Rochelle Constantine

Landmark case could force rewrite of emissions strategy The once quiet workhorse of climate policy - the humble tree - is now headline material, fuelling political fights and finding itself at the very root of a legal battle over our climate future.

Listen in here: www.rnz.co.nz/news/thedeta...

Epic kākāpō breeding year 👇🏻 thanks to decades of effort by many 👊🏻😊

Breaking News!
Code UFB!!!

February CO2 data from Mauna Loa was just posted by NOAA, and the 3-year running average for the mean rate of atmospheric CO2 growth hit yet another new record high, now up to 8.15 ppm per 3 years.

And that dip in the early 1990's was Mt. Pinatubo.

Endangered hammerhead sharks congregate around Cocos Seamounts 🦈 These nutrient-rich waters are vital hunting & resting grounds during migration. With 1 in 4 shark species threatened, protecting seamounts is critical. Learn more: deep-sea-conservation.org/defending-th... @cms.int

😊👇🏻

The New Scratch How is anyone who writes making any money right now?

“We are living through a moment where the labor of writers is being exploited to create rapacious technologies that make everything stupider, exponentially hasten the demise of the planet’s ecosystems, and prop up fascists and dictators worldwide.”

Enter SCRATCH www.talkscratch.com/the-new-scra...

Seagrass meadows are among the most widespread and valuable marine ecosystems on Earth.

Yet every 30 minutes, a football field’s worth of seagrass disappears.

This #WorldSeagrassDay, discover why these often overlooked meadows matter more than you imagine.

www.unep.org/news-and-sto...

Aww that face 😇

There are so many conversations we still need to have with you! Thanks for coming all this way… See you again hopefully. Have to show you ALL the seabirds!

Television pioneer Fred Rogers, gone 23 years ago today.

His acceptance speech for the Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award is always worth a watch.

#RIP 💔

Deadly bird flu found in California elephant seals for the first time Researchers at UC Davis say news they've dreaded since 2023 has come to pass: California's elephant seals have been infected with H5N1 bird flu.

The H5N1 #birdflu virus that devastated South American elephant s#eal populations has been confirmed in seals at California’s Año Nuevo State Park, researchers from UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz announced Wednesday. www.latimes.com/science/stor...

Map of Southland showing large areas with elevated levels of nitrates in Groundwater.

Environment Southland maps an increase in nitrate-containing groundwater & points the finger largely at a rise in intensive farming, notably dairy.

Any level above 3.5mg/L was indicative of "serious degradation of environmental health let alone public health".

www.odt.co.nz/southland/ni...

Unfortunately there has been poor behaviour from many directions & mis/disinformation 😞 Sometimes I wonder if it’s even about the dolphins 🤔

Woohoo!

🩵Thanks for swinging by to see us. Such great talks that brought us together in communal nodding around all the books we meant to read 😊 @aucklanduni.bsky.social

Aerial view of two whales swimming in shimmering green ocean water, sunlight reflecting on the surface. One whale raises its fluke near the top left. Stock image.

A study in Scientific Reports suggests the observed decline in reproductive success of the western Australian population of southern right whales is influenced by environmental changes in mid- and high-latitude feeding grounds. go.nature.com/3MDSqfS 🌊 🌍 🧪

🩵 Rakiura! Grab a mask & snorkel and check out the incredible diversity of seaweed & things that live in & on it. Enjoy 😊

IPCC Chair @jimskeaclimate.bsky.social addressed the opening of the 12th Session of @ipbes.net in Manchester today, emphasising the importance of the scientific link between @ipcc.bsky.social & IPBES, such as IPBES's participation in the upcoming IPCC Workshop on Engaging Diverse Knowledge Systems.

Biology! There’s always one. Love this 👇🏻🩵

Research funding decisions in these people’s hands… www.beehive.govt.nz/release/next...

Perhaps Minister Reti will be courageous enough to reconsider that decision 🤞

Swim4TheOcean One man attempting to swim 1,000 miles of treacherous coastline. To ignite New Zealanders around the race for a healthy ocean.

🩵 Current obsession is checking the swim4theocean @LiveOcean site to see Jono Ridler’s progress. Swimming the east coast North Is - Aotearoa New Zealand to get people thinking & talking about bottom trawl fisheries. Epic human 👊🏻🩵 🏊‍♂️ liveocean.org/swim4theocea...

Masters scholarship on the impacts of extreme climate events Applications are invited for a masters scholarship at the University of Canterbury on the impacts of extreme climate events for coastal systems and communities.

This week has shown (once again) that extreme weather events in a changing climate pose growing risks to Aotearoa's communities and ecosystems.

We're developing tools to prepare for extreme weather events, and we're looking for a masters student to help → www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/posts/master...

Taxonomic differentiation of catch. FAO (United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization) on the percentage of catch reported to the species level worldwide.

What’s driving the decline?

The crisis isn’t just fishing — it’s invisible fishing.

Much shark & ray catch is under-reported, aggregated, or mislabeled, masking real mortality & delaying management.

What we don’t measure, we don’t manage.

@cgmull.bsky.social
@nathanpacoureau.bsky.social

Here are the daily color stripes for the global sea-surface temperature anomaly, up-to-date through Jan. 19, 2026.

You can see the easily spot the cooling trend in 2025, but with a coming El Nino, the future is maroon.

See out thread summarizing the paper here: bsky.app/profile/nick...

Bending back the biodiversity loss curve of sharks and rays. The loss of sharks and rays to date has involved serial depletion of the largest, most evolutionary and functionally distinct species, and the increasing prevalence of smaller-bodied species that have benefited from release from predation.

New paper out today in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com by the #GlobalSharkTrends team: Bending back the curve of shark & ray biodiversity loss;
Read the paper here: rdcu.be/eZ9n9
@sfu.ca
@sfubiosciences.bsky.social
@earth2ocean.bsky.social

State of the climate: 2025 in top-three hottest years on record as ocean heat surges - Carbon Brief The year 2025 was in the top-three warmest years on record

Your 'bonus moment of doom' for today: In other words, about 8 billion Hiroshimas worth of heating.

"Ocean heat content (OHC) increased by around 500 zettajoules – billion trillion joules – since the 1940s."

www.carbonbrief.org/state-of-the...

Emissions Gap Report 2025 UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report 2025: Off Target finds that available new climate pledges under the Paris Agreement have only slightly lowered global temperature rise over the course of this century, leav...

Not just sobering, but a kick in the goolies 😖

New national climate plans have done barely anything

@unep.org’s 2025 #EmissionsGap Report warns that even if all current targets are fully implemented, global temperatures still projected to rise 2.3–2.5°C this century

www.unep.org/resources/em...

The red dot is a baby North Atlantic right whale trying to migrate up the east coast of the United states.

The blue streaks are fast moving shipping vessels entering and leaving New York City harbor.

One collision and the whale is dead.

We need *mandatory* speed limits for these vessels! 🧪🦑🌍