If and when the Thwaites Glacier melts, it will result in nearly 0.6 metres of sea level rise, but it holds back another three metres of sea level rise lurking within the Antarctic continent. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
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On Friday 5th March China published a draft for its 14th five-year plan in Beijing. The document acts as a national economic blueprint and was expected to provide an outline as to how the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions planned on tackling its target of reaching net zero emissions by 2060, put forward by President Xi Jinping last September. It appears that greenhouse emissions could continue to increase by 1% or more each year up until 2021. Sam Geal, acting CEO at China dialogue, explains how influential Chinese efforts are when combatting climate change.
Since the late 1980s conservationists have used captive breeding to prevent the extinction of North America’s only native ferret species, the black footed ferret (Mustela nigripes). Now, an individual called WIlla, who died without leaving any offspring over 30 years ago has been cloned. Her genes represent 300% of the current genetic diversity of the species, and could help boos
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An elephant seals rest on the beach in Robert Island, in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, Antarctica.
Photo: Natacha Pisarenko (AP)
Meltwater from Antarctic glaciers is changing the makeup of the region’s oceans more than previously known, a new study finds. The measurements that made these findings possible were collected by an unusual group of researchers: seals.
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The study, published Friday in Communications: Earth and Environment, uses measurements of water temperature and salinity to show how glacial meltwater is changing the makeup of the ocean near the Pine Island Glacier, one of the fastest-retreating glaciers on the continent. The researchers found that the warmer, fresh meltwater was distributed in patches throughout the ocean, including portions rising near the surface. Those surface layers bring up iron and other nutrients to the top of the ocean, encouraging algae and other biomass to grow as well as keeping the ocean relatively ice-free
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