‘Falling out of trees': dozens of dead possums blamed on extreme heat stress.

More than 100 dead and injured ringtail possums have been found by wildlife rescuers along a single stretch of beach in Victoria in what ecologists say is becoming an annual occurrence due to extreme heat.

Wildlife rescuers found 127 dead and injured ringtail possums
at Somers Beach in Victoria during a four-day heat spell.

Rescuers and wildlife carers discovered 127 ringtail possums along the shoreline and in the water at Somers Beach on the Mornington Peninsula on Saturday during a four-day period that saw consistent temperatures in the high 30s, warm nights and bushfires in parts of the state.

Melanie Attard, a wildlife rescuer and foster carer with Aware Wildlife in Frankston, said rescuers suspected the animals had become so dehydrated and desperate they had left an area of scrub and come down to the beach and attempted to drink salt water.

Read the story from The Guardian by Lisa Cox - “‘Falling out of trees': dozens of dead possums blamed on extreme heat stress.”

Decline in bogong moth numbers leaves mountain pygmy possums starving

Numbers of unique Australian moths that migrate in their billions to alpine areas have crashed, ecologists say, putting extra pressure on the endangered mountain pygmy possum.

 The mountain pygmy possum population is threatened
 again because of the dramatic decline in Bogong moths. 

Scientists believe the “astonishing” drop in Bogong moth numbers is linked to climate change and recent droughts in areas where the moths breed.

At the same time checks on the endangered mountain pygmy possum, which exists only in Australia’s alpine regions, have revealed dead litters in the pouches of females. The moths are a key food source for the possums as they wake from hibernation.

Read the story from The Guardian by Graham Readfearn - “Decline in Bogong moth numbers leaves mountain pygmy possums starving.”

The Nobel Prize for Climate Catastrophe

Many people were thrilled when they heard that the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics this year went to William Nordhaus of Yale University, a man known for his work on climate change. Finally, the economics profession is giving climate the attention it deserves, just as the world is waking up to the severity of our ecological emergency. Media outlets have taken this positive narrative and run with it.

William Nordhaus - the Nobel Prize for climate catastrophe.

But while Nordhaus may be revered among economists, climate scientists and ecologists have a very different opinion of his legacy. In fact, many believe that the failure of the world’s governments to pursue aggressive climate action over the past few decades is in large part due to arguments that Nordhaus has advanced.

It’s a blazing controversy that hinges on the single most consequential issue in climate economics: the question of growth. The stakes couldn’t be higher. After all, this isn’t just a matter of abstract academic debate; the future of human civilization hangs in the balance.

Read the Medium story by Jason Hickel - “The Nobel Prize for Climate Catastrophe.”

American Trees Are Moving West, and No One Knows Why

As the consequences of climate change strike across the United States, ecologists have a guiding principle about how they think plants will respond. Cold-adapted plants will survive if they move “up”—that is, as they move further north (away from the tropics) and higher in elevation (away from the warm ground).

Autumn colours in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Cherokee in North Carolina. 

A new survey of how tree populations have shifted over the past three decades finds that this effect is already in action. But there’s a twist: Even more than moving poleward, trees are moving west.

About three-quarters of tree species common to eastern American forests—including white oaks, sugar maples, and American hollies—have shifted their population center west since 1980. More than half of the species studied also moved northward during the same period.

These results, among the first to use empirical data to look at how climate change is shaping eastern forests, were published in Science Advances on Wednesday.

Read Robinson Meyer’s story on The Atlantic - “American Trees Are Moving West, and No One Knows Why.”