YOUR WEEKLY BRIEFING FROM PARLEY

MARINE LIFE

Growing larger than any dinosaur that ever walked the Earth, blue whales are the biggest animals to ever live on our planet – but a longstanding question is: why? After decades of study, a research team finally has some answers. 10 million years ago, a group of whales called rorquals evolved to “lunge feed” or dive mouth-open into schools of prey. At the same time, the ocean started to circulate more nutrients up from the deep, which meant there was more prey.

This combination of more prey and a new hunting adaptation benefited all rorquals. The blue whale set itself apart by specializing in krill, which are only abundant in a few places across the oceans. To follow krill rapidly, the blue whale got big – 100 feet long and weighing over 150 tons – and to actually catch krill, its mouth grew, too. The bigger the blue whale got, the greater its energy needs were… so it kept growing.

“Truly we are living in a time of giants,” writes one scientist involved in the study. “Let’s make sure it lasts.”

ENERGY

For the first time, more coal plants have closed rather than opened over the first half of 2020. While social distancing measures are mainly responsible for coal’s fall, stricter emission regulations across the EU also played a role. The only exception to this trend is China, but the country’s coal commissions are a notable 40% lower than they were this time last year. COVID-19 has caused the largest shock to the global energy system in 70 years, leading organizations like the International Energy Agency to make an incredible prediction: that the pandemic will cause the permanent end of fossil fuels. But much remains to be seen—the way economies rebuild over the next sixth months will likely determine the fate of the industry and the climate crisis. “How can you compete with [solar and wind] that has zero marginal cost of supply?” one expert optimistically asked. “Fossil fuels are going to lose. I have zero doubt about it.”

OIL SPILL

Urgent efforts are underway in Mauritius to empty a stranded Japanese ship of 2,500 tons of oil before the vessel breaks up and contaminates more of the Indian Ocean country. Over the weekend, more than a thousand tons of fuel washed up on the eastern coast of Mauritius, polluting its coral reefs, protected lagoons and shoreline. Thousands of students, environmental activists and residents of Mauritius are working around the clock to reduce the damage done to the ocean, some using makeshift booms constructed from fabric, sugar cane and straw. Satellite images show a dark slick spreading in the turquoise waters near wetlands that the government called “very sensitive.” Wildlife workers and volunteers, meanwhile, ferried dozens of baby tortoises and rare plants from an island near the spill, Ile aux Aigrettes, to the mainland. “This is no longer a threat to our environment, it is a full-blown ecological disaster” says a former MP.

PLASTIC POLLUTION

Scientists working in the Maldives have recorded the highest concentrations of microplastic pollution found so far. The study measured microplastic levels on Naifaru, which is the most populous island in the Lhaviyani Atoll. Covering 22 beaches and reef habitats, the researchers found that each site had between 50 - 1200 pieces of microplastics per every kg sample of sediment. The pieces were especially small at less than 0.4mm in width, which likely means that local marine life is ingesting large amounts of plastic. These findings are consistent with previous studies of both inhabited and uninhabited islands across the region: “Without a significant increase in waste reduction and rapid improvements in waste management, small island communities will continue to generate high levels of microplastic pollution in marine environments.”

PENGUINS

By satellite-tracking patches of guano, scientists have detected 11 new emperor penguin colonies across Antarctica. This discovery raises population estimates by 20%, but it’s not entirely good news. Emperor penguins are the only penguin species that breed on sea ice instead of on land, which predisposes them to habitat loss from global heating. Some of these penguins are located far from the coast on icebergs that are attached to the seafloor. One colony was found 112 miles from Antarctica – further than many experts thought possible. If human emissions continue to warm the planet and melt both poles, these habitats could disappear. As one researcher put it, “The new breeding sites are all in locations where recent model projections suggest emperor penguins will decline. These birds are the canaries in the coal mine – we need to watch these sites carefully.”