Researchers have developed catalysts that can convert carbon dioxide—the main cause of global warming—into plastics, fabrics, resins, and other products. The electrocatalysts are the first materials, aside from enzymes, that can turn carbon dioxide and water into carbon building blocks containing one, two, three, or four carbon atoms with more than 99 percent efficiency. Two
Environment
Sir David Attenborough’s passionate voice is one few would struggle to recognise. Next month, at the UN Climate Change Conference in Poland, world leaders will be listening to it as the famous British naturalist delivers a speech. And you can even help him write it. A new UN campaign called the “People’s Seat” has been
Solar power has never been cheaper, and it’s often held up as a success story for clean energy advocates. In the past four decades, the cost of some solar panels, like photovoltaic cells (PTV), has plummeted by as much as 99 percent. But while the technology’s growth is impressive, until now we didn’t have a
Our planet is constantly changing each and every day, and now thanks to researchers at the University of Cincinnati, we can see some of those shifts mapped over the course of a quarter of a century. The new maps published by the team show 22 percent of Earth’s livable surface has dramatically altered between 1992
Humanity is likely responsible for the death of yet another sperm whale. After it washed ashore Kapota Island in the Wakatobi National Park in Indonesia, park officials found its stomach full of plastic. Over 1,000 individual pieces were found, including 115 plastic cups, 25 plastic bags, two flip-flops, and a sack containing over 1,000 pieces
When it comes to measuring ice loss at the poles, and predicting what might happen next, scientists need as much accurate data as they can get – and a new study suggests there’s a big source of geothermal heat underneath East Antarctica that we haven’t yet factored into our calculations. Ice in this area appears
Nowhere is climate change more obvious than in the Arctic. Experiencing rapid and, at times, unprecedented atmospheric change, the cold crest of our planet has taken on a burden greater than any other region in the world. But while it’s clear the Arctic is especially vulnerable to greenhouse gases, the physical causes that are driving
Some 4,000 years ago, a thriving civilisation in the Indus River Valley inexplicably abandoned its cities, leaving their empty buildings to decay. The Harappa culture (of what is now Pakistan) had a booming local economy and long-distance intercultural trade. Yet, by around 1800 BCE, they had moved from their cities with mod cons such as
Palm oil can be found in food and cosmetics everywhere: in fact, half of the world’s population uses palm oil in food. But public awareness about the loss of wildlife through deforestation caused by palm oil crops is growing, and there’s mounting pressure on retailers to reduce their sales of palm oil products, or boycott
Dogs, cats, or goldfish probably can’t have conversations with each other about times long gone by – it’s a feature we’ve thought was exclusive to humans. But a new study is shaking up that idea, showing that orangutan mothers wait on average seven minutes after a potential predator is out of sight, before sounding the
In the driest and oldest desert on Earth – a place so barren and bleak it’s effectively hell on Earth – things don’t work quite the same way they do in other places. Take water. We tend to think of water as a universally life-giving blessing, but in the hyperarid core of Chile’s Atacama Desert,
Polar bears are pretty much the poster child for climate breakdown. That famous WWF photo by Carla Lombardo Ehrlich of a polar bear clinging to a remnant of melting ice is a stark and poignant image of the dangers of global warming. A new survey suggests that in some parts of the Arctic, the polar
It’s been almost 500 years since Italy’s Campi Flegrei let loose its fiery wrath, but new evidence reveals the ancient supervolcano – the home of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire – may be stirring from its long sleep. For the 1.5 million residents of the Naple region who live in the shadow of the
Scientists behind a major study that claimed the Earth’s oceans are warming faster than previously thought now say their work contained inadvertent errors that made their conclusions seem more certain than they actually are. Two weeks after the high-profile study was published in the journal Nature, its authors have submitted corrections to the publication. The
China has halted a directive that partially legalized the domestic trade in farmed rhinoceros and tiger parts, two weeks after the move drew a torrent of criticism from conservation groups. A senior official in China’s cabinet said in a state media interview published Monday that implementation of an October directive reviving the market for the
It appears that climate change could be damaging the fertility of insects, leaving males virtually sterile, according to new research. Since these creatures make up 90 percent of all life forms on Earth, the results should concern all of us. Scientists agree that climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more intense, more frequent
By now, most of us can list a variety of ways our species is making a mess of this planet. Canadian zoologist Sarah Otto reports in detail how humans have made a mess of things, with the aim of asking how it affects evolution overall. The answer isn’t academic, either – it could show us
We know that huge chunks of ice are breaking off Antarctica at an alarming rate, but sometimes a smart visualisation is what it takes to really understand the scale of a problem – and that’s exactly what we’ve just got for Antarctic icebergs over the last 40 years. Science animators Pixel Movers & Makers (Marlo
Since Thursday, at least 31 people have died from three wildfires burning in California. The Camp Fire charred the entire town of Paradise in northern California. As of Sunday evening, the blaze covered 110,000 acres and was 25 percent contained. Officials have declared it the most destructive wildfire in California history based on the loss
Poachers that kill or maim elephants for their ivory tusks have decimated world elephant populations. According to new research, that activity has placed such a strain on elephant populations in Mozambique that it’s forcing the hand of evolution. Historically, only 2 to 4 percent of female African elephants were naturally tuskless — and now nearly
Of all our planet’s continents, we know the least about the icy landmass of Antarctica. Now, scientists have used satellite imagery to peer into Earth’s tectonics, revealing the hidden structures of Antarctica as part of their work. Due to its remote location and abundance of ice, charting the geological characteristics of Antarctica is tricky, but
Ozone-depleting substances are continuing to decrease more than three decades after a major international agreement phased out their production, according to a recently released UN-backed report. We’ll need to wait a few decades before raising the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner. Knowing it’ll take unprecedented levels of social change to combat global warming, the report even provides
A proposal to create the world’s largest marine reserve in Antarctica is dead in the water after failing to secure unanimous support from participating nations. If it had passed, the vast sanctuary would have been the largest wildlife reserve on Earth, protecting three new regions in the icy south, a total of 1.8 million square
No matter how abundant or renewable, solar power has a thorn in its side. There is still no cheap and efficient long-term storage for the energy that it generates. The solar industry has been snagged on this branch for a while, but in the past year alone, a series of four papers has ushered in
You may never have heard of the small Japanese island of Esanbe Hanakita Kojima, but it’s just hit the headlines after disappearing into the ocean – apparently without anyone noticing for quite some time. A combination of wind and the impacts from drift ice is thought to have sunk the island beneath the waves, as
Sir David Attenborough is much beloved as a broadcaster and naturalist, but a recent interview about his new BBC documentary series has stirred up some heated discussions in the environmental community. Ahead of the latest five-part nature series called Dynasties, Attenborough was interviewed by Jonathan Watts at the Observer (a UK Sunday newspaper and sister publication to The Guardian) about
Nothing lasts forever, especially an iceberg drifting away from its frigid home. This coffin-shaped iceberg was spotted by astronauts on the International Space Station as it drifted northwards. It split off from a much larger iceberg about 18 years ago, and is moving into warmer and warmer waters. The coffin-shaped iceberg has a name: B15-T.
The oceans are the world’s thankless, built-in air purifiers. Over the past couple hundred years, as humans have burned coal, cleared forests, put gas-powered cars and trucks on the road, and run air conditioners and refrigerators, the oceans have been quietly gathering up most of the carbon emissions those activities spew into the air. They
Once upon a time the Earth was ours to share. But after decades of heavy industrial expansion, the most pristine and untouched parts are held by just a few. Today, 70 percent of the world’s remaining wilderness is confined to just five countries. The reality of this widespread destruction is illustrated in a new global
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has released its latest summary of the state of Earth’s biosphere. You don’t need depressing headlines to tell you it isn’t full of good news. Between 1970 and 2014, populations of vertebrate animals declined by an average of 60 percent. Freshwater animals have it even worse, with drops
Rolling back a decades-old ban, the Chinese government will permit the use of rhino horn and tiger bone for use in traditional Chinese medicine, in a move that conservation groups warned could devastate the dwindling species. China’s State Council said Monday it would legalize the trade of rhino and tiger parts sourced from farmed animals,
NASA scientist Jeremy Harbeck was on a surveying flight over the Antarctic Peninsula earlier this month when he spotted an iceberg that looked like no other. It was almost perfectly rectangular, with square sides and a flat top that made it look more human-made than natural. “I thought this rectangular iceberg was visually interesting and
For years, a mystery puzzled environmental scientists. The world had banned the use of many ozone-depleting compounds in 2010. So why were global emission levels still so high? The picture started to clear up in June. That’s when The New York Times published an investigation into the issue. China, the paper claimed, was to blame for these mystery emissions. Now it turns
The next time you pee, think about this: Your urine could one day create the sustainable building materials of the future. Dyllon Randall is a research engineer at the University of Cape Town. He’s also the supervisor on a new project in which students harvested urine from urinals so they could transform the waste into
Scientists at the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park are doing some great work. They’re looking after the park on Hawaii’s Big Island, and showing off the little critters they find on their Facebook page along the way. But back in August, while the park’s marine biologists were conducting coral reef monitoring, they found a doozy –
On Monday, President Trump tweeted out a map, exclaiming that American air is the best air by far. That’s not exactly true. The map, grabbed from a World Health Organisation report out earlier this year, is an estimate of how much ultra-fine particulate matter (PM) people are breathing in around the world. This kind of
For East Island, a remote stretch of sand in the Hawaiian archipelago, it was only a matter of time. And that time just came. Satellite images released this week reveal that the entirety of East Island was basically wiped out by powerful storm surges in the wake of Hurricane Walaka, one of the most intense
There is more to the Greenland ice sheet than meets the eye. Hiding in the depths of West Greenland’s Store Glacier, scientists have found a surprising amount of liquid water. The new analysis is the very first to demonstrate liquid water trapped in solid, glacial ice. And if the feature extends to other glaciers, it
An oil spill that has been quietly leaking millions of barrels into the Gulf of Mexico has gone unplugged for so long that it now verges on becoming one of the worst offshore disasters in US history. Between 300 and 700 barrels of oil per day have been spewing from a site 12 miles (19
A deep-sea swimming sea cucumber, Enypniastes eximia, also known as a headless chicken monster, has been filmed for the first time in Southern Ocean waters off East Antarctica using underwater camera technology developed by Australian researchers. The creature, which has only been filmed before in the Gulf of Mexico, was discovered in 3 kilometres of
An extensive and rigorous study of the Arctic seafloor has improved our understanding of life at the deepest, darkest depths. The floor of the Central Arctic is one of the least studied ocean areas in the world. Still, that doesn’t mean there’s nothing down there of interest. While many people would assume that not much
Insects around the world are in a crisis, according to a small but growing number of long-term studies showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations. A new report suggests that the problem is more widespread than scientists realized. Huge numbers of bugs have been lost in a pristine national forest in Puerto Rico, the study found,
Throughout early fall, Alaska has been oddly warm and pleasant. The cause of the freakishly nice weather has been massive high pressure anchored over and around the state. One of the strongest on record for fall, this sprawling dome of warm air has helped keep the usual transition to cold stunted. Since days are still
It’s called Pando, a forest of around 47,000 genetically identical quaking aspen trees that share an estimated 80,000-year-old root system. Pando’s home is in south-central Utah in the United States, and it’s one of the world’s largest – and oldest – living organisms. It’s also failing to regenerate. “People are at the centre of that
The scientists liken it to ‘singing’, but to our ears the creepy dirge of Antarctic ice shelf vibrations sounds more like the sinister score of a horror movie. Researchers on Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf have recorded the slow seismic hum generated by wind forces whipping across the ice sheet’s frozen landscape. The frequency detected is
Fortnite is an unprecedented, smash hit video gaming phenomenon – where the aim is to be the last person standing after a battle royale shootout on a magical island – and now scientists are tapping into its popularity to try and teach kids about climate change. The new ClimateFortnite Twitch channel features what many a
Taupo is resting now, and for that we should all be very grateful. The highly active Taupo Volcanic Zone, situated in New Zealand’s North Island, produced history’s most recent supereruption, unleashing some 530 cubic kilometres of fiery magma upon Earth’s surface. For context, what’s widely regarded as the most destructive volcanic eruption in US history –
Humans will cause so many mammal species to go extinct in the next 50 years that the planet’s evolutionary diversity won’t recover for 3 to 5 million years, a team of researchers has found. The Earth may be entering its sixth mass extinction: an era in which the planet’s environments change so much that most