Climate and Science, Sharm el-Sheikh The UN’s climate change summit has opened in Egypt with a warning that our planet is “sending a distress signal”. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was responding to a UN report released on Sunday saying the past eight years were on track to be the warmest onContinue Reading
Global leaders are about to meet for another UN climate summit – COP27 starting in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday – and the reality of climate change for many people can be overwhelming. Record-breaking heatwaves, devastating floods in Pakistan, and drought in East Africa – and that is just this year.Continue Reading
Glaciers across the globe – including the last ones in Africa – will be unavoidably lost by 2050 due to climate change, the UN says in a report. Glaciers in a third of UN World Heritage sites will melt within three decades, a UNESCO report found. Mount Kilimanjaro’s last glaciersContinue Reading
Dubai plans to cut carbon emissions by 30% by the end of 2030, the emirate’s government media office said on Sunday on its website. The plan is part of a broader strategy, announced by the United Arab Emirates in October, to achieve carbon emission neutrality by 2050, the office said. Continue Reading
IMAGE SOURCE, SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage caption, Neodymium-iron-boron is the strongest permanent magnet material in wide-scale use today Name a technology that is all around us, underpins our modern way of living but is hardly recognised for its contribution. How about the magnet?The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering hopes our awareness and appreciation willContinue Reading
There are 14% more tree species than previously thought, according to what researchers are calling the first “scientifically credible” estimate. Of the 73,300 estimated species, the researchers predict there are 9,200 that are yet to be discovered. But most rare species are in tropical forests, fast disappearing because of climateContinue Reading
A black diamond weighing a staggering 555.55 carats is going up for auction at Sotheby’s and living up to its name “The Enigma.” Bidding opens on Feb. 3 at 6 a.m. PST (1400 GMT) and closes on Feb. 9, Sotheby’s said, adding cryptocurrency will be accepted for payment of theContinue Reading
Germany’s new coalition government wants to attract 400,000 qualified workers from abroad each year to tackle both a demographic imbalance and labour shortages in key sectors that risk undermining the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. “The shortage of skilled workers has become so serious by now that it is dramaticallyContinue Reading
Fossil fuel emissions aren’t just driving climate change and worsening air quality, they’re also hurting crop yields enough to cause some $63 billion in annual losses in East Asia, scientists say. With high levels of ozone pollution, China, South Korea and Japan are seeing diminished yields in wheat, rice, andContinue Reading
Tsunami-hit Tonga remained largely uncontactable on Sunday with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families on the Pacific islands as casualty reports had yet to come through. An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday, triggering warnings of 1.2-metre tsunami waves andContinue Reading