Deep-sea hydrothermal vents harbour some of the most extraordinary species on our planet. Lying at two to three kilometres below the surface, these extreme, insular ecosystems are powered, not by the...
Environment
Climate Change Is Making Monogamous Albatrosses Divorce – New...
Not all relationships end in “happily ever after”, and birds are no exception. While more than 90% of bird species form monogamous couples, many of these will end in divorce. The reasons for...
How To Live With Large Predators – Lessons From Spanish Wolf...
Elena and her husband are shepherds. Their herd of 400 free-roaming goats were bred over generations to make the most of the patchwork of woodlands and pastures that cover their local mountain range...
What Is COP26? Here’s How Global Climate Negotiations Work And...
Over two weeks in November, world leaders and national negotiators will meet in Scotland to discuss what to do about climate change. It’s a complex process that can be hard to make sense of from the...
Sewage Pollution: Our Research Reveals The Scale Of England’s...
The UK has around 1,500 individual river systems, totalling over 200,000km in length. It’s common for sewers here to accept both untreated human waste and rainwater in a combined system. Water and...
Violence And Mental Health Are Likely To Get Worse In A Warming...
Extreme weather has been the cause of some of the biggest public health crises across the world in recent years. In many cases, these have been enhanced by human-induced climate change. For instance...
A Global Carbon Removal Industry Is Coming – Experts Explain The...
Each of its carbon-sucking units is the size of a shipping container, yet the world’s largest direct air capture machine – the Orca plant in Iceland – only captures and stores about 4,000 tonnes of...
Gene-Edited Crops: Expert Q+A On What Field Trials Could Mean...
Firmly outside the EU, where regulations are considered tighter, the UK government plans to revise regulations on gene editing in agriculture in England, enabling field trials of crops that have had...
Rewilding: Conservationists Want To Let Elephants Loose In...
Imagine driving through a lush, green landscape in France or Germany and spotting a herd of elephants roaming freely. As absurd as that might seem, it was only 10,000 years ago that creatures the...
Beavers Are Back: Here’s What This Might Mean For The UK’s Wild...
Eurasian beavers, once a common sight across Europe, had disappeared almost entirely by the end of the 16th century thanks to hunting and river modification for agriculture and engineering. But...
How Soon Could Carbon Capture Technology Solve Industry CO₂...
The recent spike in natural gas prices has closed many plants that make fertiliser in the UK – sending a shockwave through lots of other industries. This is because ammonia...
What Climate ‘Tipping Points’ Are – And How They Could Suddenly...
As recently as 6,000 years ago the Sahara was green and fertile. We’ve found evidence of large rivers crossing the region, lined by flourishing settlements. Then suddenly things changed...
We Could Power Households From The Scraps In Our Food Waste Bins...
Imagine if you could power your kettle using the energy generated from the vegetable cuttings quietly breaking down in your kitchen’s compost bin. That reality might not be so far off with the growth...
Fracking And Poorer Surface Water Quality Link Established – New...
Fracking – hailed by some as the greatest recent advance in energy production, criticised by others for the threat it poses to local life – continues to divide opinion. The term fracking refers to...
These 3 Energy Storage Technologies Can Help Solve The Challenge...
In recent decades the cost of wind and solar power generation has dropped dramatically. This is one reason that the U.S. Department of Energy projects that renewable energy will...
Climate Repair: Three Things We Must Do Now To Stabilise The...
“Nowhere is safe.” As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned in a recent report that climate change and its consequences are here to stay, is there still an opportunity to...
We Throw Away A Third Of The Food We Grow – Here’s What To Do...
The COVID pandemic has shown the fragility of our global food supply chains, with many supermarkets and restaurants in almost every country having experienced food shortages. Millions of people in...
Life Lessons From Beekeepers – Stop Mowing The Lawn, Don’t Pave...
For many people, the past year has led to an increased appreciation for our fragile natural world. This is important because, alongside COVID, we are also facing a global climate and biodiversity...
This Is The Most Sobering Report Card Yet On Climate Change And...
Earth has warmed 1.09℃ since pre-industrial times and many changes such as sea-level rise and glacier melt are now virtually irreversible, according to the most sobering report yet by the...
Why The UK’s Unfair Energy Market Is Unlikely To Spearhead A...
Millions of people will pay more for gas and electricity in the UK by the autumn of 2021 as the energy regulator, Ofgem, has removed a cap on prices. For some households, this could mean bills rising...