Climate Change Series

The Moana effect: how small island developing states are bringing their struggle against climate change to the world

Nov 19, 2024 07:39 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Walking through the delegation pavilion at the UN climate summit, Cop29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, the Moana blue Pacific pavilion grabbed my attention more than any other. This pavilion is named after the spirited young...

Prime time for cicadas: what a once-in-1,547-year bug population surge tells us about the nature of reality

Nov 13, 2024 08:49 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Its a big year in America for wildlife as well as for politics. Im talking about periodical cicadas. These curious creatures spend most of their lives in the ground, emerging after 13 or 17 years to eat, breed, die and...

As Colombia hosts a UN biodiversity summit, its own Amazonian rainforest is in crisis

Oct 25, 2024 12:08 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

The city of Cali, in Colombia, is hosting the UNs 16th biodiversity summit, known as Cop16. The summit, which runs until Friday, November 1, is focused on how countries will fulfil previous pledges to protect at least 30%...

Hurricane Milton explodes into a powerful Category 5 storm as it heads for Florida − here’s how rapid intensification works

Oct 08, 2024 07:18 am UTC| Nature

Hurricane Milton rapidly intensified into a dangerous Category 5 hurricane on Oct. 7, 2024, as it headed across the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. Twenty-four hours earlier, it was barely a Category 1 storm. As its wind...

The biodiversity jukebox: how sound can boost beneficial soil microbes to heal nature

Oct 03, 2024 00:13 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

In a race against time, scientists are exploring new ways to restore natural systems. Alongside traditional methods such as planting trees, reducing pollution and reintroducing native species, a surprising new tool is...

Bees have irrational biases when choosing which flowers to feed on − just like human shoppers do

Sep 30, 2024 02:13 am UTC| Nature

Just like people confronted with a sea of options at the grocery store, bees foraging in meadows encounter many different flowers at once. They must decide which ones to visit for food, but it isnt always a straightforward...

Oil pollution in North Sea is ‘grossly underestimated’, suggests new report

Sep 29, 2024 10:17 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Growing up in Aberdeen, Scotland, the shadow of the Piper Alpha disaster loomed large over our community. The tragic explosion of the oil rig platform in 1988 claimed the lives of 167 people. Back then, I was blissfully...