What if you never saw the stars again? In fact, you have probably never seen a real night sky in your entire life due to the damage that urban areas have on the light. We all find a starry night mesmerising. So why do we all ignore the immense issue that is progressively getting worse… Continue reading Let there be night! What is light pollution?
Record low sea ice in late 2023 led to breeding failures in one-fifth of Antarctica’s emperor penguin colonies. Record low sea ice in late 2023 led to breeding failures in one-fifth of Antarctica’s emperor penguin colonies. Emperor penguins suffered mass breeding failures due to record low sea ice in 2023, according to scientists with the… Continue reading “We’re predicting that we’ll lose around 99%” — emperor penguins face extinction by 2100
Electric vehicles (EVs) are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions — and air pollution — from transport. Is this view correct? Yes — but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the recent boom in EV purchases, they are still a tiny minority of the cars on the road. We would get more immediate benefit… Continue reading Electric vehicles will start to cut emissions and improve air quality in our cities — but only once they’re common
There are only around 22,000 lions left in Africa, compared to about 100,000 not many years ago. Kruger National Park has some of the best access to wild animals in all of Africa and is possibly the most famous game reserve on the continent. South African National Parks—SANParks—has acknowledged that poachers have poisoned lions in… Continue reading Lions in South Africa’s Kruger Park are being poisoned by poachers who want their body parts
When OceanGate, the deep-sea exploration enterprise, created a promotional video for its ill-fated US$250,000-per-head trip to see the wreck of the Titanic, it told prospective passengers to: “Get ready for what Jules Verne could only imagine – a 12,500-foot journey to the bottom of the sea”. Those behind the video hoped viewers would recognise the… Continue reading Classic literature still offers rich lessons about life in the deep blue sea
Heavy rains and flash flooding have driven Australian wildlife to seek higher ground, creating a terrifying reality for residents in New South Wales and Queensland: the rise of the toilet snake. As floodwaters inundate roads and isolate towns, reptiles are seeking refuge in the driest places they can find — often inside human homes. While… Continue reading Terror from below — why snakes are invading Australian toilets
Gold, platinum and rhino horn are among the world’s most valuable materials, with rhino horn being the most expensive. According to National Geographic, late in 2011, it fetched from $33 to $133 a gram on the streets of Vietnam. Samuel Wasser, a professor at the University of Washington in Seattle’s Department of Biology, described rhino… Continue reading Dye and poison are being used to stop rhino poachers
Worldwide, air pollution is second only to tobacco as the leading cause of lung cancer. Delhi customarily sits atop lists of the world’s most polluted capitals. Pollution season in Delhi commenced earlier than usual this year on account of lower rainfall than normal. The problem always worsens in winter, when farmers living in neighbouring states… Continue reading Pollution in Delhi so bad people are getting smokers’ lungs
The section of the Seine running through Paris garnered unusually good headlines in 2009 when salmon were caught there for the first time in decades. The river, polluted by industry since the beginning of the 20th century, boded well for Paris’s ecological recovery and since swimming has been formally banned in the river since 1923,… Continue reading Swimmers to return to the Seine for the first time in a century
Leprosy is a chronic condition affecting the skin, nerves and mucous membranes. It can be treated with a combination of antibiotics over six to 12 months, but if left untreated, it can lead to severe complications such as crippled hands and feet, paralysis and blindness. While leprosy has not been reported in the United Kingdom… Continue reading Did leprosy come from squirrels?
