Globally, only one in 50 new cars were fully electric in 2020, and one in 14 in the UK. Sounds impressive, but even if all new cars were electric now, it would still take 15-20 years to replace the...
Environment
‘Cyborg Soil’ Reveals The Secret Microbial Metropolis Beneath...
Dig a teaspoon into your nearest clump of soil, and what you’ll emerge with will contain more microorganisms than there are people on Earth. We know this from lab studies that analyse samples of...
Putting An End To Billions In Fishing Subsidies Could Improve...
Global fish catches are fluctuating near the highest levels ever reported, while the fraction of fish stocks that are sustainable has never been lower. Nevertheless, governments spent US$22 billion...
Why Are Water Companies Dumping Raw Sewage In Britain’s Rivers...
There were more than 400,000 discharges of raw sewage in 2020, together lasting more than three million hours, from water companies into rivers in England and Wales. One company, Southern Water, was...
Monks Wood Wilderness: 60 Years Ago, Scientists Let A Farm Field...
In the archive of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, there is a typed note from the 1960s that planted the seed of an idea. Written by Kenneth Mellanby, director of the Monks Wood...
Commodity Trading: The Shadowy Industry Destroying The Planet
Commodity trading firms are among the most important corporations in global capitalism, yet most people have never heard of them. As intermediaries between suppliers and buyers of primary and...
Fish Hooked On Meth – The Consequences Of Freshwater Pollution
Around 269 million people worldwide use drugs each year. Often forgotten in this story is a problem of basic biology. What goes in must come out. Sewers are inundated with drugs that are excreted...
What Happens To The Plastic You Recycle? Researchers Lift The Lid
The secretive way in which plastic recycling is handled in the UK carries the potential for the next big scandal. While the government’s statutory guidance is supposed to clarify who is...
Insect Population Collapse: New Evidence Links It To Dams
Insects are the most numerous group of animals on the planet. There are an estimated 5.5 million species, 80% of which remain to be discovered. Yet insects are experiencing steep...
What Would Happen To The Climate If We Reforested The Entire...
What would happen if every single patch of farmland in the tropics, from Brazil through Congo, India and Indonesia, was abandoned overnight and left to turn back into forests? That’s the question we...
How Palm Oil Became The World’s Most Hated, Most Used Fat Source
Palm oil is everywhere today: in food, soap, lipstick, even newspaper ink. It’s been called the world’s most hated crop because of its association with deforestation in Southeast Asia...
How Humans Interact With The Changing Environment Is Affecting...
Some of the world’s most notorious infections – including Lyme disease, rabies, and Ebola come from zoonotic diseases. These illnesses are caused by pathogens (bacteria, viruses...
COVID-19 Made Deep-Sea Mining More Tempting For Some Pacific...
While most Pacific islands have escaped the worst of COVID-19, a cornerstone of their economies, tourism, has taken a big hit. By June 2020, visitor arrivals in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu...
Blackfish: How Captive Killer Whale Documentary Ended SeaWorld’s...
After its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013, the documentary Blackfish reached nearly 21 million viewers within its first month of airing on CNN. The film tells the bleak story...
How Sewage Plants And Data Centres Could Help Heat One In Five...
Gas boilers heat around 85% of homes in the UK, but their installation in new homes is to be banned from 2025. While heating produces over a third of the country’s CO₂ emissions, there are only two...
Depop Sale: Fashion Retailers Must Move Faster On Sustainability...
The news that Depop – Generation Z’s favourite app for selling and buying used clothing – had been sold to Etsy for $1.6bn (£1.1bn) is a warning shot for fashion retailers. For years, traditional...
Exotic Leathers: Why Fashion Products Are More Sustainable Than...
The fashion industry tries to do the right thing when it comes to sustainability – after all, its profits increasingly depend on it. But it needs help. This is where science comes in. It is the...
Women Are A Mainstay Of Fishing In West Africa. But They Get A...
Throughout West Africa, the artisanal fishing sector is a crucial source of livelihoods and food security. For instance, in Nigeria artisanal fishing accounts for 80% of the fish consumed and...
Farming Without Disturbing Soil Could Cut Agriculture’s Climate...
Perhaps because there are no chimney stacks belching smoke, the contribution of the world’s farms to climate change seems somehow remote. But agriculture accounts for a staggering 26% of all...
Nuclear Power: How Might Radioactive Waste Water Affect The...
It’s been just over a decade since the fourth most powerful earthquake of the modern era triggered a tsunami that struck Fukushima on the eastern coastline of Japan, causing thousands of deaths and...