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The weekly round-up on the climate crisis and data on carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. That limiting the increase in global temperatures to within 1.5°C, as established in the 2015 Paris Agreement, is an impossible mission without the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy is certainly no longer news.It is a passage now taken for granted by studies and reports by panels of experts and scholars and it is information also acquired by governments.It is newsworthy, however, if it is an oil company that says it. Last week Shell released the “Energy security scenarios”, a new series of scenarios in which the oil and gas company imagines how the global energy system could change over the course of the century.Between the lines of the report – observe Carbon Brief who analyzed the study in depth – it is clear that staying below 1.5°C means immediately putting an end to oil and gas growth. This is certainly new considering that, in previou...

Despite the international political debate, the protests of environmentalist associations and the studies of numerous scientists, Norway has become the first nation in the world to start the deep-sea mining:the controversial deep-sea mining of critical minerals that in the name of the energy transition it would risk damaging the environment.The decision was taken by Parliament with 80 votes in favor and 20 against and will allow the scraping of a marine area of ​​approximately 281,000 square km, which will be divided into lots which will be assigned to the mining companies responsible for extracting lithium, magnesium, cobalt, copper, nickel and all other rare earth metals present in the seabed of the Norwegian Sea.Currently, timing and deadlines have not yet been defined as there would first be the intention to "see if it can be done in a sustainable way".However, the news has already sparked the reaction from environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and th...

In a historic hearing, small island nations disproportionately affected by the climate crisis in a sense took on countries which release more greenhouse gas emissions.A one-of-a-kind climate justice case that took place in the court of Hamburg, Germany.The recurring nations – including Bahamas, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Antigua and Barbuda – in detail, they asked to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to determine whether carbon dioxide emissions are absorbed by the marine environment can be considered pollution.As one of the largest carbon sinks on the planet, the ocean absorbs 25% of carbon dioxide emissions, captures 90% of the heat generated by these emissions and produces half of the world's oxygen.However, the excess carbon dioxide produced by industrial activities has already caused many imbalances, including high acidification of waters and the consequent negative impact on marine biodiversity. Small island nations, gathered in the Small Island States Commissio...

The deep, light-free zone of the ocean, located between 200 and 1,000 meters below the surface, is surprisingly poor in iron, to the point of limiting the growth of bacteria, which, however, they compensate by producing molecules that facilitate their absorption from the surrounding water:this is what emerges from new research led by scientists from the University of South Florida, subjected to peer review and published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.The authors explained that the experiment could revolutionize our understanding of microbial processes in the deep oceans and, above all, provide new estimates and parameters regarding carbon uptake by the oceans, which strongly depends on bacterial activity and is essential for mitigating climate change. The analyzed region, called “twilight zone”, is characterized by the fact that sunlight cannot penetrate, thus creating a dark and cold environment.The lack of sunlight therefore limits photosynthesis and, conseq...