Science - Climate latest news

Endangered wild orangutan populations are declining more sharply in Sumatra and Borneo than previously estimated, according to new findings. Although other threats to orangutan survival exist, such as hunting in agricultural areas where human-orangutan conflicts exist, the biggest by far is forest destruction associated with the burgeoning palm oil industry in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Long-term climate change policy in the US and abroad is likely to change very slowly, warns a researcher who calls for stronger short-term goals to reduce carbon emissions. Although staging climate change policy decisions over time would seem to make sense, researchers point out that the tendency of U.S. and international policy to change extremely slowly requires front-loading the painful decisions.