It's time to wake up to the devastating impact flying has on the environment

Jan 11, 2017 17:24 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Ready to get over your post-festive comedown by booking an escape to the sun? For many of you, that will involve flying. And while Im sorry to put a downer on your holiday plans, there are several problems with this from a...

Why Zimbabwe's use of elephants to pay off old debt to China is problematic

Jan 09, 2017 05:07 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

A bizarre story has recently come out of Zimbabwe. Grace Mugabe, the politically powerful wife of the ageing president Robert Mugabe, has came up with a plan to settle a debt to China with 35 young elephants, eight lions,...

Africa's most toxic lakes are a paradise for fearless flamingos

Jan 05, 2017 16:57 pm UTC| Nature

The worlds most seemingly-toxic lakes are under threat. And they are also home to one of our most familiar birds: the flamingo. All flamingo species have evolved to live in some of the planets most extreme wetlands,...

Climate Change Series

Momentum grows for ocean preserves. How well do they work?

Jan 04, 2017 05:17 am UTC| Nature

What lies beneath the deep, dark expanse of the ocean is something that has fascinated sailors, fishermen, adventurers, poets and explorers for centuries. How could residents of New England, for instance, have known that...

Why do elephants bellow but whales squeak like a mouse?

Dec 29, 2016 13:04 pm UTC| Nature

Have you ever met a really tall man who has a high-pitched voice? Did it seem odd? We intuitively expect large mammals to have low, booming voices, while small mammals should have high-pitched, squeaky voices. The...

The global road-building explosion is shattering nature

Dec 19, 2016 00:15 am UTC| Nature

If you asked a friend to name the worst human threat to nature, what would they say? Global warming? Overhunting? Habitat fragmentation? A new study suggests it is in fact road-building. Road-building might sound...

Humans strive for efficiency but could learn so much from nature's resilience

Dec 17, 2016 06:49 am UTC| Nature Technology

Since the industrial revolution, humans have been driving towards ever greater efficiency. In fact, efficiency making the best possible use of the resources at hand has become the core concept of how we run the...