Global News
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Human activity has warmed the planet at a rate that is unprecedented in at least the last 2,000 years, a landmark IPCC report says. Continued inaction will have dire consequences across every corner of the globe, from the depths of the oceans to the highest peaks of our changing mountains.
The language in the most recent United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report is stark: it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, and land – and the resulting changes to many of our planetary support systems are irreversible over hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
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New research provides the first scientific evidence of overwintering fires in Alaska and Canada boreal forests. Due to climate change, these “zombie fires” appear to be increasing in frequency.
The study published in Nature was led by Vrije University Amsterdam with co-authors at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Alaska Fire Service. The researchers found that extreme summer temperatures and intense burning enable some wildfires to smolder in peat beneath snow during winter, even when temperatures drop to minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit. When warm and dry conditions arrive in spring, these fires flare up.
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Glacier runoff from one of the largest icefields in North America has been increasing for more than three decades, researchers from the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have found.
As the Juneau Icefield continues to lose mass, the flow will increase until 'peak runoff' is reached, the researchers predicted.
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A comprehensive inventory of Swiss glacial lakes shows how the lake landscape in the high mountains has changed since the end of the Little Ice Age in around 1850.
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Forest clearance in the mountains of Southeast Asia is accelerating and leading to unprecedented increases in carbon emissions, a new study published in the journal Nature Sustainability finds.
The findings of a new study published in Nature Sustainability show that forests are being cut down at increasingly higher altitudes and on steeper slopes in order to make way for agricultural intensification. As a result, more than 400 million tonnes of carbon are being released into the atmosphere every year as forests are cleared in the region, with that emissions figure increasing in recent years.
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The Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory has begun the second phase of the development of the Pyrenean Climate Change Strategy. The mountain research community are invited to participate in the process by contributing their experience and knowledge through an online survey.
The Pyrenees is a mountain bioregion particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Seven regional climate change policies from three countries converge in this territory, comprised of two EU Member States and one third country.
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature have announced a unique partnership with the Swiss National Park, the non-profit partner Porini Foundation, and technology business partner Huawei Switzerland, which aims to enhance nature conservation effectiveness in the Swiss National Park by deploying cutting-edge technology solutions.
Under the umbrella of Huawei’s TECH4ALL initiative, IUCN and Huawei have jointly launched the global Tech4Nature partnership. Tech4Nature aims to provide knowledge, technology, and resources for protected areas worldwide, with the aim of making nature conservation globally more effective and impactful. Tech4Nature will pilot new and customised digital technologies to enhance the impact of conservation at flagship sites across five countries. As a result, it will be possible to evaluate conservation success in 300 protected areas worldwide using the IUCN Green List Standard, as well as to use the Standard for guidance on the appropriate use of technology to support nature conservation, through this growing partnership.
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A memorandum of understanding between the Science for the Carpathians (S4C) and the Scientific Network for the Caucasus Mountain Region (SNC-mt) aims to support closer links between researchers and institutions across the two regions.
On the 24th of June, during the Forum Carpaticum 2021, the Mountain Research Initiative was invited to witness the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Science for the Carpathians (S4C) and the Scientific Network for the Caucasus Mountain Region (SNC-mt). The aim of this new cooperation is to facilitate the exchange of information, experiences, and success stories between the two networks, as well as to develop, finance, and implement joint activities going forwards.
