Carbon dioxide gets all the press, but methane is the silent killer of the climate crisis. Trapping heat 28 times more effectively than CO2, it is a major driver of global warming. Now, Denmark is making farmers pay for it. Denmark is set to become the first country in the world to tax cows, sheep… Continue reading The cost of a burp — Denmark becomes first nation to tax livestock emissions
Deep in the forests of Uganda, a team of scientific detectives has uncovered a secret: chimpanzees are running their own pharmacy. Scientists observing wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) have confirmed that the animals deliberately seek out plants with anti-bacterial and pain-relieving properties to heal themselves. The 13-strong team, comprising botanists and primatologists, conducted their “detective… Continue reading Forest pharmacists — chimpanzees are teaching scientists how to treat disease
The invention of the contraceptive pill marked the onset of the sexual revolution in the 1960s. Now, scientists are seeking to revolutionise wildlife control by adding animals to the mix. Trials are afoot in the United Kingdom and other European countries where pigeons, squirrels and wild boar are given contraceptives. Deer and invasive parakeets are… Continue reading Wildlife on the pill — the new age of animal population control
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
