Forests are critical for promoting pollination in agriculture and biodiversity, says FAO report
Reading Time: 2 minutesROME: Forests and trees are critical for promoting pollination by bees, butterflies and other animals, and there is an urgent need to stop their habitat degradation and safeguard biodiversity, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] The report jointly produced by FAO and Bioversity […]
Tropical forests can handle the heat, up to a point
Reading Time: 3 minutesTROPICAL FOREST face an uncertain future under climate change, but new research published in Science suggests they can continue to store large amounts of carbon in a warmer world, if countries limit greenhouse gas emissions. The world’s tropical forests store a quarter-century worth of fossil fuel emissions in their trees alone. There are fears that […]
NASA catches the extra-tropical ending of Mangga
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY SUNDAY, May 24, Tropical Cyclone Mangga had already transitioned to an extra-tropical storm and was affecting the southwestern coast of Australia. When a storm becomes extra-tropical, it means that a tropical cyclone has lost its “tropical” characteristics. The National Hurricane Center defines “extra-tropical” as a transition that implies both poleward displacement (meaning it moves […]
Designing a flexible material to protect buildings, military personnel
Reading Time: 2 minutesSHAKE, rattle and roll. Even though they are miles from the epicenter of an earthquake, buildings can collapse due to how an earthquake energy makes the ground shake and rattle. Now, a team of engineers led by Guoliang Huang, a James C. Dowell Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of […]
Pangolins – Protectors of the environment
Reading Time: 2 minutesA SINGLE pangolin is said to consume up to 70 million ants and termites a year. That’s about 191,780 insects per day! Pangolins [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] are natural pest controllers and save both forest trees and agricultural crops from this insect pestilence. One pangolin can protect an area as large as 31 football fields (41 acres) from termite destruction. […]
Catalyzing the future of clean energy
Reading Time: 2 minutesAN improved design for nickel hydroxide catalysts could reduce costs and improve the efficiency of hydrogen fuel and oxygen generation. n the face of climate change, our need to switch to clean energy sources is more pressing than ever before. However, many of these energy sources, such as solar and wind energy, face a key […]
Indian Ocean phenomenon spells climate trouble for Australia
Reading Time: 2 minutesNEW INTERNATIONAL research has found a worrying change in the Indian Ocean’s surface temperatures that puts southeast Australia on course for increasingly hot and dry conditions. The work led by The Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes has a silver lining, helping to improve our understanding of climate […]
Popular cash crops can indirectly impact on fight against malaria
Reading Time: 2 minutesRESEARCHERS at the University of Sydney and University of São Paulo, Brazil, estimate 20 percent of the malaria risk in deforestation hot spots is driven by the international trade of exports including: coffee, timber, soybean, cocoa, wood products, palm oil, tobacco, beef and cotton. “What does this mean for affluent consumers?” asks senior author Professor […]
Wooden pallets more eco-friendly than plastic ones
Reading Time: 2 minutesWEIGHING in on a debate that has raged for decades, Penn State researchers, after conducting a series of ultra-detailed comparisons, have declared that shipping pallets made of wood are slightly more environmentally-friendly and sustainable than those made of plastic. “Few people realise the significance of this issue -there are about 700 million pallets produced and […]
East African fish in need of recovery
Reading Time: 2 minutesA STUDY of East African coral reefs has uncovered an unfolding calamity for the region: plummeting fish populations due to overfishing, which in turn could produce widespread food insecurity. In a newly published paper in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series titled “Coral reef fish communities, diversity, and their fisheries and biodiversity status in East […]