Why stop at plastic bags and straws? The case for a global treaty banning most single-use plastics

Feb 08, 2019 12:12 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Single-use plastics are a blessing and a curse. They have fueled a revolution in commercial and consumer convenience and improved hygiene standards, but also have saturated the worlds coastlines and clogged landfills. By...

Rising seas: to keep humans safe, let nature shape the coast

Feb 08, 2019 11:58 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Even under the most conservative climate change scenarios, sea levels 30cm higher than at present seem all but certain on much of the UKs coast by the end of this century. Depending on emission scenarios, sea levels one...

Green buildings must do more to fix our climate emergency

Feb 06, 2019 23:35 pm UTC| Business Nature

After more than three decades of talk about the potential of building green, weve still failed to change the way we design and construct buildings so that the built environment stops being a dominant contributor to runaway...

How a bushfire can destroy a home

Feb 06, 2019 23:35 pm UTC| Nature

Ten years after the devastation of Black Saturday, building design has largely been unrecognised as an area worthy of research. We have advanced our knowledge of the materials used in the construction of homes in...

Our 'bee-eye camera' helps us support bees, grow food and protect the environment

Feb 05, 2019 09:32 am UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Walking through our gardens in Australia, we may not realise that buzzing around us is one of our greatest natural resources. Bees are responsible for pollinating about a third of food for human consumption, and data on...

The world's shellfish are under threat as our oceans become more acidic

Jan 29, 2019 12:40 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

For the past few million years the worlds oceans have existed in a slightly alkaline state, with an average pH of 8.2. Now, with carbon emissions escalating, there is more CO2 in the worlds atmosphere. This dissolves in...

Carbon capture and conversion must not rely on rare metals

Jan 29, 2019 12:40 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Last year, humans emitted approximately 37 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere a disastrous and unsustainable figure. To avoid the worst effects of climate change we could capture some of that carbon as...