Category Nature

The holidays are a time of joy and goodwill. They also happen to be one of the most wasteful times of year. Every week during the holiday season, an additional 1 million tons of trash finds its way into landfills,…

Humble seaweed is having a moment. It’s been heralded as a sustainable superfood, a biodegradable replacement for plastic packaging and a feed supplement to cut cows’ methane emissions. Now, new research shows that seaweed forests — such as massive underwater…

How much can — or should — humanity rely on nature to help solve the climate crisis?  That’s the question at the center of a new study, and the study’s conclusions have some scientists scratching their heads. As the United…

If you read only the news headlines, you’d have learned that last month’s global summit on biodiversity — known as “COP16” — was not a success: “COP16 fizzles out as rich countries block global nature fund”  “The COP16 biodiversity summit was…

Plant more trees, cool the climate: It’s a message that readers of this website know well. But new research confirms that this “rule” doesn’t apply everywhere.  Take southern Africa: In some places, grasses are far more effective climate allies than…

In a community center in rural Madagascar, Kame Westerman noticed something that changed her career. As the men debated the closure of an octopus fishery, the women — who stood to gain or lose the most from the decision —…

As 2024 comes to a close, global temperatures are at an all-time high — topping the previous hottest-year on record: 2023. As the rising temperatures fuel extreme weather around the world, communities are left to grapple with catastrophic floods, severe…

In the Andean foothills of the Peruvian Amazon, Trond Larsen carefully scanned the forest floor.  Out of the corner of his eye, a dark brown frog with a long snout hopped across the leaves, briefly exposing a bright pink underbelly.…

It was a year of rough seas for the world’s oceans.  Despite some progress on both fronts, overfishing and pollution persisted, while waters continued to warm at a rate that scientists “cannot fully explain,” according to Johan Rockström, chief scientist…

Alarm bells screamed for nature in 2024.  Each week seemed to bring fresh warnings of the loss of wildlife, habitat destruction and the escalating impacts of climate change.  But amid the gloom, quiet victories emerged, as ordinary people made extraordinary…