Inching towards abundant water: new progress in desalination tech
In early 2018, Cape Town, South Africa came dangerously close to being the world’s first major city to run out of water. People lined up…
Nature & Environment
IPCC special report finds oceans and cryosphere changing rapidly due to global warming
As a massive expanse of unusually warm water spreads across the northeastern Pacific Ocean for the second time in the past five years, the latest…
If Carbon Offsets Require Forests to Stay Standing, What Happens When the Amazon Is on Fire?
The emergency threatening part of the world’s largest rainforest is proof that offsets are too risky to count on to cancel out corporate pollution, and…
World-first West Aussie study examines Perth poo for microplastics
These researchers plan to use Perth poo to find out exactly how much plastic we eat and what we can do about it. How would…
El Niño linked to widespread crop failures
The El Niño climate cycle has been responsible for widespread simultaneous crop failure in different regions of the world, a study has found, putting pressure…
We can’t expand airports after declaring a climate emergency – let’s shift to low-carbon transport instead
Jefim Vogel, University of Leeds; Joel Millward-Hopkins, University of Leeds, and Yannick Oswald, University of Leeds The world may finally be waking to the reality…
Toward greener plastics
By Marcus Woo Researchers and companies are working on new kinds of biodegradable packaging, bottles and other products that break down like compost. Plastic is kind of a wonder material….
Eco-friendly sex life: are condoms good for the environment?
Environmentalists are quick to condemn the condom. It is a product often made from non-biodegradable latex, or even worse, synthetic materials such as polyisoprene, and…
Biodiversity loss mars SDG success, report finds
An “unprecedented” loss of global biodiversity threatens the progress of more than 80 per cent of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and puts 1 million…
Four stories capture the impacts of climate change in the Andes
Travel with these journalists as they explore how people in Peru and Colombia are coping with rising temperatures. It’s not news that climate change is…
If Ebola becomes the norm
Climate change interferes, directly and indirectly, with a wide variety of diseases by acting as a multiplying force for the diffusion of infectious diseases. Global…
African countries and the state of their environments: the best and the worst
Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Flinders University and Enrico Di Minin, University of Helsinki Social and economic changes in Africa are being driven by increasing prosperity…
Yemen’s forests another casualty of war amid fuel crisis
By Adel Aldaghbashy The four-year conflict in Yemen which has pushed huge swathes of the population close to famine has also left the country with…