The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence has released a statement from the ARC’s climate scientist, Kim Reid following reports that for the first time, global temperatures have consistently surpassed 1.5°C of warming over the past 12 months.
Dr Reid (pictured) said that while this does not break the commitments made in the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global warming to well below 2°C, it does bring us closer to the red line.
“This breach of 1.5°C for the last 12 months isn’t a death knell for the Paris Agreement, but it is a fire alarm, and we need to wake up and put out this fire,” Dr Reid said.
“The risks associated with extreme weather events, sea level rise, biodiversity loss, and disruptions to ecosystems and human societies are significantly larger in a 2°C warmer world compared to a 1.5°C warmer world.”
She said humanity’s ability to adapt to climate change would become increasingly challenging above 2°C.
Dr Reid explained that there are different mechanisms behind this.
“In the case of extreme weather events, for example, the warmer the atmosphere, the more water vapour it can hold. This, in turn, increases the potential for heavy rainfall events, tropical cyclones and severe thunderstorms.
“The probability of passing crucial tipping points also increases with every fraction of a degree of warming. Tipping points are critical thresholds in the climate system which can lead to abrupt and potentially irreversible changes. One example of such a tipping point is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.”
Dr Reid said if the West Antarctic Ice sheet went past a tipping point, its collapse could accelerate the flow of ice into the ocean, leading to global sea level rise.
“Once initiated, this process could be hard to stop, and it would take thousands of years to restore an ice sheet of that size,” she said.
“However, we are unlikely to exceed an Antarctic climate tipping point this century.”
She said while 1.5°C was bad, 2°C would be significantly worse and 3°C would be catastrophic.
“Every extra increment matters and every action to reduce emissions reduces the risk of dangerous climate change,” Dr Reid said.
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Creators are kings (or queens) on social media
A new study by Dash Hudson and NielsenIQ underscores the crucial role of creators in today's social media landscape.
The study, Social Media Trends Report: AI and Creators: Shaping the Next Era of Social Marketing, reinforces the significant impact of entertainment-driven content on TikTok, with beauty brands achieving a 67 per cent average sales increase.
Chief Marketing Officer at Dash Hudson, Kate Kenner Archibald said over the past two years the impact of entertainment-driven content on TikTok had surged.
"Creator content achieves 12 times higher engagement rates and 14 times higher effectiveness rates compared to brand-generated content, with twice as many likes and comments,” Ms Archibald said.
“This proves that in today’s landscape, creator-focused strategies are leading the way, and entertaining content remains a cornerstone of success."
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Enhanced support for online marketers
Flashtalking by Mediaocean has announced the release of its enhanced product, Social Ads Manager, powered by Hypermode, aiming to streamline and optimise workflows across multiple social platforms.
In a statement, the internet platform said Flashtalking Social integrated artificial intelligence and automation through a user-friendly interface, offering a powerful tool to manage advertising campaigns at scale across Facebook, Google Demand Gen, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Snapchat, TikTok, and X.
“With Flashtalking’s product enhancements, advertisers can now gain unprecedented efficiency, precision, and performance improvements on the fastest growing media channels,” the statement said.
“Research conducted via TechValidate, with more than 1,200 marketers, shows that 66 per cent plan to increase social ad spend during 2024.”
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Valeura restarting Wassana oil production
Valeura Energy Inc. has announced it is restarting production operations at its Wassana field, offshore in the Gulf of Thailand.
The Singapore-based company implemented a precautionary suspension of oil production on June 28, after an anomaly was identified on one of the steel jack-up legs of the field's mobile offshore production unit.
After underwater inspection, including magnetic particle observation, the company said the anomaly (a crack within a weld) was superficial, and did not constitute a risk to the structural integrity of the facility.
Valeura has begun the process of restarting production operations, and anticipates achieving pre-suspension oil production rates of approximately 5,000 barrels a day within the week.
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Milestone reached in Bougainville exploration
Resource developer, Island Passage Development Canada Ltd. has completed Phase Two of its mineral exploration program on the EL02 exploration license on Bougainville.
The first two phases of exploration took place over a five-month period of intensive field work ending in mid-July.
Highlights of the campaign include relaunching of modern copper-gold exploration; the collection of 99 stream sediment and panned concentrate samples, 69 rock chip samples and 188 man-powered auger soil samples along 9.6 kilometres of ridgelines, and the examination of 14 small-scale artisan mining sites (active and dormant).
The Island Passage Development team, in partnership with Isina Resource Holdings Ltd., a customary landowner company, also identified six further areas of interest covering more than 40 square kilometres.
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DigiAsia appoints AI advisor
Fintech service company, DigiAsia Corp has appointed Gulzar Azad as a strategic advisor for its recently-established Artificial Intelligence Strategic Advisory Board.
Chief Executive, Prashant Gokarn said the Advisory Board, which would receive further appointments in due course, would serve a critical purpose in navigating the trajectory of the company as it rapidly introduced AI technology and capabilities to clients in Indonesia.
“Gulzar’s motivation to democratise technology through innovation will significantly benefit DigiAsia's initiatives to build its AI infrastructure and the AI service business,” Mr Gokarn said.
Mr Azad currently serves in an advisory role at Health AI and population-scale projects at Google UK. He is a Google veteran, having led several early initiatives for product partnerships in India and the Asia-Pacific since 2007.
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Hummingbird promotes two executives
Biotherapeutics company, Hummingbird Bioscience, has appointed Kon Yew Kwek and Lisa Ooi as Chief Medical Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.
Dr Kwek was previously Senior Vice President of Clinical Development. In his new role he will lead the company’s clinical development from Singapore.
Dr Ooi was previously Senior Vice President of Strategy, having joined the company in 2022 after two decades of experience of Singapore’s Government Agencies and the biopharma industry.
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