Granting legal ‘personhood’ to nature is a growing movement – can it stem biodiversity loss?

Apr 26, 2024 06:18 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on giving legal rights to...

From the coast to the deep sea, changing oxygen levels affect marine life in different ways

Apr 25, 2024 06:11 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Earths atmosphere maintains a constant level of oxygen, whether it is a wintry, rainy day or hot summer. Across the ocean, oxygen concentrations vary enormously between different places and over time. Sometimes oxygen...

Sugar gums have a reputation as risky branch-droppers but they’re important to bees, parrots and possums

Apr 25, 2024 06:08 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbournes Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for many decades. It was a fine tree tall and dominating. Less than a year after my retirement,...

The weather experiment that really flooded Dubai

Apr 25, 2024 06:03 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

A reckless experiment in Earths atmosphere caused a desert metropolis to flood. That was the story last week when more than a years worth of rain fell in a day on the Arabian Peninsula, one of the worlds driest regions....

Ancient nomads you’ve probably never heard of disappeared from Europe 1,000 years ago. Now, DNA analysis reveals how they lived

Apr 25, 2024 05:57 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

How do we understand past societies? For centuries, our main sources of information have been pottery sherds, burial sites and ancient texts. But the study of ancient DNA is changing what we know about the human past,...

The high and mighty Himalayas: A biodiversity hotbed facing significant challenges

Apr 24, 2024 09:36 am UTC| Nature

The Himalayas are home to a vast diversity of species, consisting of 10,000 vascular plants, 979 birds and 300 mammals, including the snow leopard, the red panda, the Himalayan tahr and the Himalayan monal. The region...

Earth Day 2024: 4 effective strategies to reduce household food waste

Apr 22, 2024 03:31 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The global food system produces enough food for everyone, yet, in 2023, 333 million people worldwide were food insecure and 783 million were chronically hungry. An estimated 1.3 billion tons of food 14 per cent of all...