Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change&rsquo;s (IPCC) report last week revealed that Arctic ice is declining faster than expected. This could be dangerous for polar bears and their habitat. An expert from a conservation group Polar Bears International shared that "the longer the sea ice is gone from the productive zone the tougher it is on the bears".

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report last week revealed that Arctic ice is declining faster than expected. This could be dangerous for polar bears and their habitat. An expert from a conservation group Polar Bears International shared that "the longer the sea ice is gone from the productive zone the tougher it is on the bears".

According to new data from the&nbsp;International Renewable Energy Agency, solar, wind and other green technologies now provide more than one-third of the world&rsquo;s power. Almost three-quarters of new electricity generation capacity built in 2019 uses renewable energy, representing an all-time record.&nbsp;Fossil fuel power plants are in decline in Europe and the US, but the number of coal and gas plants grew in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.&nbsp;The world has invested about $3 trillion in renewables over the past decade, but the annual investments must&nbsp;double by 2030&nbsp;to tackle the climate emergency, says the agency.&nbsp;

As a consequence of unusually low temperatures in the atmosphere above the north pole a rare 'mini-hole' has opened in the ozone layer over the Arctic. According to scientists from the German Aereospace Center (DLR), the hole is being tracked from space and the ground over the past few days and has reached record dimensions. But it does not pose any danger to humans yet until it reaches further south. As per current trends, the hole is expected to disappear within the next few weeks. The hole could be a result of ozone-destroying chemicals such as chlorine and bromine in the atmosphere, said scientists.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef just suffered its third major bleaching event in a short span of 5 years. Huge coral loss has occurred&nbsp;as a result of a warm February, leading to warmer sea temperatures. According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the latest aerial survey shows severity of bleaching across the reef. They shared that the reef had only just begun recovering and this event has lead to more damage than previous bleaching events.&nbsp;

While factories and other industrial units remain closed as&nbsp; part of the 21-day nationwide lockdown in India to contain the spread of the novel&nbsp;coronavirus, the Yamuna river witnessed an improvement in its water quality. According to the vice chairman of the Delhi Jal Board, the positive change may be attributed to the stoppage of industrial pollutants drained into the river. A video of the same was also shared by the Ministry of Jal&nbsp;Shakti&nbsp;on Twitter. A few days ago, data from the Central Pollution Control Board revealed that the health of the Ganga&nbsp;river had also improved significantly.

We have only 10 years left to save the most threatened sea turtle population in the world, according to a group of conservation scientists from organisations including UK-based&nbsp;Fauna &amp; Flora International. To ensure the stabilisation of the&nbsp;Eastern Pacific leatherback population, expanded action has to be taken immediately, they said. This must continue within the decade or the species will be lost forever. According to the study, which was published in the journal&nbsp;Nature, in the&nbsp;2019-2020 nesting season, no&nbsp;leatherback turtle nests were recorded in Nicaragua, the region with the three most important nesting sites in the world.

The area around the Chernobyl nuclear power station was engulfed by two forest fires on Saturday, leading to a spike in radiation levels. Ukrainian fire-fighters&nbsp;and a helicopter labored in to douse the blaze that had spread to about 100 hectares. Authorities shared that the radiation levels at the site were substantially higher, about 16 times above normal. The fires were within the 2,600-square-kilometer area of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, established after the 1986 disaster.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, the coronavirus&nbsp;pandemic and the global lockdowns to curb its spread&nbsp;could impact routine climate monitoring if it continues. The organisation is worried that even weather forecasting and observation capacities may come to a standstill. Weather-related disasters and climate change continue to hit the globe at an unprecedented rate. The WMO&nbsp;urges nations to&nbsp; pay attention to their early warnings and weather-observing capacities. In countries where these measurements are taken manually by scientists, indications suggest that this work might have stopped for now.&nbsp;

As millions of people across the world are staying home amid the Covid-19 outbreak, seismologists have found changes to Earth's physical movement. They have observed much lesser ambient seismic noise or vibrations that are caused by buses, trains, cars and people&nbsp;as they go about their routine lives. This&nbsp;indicates that the Earth's upper crust is moving a little lesser. The phenonmenon was first confirmed by Thomas Lecocq from the Royal Observatory in Belgium. He claimed that Brussels saw a 30 to 50% drop in seismic noises amid the coronavirus pandemic. A similar trend was then seen in Paris, Los Angeles and Auckland. The silence caused by lockdowns imposed in various parts may benefit scientists looking to detect earthquakes and eventually take appropriate steps to mitigate natural disaster.

According to a Reuters report, global carbon dioxide emissions could fall by the largest amount since the World War Two this year as the coronavirus outbreak brings economies to a virtual standstill. The chair of&nbsp;Global Carbon Project, a network of scientists providing benchmark emissions data, has shared that&nbsp;carbon output could fall by more than 5% year-on-year - the first dip since a 1.4% reduction after the 2008 financial crisis. But, experts warn that without structural changes, this emissions decline could be short-lived and have little impact on the amount of carbon dioxide that has accumulated in the atmosphere over decades.

The largest waterfall in Ecuador, The San Rafael waterfall on the Coca River, has mysteriously vanished. The fall, which was a popular tourist attraction, has disappeared after a sinkhole swallowed a part of its water. According to NASA, it's been replaced by three streams and has been taken off the country's travel website! While there are no plans to reconstruct the fall, the reason for disappearance is still unclear and the Ministry of the Environment in Ecuador has launched an investigation. Some experts suggest that it may be due to the construction of a hydroelectric plant in the area.

Oceans could be restored to their former glory within the next 30 years, according to researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. A new scientific review, published in the journal Nature, points to the remarkable resilience&nbsp;of the ocean. For instance,&nbsp; Humpback whale numbers have rebounded since the commercial whaling ban and&nbsp;elephant seals have returned&nbsp;in the US. The report, however, highlights that conservation efforts have to doubled up and that climate change remains a big challenge. But, we have the skill and expertise to bring these marine habitats back to life, said experts.

With nationwide lockdown in India due to the coronavirus&nbsp;pandemic, parts of the country recorded cleaner air.&nbsp; According to data from the Central Pollution Control Board, 23 cities recorded 'good' air quality. There has been a drop&nbsp;in PM 2.5&nbsp; by 30 per cent in Delhi and by 15 per cent in Ahmedabad and Pune, according to the&nbsp;System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research. Reduction in vehicular traffic has considerably reduced levels of&nbsp;Nitrogen Oxide by almost 38 percent in Mumbai!

The first-ever heat wave has been recorded by scientists from the Australian Antarctic Program, at&nbsp;a research base in East&nbsp;Antarctica. The heat wave was recorded between the 23rd and 26th of January, which falls in the region's summer season. The region experienced its highest temperature during these three days, at a record of 9.2 degrees Celsius. Scientists shared that this could have global consequences for the broader ecosystem.

According to a&nbsp;report by UK-based charity Tearfund, four global beverage companies are responsible for more than half a million tonnes of plastic pollution in six developing countries each year, enough to cover 83 football pitches every day!&nbsp;The NGO&nbsp;calculated&nbsp;greenhouse gas emissions from the open burning of plastic bottles, sachets and cartons produced by Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestl&eacute; and Unilever. It estimated that the burning of plastic packaging creates 4.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equal to the emissions from 2 million cars! The countries include&nbsp;China, India, the Philippines, Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria.&nbsp;

A group of&nbsp;four professors of environmental health from the UK, US and India have shared in the British Medical Journal that warnings, similar to those on cigarette&nbsp;packets,&nbsp;should appear on high-carbon products such as airline tickets and energy bills. Warning labels would make consumers aware of the impact of their purchases not only on the climate, but also on their health and sensitise people to the consequences of their actions, say experts. Like smoking warning labels, high-carbon health labels could be graphic, highlighting the damage to health from air pollution. They could include pictures of damaged lungs, or highlight severe weather such as flooding, they suggest.&nbsp;

Scientists at the&nbsp;Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany have found the first-known&nbsp;bacterium that feeds on toxic plastic. It is a&nbsp;strain of the&nbsp;Pseudomonas&nbsp;Bacteria, known to withstand harsh conditions, such as high temperatures and acidic environments. Fungi has been used previously to break down polyurethane, but bacteria are much easier to harness for industrial use, say scientists.&nbsp;While it's a long time before it can actually be used, this research points towards looking to nature to find valuable biocatalysts.

Several videos of, wild animals freely wandering on otherwise crowded streets and bustling urban settings in India, have emerged on social media over the last few days as the country faces a 21-day lockdown to curb the coronavirus. Rare shots of a&nbsp;deer strolling in Haridwar, mass nesting turtles and a Nilgai&nbsp;breaking curfew rules in Noida have been circulating on social media, and the latest trending video from Kerala&nbsp;shows what seems like an endangered Malabar civet calmly crossing a usually busy street in Kozhikode district.

A letter from 25 leading experts, published in the journal Nature, warns that the&nbsp;coronavirus pandemic could wipe out populations of chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans.&nbsp;Our closest living relatives, which share about 98% of human DNA, are known to be susceptible to catching respiratory diseases from people. Even pathogens producing mild symptoms in humans have been lethal to these endangered species&nbsp;in the past. There's evidence that in 2016 scientists reported the&nbsp;transmission of a human coronavirus&nbsp;to wild chimpanzees in the Ta&iuml; National Park in Ivory Coast, and so we should prepare for the worst, say experts.

A scientific paper, published in Nature, indicates a rare environmental success.&nbsp;The&nbsp;ozone layer&nbsp;is continuing to heal and has the potential to fully recover, say scientists. Experts confirm that changes in the jet stream and air circulation patterns are evidences of the recovery of the Earth&rsquo;s protective ozone layer. These changes are due to the shrinking ozone hole following the implementation of the Montreal Protocol, that banned the use of chlorofluorocarbons in 1987, says the study and that indicates&nbsp;the success of the protocol.&nbsp;The study serves as an example of the reversal of environmental damage and shows that orchestrated global action can make a difference.

According to a report by the System of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research, pollution levels across major cities dropped as people stayed indoors and practised social distancing to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. According to the organisation,&nbsp;a 45% drop in the concentration of Nitrogen Oxide was observed&nbsp;this month compared to March 2018 and 2019. The report states that fossil fuel emission, mainly coming from vehicular traffic, is one of the major sources of Nitrogen Oxide&nbsp;and PM2.5 in Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad.&nbsp;
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Decline in Arctic sea ice dangerous for polar bears

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