"In Auckland, half of the area studied by Arup was made up of green and blue spaces, which helped it achieve its high sponge rating. The only city snapshot to contain a greater proportion of green and blue spaces was Nairobi (52%), however Auckland’s more permeable soil helped to give it a higher overall 'sponginess.'"

Ron Bailey of Reason writes on the latest U.N. climate report. “Again, when bad weather meets poverty, people die. The recipe for successfully adapting to climate change is continued economic growth and technological progress.” Read the full article here.

"'Regardless of mitigation ... we must learn to live with fire,' per the report. 'We must learn to better manage and mitigate the risk of wildfires to human health and livelihoods, biodiversity, and the global climate.'"

"NOAA officials said the report builds on and supports previous findings from the IPCC and other entities about sea level rise, which experts say is caused primarily by melting ice sheets and glaciers as global temperatures increase."

"There is a global need to increase crop production to feed a growing population. High-income industrialized countries already have the tools to increase crop yields; in contrast, farmers in lower-income countries often struggle to access inputs like fertilizer. By prioritizing organic production over yields, the EU is promoting deforestation and biodiversity loss in lower-income countries — all while continuing to import the non-organic genetically engineered crops that EU countries refuse to grow domestically."

"Of course both climate change and land drainage were important in causing the floods. But while one will take decades of international action to fix, the other could be healed locally."

"Last year, a study by scientists from the University of Plymouth and the Marine Biological Association (MBA) concluded that flakes of paint could be one of the most abundant types of microplastic particles in the ocean. They estimated that each cubic metre of seawater contained an average of 0.01 paint flakes."

“'This study recalls the urgent need for a global strategy to conserve biodiversity, not only by preserving intact forests, but in particular the small remnant of a few ancient trees that have survived in managed forest landscapes,' study author Gianluca Piovesan concludes."

"Researchers on Monday unveiled the world's largest forest data base, comprising more than 44 million individual trees at more than 100,000 sites in 90 countries - helping them to calculate that Earth boasts roughly 73,300 tree species."

"Coffee is the most susceptible crop to high temperatures. In those countries accounting for the majority of the world's production of Arabica - the dominant coffee variety - suitability for growing the crop will decrease by around half by 2050 - a 'drastic' reduction, according to the report."