AFP UK

Dynamite fishing and pollution — but mostly global warming — wiped out 14 percent of the world’s coral reefs from 2009 to 2018, leaving graveyards of bleached skeletons where vibrant ecosystems once thrived, according to the largest ever survey of coral health.

Hardest hit were corals in South Asia and the Pacific, around the Arabian Peninsula, and off the coast of Australia, more than 300 scientists in the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network reported.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to the world’s reefs,” co-author Paul Hardisty, CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science, said in a statement.

Oceans absorb more than 90 percent of the excess heat from greenhouse gas emissions, shielding land surfaces but generating huge, long-lasting marine heatwaves that are pushing many species of corals past their limits of tolerance.

A single so-called bleaching event in 1998 caused by warming waters wiped out eight percent of all corals. 

Coral reefs cover only a tiny fraction — 0.2 percent — of the ocean floor, but they are home to at least a quarter of all marine animals and plants.

Besides anchoring marine ecosystems, they also provide protein, jobs and protection from storms and shoreline erosion for hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

The value of goods and services from coral reefs is about $2.7 trillion per year, including $36 billion in tourism, the report said.

Loss of coral from 2009 to 2018 varied by region, ranging from five percent in East Asia to 95 percent in the eastern tropical Pacific. 

– The ‘Coral Triangle’ –

“Since 2009 we have lost more coral worldwide than all the living coral in Australia,” noted UNEP executive director Inger Anderson. 

“We can reverse the losses, but we have to act now.”

The UN’s climate science advisory panel, the IPCC, projects with “high confidence” that global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels will see 70 to 90 percent of all corals disappear. 

In a 2C world, less than one percent of global corals would survive.

Earth’s average surface temperature has already increased by 1.1C above that benchmark.  

The report, titled “Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2020”, found reasons for cautious optimism.

“Some reefs have shown a remarkable ability to bounce back, which offers some hope for the future recovery of degraded reefs,” Hardisty said.

East and Southeast Asia’s “Coral Triangle” — which contains nearly 30 percent of the world’s coral reefs — were hit less hard by warming waters over the last decade, and in some cases showed recovery.

This resilience could be due to species unique to the region, potentially offering strategies for boosting coral growth elsewhere, the authors said.

Based on nearly two million data points from 12,000 sites spanning 73 countries and 40 years, the report is the sixth such global survey and the first since 2008.

To measure change over time, the researchers contrasted  areas covered by healthy live hard coral with areas taken over by algae, a sign of coral distress.  

The report was undertaken with support from UNEP and the International Coral Reef Initiative, a partnership of governments and research organisations focused on preserving corals reefs and related ecosystems.

Rapid population growth and global warming are increasing exposure to extreme heat in cities, aggravating health problems and making moving to urban areas less beneficial for the world’s poor, according to a study released Monday.

The rise is affecting nearly a quarter of the world’s population, said the report published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

In recent decades, hundreds of millions of people have moved from rural areas to cities where temperatures are generally higher because of surfaces such as asphalt which trap heat and a lack of vegetation.

Scientists studied the maximum daily heat and humidity in more than 13,000 cities from 1983 to 2016.

Using the so-called “wet-bulb globe temperature” scale, a measure that takes into account heat and humidity, they defined extreme heat as 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

The researchers then compared weather data with statistics on the cities’ population over the same 33-year period.

They calculated the number of days of extreme heat in a particular year by the population of the city that year to come up with a definition called person-days.

The authors found that the number of person-days in which city dwellers were exposed went from 40 billion per year in 1983 to 119 billion in 2016.

Cascade Tuholske at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, a lead author of the study, said the rise “increases morbidity and mortality.” 

“It impacts people’s ability to work, and results in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions,” he said in a statement.

Population growth accounted for two-thirds of the exposure spike, with actual warming temperatures contributing a third, although proportions varied from city to city, they wrote.

Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka was the worst-affected city, seeing an increase of 575 million person-days of extreme heat over the study period.

That was largely attributable to its population soaring from around four million in 1983 to around 22 million today.

Other big cities to show similar trends were Shanghai, Guangzhou, Yangon, Dubai, Hanoi and Khartoum as well as various cities in Pakistan, India and the Arabian Peninsula.

Major cities that saw around half of their exposure causing by a warming climate included Baghdad, Cairo, Kuwait City, Lagos, Kolkata and Mumbai.

The authors said the patterns they found in Africa and South Asia, “may crucially limit the urban poor’s ability to realize the economic gains associated with urbanization.”

They added that “sufficient investment, humanitarian intervention, and government support” would be needed to counteract the negative impact.

In the United States, some forty major cities saw exposure grow “rapidly,” mainly in the Gulf Coast states of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

The study was carried out by researchers at New York’s Columbia, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of Arizona at Tuscon and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Rapid population growth and global warming are increasing exposure to extreme heat in cities, aggravating health problems and making moving to urban areas less beneficial for the world’s poor, according to a study released Monday.

The rise is affecting nearly a quarter of the world’s population, said the report published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

In recent decades, hundreds of millions of people have moved from rural areas to cities where temperatures are generally higher because of surfaces such as asphalt which trap heat and a lack of vegetation.

Scientists studied the maximum daily heat and humidity in more than 13,000 cities from 1983 to 2016.

Using the so-called “wet-bulb globe temperature” scale, a measure that takes into account heat and humidity, they defined extreme heat as 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).

The researchers then compared weather data with statistics on the cities’ population over the same 33-year period.

They calculated the number of days of extreme heat in a particular year by the population of the city that year to come up with a definition called person-days.

The authors found that the number of person-days in which city dwellers were exposed went from 40 billion per year in 1983 to 119 billion in 2016.

Cascade Tuholske at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, a lead author of the study, said the rise “increases morbidity and mortality.” 

“It impacts people’s ability to work, and results in lower economic output. It exacerbates pre-existing health conditions,” he said in a statement.

Population growth accounted for two-thirds of the exposure spike, with actual warming temperatures contributing a third, although proportions varied from city to city, they wrote.

Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka was the worst-affected city, seeing an increase of 575 million person-days of extreme heat over the study period.

That was largely attributable to its population soaring from around four million in 1983 to around 22 million today.

The authors said the patterns they found in Africa and South Asia, “may crucially limit the urban poor’s ability to realize the economic gains associated with urbanization.”

They added that “sufficient investment, humanitarian intervention, and government support” would be needed to counteract the negative impact.

The study was carried out by researchers at New York’s Columbia, University of Minnesota Twin Cities, the University of Arizona at Tuscon and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

US scientists David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian on Monday won the Nobel Medicine Prize for discoveries on receptors for temperature and touch.

The duo’s research, conducted independently of each other in the late 1990s and 2000s, is being used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and conditions, including chronic pain.

Patapoutian, an Armenian-American molecular biologist who moved to America from war-torn Lebanon aged 18, said the Nobel committee’s calls at 2:00 am were initially blocked by his phone.

“They somehow got a hold of my 94-year-old father who lives in Los Angeles, and I guess even if you have ‘Do not disturb’ people in your favorites can call you,” he told reporters, adding it was a “very special moment.”

Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival, the Nobel Committee said, and underpins our interaction with the world around us.

“The groundbreaking discoveries … by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical force can initiate the nerve impulses that allow us to perceive and adapt to the world,” the Nobel jury said.

“In our daily lives we take these sensations for granted, but how are nerve impulses initiated so that temperature and pressure can be perceived? This question has been solved by this year’s Nobel Prize laureates.”

– Chili pepper inspiration –

Julius, 65, was recognised for his research using capsaicin — a compound from chili peppers that induces a burning sensation –- to identify which nerve sensors in the skin respond to heat.

The human body generates heat in response to inflammation, so we can protect the affected area and allow it to heal.

Julius told reporters at a press conference that he was browsing a supermarket aisle filled with chili pepper sauces when he turned to his wife, a fellow scientist, and said he thought it was time he finally solved how certain chemicals cause the sensation of heat.

Patapoutian’s pioneering discovery was identifying the class of nerve sensors that respond to touch.

“In science many times it’s things we take for granted that are of high interest,” Patapoutian told the Nobel Foundation website.

Touch receptors were “the big elephant in the room: we knew they existed, we knew they did something very different than how most other cells communicate with each other, which is through chemicals.”

Julius, a professor at the University of California in San Francisco and Patapoutian, younger by 12 years and a professor at Scripps Research in California, will share the Nobel Prize cheque for 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.1 million, one million euros).

The pair were not among the frontrunners mentioned in speculation ahead of the announcement.

– Peace Prize favourites –

Pioneers of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which paved the way for mRNA Covid vaccines, and immune system researchers had been widely tipped as favourites.

While the 2020 award was handed out during the pandemic, this is the first time the entire selection process has taken place under the shadow of Covid-19.

Last year, the award went to three virologists for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.

The Nobel season continues on Tuesday with the award for physics and Wednesday with chemistry, followed by the much-anticipated gongs for literature on Thursday and peace on Friday before the economics prize winds things up on Monday, October 11.

Speculation on potential Peace Prize winners has ranged from the Belarusian opposition to climate campaigners such as Sweden’s Greta Thunberg.

Literary circles have been buzzing with speculation that the Swedish academy could choose to rectify an imbalance with the literature prize that has seen Europe and North America dominate since 2012.

In total, those two regions account for 95 of 117 literature laureates.

David Julius was browsing a supermarket aisle filled with chili pepper sauces when he turned to his wife, a fellow scientist, and said he thought it was time he finally solved how certain chemicals cause the sensation of heat.

“Well then, you should get on it,” came her reply.

Ardem Patapoutian, meanwhile, had long been driven to unlock the neglected mysteries of touch, which govern everything from how we discriminate between objects and how we feel when we hug another person, to how our bodies intuitively “know” where our limbs are, without looking.

Both American molecular biologists won the Nobel Medicine Prize for their groundbreaking advances, conducted independently of each other in the late 1990s and 2000s, that are now being turned towards developing treatments, especially of pain.

Julius, of the University of California, San Francisco told reporters he had always been fascinated by how people interact with natural products in their environment, and by how certain plants contain chemical irritants, such as spice.

Prior research had shown capsaicin was important as an activator of neurons involved in pain — but the underlying mechanism was unclear.

Julius discovered in 1997 the specific protein on the outer tip of sensory nerves responsible for the sensation of burning pain from chilies — and discovered it also responded to high temperatures.

He then turned to compounds from menthol and mint to identify similar “receptors” responsible for cold, and used molecules from wasabi to learn about inflammatory pain.

“I like doing experimental science because you get to work at the bench with your hands while you’re also thinking, and that gives you an opportunity to really sort of enjoy what you’re doing day to day, almost like a hobby,” he said.

“There’s a time when you make a discovery, where you’re the only person on the planet, or at least you think you’re the only person on the planet who knows the answer to a particular question, and that’s a really thrilling moment.”

A number of drug candidates to stop chronic pain are in the pipeline, but have so far come up against challenging side effects.

“You have to walk this line of wanting to inhibit pain that’s chronic… but not eliminate pain sensation that’s protective or acute,” he said.

– Immigrant success –

Patapoutian, of Scripps Research, also made discoveries linked to temperature, but his investigations into pressure stood out even more.

Specifically, he found two genes responsible for converting pressure into electrical signals through tests on lab-cultured cells.

It was a painstaking progress arrived at by deleting one gene after another. “After working on this for a whole year and getting one negative result after another, the 72nd candidate … wiped out this ability,” he said at a press event.

Armenian-origin Patapoutian, who grew up in war-torn Lebanon and came to the US aged 18, said it was hard for him to imagine the day would come he would win a Nobel. 

When the Nobel committee tried calling him at 2:00 am in California, his phone was on silent. 

“They somehow got a hold of my 94-year-old father who lives in Los Angeles, and I guess even if you have ‘Do not disturb’ people in your favorites can call you,” he said, adding it was a “very special moment.”

The operator of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany — criticised by some Western countries as a geopolitical weapon — said on Monday it had begun filling the pipeline with gas.

The latest step pushing the Baltic Sea pipeline to completion comes as Europe faces an energy crisis with natural gas reserves at a low level and energy prices surging. 

“The gas-in procedure for the first string of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has started,” Nord Stream 2 AG said in a statement.

“This string will be gradually filled to build the required inventory and pressure as a prerequisite for the later technical tests,” said the Switzerland-based company, which is owned by a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom. 

It said it would publish more information about “further technical steps in due time”. 

Nord Stream 2 has for years divided European capitals and raised tensions between the bloc and Washington.

The pipeline diverts supplies from an existing route through Ukraine and is expected to deprive Europe’s ally of an estimated one billion euros ($1.2 billion) annually in transit fees from Russia.

Ukraine — in conflict with Russia since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea — has warned Europe that Nord Stream 2 could be used by Moscow to exert pressure.

The United States has reluctantly signed off on the project, but says it will sanction Moscow if the pipeline is used as a weapon.

– ‘Geopolitical project’ –

“We continue to oppose this pipeline,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday.

“We continue to believe it is a geopolitical project of the Russian Federation and we will continue to apply the law consistent with our periodic reviews which, of course, remain ongoing.”

When Gazprom announced last month that construction was complete, Kiev vowed to continue lobbying against the project “even after the gas is turned on”.

Gas prices in Europe around the same time were skyrocketing in anticipation of higher winter demand and the International Energy Agency urged Russia open the taps.

Moscow has said that it is waiting for Nord Stream 2 to come online before delivering more gas, but said the pipeline would help combat surging gas prices in Europe. 

Running from Russia’s Baltic coast to northeastern Germany, the underwater, 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) pipeline follows the same route as Nord Stream 1, which was completed over a decade ago.

Like its twin, Nord Stream 2 will be able to pipe 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year to Europe, increasing the continent’s access to relatively cheap natural gas at a time of falling domestic production.

Germany, Europe’s top economy, imports around 40 percent of its gas from Russia, and Berlin believes the pipeline has a role to play in the country’s transition away from coal and nuclear energy.

A huge oil spill was killing wildlife and threatening California’s beaches on Monday, in what officials said amounted to an “environmental catastrophe.”

Dead birds and fish had begun washing up on the shore as a 126,000-gallon slick of crude oil choked waters south of Los Angeles, after spewing from a pipeline connected to an offshore rig.

A 15-mile (24-kilometer) stretch of coastline was closed to the public and fishing was ordered halted as crews scrambled to clean up one of California’s biggest spills in decades.

Beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months, Huntingdon Beach Mayor Kim Carr warned.

“Our wetlands are being degraded and portions of our coastline are completely covered in oil,” she said.

The US Coast Guard, which is coordinating the response, said oil amounting to less than three percent of the spill plume — estimated to be 5.8 nautical miles long — had been recovered, and that more than a mile of oil containment booms had been deployed.

“Unfortunately, we are starting to see oil covered fish and birds washing up along our coastline,” including in protected wetlands, the City of Huntington Beach said Sunday.

The city of around 200,000 people identified the company responsible for the leak as Beta Offshore, a California subsidiary of Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp.

“We will be working to ensure that Amplify Energy Corporation does everything possible to rectify this environmental catastrophe,” Huntington Beach said.

Amplify Energy said Monday that “as a precautionary measure, all of the company’s production and pipeline operations at the Beta Field have been shut down.”

The company said it was sending a remotely operated vehicle to try to find the source of the leak.

– ‘Just devastating’ –

Officials have warned people not to touch or try to save any wildlife they find, but to instead call local authorities to alert them to animals affected by the oil. 

“This is just devastating for our marine life, our habitat, our economics, our entire community,” Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said Sunday.

“Our natural habitat we’ve spent decades building up and creating is just damaged in a day.”

The spill originated near the Elly platform, which was built in 1980 and is one of 23 oil and gas drilling platforms in federal waters off California, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The disaster has already reignited a debate about the presence of oil rigs and pipelines near the coast of Southern California.

“The oil spill…is as tragic as it was preventable,” said Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat who represents the area in the US Congress.

“This environmental catastrophe highlights the simple fact that where you drill, you spill.

“This will be devastating not only to our marine wildlife and ecosystem, but also to the livelihoods of our coastal communities which are built around fishing, tourism, and recreation. 

“As long as these platforms and pipelines remain, our coastal communities remain under threat from potential disasters like we are now seeing.”

Oil spills have scarred California for decades; pictures of dead, oil-covered dolphins and tar-stained beaches off Santa Barbara in 1969 spurred widespread revulsion.

California has not granted any permits to drill for oil since then.

But the state’s jurisdiction extends only three miles offshore, and federally sanctioned oil and gas platforms dot the area’s seascape, many of them easily visible from the shore.

Environmentalists have repeatedly called attention to the age of some of the facilities, which they say are rusty and poorly maintained, and the risks they pose. 

The nature of the current oil spill has not been determined, but leaks were detected in 1999 on the pipeline linking two platforms in the Beta field, which was then jointly operated by Mobil and Shell, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“This is why the US needs to end coastal oil drilling,” the Times wrote in an editorial.

More than 200 Extinction Rebellion activists, some dressed as clowns, attempted to blockade central Zurich on Monday in a bid to force the Swiss government to heed the environmental movement’s climate demands.

XR urged its activists to return every day at noon to block traffic at three key strategic points in Switzerland’s financial capital, including a bridge and the crossroads of the city’s main shopping street.

Students and senior citizens were among those who descended on Zurich from across the wealthy Alpine nation, unfurling banners and stretching out large sheets of blue plastic symbolising the oceans suffocating with rubbish.

Others installed a ship daubed with climate crisis slogans, “because we are all in the same boat”, one activist said.

“We have children and are worried about their future,” said Genevieve, a teacher from Neuchatel who came with her physicist husband.

“We are a little afraid of being arrested because this is the first time we have taken part in civil disobedience.” 

A retired humanitarian, who did not wish to give her name, said that the prospect of being arrested “does not scare me”, adding that “everything else, at the political level, did not work”. 

In June, XR petitioned the Swiss government asking it to “officially” recognise the climate emergency and mandate a citizens’ assembly on “climate and ecological justice”, warning that its activists were otherwise prepared to engage in civil disobedience. 

After an hour, the police ordered activists to retreat to designated areas to clear the way for trams on Zurich’s main shopping street.

A police statement later said 134 people were booked then released. 

The operator of the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany — criticised by some Western countries as a geopolitical weapon — said Monday it had begun filling the pipeline with gas.

The latest step pushing the Baltic Sea pipeline to completion comes as Europe faces an energy crisis with natural gas reserves at a low level and energy prices surge. 

“The gas-in procedure for the first string of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline has started,” Nord Stream 2 AG said in a statement.

“This string will be gradually filled to build the required inventory and pressure as a prerequisite for the later technical tests,” said the Switzerland-based company, which is owned by a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom. 

It said it would publish more information about “further technical steps in due time”. 

Nord Stream 2 has for years divided European capitals and raised tensions between the bloc and Washington.

The pipeline diverts supplies from an existing route through Ukraine and is expected to deprive Europe’s ally of an estimated one billion euros ($1.2 billion) annually in transit fees from Russia.

Ukraine — in conflict with Russia since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea — has warned Europe that Nord Stream 2 could be used by Moscow as a geopolitical pressure vice.

When Gazprom announced last month that construction was complete, Kiev vowed to continue lobbying against the project “even after the gas is turned on.”

Gas prices in Europe around the same time were skyrocketing in anticipation of higher winter demand and the International Energy Agency urged Russia open the taps.

Moscow has said that it is waiting for Nord Stream 2 to come online before delivering more gas, but said the pipeline would help combat surging gas prices in Europe. 

Running from Russia’s Baltic coast to northeastern Germany, the underwater, 1,200-kilometre (745-mile) pipeline follows the same route as Nord Stream 1, which was completed over a decade ago.

Like its twin, Nord Stream 2 will be able to pipe 55 billion cubic metres of gas per year to Europe, increasing the continent’s access to relatively cheap natural gas at a time of falling domestic production.

Germany, Europe’s top economy, imports around 40 percent of its gas from Russia, and Berlin believes the pipeline has a role to play in the country’s transition away from coal and nuclear energy.

The world’s airlines pledged to reach “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050 on Monday even as a trade group forecast profit losses from the pandemic extending into next year.

“For aviation, net zero is a bold, audacious commitment. But it is also a necessity,” Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told top airline executives meeting in Boston.

“The important decision that we must make today will secure the freedom to fly for future generations.”

The promise comes ahead of the United Nations climate change conference (COP26) in Britain amid rising public clamor for action.

IATA represents 290 member airlines comprising 82 percent of pre-pandemic global air traffic, and its pledge follows the lead of Europe’s aviation industry which has embraced the European Union’s emissions goals.

The new commitment comes 12 years after IATA unveiled its first plan to reduce airline CO2 emissions by 50 percent by 2050 compared to 2005 levels.

But Walsh told the gathering that the industry must take more forceful action given the urgency of the problem.

The airline industry currently accounts for about three percent of global emissions. To reach the net zero goal, it will need a steady ramp-up of renewable jet fuel, other efficiency improvements and the use of carbon capture storage and offsets.

Proof of the industry’s good faith, Walsh assured, is that airlines “invested hundreds of billions of dollars in more fuel-efficient aircraft,” with fleet fuel efficiency improving by over 20 percent in a decade.

The dramatic tightening of the mid-century targets did not require a vote, in accordance with IATA statutes, but was adopted by consensus as no member raised a firm objection that would have blocked the move.

The meeting nevertheless saw Chinese airlines stress that the 2050 objective was inconsistent with the goal adopted by the government in Beijing, which aims for carbon neutrality by the year 2060.

– More losses ahead –

“Many in this room — individually or in groups — have already taken this step,” Walsh told the executives.

“For others, this will be an additional challenge at a very difficult time,” with the industry hard hit by global effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier Monday, IATA offered its latest accounting of red ink facing the industry in the wake of the pandemic.

Global airlines will lose an estimated $51.8 billion this year and another $11.6 billion in 2022, according to the group’s forecast.

Walsh described the shortfall as “enormous,” but said the industry is “well past the deepest part of the crisis.”

The recovery varies by region, with North America the only area projected to generate positive profits in 2022.

Europe is forecast to remain in the red, with losses of $9.2 billion in 2022, compared with a loss of $20.9 billion expected this year. The region’s carriers will see a recovery in intra-European travel, but long-haul travel will remain limited, IATA said.

Carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa are all expected to see smaller losses in 2022 compared with this year.

IATA projected that total passenger numbers of 3.4 billion in 2022, similar to 2014 levels, but below the 4.5 billion in 2019.

“People have not lost their desire to travel, as we see in solid domestic market resilience. But they are being held back from international travel by restrictions, uncertainty and complexity,” said Walsh, adding that more governments see vaccinations “as a way out of this crisis.”