The women — KlimaSeniorinnen, a group of more than 2,000 women over age 64 — won a lawsuit in April claiming that their country’s inadequate response to the climate crisis, particularly heat waves, had put their health at risk.

“The declaration is a betrayal of us older women – and of all those who are suffering from the real consequences of global warming today and in the future,” said Rosmarie Wydler-Wälti, KlimaSeniorinnen co-president, as The Guardian reported.

The original ruling was hailed as a huge win since it means countries belonging to the Council of Europe — the continent’s foremost human rights organization — are now susceptible to legal challenges when they are slow to make the transition to more renewable economic systems.

Even so, on Wednesday members of the lower house of Swiss parliament voted 111 to 72 to disregard the verdict. They argued that Switzerland’s response to the climate crisis had been sufficient and accused the judges of “inadmissible and disproportionate judicial activism.”

“This is terrible from a rule-of-law perspective,” said Corina Heri, a University of Zürich legal researcher, as reported by The Guardian. “The term ‘slippery slope’ is overused, obviously, but it is a dangerous precedent to create.”

If the Swiss women feel their country is not adhering to the ruling, they can complain to a Council of Europe committee that meets four times annually to monitor ECHR ruling compliance, Reuters reported.

Raphael Mahaim, a lawyer for the KlimaSeniorinnen, told Reuters the group was considering filing a complaint.

It is also possible for Switzerland to be expelled or leave the Council of Europe of its own accord if it does not want to act in accordance with the council’s directives. In March of 2022, Russia was removed from the council following its invasion of Ukraine.

Legal experts said the more likely outcome would be for Switzerland to be pressured to accept the judgment.

Isabela Keuschnigg, a London School of Economics legal researcher, said Switzerland’s refusal to carry out the ruling could “set a concerning precedent, undermining the role of legal oversight in democratic governance,” reported Reuters.

Joana Setzer, a climate litigation expert with the London School of Economics, said compliance was encouraged by the monitoring system and countries leaving the council would be subjected to “significant political and social repercussions.”

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New research reveals that the first 24 months of the Ukraine war had a climate cost greater than the annual greenhouse gas emissions of 175 individual countries, adding to the global climate crisis.

“Russia’s war in Ukraine has caused extensive devastation, including the destruction or damage of homes, schools, hospitals, and other critical public facilities, leaving citizens without essential resources such as water, electricity, and healthcare. Beside causing damage to the natural environment of Ukraine, this war affects the global climate due to the release of significant amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere,” the authors wrote in the study. “In the early months of the war, the majority of the emissions were caused by the large scale destruction of civilian infrastructure requiring a large post-war reconstruction effort. Now, after two years of war, the largest share of emissions originate from a combination of warfare, landscape fires and the damage to energy infrastructure.”

The study, Climate Damage Caused by Russia’s War in Ukraine: 24 February 2022 – 23 February 2024 by Initiative on GHG accounting of war (IGGAW) — a coalition of climate experts estimating the impact of the war on Earth’s climate — found that, after two years of war, the planet’s GHG emissions have increased by 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The GHG emissions include carbon dioxide, sulfur hexafluoride — the most potent GHG of all — and nitrous oxide, reported The Guardian. The total is equivalent to the annual emissions of 90 million gas-powered cars and more than that of countries like Venezuela and the Netherlands in 2022.

IGGAW is partially funded by the Swedish and German governments, along with the European Climate Foundation. It says the Russian Federation will be faced with a climate reparations bill of $32 billion for the first two years of the war.

“Russia is harming Ukraine but also our climate. This ‘conflict carbon’ is sizeable and will be felt globally. The Russian Federation should be made to pay for this, a debt it owes Ukraine and countries in the global south that will suffer most from climate damage,” said Lennard de Klerk, IGGAW lead author, as The Guardian reported.

The report is the first time reparations calculations have been made for climate impacts related to war.

The researchers found that one-third of emissions came from military activity — fuel used by Russian troops was the single biggest GHG source.

The concrete and steel that will be necessary to rebuild damaged and destroyed homes, schools, bridges, water plants and factories will contribute another third, depending on what proportion of carbon-intensive and more sustainable methods and materials are used in the reconstruction process.

The other third of GHG emissions came from fires, military strikes on energy infrastructure, the rerouting of commercial aircraft and the displacement of almost seven million Ukrainian and Russian people. The additional aviation fuel used to avoid the conflict generated a minimum of 24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Fires associated with military actions burned 2.47 million acres of forest and fields, making up 13 percent of total carbon emissions.

Energy infrastructure was also targeted, creating huge GHG leaks.

The study found that the forced movement of millions of Ukrainians fleeing the conflict, millions of people displaced internally and Russians fleeing their country generated nearly 3.3 million tonnes of carbon.

“The new monetary estimate of climate damage highlights the important role of greenhouse gas emissions accounting for conflicts,” said Linsey Cottrell, Conflict and Environment Observatory environmental policy officer, as reported by The Guardian. “We critically need international agreement on how conflict and military emissions are measured and addressed.”

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The report, published in Earth System Science Data, found that nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions increased by 40% from 1980 to 2020, reaching around 3 million metric tons per year. 

According to the report, nitrous oxide emissions had the fastest growth rate in 2020 and 2021 since 1980, when tracking became more reliable. In 2020 alone, nitrous oxide emissions reached around 10 million metric tons, with 8 million metric tons attributed to agriculture, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego reported.

The warming effects of one pound of nitrous oxide are about 265 times the warming effects from the same amount of carbon dioxide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reported. While nitrous oxide emissions have been rising, the report noted that the amount of nitrous oxide emissions released from natural sources has been mostly steady, meaning the increase could be heavily attributed to human activities.

Even after 2020, nitrous oxide emissions remain unchecked, with a nearly 25% increase in 2022 compared to pre-industrial levels.

“Nitrous oxide emissions from human activities must decline in order to limit global temperature rise to 2°C as established by the Paris Agreement,” Hanqin Tian, lead author of the report and the Schiller Institute Professor of Global Sustainability at Boston College, said in a press release. “Reducing N2O emissions is the only solution since at this point no technologies exist that can remove N2O from the atmosphere.” 

The report found some progress toward curbing these emissions, although more actions are needed, the authors said. Nitrous oxide emissions in Europe have been declining by 31% since the 1930s. While China has been the No. 1 emitter of nitrous oxides since 2010, according to the report, the country has seen the rate of these emissions slow down since the mid-2010s. Following China and rounding out the top 10 emitters are India, U.S., Brazil, Russia, Pakistan, Australia, Indonesia, Turkey and Canada.

In the U.S., agriculture is a major contributor of nitrous oxides, but emissions from industrial activities have declined. Globally, agriculture contributed to about 74% of all nitrous oxide emissions over the past 10 years, the report found.

“While there have been some successful nitrogen reduction initiatives in different regions, we found an acceleration in the rate of N2O accumulation in the atmosphere in this decade,” said Josep Canadell, executive director at the Global Carbon Project and a research scientist at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. “The growth rates of atmospheric N2O in 2020 and 2021 were higher than any previous observed year and more than 30 percent higher than the average rate of increase in the previous decade.”  

Because nitrous oxide emissions have been reaching record highs in the past few years, the report authors have recommended frequent assessments as well as improvements to agricultural practices, such as limiting the use of nitrogen fertilizers to slow emissions. They also noted that there needs to be better recordings of the sources of these emissions as well as nitrous oxide sinks.

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According to the new study, the total amount of chlorine — which depletes the ozone — in all hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) peaked in 2021, five years earlier than the most recent predictions.

“This has been a huge global success. We’re seeing that things are going in the right direction,” said Dr. Luke Western, lead author of the study and a Marie Curie Research Fellow at University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, as The Guardian reported.

The reduction in HCFCs is largely due to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which introduced controls on the usage and production of ozone-depleting substances. HCFCs were once common in the manufacturing of hundreds of products, from refrigerators and packaging to aerosol sprays and foams.

Lowering the amount of HCFCs — which are also greenhouse gases — should help lessen global heating, a press release from University of Bristol said.

Developed to replace chlorofluorocarbons — banned globally since 2010 — production and usage of HCFCs is still in the process of being phased out.

“The results are very encouraging. They underscore the great importance of establishing and sticking to international protocols,” Western said in the press release. “Without the Montreal Protocol, this success would not have been possible, so it’s a resounding endorsement of multilateral commitments to combat stratospheric ozone depletion, with additional benefits in tackling human-induced climate change.”

HCFC emissions fell less than one percent between 2021 and 2023, but are still moving in the right direction.

“Their production is currently being phased out globally, with a completion date slated for 2040. In turn these HCFCs are being replaced by non-ozone depleting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and other compounds. By enforcing strict controls and promoting the adoption of ozone-friendly alternatives, the protocol has successfully curbed the release and levels of HCFCs into the atmosphere,” Western said.

Highly precise measurements of these substances are gathered at atmospheric observatories worldwide by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA) and the Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment.

“We use highly sensitive measurement techniques and thorough protocols to ensure the reliability of these observations,” said Dr. Martin Vollmer, co-author of the study and an atmospheric scientist with the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, in the press release.

The study, “A decrease in radiative forcing and equivalent effective chlorine from hydrochlorofluorocarbons,” was published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

“This study highlights the critical need to be vigilant and proactive in our environmental monitoring, ensuring other controlled ozone depleting and greenhouse gases follow a similar trend which will help to protect the planet for future generations,” said Dr. Isaac Vimont, study co-author and NOAA research scientist, in the press release.

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The request by the Supreme Court will delay the justices’ decision on whether to hear an appeal by the fossil fuel companies after Hawaii’s highest court ruled the litigation could go to trial.

“Big oil companies are fighting desperately to avoid trial in lawsuits like Honolulu’s, which would expose the evidence of the fossil fuel industry’s climate lies for the entire world to see,” said Richard Wiles, Center for Climate Integrity president, as reported by Reuters.

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Documents revealed months ago confirmed that oil companies knew about the impacts of fossil fuels on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the environment as early as 1954.

Defendants in the lawsuit include Sunoco, BP, Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, Shell, Marathon Petroleum and BHP Group.

The legal position of the Biden administration will be filed by the Justice Department’s solicitor general.

The original lawsuit — filed four years ago by the county and city of Honolulu, along with the city’s water supply board — said the oil majors’ misleading statements regarding the impact of their products opened the door for infrastructure and property damage brought about by human-induced climate change.

The Supreme Court’s order comes after conservative supporters of the companies published a host of advertisements and op-eds, The Guardian reported.

“I have never, ever seen this kind of overt political campaign to influence the court like this,” professor Patrick Parenteau, Vermont Law School senior climate policy fellow, expressed last week to The Guardian.

Climate litigation advocates have said the solicitor general should reject the petition and affirm the earlier decision of Hawaii’s supreme court.

Honolulu is one of many cities and states to have brought legal action against oil companies for concealing the hazards of their products.

The fossil fuel companies insisted federal law should govern the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

“[T]he Hawaii Supreme Court’s decision flatly contradicts U.S. Supreme Court precedent and federal circuit court decisions, including the Second Circuit which held in dismissing New York City’s similar lawsuit, ‘such a sprawling case is simply beyond the limits of state law.’ These meritless state and local lawsuits violate the federal constitution and interfere with federal energy policy,” Chevron’s lawyer Ted Boutrous said in a statement, as reported by The Hill.

However, plaintiffs Honolulu and its water supply board said the suit is “not seeking to solve climate change or regulate emissions,” but trying to get big oil to “stop lying and pay their fair share of the damages they knowingly caused,” said Alyssa Johl, vice president and general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, as The Guardian reported.

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The new standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will lower fuel costs by more than $23 billion while reducing pollution, a press release from USDOT said.

“Not only will these new standards save Americans money at the pump every time they fill up, they will also decrease harmful pollution and make America less reliant on foreign oil. These standards will save car owners more than $600 in gasoline costs over the lifetime of their vehicle,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in the press release.

The new standards will save nearly 70 billion gallons of gas through 2050 and prevent more than 782.6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions by mid-century.

“When Congress established the Corporate Average Fuel Economy program in the 1970s, the average vehicle got about 13 miles to the gallon. Under these new standards, the average light-duty vehicle will achieve nearly four times that at 50 miles per gallon,” said Sophie Shulman, NHTSA deputy administrator, in the press release.

The final rule will increase fuel economy by two percent annually for passenger cars with model years 2027 to 2031 and light trucks with model years 2029 to 2031. This will mean that by model year 2031, the average light-duty vehicle will get roughly 50.4 miles per gallon.

The new rules are not as strict as last year’s USDOT draft rules, which would have required that automakers make passenger cars with an average 66.4 miles per gallon and light trucks with a standard 54.4 miles per gallon before 2032, reported The New York Times. The proposal was weakened following lobbying from automakers.

Under the new final rule, van and heavy-duty pickup truck fuel efficiency will go up by 10 percent each year for vehicles with model years 2030 to 2032, while model years 2033 to 2035 will increase by eight percent annually. This will mean an average of roughly 35 miles per gallon fleetwide by model year 2035, resulting in a savings of more than $700 in gasoline costs for van and heavy-duty pickup owners.

“President Biden’s economic and climate agenda has catalyzed an American clean energy and manufacturing boom,” said national climate advisor Ali Zaidi in the press release. “On factory floors across the nation, our autoworkers are making cars and trucks that give American drivers more choices today than ever before. These fuel economy standards, rigorously aligned with our investments and standards across the federal government, deliver on the Biden-Harris Administration’s promise to build on this momentum and continue to spur job creation, and move faster and faster to tackle the climate crisis.”

NHTSA consulted with unions, consumers, environmental advocates, states, automakers and other stakeholders in the process of crafting the final rule.

The new rule sets standards consistent with the direction of Congress regarding the conservation of fuel and promotion of the country’s automotive manufacturing and energy independence, while at the same time giving the automotive industry flexibility on how to reach those goals.

“Though NHTSA does not consider electric and other alternative fuels when setting standards, manufacturers may use all available technologies – including advanced internal combustion engines, hybrid technologies and electric vehicles – for compliance,” the press release said.

The updated fuel economy standards set by NHTSA complement similar vehicle fleet emissions standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). NHTSA worked with the EPA to improve its standards while minimizing the costs of compliance, consistent with relevant statutory factors.

“These new fuel economy standards will save our nation billions of dollars, help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and make our air cleaner for everyone. Americans will enjoy the benefits of this rule for decades to come,” Shulman said.

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The report found that it will be necessary to remove roughly 7.72 to 9.92 billion tons of carbon from the atmosphere each year by 2050 to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a press release from University of Oxford said.

The researchers emphasized that carbon emissions reductions will continue to be the main avenue to achieving net zero, but CDR will also be crucial.

“Given the world is off track from the decarbonisation required to meet the Paris temperature goal, this shows the need to increase investment in CDR as well as for zero-emission solutions across the board,” said Dr. Steve Smith of University of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment in the press release.

In order to come up with a “Paris-consistent” CDR range, the researchers factored sustainability criteria into their analysis, including multiple sustainable development goals.

“Deploying a diverse CDR portfolio is a more robust strategy than focusing on just one or two methods. Research, invention, and investment in start-ups show diversification across CDR methods. However, current deployment and government proposals for future implementation are more concentrated on conventional CDR, mainly from forestry,” said Dr. Oliver Geden, a senior fellow with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, in the press release.

Two billion tons of carbon are being removed annually by CDR, primarily through conventional means like tree planting. Newer methods, such as enhanced rock weathering, biochar, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage and direct air carbon capture and storage, account for 1.43 million tons each year — less than 0.1 percent. Permanent removal methods make up less than 0.05 percent, or 0.66 million tons, per year.

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“There are some encouraging signs in the growth and diversity of CDR research and innovations. But these are tempered strongly by sparse and precarious long-term demand. Governments have a decisive role to play now in creating the conditions for CDR to scale sustainably,” Smith said.

More than 50 international experts contributed to The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal report. It is one of the world’s leading scientific analyses of how much carbon will need to be removed in order to limit climate change, as well as whether we are on course to succeed.

The authors said that while CDR research, start-ups and public awareness have grown rapidly, there are multiple indicators of a development slowdown. They explained that few of the new methods are currently being targeted in government proposals and policies to scale CDR, which makes up only 1.1 percent of investment in start-ups related to climate-tech.

“It is clear that delaying crucial emissions reductions only exacerbates needed mitigation in the future to limit warming well below 2°C, but there are limits to the role sustainable CDR can play the longer the world delays,” said Matthew J. Gidden, an International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis scholar, in the press release.

The authors encouraged governments to put policies into place to increase CDR demand. They said these policies should be embedded into the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Nationally Determined Contributions, and that governments should develop improved reporting, verification and monitoring systems. Currently much of the CDR demand comes from voluntary corporate commitments to purchase carbon removal credits.

“To meet the Paris Agreement, any kind of climate mitigation must be done sustainably. This report finds that the more sustainable scenarios have higher amounts of emissions reductions and therefore deploy less CDR cumulatively. For the CDR that is needed, it is vital that environmental and social sustainability are explicitly embedded into planning and policy to minimize risks and maximize co-benefits,” said Dr. Stephanie Roe, lead scientist with WWF’s Global Climate and Energy, in the press release.

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There are five oceans and five first-place winners of the 11th annual Photo Competition for United Nations World Oceans Day (UN WOD). The winners were announced at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on Friday, June 7.

This year, each first-place photographer hailed from a different country, and they all captured unique moments of oceanic wonder, from the Northern Lights dancing over Norway to sardines rushing away from cormorants and pelicans off Baja, California.

“The Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day is a free-and-open public competition that calls on photographers and artists from around the world to communicate the beauty of the ocean and the importance of the respective United Nations World Oceans Day theme each year,” the UN explained in a press release.

The theme for UN WOD 2024 is “Awaken New Depths,” and each of the winning photographs helps awaken new depths of appreciation for the ocean. A first-, second-, and third-place winner was selected for each of the five categories: Awaken New Depths, Underwater Seascapes, Small Island Developing States, Big and Small Underwater Faces, and Above Water Seascapes.

As they are every year, the winners were chosen by a panel of world-renowned judges. The 2024 judges were photographer and dive center operator Mohamed Rifshan Shaheem, DivePhotoGuide Managing Editor and Chief Operations Officer Ian Bongso-Seldrup, underwater photographer Tom St George, underwater photographer Mayumi Takeuchi-Ebbins, and cave instructor and explorer Julia Gugelmeier.

The contest was curated by freelance wildlife and underwater photographer Ellen Cuylaerts, while the announcement was moderated by Paul Walker Foundation Founder and President Meadow Walker.

The event was organized by the UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea; DivePhotoGuide; Oceanic Global; the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs; the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States; the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO; and Nausicaá.

Now, let’s dive right into the winners of the 11th Annual Photo Competition for UN WOD 2024. You can also see the winning photos at www.unworldoceansday.org.

Awaken New Depths

First place: “Bringing Up the Net” by Renee Grinnell Capozzola, USA, @rcapozzola

“This large discarded fishing net was found lying on the reef at about 30 meters in Kona, Hawaii,” Capozzola explained in an artist’s statement. “Volunteers from Ocean Defenders Alliance, also known as ODA, brought up this net by working closely together, using lift bags, and the net was then raised onto a boat provided by Kona Honu Divers. Earlier that day ODA had raised and extracted large volumes of fishing line (ultimately filling large buckets for removal) that had been snarled upon the reef.”

“Unfortunately, our ocean suffers from large amounts of debris, which can destroy reefs, entangle marine life, and release harmful chemicals,” Capozzola continued. “Many thanks to organizations such as ODA for helping to clean our ocean and preserve marine ecosystems for future generations.”

Second Place: Patrick Webster, USA, @underwaterpat

“Kelp restoration technician Andrew Kim removes purple sea urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) from an experimental site that will investigate whether divers can adequately defend and restore kelp forests devastated by warming oceans,” Webster said in a statement explaining the image. “Since 1980, kelp forests around Monterey Bay have declined in their canopy coverage by 90-some percent. Most recently, beginning in 2013, a ‘perfect ecological storm’ hit the kelp everywhere it hurts, stressing the forests and emboldening its grazers in the absence of their predators.”

“The disappearance of kelp up and down the coast has raised the alarm, rallying countless organizations and dedicated divers to try their chilly hands at becoming gardeners of the kelp forests,” Webster continued. “By playing sea otter, sunflower star and seaweed surrogate in their absence, these inspiring coastal caretakers are hoping to bolster the coastline and give it a fighting chance for a more resilient future ecosystem and community in the face of climate change.”

Third Place: “Guilding Fins” by Sina Ritter, Germany, @palms2peaks

Ritter said the photo “captures a moving scene in Costa Rica where local conservationists tenderly release some hawksbill turtle hatchlings into the ocean.” 

“This image brings us close to the gentle hands of a conservationist, carefully escorting these tiny, vulnerable creatures toward the vastness of the sea – their ultimate haven,” Ritter continued. “As these hatchlings navigate a world filled with predators and natural challenges, the image emphasizes the crucial role humans have in protecting our planet’s wildlife. It’s a vivid reminder of the delicate thread of life and how targeted conservation efforts can significantly boost the survival rates of these young turtles.”

Underwater Seascapes

First Place: “Cormorant Love” by Taryn Schulz, Canada, @tazdiving

“This image was taken in Baja California at Isla Islotes, a location known for its sea lion colony. The day we dived here there happened to be a large amount of sardines taking refuge by the island, which became an exciting spectacle in the water with pelicans and cormorants like in this photo flying around and torpedoing themselves in the water,” Schulz said. “Moments before this shot the sardines were swimming very quickly, so I turned around as I knew something was coming and I was so happy to capture the heart shape of the sardines as they fled from the cormorants.”

Second Place: Daniel Sly, Australia, @daniel.sly

“During the winter months, hundreds of thousands of giant cuttlefish (Sepia Apama) aggregate in the shallow waters of the upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia,” Sly explained in a statement. “The cuttlefish arrive here with just one thing on their minds: mating!”

“The gathering of these cuttlefish is skewed towards the males of the species at a ratio of around eight to one, so competition for the limited numbers of females can be fierce,” Sly said further. “In the foreground of this image, a large male has completely engulfed a smaller female with its arms, while in the background, several other sets of males can be seen challenging one another for the opportunity to mate with the nearby female.”

Third Place: “Mobula Dance” by Vanessa Mignon, Australia, @seacologynz.irene

To capture this image, Mignon “travelled to Baja California hoping to witness the Mobula munkiana aggregation.”

“One day we found a vortex of them in deep, blue waters,” Mignon said. “They were circling and swimming in union. It felt like a beautiful, hypnotic dance. Seeing such big aggregations can lead [one] to think that their populations are doing well. Unfortunately Mobula munkiana are listed as vulnerable on the IUCN red list.”

Small Island Developing States

First Place: Andrea Marandino, Brazil, @amarandino

This “Image was taken in Abatao, North Tarawa, Kiribati,” Marandino said. “The children of Kiribati have a close relationship to the ocean and play in the water from a young age. Tarawa, the capital of Kiribati, is a narrow strip of land that lies between the Pacific and an enormous lagoon that depends on a freshwater lens. The kids are always smiling and happily interact with the few visitors, but their future is uncertain. Kiribati’s coral atolls are very low-lying, with a maximum elevation of 3 to 4 meters above sea level, making it one of the countries most threatened by climate change.”

Second Place: Andrea Marandino, Brazil, @amarandino

The “Image was taken in the village of Korotongo, on the southern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji,” Marandino explained. “The lady in the photo, Mele, was catching sea urchins with two cousins – something they do regularly together for their own consumption. She would open the sea urchins to extract the edible part, mixing them in a bucket with lemon and chilli. They invited me to join (classic Fijian hospitality) and we ate them fresh on the beach, with bread fruit on the side. Delicious, and one of my favourite memories of Fiji.”

Third Place: Stuart Chape, Australia

“Coastal village, Solomon Islands. The large village of Haghalu is located on the south coast of Ngela Sule island in Central Province of the Solomon Islands,” Chape said. “The elevation of the village ranges from 1-5 metres above sea-level and is surrounded by coral reefs and deeper sea that support village livelihoods and food security by providing marine resources. Like all Pacific islands coastal villages Haghalu is vulnerable to climate change[,] particularly rising seas and extreme weather events.”

Big and Small Underwater Faces

First Place: Mathieu Macias, France, @imaginairnsea

“This photograph is a portrait of a leafy sea dragon taken in Rapid Bay, South Australia, where it is endemic,” Macias said in a statement. “I was absolutely charmed by this creature as soon as I saw it for the first time in the first photo and it became a dream for me to meet one. Although the first try was a failure, I decided to come back a few months later and my dream came true. I was so happy to meet this animal that is so cute and almost unreal, with its amazing ability to camouflage itself. Its shyness [] was a big challenge in making this portrait, but I am delighted with the result.”

Second Place: George Kuowei Kao, @george_kao_uwphotographer

“A dive revealed a hard coral hosting blennies, whose charm rivaled groundhogs, through my new lens,” Kao explained of the image. “As I captured their likeness, creativity spurred me to push the scene’s boundaries. Employing a snoot, I orchestrated a dramatic, overexposed standoff between two blennies. Jason, my guide, with a heart-shaped gesture, turned a shared look into a shared vision. This photo, a fusion of spontaneous nature and a flash of inspiration, is the fruit of that dive.”

Third Place: Irene Middleton, New Zealand, @seacologynz.irene

“This is a Juvenile Football Octopus (Ocythoe tuberculata), a pelagic octopus species that usually lives in mid water around 200m depth where they are the favourite prey of lancetfishes and rissos dolphins,” Middleton said. “The juveniles are occasionally encountered near the surface, where they often use large salps as protection. I saw a handful in salps on this day at the Poor Knights Islands off New Zealand’s northeastern coast, but this was the only free swimming juvenile I encountered.”

Above Water Seascapes

First Place: Michael Sswat, Germany, @m_sswat

“Sitting at the rocky shore in Norway watching northern lights and their reflection in the sea surface with friends – what more do you want?!” Sswat asked. “In this case, we even had more beautiful nature to experience, as earlier in the day, we were diving through canyons into incredible kelp forests meeting lobsters and nudibranchs, in the Namsfjord, off the village of Utvørda, north of Trondheim (Norway). (No more wishes).”

Second Place: Emmett Sparling, Canada, @emmett_sparling

“On our first night in the Tuamotus (French Polynesia), we stopped in Tahanea – an uninhabited atoll deep in this stunning archipelago,” Sparling said in a statement. “We had a perfectly windless evening where the ocean turned to glass. The next morning, the water was still glassy and a group of black tip reef sharks patrolled the waters around our boat. Rainbows and sharks are common subjects in the Tuamotus, two things I’ll never get used to.”

Third Place: Romeo Bodolai, Hungary, @romeo.bodolai

“A fisherman tries to catch the daily food for his family using a traditional technique in Myanmar,” Bodolai explained. “The picture was taken on the lake Inle in 2019. I was lucky with the nice warm lights which give a nice extra touch, a glory to this beautiful moment.”

Olivia is a freelance writer and reporter with a decade’s worth of experience. She has been contributing to EcoWatch daily since 2018 and has also covered environmental themes for Treehugger, The Trouble, YES! Magazine and Real Life. Her Real Life essay “Breaking the Waves” — about the eerily neat aesthetics of climate change projection graphics — was chosen to appear in the published anthology What Future 2018 from Unnamed Press.

Cristen is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She holds a JD and an Ocean & Coastal Law Certificate from University of Oregon School of Law and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. She is the author of the short story collection The Smallest of Entryways, as well as the travel biography, Ernest’s Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway’s Life.

The post Meet the Winners of the 11th Annual UN World Oceans Day Photo Competition appeared first on EcoWatch.

Humans have explored less than 10 percent of the ocean’s depths, yet our actions influence it in profound and damaging ways: Our plastics have polluted its waters from coastal sea spray to the Mariana Trench; our burning of fossil fuels has ignited marine heat waves and bleached coral reefs.

To call our attention to all that the ocean does for us and all that we must do to protect it, the United Nations is hosting a special program for World Oceans Day (UN WOD) on Friday June 7, 2024. 

“As humans, we depend on the ocean for survival,” said actor Michael B. Jordan in a video announcing this year’s event. “But compared to what it gives us, we invest little in return.”

Since it began in 2008, UN WOD has been celebrating the magnificence and importance of the ocean while also raising awareness of the threats it faces. While World Oceans Day officially falls on June 8, the main program has been moved up a day this year as World Oceans Day falls on a Saturday.

For the second year in a row, the UN’s Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea of the Office of Legal Affairs, in partnership with Oceanic Global, will host a hybrid program. A slate of policymakers, experts, artists and advocates will deliver in-person presentations at the UN headquarters in New York that will also be livestreamed to ocean lovers around the world.  You can register for the virtual event here.

The theme for this year’s program is “Awaken New Depths.” 

“For years experts have warned us, if there is no ocean, there is no life. Instead of listening, we have continued to make shallow and short-sighted decisions that further its decline without understanding truly what’s at stake,” Jordan said. “We don’t have time for ‘out of sight out of mind.’ If the world is numb to numbers, motivating momentum will require opening minds, igniting senses and inspiring possibilities. To protect our planet’s beating heart, we need to awaken new depths of our own.”

To help awaken those depths, the UN has turned to the wisdom and imagination of an inspiring roster of speakers.

UN WOD will bring together UN delegates, high-level officials and global thought leaders at New York’s UN headquarters. It will also feature panels, presentations, keynote speeches and performances from President of the UN General Assembly H.E. Mr. Dennis Francis, oceanographer Sylvia Earle, actress Bailey Bass, climate scientist Johan Rockström, activist Xiye Bastida and the Late Show with Stephen Colbert bandleader and recording artist Louis Cato, among many others.

“It’s the first time that we know what we know and it’s maybe the last best chance we’ll ever have to make peace with nature,” Earle said on the event website.

The day’s programming will include a special emphasis on artistic expressions, including musical performances by Cato and others, an “immersive sound experience” from Aquostics Chair David Erasmus, poetry from the 2024 Call for Poetry curated by Karan Rathod and Alfaaz Collective, and the announcement of the winners of the 11th annual Photo Competition for World Oceans Day.

“We’ll expand our perspectives and appreciation for our planet, build new foundations for our relationship with the ocean and awaken new depths of understanding, compassion, collaboration and commitment to protect our ocean and all it sustains,” Jordan said on Friday’s event. “Because we live on a blue planet. It’s time we act like it.”

The UN WOD program will be publically accessible via live stream on the event website from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. EDT and reshared on social media. Visit @unworldoceansday on Instagram for more. You can also see the schedule of events here. 

EcoWatch is proud to act as UN WOD’s media partner.

“Humanity can count on the ocean, but can the ocean count on us?” UN Secretary-General António Guterres asked on the event website. “Today and every day, let’s put the ocean first.”

Olivia is a freelance writer and reporter with a decade’s worth of experience. She has been contributing to EcoWatch daily since 2018 and has also covered environmental themes for Treehugger, The Trouble, YES! Magazine and Real Life. Her Real Life essay “Breaking the Waves” — about the eerily neat aesthetics of climate change projection graphics — was chosen to appear in the published anthology What Future 2018 from Unnamed Press.

Cristen is a writer of fiction and nonfiction. She holds a JD and an Ocean & Coastal Law Certificate from University of Oregon School of Law and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck, University of London. She is the author of the short story collection The Smallest of Entryways, as well as the travel biography, Ernest’s Way: An International Journey Through Hemingway’s Life.

The post ‘Awaken New Depths’ and Celebrate UN World Oceans Day 2024 appeared first on EcoWatch.

“It’s climate crunch time,” Guterres said at New York’s American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, as UN News reported. “We stand at a moment of truth.”

Guterres emphasized that, though the need for measures to combat the climate crisis globally is at an all-time high, so are the occasions for sustainable development and economic prosperity.

“In the case of climate, we are not the dinosaurs. We are the meteor. We are not only in danger, we are the danger. But, we are also the solution,” Guterres said.

The UN chief cited C3S in saying emissions worldwide must be reduced by nine percent annually to maintain the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature limit established in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Global emissions increased by one percent last year.

On Wednesday, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization said the temperature threshold has an 80 percent likelihood of being surpassed within the next five years.

“We are playing Russian roulette with our planet,” Guterres said, as reported by UN News. “We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell, and the truth is we have control of the wheel.”

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A post shared by António Guterres (@antonioguterres)

C3S data revealed that every month since July of 2023 had been a minimum of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with an average global temperature in the past 12 months 1.63 degrees warmer than in industrial times, CNN reported.

“This is a harbinger of progressively more dangerous climate impacts close on the horizon,” said climate professor Richard Allan from the United Kingdom’s University of Reading, as reported by CNN.

Guterres went on to say it was “still just about possible” to avoid the worst effects of climate change, but that we must try harder, UN News reported. He added that this decade of choices made by political leaders — particularly the coming 18 months — are crucial.

Guterres explained that half a degree of planetary warming could lead to some coastal communities or island nations disappearing.

If the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is breached, entire coral reef systems could vanish. The West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets could also collapse, leading to disastrous sea level rise, scientists have said.

The extreme weather in East Asia, the U.S. and other parts of the world has been made much worse by the climate crisis, “destroying lives, pummelling economies and hammering health,” Guterres added.

The secretary-general slammed “the Godfathers of climate chaos – the fossil fuel conglomerates” that, despite billions of people all over the planet suffering from the damages and increased cost of climate change, “rake in record profits and feast off trillions in taxpayer-funded subsidies.”

Guterres made a plea for all countries to stop supporting fossil fuel companies and institute a ban on their advertising.

“I call on these companies to stop acting as enablers to planetary destruction. Stop taking on new fossil fuel clients, from today, and set out plans to drop your existing ones,” Guterres said, as reported by UN News.

The UN chief highlighted the importance of protecting forests and oceans, which absorb carbon dioxide produced by humans. He pointed out that renewables — which now provide 30 percent of the planet’s energy — are here to stay.

“Economic logic makes the end of the fossil fuel age inevitable,” Guterres said.

The world’s biggest emitters of toxic emissions, as well as the most prosperous nations, must assume the largest burden for action, the UN chief said.

“Advanced G20 economies should go furthest, fastest” while giving financial and technical support to developing nations, he said.

“We cannot accept a future where the rich are protected in air-conditioned bubbles while the rest of humanity is lashed by lethal weather in unliveable lands.”

Guterres added that solving the climate crisis must be a collaborative effort and expressed thanks to climate activists who have been pushing for action.

“Make your voices heard and your choices count. This is an all-in moment,” Guterres said in New York. “Now is the time to mobilise, now is the time to act, now is the time to deliver. This is our moment of truth.”

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