History took place in the United States yesterday. Two Democrats were announced the winners of the run-off elections for Georgia's two Senate seats, allowing the Democrats to take back control of the chamber from the Republicans. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock were the first Democrats to win a Georgia Senate race in a quarter of a century. It also marked the first time since Herbert Hoover's loss in 1932 that a president lost a re-election campai...

Saturday was the fifth anniversary of the Paris climate agreement – the commitment by almost every country to try to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius. It's an ambitious goal, and the clock is ticking. The planet has already warmed by about 1 C since the start of the industrial era. That might not sound like much, but that first degree is changing the planet in profound ways, from more extreme heat waves that put human health ...

One-in-five countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing, according to recent research.When ecosystems collapse, they rapidly lose their structure and function, with dramatic changes to their size or extent.Collapse on this scale would threaten more than half of global GDP (US$42 trillion, or £32 trillion).Professor of Physical Geography, John Dearing explains what collapse means - and what we can do about it. One in five countries are at...

Affluence is the biggest threat to our world, according to a new scientific report.True sustainability will only be achieved through drastic lifestyle changes, it argues.The World Economic Forum has called for a great reset of capitalism in the wake of the pandemic. A detailed analysis of environmental research has revealed the greatest threat to the world: affluence. That's one of the main conclusions of a team of scientists from Australia, Swit...

A century ago Virginia's coastal lagoons were a natural paradise. Fishing boats bobbed on the waves as geese flocked overhead. Beneath the surface, miles of seagrass gently swayed in the surf, making the seabed look like a vast underwater prairie. More than 70 species of seagrasses grow in shallow waters around the world, on every continent except Antarctica. In Virginia, beds of eelgrass (Zostera marina) provided habitat for bay scallops and foo...

The day Joe Biden becomes president, he can start taking actions that can help slow climate change. The question is whether he can match the magnitude of the challenge. If his administration focuses only on what is politically possible and fails to build a coordinated response that also addresses the social and economic ramifications of both climate change and the U.S. policy response, it is unlikely to succeed. I have spent much of my career wor...

More than 8.3 billion metric tonnes of plastic has been produced in the last six decades.However, recycling plastic can be difficult as the most common process involves melting and reworking the material.A new process developed by the University of California can turn polyethylene into useful smaller molecules. If you thought those flimsy disposable plastic grocery bags represented most of our plastic waste problem, think again. The volume of pla...

Planting new forests is recognised as a powerful natural climate solution, but the best way to achieve this is still a matter for debate.New research suggests natural regrowth could be the most effective approach.Letting nature take its course promotes native species and biodiversity at a fraction of the cost of manual tree-planting. Susan Cook-Patton was planting a native red oak seedling in her backyard. As she finished and stepped back to admi...

Microsoft has concluded its 'Project Natick' experiment off the coast of Scotland's Orkney Islands.The shipping container sized underwater data center proved to be eight times more reliable than its dry-land counterparts.Its success could shape the future of scaling up data centers, while keeping energy and operation costs low. Microsoft has concluded a years-long experiment involving use of a shipping container-sized underwater data center, plac...

Our current economic system has failed to value nature.We need a new economic model: a circular bioeconomy.As part of his Sustainable Markets Initiative, HRH The Prince of Wales establishes Circular Bioeconomy Alliance to accelerate transformation to climate- and nature-positive economy. There is no future for business as usual. Our current economic system, which arguably has succeeded in creating unprecedented economic output, wealth and human w...