Summer of 2023 was Arctic’s warmest summer on record: NOAA Arctic Report Card & more environmental news.

[View this email in your browser]( Monday, December 18, 2023 “It’s not climate change that needs to be tackled. It is the political power of the fossil fuel industry.” – Richard Denniss Summer of 2023 Was Arctic’s Warmest Summer on Record: NOAA Arctic Report Card The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released its annual Arctic Report Card for 2023, and the findings show that amid [rising global temperatures]( in what is likely to be the hottest year ever recorded, 2023 was the warmest summer on record for the Arctic. [Read More]( Related: [World’s Largest Iceberg Breaks Free in Antarctica]( COP28 Ends With ‘Historic’ Commitment to Transition From Fossil Fuels but Stops Short of Phaseout On Wednesday, delegates from nearly 200 nations at the [COP28]( climate conference in Dubai released the final draft of a global agreement that solidifies the transition away from [fossil fuels]( in order to avoid the most damaging effects of [climate change](. [Read More]( Related: [Latest COP28 Draft Does Not Mention Fossil Fuel Phaseout]( California Forests Are Better Protected With Prescribed Burning and Thinning, Study Confirms [California]( tops the list of U.S. states with the most [wildfires]( — 9,260 in 2021. That year, the number of acres burned in the state exceeded two million, more than twice as many as second-ranked Texas, the [Insurance Information Institute]( said. A two decades’ long [study]( in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains has confirmed that [forest management strategies]( like restoration thinning, [prescribed burning]( or a combination of the two are effective at lowering catastrophic wildfire risk, a press release from University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), said. [Read More]( Related: [Coastal Redwoods Have Remarkable Ability to Recover From Severe Wildfires, Study Finds]( Tropical Forests 101: Everything You Need to Know Tropical forests are rich [ecosystems]( located in tropical zones surrounding the equator. They have a dense upper canopy of broad-leafed [trees]( and an astonishingly diverse array of animal and plant life. These forests pack an enormous amount of biodiversity into the six percent of the planet’s land surface they occupy. In fact, 50 percent of known plant and animal species on Earth can be found in their wondrous depths, including ancient trees, [fungi]( two-thirds of all [flowering plants]( millions of [insects]( more than a thousand [bird species]( and hundreds of [mammal species](. [Read More]( Related: [Study Warns of ‘Massive Leaf Death’ in Tropical Forests With ‘Do Nothing Response to Climate Change’]( Do you get this newsletter daily? If not, [sign up here]( or forward to a friend. [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Website]( [Instagram]( Copyright © 2023 EcoWatch, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up for EcoWatch Top News of The Day Our mailing address is: EcoWatch 1122 Oberlin RoadRaleigh, NC 27605 [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? You can [update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe from this list](. [Mailchimp Email Marketing](