The risk of a hothouse Earth trajectory: massive, sometimes abrupt, and undoubtedly disruptive. A much less habitable state of the climate for us.

"The world is closer than thought to a “point of no return” after which runaway global heating cannot be stopped, scientists have said."

"The public and politicians were largely unaware of the risk of passing the point of no return, the researchers said. The group said they were issuing their warning because while rapid and immediate cuts to fossil fuel burning were challenging, reversing course was likely to be impossible once on the path to a hothouse Earth, even if emissions were eventually slashed."

“We know we are running profound risks on the current climate trajectory, which we can’t rule out could turn into a trajectory towards a much less habitable state of the climate for us. " >>
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/feb/11/point-of-no-return-hothouse-earth-global-heating-climate-tipping-points
#FossilFuels #climate #HothouseEarth #AMOC #cryosphere #SeaLevels #habitability

🦠 Life can flourish in Earth’s most hostile corners. What does that resilience suggest about where life could persist beyond Earth?

✍️ Read the full exploration: https://TPC8.short.gy/mgHJjLGk

Perhaps the cosmos holds more tenacious possibilities than we expect.

#Astrobiology #Extremophiles #Tardigrades #Habitability #Biodiversity #Cosmos #Microbes #Science #LifeBeyondEarth #Biology #TPC8

Businesses Can Either Lead Transformative Change or Risk Extinction

Businesses Can Either Lead Transformative Change or Risk Extinction All Businesses Depend on and Impact Nature

"Business-as-usual Incentives are Driving Nature’s Decline
The loss of biodiversity is among the most serious threats to business
100+ Concrete Actions for Governments, Financial Actors & Civil Society"

"Every business depends on biodiversity, and every business impacts biodiversity. The growth of the global economy has been at the cost of immense biodiversity loss, which now poses a critical and pervasive systemic risk to the economy, financial stability and human wellbeing. This is a central finding of a landmark new report published today by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)."

“Yet the twisted reality is that it often seems more profitable to businesses to degrade biodiversity than to protect it. Business as usual may once have seemed profitable in the short term, but impacts across multiple businesses can have cumulative effects, aggregating to global impacts, which can cross ecological tipping points. The Report shows that business as usual is not inevitable – with the right policies, as well as financial and cultural shifts, what is good for nature is also what is best for profitability. To get there, the Report offers tools for choosing more effective measurements and analysis.”

"The Report provides more than 100 specific examples of concrete actions that can be taken, across each of these five components, by businesses, governments, financial actors and civil society."
>>
https://www.ipbes.net/node/97532
#Biodiversity #life #habitability #Nature #degradation #loss #extractivism #IPBES #report #greenwashing #loggingImpacts #LobbyActivities #FossilFuelSubsidies #climate #BAU #risks #transformation

Too hot to work

"It was the hottest day of December 2025...A young, fit, healthy woman, ..Tiffani Phelps de Wildt died after collapsing on the hottest day of December 2025."

"This is a classic case of somebody who was working in a very, very hot environment; they were displaying signs and symptoms of heat-related illness...WorkSafe is investigating the incident, a process that can take up to two years." >>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-07/tiffani-phelps-de-wildt-suspected-heat-death-remote-australia/106301164
#heatstroke #heatwaves #outdoors #FossilFuels #work #WorkSafe #OHS #pastoralism #habitability #climate

Habitability au
Extreme heat will make Northern Territory unlivable within 40 years

"Extreme heat is deadly, and governments at all levels are failing to keep Territorians safe and our unique and precious environments healthy. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will disproportionately experience the effects of climate change. Heat is a social justice issue."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-04/climate-change-will-make-nt-unlivable/106301158
#FossilFuels #OilandGas #climate #heatwaves #habitability #livability #Australia

Traumatic landscapes of plastic, pollution and exploitation

The coastline of Spain is known as the ‘Sea of Plastic’ ("Mar de Plástico”) It is the world’s largest plastic greenhouse complex with 350 square km of fruit and vegetables grown by immigrant labour for the horticultural industry. >>
https://www.behance.net/gallery/22272681/Mar-del-Plastico#

Could we do the same thing to the coast of NSW?
NSW Greens to move bill to let councils better regulate berry industry as it continues rapid expansion

“People move into these beautiful valleys for the lifestyle and the environment but then wake up one day and within months they are looking at an industrial-scale blueberry farm."

"Faehrmann’s bill will call for mandated buffers between intensive horticulture farms and homes and waterways, as well as strict controls on spraying, runoff and irrigation and greater monitoring of produce for pesticides."

"Blueberry farming is rapidly expanding beyond Coffs Harbour, where it began several decades ago, into the Nambucca Valley and the Kempsey area to the south, and west toward Grafton and Bellingen."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/31/australia-berry-industry-bill-nsw-greens
#rivers #water #extractivism #pesticides #MidNorthCoast #ChinasOrchard #horticulturalIndustry #regulation #runoff #pollution #plastic #PALM #blueberries #SeaOfPlastics #TraumaticLandscapes #NSWCoast #NSW #CoffsHarbour #Nambucca #Kempsey #Grafton #Bellingen #residents #habitability #NSWLogging

Australia’s worst heatwave since black summer made five times more likely by global heating, analysis finds

"Human-caused global heating made the intense heatwave that affected much of Australia in early January five times more likely, new analysis suggests."

"Heatwaves – defined as three consecutive days where maximum temperatures are higher than average – cause more deaths in Australia than all other natural hazards combined."

“The mentality here of ‘suck it up, she’ll be right’ does not fly any more...[The heat] is getting worse and whether we like it or not … there’s ultimately a limit to what we can actually physically cope with.”
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/23/australias-worst-heatwave-since-black-summer-made-five-times-more-likely-by-global-heating-analysis-finds
#FossilFuels #heatwaves #mortality #bushfires #habitability #climate

Deep beneath the surface of distant #exoplanets known as super-earths, oceans of molten rock may be powering magnetic fields strong enough to shield entire planets from dangerous cosmic #radiation and other harmful high-energy particles.

A strong magnetic field is very important for #life on a #planet but most of the terrestrial #planets in the solar system, such as #Venus and #Mars, do not have them because their cores don’t have the right physical conditions to generate a magnetic field.

However, super-earths can produce dynamos in their core and/or magma, which can increase their planetary #habitability.

Many super-earths orbit within their #stars’ habitable zones, where liquid #water could exist.

By studying their compositions, atmospheres, and magnetic fields, scientists are uncovering clues about the origins of planetary systems and signs of conditions that might allow life to thrive elsewhere.

#astronomy #astrobiology
https://astrobiology.com/2026/01/hidden-magma-oceans-could-shield-rocky-exoplanets-from-harmful-radiation.html

Paper by Nakajima et al. (2026):
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02729-x