO and global non-profits to ensure equitable availability, Gomez said.

Rare footage shows 3 orcas killing a great white shark to eat its liver, supporting theory about why the species is fleeing South African waters

Kelsey Vlamis

Wed, July 27, 2022 

• Stunning drone footage shows an orca carrying a great white shark in its mouth as blood pooled.

• A study published last month suggested orcas had driven great whites from South African waters.

• The video supports the theory, which could involve major implications for the marine ecosystem.

Stunning drone footage captured earlier this year off the coast of South Africa shows three orcas in the midst of killing a great white shark — supporting a theory that says the shark has been driven out of its typical habitats.

The footage, which was captured for Discovery Channel's Shark Week and is set to air Thursday, was published by The Daily Beast on Wednesday.

The video begins by showing two orcas swimming near the surface in the bright teal water of South Africa's Mossel Bay, which is known for its great whites.

Suddenly, a third orca rises from the depths, carrying a 9-foot-long great white shark in its mouth. As the orca reaches the surface, blood pools around the dead shark. The orca carrying the shark dives back below the surface.

Alison Towner, a scientist in South Africa who studies great whites, told The Daily Beast it was "the world's first drone footage of killer whales predating on a white shark." She added it's the first "direct evidence" of the phenomenon to be documented in South Africa.

"It's probably one of the most beautiful pieces of natural history ever filmed," she said.

Great white sharks are considered apex predators, meaning they have no known predators; however, researchers have identified rare occurrences of them being preyed upon by orcas.

A study published by the African Journal of Marine Science in June, for which Towner was an author, suggested that great white sharks had been fleeing a common aggregation site in South Africa because of the presence of killer whales.

The researchers noted carcasses of dead great whites had been washing ashore with their livers ripped out and, for some, without their hearts. The wounds on the sharks suggested they had been made by the same pair of orcas, according to the study.

In the newly released drone footage, the orca is holding the shark near where its liver is.

The authors believed the attacks had prompted the migration of great whites out of the area.

"What we seem to be witnessing though is a large-scale avoidance strategy, mirroring what we see used by wild dogs in the Serengeti in Tanzania, in response to increased lion presence," Towner said at the time.

The study authors said the decrease in great whites in the area may have contributed to the increase in another predator, the bronze whaler shark, though they noted that species, too, was being hunted by the orcas.

"Predator-prey interactions between white sharks, other coastal sharks, and killer whales are increasing in South Africa and are expected to have pronounced impacts on the ecosystem," the study said.

The drone footage is expected to air Thursday during the special "Shark House" on Discovery and Discovery+.

UK

The public relations and ad firms refusing fossil fuel clients

Suzanne Bearne - BBC Business reporter
Thu, July 28, 2022 

Marian Ventura gave up all fossil fuel clients last year

Up until three years ago, PR and advertising firm boss Marian Ventura was more than happy to work on projects for oil and gas companies.

"I felt I was pushing change from the inside, collaborating to enhance their transparency and accountability," says the founder of Done!, which is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

She says that in Latin America the fossil fuels industry is considered "prestigious". "They sponsor every sustainability event or prize in the region, and of course they are the 'best clients to have, for their big budgets."

Then in 2019, Ms Ventura's feelings started to shift when she decided to certify her business as a so-called "B Corp" organisation. This is a global certification scheme whereby firms aim to meet the best possible social and environmental standards.

"As a B company, we know that in order to fulfil our corporate purpose we cannot turn a blind eye to these questions: Who am I selling to? What am I selling? Will I be proud of what I am selling in 10 years?," says Ms Ventura.

While a small but growing number of advertising and PR firms now won't work with fossil fuel firms it is important to remember that many others still do so

As a result, she started to reduce her oil clients, but in 2021 she went one step further.

Last year, she decided that Done! would become one of the now 350 advertising and PR firms who have joined a movement called Clean Creatives. Joining the movement means they pledge to refuse any future work for fossil fuel firms, or their trade associations.

"We dropped off at least four active clients related to oil and gas, and refused a dozen quotation requests, that actually keep coming," says Ms Ventura.

She adds that her decision has come in for criticism. "People with whom we have stronger relationships, told me that they don't agree with our position, because they believe oil and gas are irreplaceable resources for society, and they assure it can be developed in a responsible way."

The United Nations (UN) recognises that the burning of fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and coal - "are by far the largest contributor to climate change". It says that they account for "nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions".

Speaking on the subject back in April, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said "some government and business leaders are saying one thing, but doing another". He added: "High‑emitting governments and corporations are not just turning a blind eye, they are adding fuel to the flames."

Meanwhile, a report this year by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change said that "corporate advertisement and brand building strategies may also attempt to deflect corporate responsibility". The study went on to ask whether tighter advertising regulation was required.

Duncan Meisel, director at US-based Clean Creatives, says he sees a shift happening. "We know there's agencies not taking the pledge who have told us privately that they are no longer pitching to fossil fuel clients. It's a step forward."

Duncan Meisal, left, and his organisation Clean Creatives have seen 350 ad and PR firms sign up

He adds: "The fossil fuel industry uses advertising agencies and PR agencies to make it harder for governments to hold them accountable. And ads are misleading and make companies seem more committed to climate action than they really are."

Some advertising firms are, however, continuing with fossil fuel clients, such as the UK's WPP, whose subsidiaries have worked with the likes of BP, Shell and Exxon Mobile.

"Our clients have an important role to play in the transition to a low carbon economy and how they communicate their actions must be accurate," says a WPP spokesman. "We apply rigorous standards to the content we produce for our clients, and seek to fairly represent their environmental commitments and investments.

"We will not take on any client, or work, whose objective is to frustrate the policies required by the Paris Agreement [on climate change]."

Fossil fuel firms have been big earners for advertising and PR firms since the early 20th Century

Meanwhile, the world's largest PR firm Edelman, was at the end of last year criticised for its work for fossil fuel companies. Its clients have included the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, and also Exxon Mobile.

The US headquartered firm subsequently carried out a 60-day review of its climate strategy, and boss Richard Edelman said in a company blog post in January that it might have to "part ways" with clients not committed to net zero emissions.

Edelman declined to give a subsequent comment to BBC News for this article.

Oil and gas trade association, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), says it is wrong to criticise PR and advertising firms that work with the energy sector.

"Pressuring agencies to avoid working with companies involved oil and gas is counter-productive to combatting climate change, as they're also the ones with the decades of energy expertise that are developing and rolling out the cleaner technologies that are needed," says OEUK external relations director, Jenny Stanning.

New Economy is a new series exploring how businesses, trade, economies and working life are changing fast.

A spokesperson for the Advertising Association says that it does not believe the fossil fuel industry should be banned from advertising "but we do recognise the right for individual companies to decide who they do and don't work with".

"Accuracy and honesty in all advertising is paramount," he adds. "This is an area carefully regulated by both the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority] and ASA [Advertising Standards Authority], which expects advertisers to be able to show evidence for any claims they make on the environmental impact of the products and services they feature.

"We believe in the freedom of speech, and Clean Creatives are exercising that right. Our end goals are the same i.e. net zero, but we think a more nuanced approach is required."

Solitaire Townsend, boss of UK advertising agency and PR firm Futurra, gave up working with oil and gas clients some 15 years ago.

She says that more and more firms in her industry will have to follow suit - if they wish to attract the best staff.

"A lot of agencies will come to the point where they have to make the decision if they want to be able to recruit the brightest," says Ms Townsend. "The young ones don't want to work with oil and gas [clients]."

UK's 40C heatwave 'basically impossible' without climate change

Georgina Rannard - BBC News Climate & Science
Thu, July 28, 2022 

The UK is not adapted to the high temperatures seen last week, experts say

The record temperatures in the UK last week would have been "almost impossible" without human-induced climate change, leading scientists have concluded.

The UK recorded temperatures above 40C for the first time on 19 July.

Without human-caused climate change these would have been 2C to 4C cooler, the experts say.

It is a taste of what is to come, they say, with more heatwaves, fires and droughts predicted in coming years.

The extreme heat caused significant disruption to the UK, with experts warning that excess deaths related to temperatures will be high. Wildfires also destroyed homes and nature in some places.


The world has warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial revolution about 200 years ago. Greenhouse gases have been pumped into the atmosphere by activities like burning fuels, which have heated up the Earth's atmosphere.

The findings are released by the World Weather Attribution group - a collection of leading climate scientists who meet after an extreme weather event to determine whether climate change made it more likely.

They looked at three individual weather stations that recorded very high temperatures - Cranwell, Lincolnshire, St James Park in London, and Durham.

Dr Friederike Otto of Imperial College London, who leads the World Weather Attribution group, told BBC News that even in today's climate, having such temperatures was still rare and that we would expect them between once every 500 years and once every 1,500 years.

But she said that as global temperatures rose, the likelihood of this heat happening more regularly would increase.

"We would not have had last week's temperatures without climate change, that's for sure," she said. These temperatures are at least 2C higher but the real number is probably closer to 4C higher than a world without human-caused climate change, she explained.

UK sea level rise speeding up


Cities warned to prepare for more wildfire


A really simple guide to climate change

The scientists use a combination of looking at temperature records dating back through time, and complex mathematical models that assess how human-caused climate change affects the weather.

"Because we know very well how many greenhouse gases have been put into the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution, we can take these things out of the model and simulate a world that might have been without climate change," Dr Otto says.

That allows the scientists to compare the two different scenarios - a world with 1.1C of warming and a world without that temperature increase.

Dr Otto says if we want to keep this type of a heat a rare event, the UK must reach net zero "very soon". That is the point at which we stop adding to the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The government's target is to reach net zero by 2050.

"Every little bit of warming really makes these types of events more likely and even hotter. Heatwaves are much more deadly than other extreme weather like floods and climate change is a game-changer for heatwaves," she explained.

How we know climate change is caused by humans

The scientists also say it demonstrates that the UK is not adapted to warming temperatures, with our homes, hospitals, schools and travel networks unable to withstand the high temperatures.

Climate change is affecting all parts of the globe, with extreme heat this year affecting countries including India, the US, Australia, Spain and Germany.

Politicians globally are committed to keeping global temperature rises below 1.5C but environmentalists say progress is much too slow.

"The climate has already changed - we are and will continue to suffer the consequences of government inaction," Greenpeace UK's head of climate, Rosie Rogers, told BBC News. "How bad things get depends on how much or little governments now decide to do to get off fossil fuels."

"As one of the world's biggest historical emitters, the UK has an obligation to step up and rapidly slash emissions to zero," she said. "The new prime minister needs to act on these warnings from the climate, and set an example for others to follow."

To tackle climate change, scientists say we must make steep cuts to our emissions, changing how we produce and use energy, as well as protect nature that helps to soak up greenhouse gases.

Climate migration growing but not fully recognized by world
  

- Workers walk to work at an export processing zone early in the morning after crossing the Mongla river in Mongla, Bangladesh, March 3, 2022. This Bangladeshi town stands alone to offer new life to thousands of climate migrants. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu, File)

 

A firefighter passes a burning home as the Dixie Fire flares in Plumas County, Calif., July 24, 2021. Tens of millions of people are being uprooted by natural disasters due to the impact of climate change, though the world has yet to fully recognize climate migrants or come up with a formalized mechanism to assess their needs and help them.

 (AP Photo/Noah Berge, File)

 

FILE - Members of a family visit their home devastated by a landslide triggered by hurricanes Eta and Iota in the village of La Reina, Honduras, June 25, 2021. 

 

The Boca reservoir, that supplies water to the northern city of Monterrey, is almost dry as the northern part of Mexico is affected by an intense drought, in Santiago, Mexico, July 9, 2022. 

 Somalis who fled drought-stricken areas carry their belongings as they arrive at a makeshift camp for the displaced on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia, June 30, 2022. Tens of millions of people are being uprooted by natural disasters due to the impact of climate change, though the world has yet to fully recognize climate migrants or come up with a formalized mechanism to assess their needs and help them. 

(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh, File)
JULIE WATSON
Thu, July 28, 2022 

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Worsening climate largely from the burning of coal and gas is uprooting millions of people, with wildfires overrunning towns in California, rising seas overtaking island nations and drought exacerbating conflicts in various parts of the world.

Each year, natural disasters force an average of 21.5 million people from their homes around the world, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. And scientists predict migration will grow as the planet gets hotter. Over the next 30 years, 143 million people are likely to be uprooted by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures and other climate catastrophes, according to the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published this year.

Still, the world has yet to officially recognize climate migrants or come up with formalized ways to assess their needs and help them. Here’s a look at climate migration today.

WHO ARE CLIMATE MIGRANTS?


Most climate migrants move within the borders of their homelands, usually from rural areas to cities after losing their home or livelihood because of drought, rising seas or another weather calamity. Because cities also are facing their own climate-related problems, including soaring temperatures and water scarcity, people are increasingly being forced to flee across international borders to seek refuge.

Yet climate migrants are not afforded refugee status under the 1951 Refugee Convention, which provides legal protection only to people fleeing persecution due to their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or particular social group.

DEFINING CLIMATE MIGRATION

Identifying climate migrants is not easy, especially in regions rife with poverty, violence and conflicts.

While worsening weather conditions are exacerbating poverty, crime and political instability, and fueling tensions over dwindling resources from Africa to Latin America, often climate change is overlooked as a contributing factor to people fleeing their homelands. According to the UNHCR, 90% of refugees under its mandate are from countries “on the front lines of the climate emergency.”

In El Salvador, for example, scores each year leave villages because of crop failure from drought or flooding, and end up in cities where they become victims of gang violence and ultimately flee their countries because of those attacks.

“It’s hard to say that someone moves just because of climate change. Is everyone who leaves Honduras after a hurricane a climate migrant?” Elizabeth Ferris, a research professor at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “And then there are non-climate related environmental hazards - people flee earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis - should they be treated differently than those displaced by weather-related phenomena?"

Despite the challenges, it's vital that governments identify climate-displaced people, Ferris added.

“The whole definitional issue isn’t a trivial question - how can you develop a policy for people if you aren’t clear on who it applies to?” she wrote.

INTERNATIONAL EFFORTS

While no nation offers asylum to climate migrants, UNHCR published legal guidance in October 2020 that opens the door for offering protection to people displaced by the effects of global warming. It said that climate change should be taken into consideration in certain scenarios when it intersects with violence, though it stopped short of redefining the 1951 Refugee Convention.

The commission acknowledged that temporary protection may be insufficient if a country cannot remedy the situation from natural disasters, such as rising seas, suggesting that certain climate displaced people could be eligible for resettlement if their place of origin is considered uninhabitable.

An increasing number of countries are laying the groundwork to become safe havens for climate migrants. In May, Argentina created a special humanitarian visa for people from Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean displaced by natural disasters to let them stay for three years.

Shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden ordered his national security adviser to conduct a months-long study that included looking at the “options for protection and resettlement of individuals displaced directly or indirectly from climate change.” A task force was set up, but so far the administration has not adopted such a program.

Low-lying Bangladesh, which is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, has been among the first to try to adapt to the new reality of migration. Efforts are underway to identify climate-resilient towns where people displaced by sea level rise, river erosion, cyclonic storms and intrusion of saline water can move to work, and in return help their new locations economically.

TRANSFORMING DEBATES ON MIGRATION

Policy debates on migration have long centered on locking down borders. Climate change is changing that.

With hundreds of millions of people expected to be uprooted by natural disasters, there is growing discussion about how to manage migration flows rather than stop them, as for many people migration will become a survival tool, according to advocates.

“One problem is just the complete lack of understanding as to how climate is forcing people to move," said Amali Tower, founder and executive director of Climate Refugees, an advocacy group focused on raising awareness about people displaced because of climate change. “There is still this idea in the Global North (industrialized nations) that people come here because they are fleeing poverty and seeking a better life, the American Dream. In Europe, it's the same spin of the same story. But no one wants to leave their home. We've got to approach climate displacement as a human security issue and not a border security issue."

____

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

ECOCIDE
Congo basin peatland rainforest oil leases up for auction


 This Dec. 11, 2016, photo shows the Virunga National Park, taken from the rim of the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano and looking over the crater of another, extinct volcano, in North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Several oil and gas fields in the DRC, including some in the park, are being put up for auction starting Thursday, July 28, 2022, prompting outrage from environmental groups.

 (Juergen Baetz/dpa via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)More

WANJOHI KABUKURU
Thu, July 28, 2022 


MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Sections of a renowned peatland tropical forest in the Congo Basin that plays a crucial role in Africa's climate system go up for oil and gas auction in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday.

The DRC government will auction 30 oil and gas blocks in the Cuvette-Centrale Peatlands in the Congo Basin forest — the world’s largest tropical peatland. Peatland soils are known as ‘carbon sinks’ because packed into them are immense stores of carbon that get released into the atmosphere when the ecosystem is disturbed.

Some of the areas, or blocs, marked for oil leasing lie within Africa’s iconic first conservation area, the Virunga National Park, created in 1925 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, home to the last bastion of mountain gorillas.

The Congo basin covers 530 million hectares (1.3 billion acres) in central Africa and represents 70% of the continent's forested land. It hosts over a thousand bird species and more primates than any other place in the world, including the great apes: gorillas, chimpanzees and Bonobos.

People are at risk, too. Members of the Mbuti and Baka people could be displaced or evicted.

The move by the Congo-Kinshasa Ministry of Hydrocarbons has angered environmentalists and climate activists who say that oil drilling will pose significant risks to a continent already inundated by harsh climate effects. The Centre for International Forest Research puts the massive Cuvette-Centrale carbon sink at 145,000 square kilometers (56,000 square miles) and said it stores up to 20 years' equivalent of the carbon emissions emitted by the United States.

Other blocs the DRC plans to auction include some located on Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and one in a coastal region alongside the Albertine-Grabben region, the western side of the Eastern African Rift Valley system.

"These are the last refuges of nature biodiversity," and our last carbon sinks, said Ken Mwathe, of BirdLife International in Africa. "We must not sacrifice these valuable natural assets for damaging development.”

The auction of part of the Congo Basin rainforest, which represents 5% of the global tropical forests, comes barely a week after the International Union for the Conservation of Nature hosted the inaugural Africa Protected Areas Congress in Kigali, Rwanda. There, attendees resolved to strengthen protection of Africa’s key biodiversity hotspots.

The DRC is one of 17 nations in the world classified as “megadiverse.” In September last year, at the World Conservation Congress meeting in France, 137 resolutions dubbed the “Marseille Manifesto” highlighted the significant role the Congo Basin is expected to play in the global commitment to protect 30% of the Earth by 2030.

Last year at the U.N. climate conference COP26, a dozen donors dubbed the Glasgow Leaders Declaration on Forests and Land Use, pledged some $1.5 billion “to working collectively to halt and reverse forest loss and land degradation by 2030.”

The Democratic Republic's carbon sponge is also at risk from large-scale logging, expansion of agriculture and the planned diversion of the Congo River’s waters into the shrinking Lake Chad.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

BBC OBITUARY

James Lovelock: Influential green thinker dies aged 103

Thu, July 28, 2022 a

James Lovelock

British scientist James Lovelock, who devoted his life to the global green movement, has died on his 103rd birthday, his family has said.

His 1960s Gaia theory found that Earth, from rocks to air, was one huge interconnected and self-regulating system.

His work formed the basis of much of climate science.

And he had warned climate change could be a tipping point for the planet.

But his support for nuclear energy and for fracking attracted criticism from other environmentalists.

Working for Nasa in the 1960s, Lovelock had what he called a Eureka moment when he realised living things had a profound impact on the environment around them.

This led to the radical idea everything on Earth, from oceans to every living organism, was a living, connected system.

Some scientists saw the idea as too "new age". But the theory spread and formed the basis of the growing green movement.

Lovelock, who lived in Dorset, also revealed chemicals were destroying the ozone layer.

He later became an independent scientist and was driven to reveal the huge threat posed to life by a warming world.

"We're playing a very dangerous game," Lovelock told BBC News in 2020. "It's direct interference with one of the major regulating mechanisms of Gaia."

Met Office Hadley Centre climate-impacts research head Prof Richard Betts said: "I am devastated by Jim's death. He was a source of inspiration to me for my entire career. Jim's influence is widespread, profound and long-lasting."

"He will be remembered for his warm, fun-loving personality, his truly innovative thinking, his clarity of communication, his willingness to take bold risks in developing his ideas, and his abilities to bring people together and learn from them."

Science Museum Group science director Dr Roger Highfield said: "Jim was a nonconformist who had a unique vantage point that came from being, as he put it, half scientist and half inventor.

"Endless ideas bubbled forth from this synergy between making and thinking."

Lovelock's dedication to warning the world about climate change meant he carried on working past retirement age.

"My main reason for not relaxing into contented retirement is that, like most of you, I am deeply concerned about the probability of massively harmful climate change and the need to do something about it now," he said in 2011.

And two years ago, he said the biosphere - all systems of life on Earth - was on its last 1% of life.

His family said: "Our beloved James Lovelock died yesterday in his home surrounded by his family on his 103rd birthday.

"To the world he was best known as a scientific pioneer, climate prophet and conceiver of the Gaia theory.

"To us, he was a loving husband and wonderful father with a boundless sense of curiosity, a mischievous sense of humour and a passion for nature."

Climate scientist says total climate breakdown is now inevitable: 'It is already a different world out there, soon it will be unrecognizable to every one of us'


Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Sat, July 30, 2022

Rich nations are likely to delay action on climate change

.peepo/Getty Images

In his new book, Bill McGuire argues it's too late to avoid catastrophic climate change.

The Earth science professor says lethal heatwaves and extreme weather events are just the beginning.

Many climate scientists, he said, are more scared about the future than they are willing to admit in public.

Record-breaking heatwaves, lethal flooding, and extreme weather events are just the beginning of the climate crisis, according to a leading UK climate scientist.

In his new book published Thursday, "Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant's Guide," Bill McGuire argues that, after years of ignoring warnings from scientists, it is too late to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change.

The University College London Earth sciences professor pointed to a record-breaking heatwave across the UK this month and dangerous wildfires that destroyed 16 homes in East London as evidence of the rapidly changing climate. McGuire says weather will begin to regularly surpass current extremes, despite government goals to lower carbon emissions.

"And as we head further into 2022, it is already a different world out there," McGuire told The Guardian. "Soon it will be unrecognizable to every one of us."

His perspective — that severe climate change is now inevitable and irreversible — is more extreme than many scientists who believe that, with lowered emissions, the most severe potential impacts can still be avoided.

McGuire did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Many climate scientists, McGuire said, are much more scared about the future than they are willing to admit in public. He calls their reluctance to acknowledge the futility of current climate action "climate appeasement" and says it only makes things worse.

Instead of focusing on net-zero emission goals, which McGuire says won't reverse the current course of climate change, he argues we need to adapt to the "hothouse world" that lies ahead and start taking action to try to stop material conditions from deteriorating further.

"This is a call to arms," McGuire told The Guardian: "So if you feel the need to glue yourself to a motorway or blockade an oil refinery, do it."

This week, Senate Democrats agreed to a potential bill that would be the most significant action ever taken by the US to address climate change. The bill includes cutting carbon emissions 40% by 2030, with $369 billion to go toward energy and climate programs.