December 13, 2023
Africa: Climate Change Risks Triggering a Spike in Infectious Disease Outbreaks - Three Reasons Why
Climate change is our planet's most immediate existential threat, and will likely only worsen for the foreseeable future. Read more »
Africa: COP28's Commitment to Transforming Farming and Food Systems Is an Insult to Africans
Globally, food systems are unsustainable: 80% of the production of food is powered by fossil fuels. The food system is responsible for over one-third of global greenhouse gas… Read more »
December 12, 2023
Africa: China-Africa Relations in 2023 - Key Moments and Events to Remember
In a year when headlines have been dominated by conflict in Europe and the Middle East, and geo-economic tensions between China and the West, China-Africa relations were, in… Read more »
December 10, 2023
Africa: Improved Employment Policies Can Encourage Fathers to Be More Involved At Home
While the COVID-19 pandemic had many detrimental socio-economic and health impacts, one silver lining has been the influence of remote work on men's involvement in unpaid work at… Read more »
December 08, 2023
Africa: Frozen Methane Under the Seabed Is Thawing As Oceans Warm - and Things Are Worse Than We Thought
Buried beneath the oceans surrounding continents is a naturally occurring frozen form of methane and water. Sometimes dubbed ''fire-ice'' as you can literally set light to it,… Read more »
Africa: The Disagreement Between Two Climate Scientists That Will Decide Our Future
Getting to net zero emissions by mid-century is conventionally understood as humanity's best hope for keeping Earth's surface temperature (already 1.2°C above its… Read more »
Africa: From the Paris Agreement to COP28, How Oil and Gas Giants Try to Influence the Global Climate Agenda
There is ''no science'' behind demands to phase out fossil fuels, according to the current COP president. This level of cynicism at the top of the annual climate summit makes it… Read more »
December 10, 2023
Africa: Trash to Treasure - Africa Powers Up from Garbage Dumps
New research on garbage dumps in 44 sub-Saharan African countries shows that 95% are unregulated. The landfill sites still take in new garbage even when they are filled to… Read more »
December 07, 2023
Africa: Climate 'Tipping Points' Can Be Positive Too - Our Report Sets Out How to Engineer a Domino Effect of Rapid Changes
A young boy is forced to sit at a dinner table with grown-ups talking endlessly about grown-up stuff. He's bored. He finds it hard at first, to push with his feet against the table… Read more »
December 06, 2023
Africa: Climate Tipping Points Are Nearer Than You Think - Our New Report Warns of Catastrophic Risk
It's now almost inevitable that 2023 will be the warmest year ever recorded by humans, probably the warmest for at least 125,000 years. Read more »
Africa: Don't Applaud the Climate Summit's Loss and Damage Fund Deal Just Yet - It Might Not Warrant That Standing Ovation
Shortly after the opening ceremony of the 2023 United Nations climate negotiations in Dubai, delegates of nations around the world rose in a standing ovation to celebrate a… Read more »
Africa: How Agriculture Can Make The Most of One of The World's Biggest Carbon Sink, Soil
It's right under our feet. We barely notice as we go about our lives, yet it is nothing less than the largest carbon repository among all of Earth's ecosystems. This distinction is… Read more »
Africa: Rural Communities Are Being Left Behind Because of Poor Digital Infrastructure, Research Shows
In an era where businesses and households depend on the internet for everything from marketing to banking and shopping, the lack of adequate digital access can be a significant… Read more »
December 04, 2023
Africa: COP28 - With a 'Loss and Damage' Fund in Place, Protecting Climate Refugees Is More Urgent Than Ever
It has taken decades, but the complex and increasingly urgent issue of "climate mobility" has gradually become central to international climate negotiations. Read more »
November 30, 2023
Africa: COP28 - Why We Need to Break Our Addiction to Combustion
Headlines across the world this year focused on fires, including both wildfires and the use of military firepower, in various places. Read more »
Africa: COP28 Climate Summit Just Approved a 'Loss and Damage' Fund. What Does This Mean?
Day one of the COP28 climate summit saw the first big breakthrough: agreement on a "loss and damage" fund to compensate poor states for the effects of climate change. Read more »
December 05, 2023
Africa: Could Antivirals Reduce Your Risk of Long Covid? Where the Research Is Up to On Prevention and Treatment
Evidence is continuing to accumulate on the burden and frequency of chronic effects after a COVID infection, which fall under the umbrella term "long COVID". Read more »
December 04, 2023
Africa: Getting Climate Funds to Conflict Zones - A Case for Working With Armed Groups and Local Communities
Conflict-ridden and fragile countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change and least prepared to deal with it. They are largely excluded from climate adaptation… Read more »
November 29, 2023
Africa: How AI Could Reveal Secrets of Thousands of Handwritten Documents
Have you ever struggled to read what that scrawl between "carrots" and "potatoes" is on your shopping list? Soon, artificial intelligence (AI) may be able to help. Read more »
November 28, 2023
Africa: Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year - Authentic - Reflects Growing Concerns Over AI's Ability to Deceive and Dehumanize
When Merriam-Webster announced that its word of the year for 2023 was "authentic," it did so with over a month to go in the calendar year. Read more »
November 30, 2023
Africa: 'Baldur's Gate 3' Became the Surprise Hit of 2023 By Upending Conventional Wisdom About What Gives Video Games Broad Appeal
Few predicted that the smash hit video game of 2023 would feature old-school game mechanics, hours of brooding cutscenes and a vexing learning curve. Read more »
December 01, 2023
Africa: Colonized Countries Rarely Ask for Redress Over Past Wrongs - the Reasons Can Be Complex
The king of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander, apologized in July 2023 for his ancestors' role in the colonial slave trade. Read more »
November 29, 2023
Africa: ChatGPT Turns 1 - AI Chatbot's Success Says As Much About Humans As Technology
ChatGPT was launched on Nov. 30, 2022, ushering in what many have called artificial intelligence's breakout year. Within days of its release, ChatGPT went viral. Screenshots of… Read more »
November 30, 2023
Africa: Drone Fishing in South Africa Is a Danger to Sharks and May Be Unfair to Other Fishers - Study
"Drone fishing" is a relatively recent innovation in the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. Some recreational anglers are using personal drones to fly baited lines into hard-to-reach… Read more »
Africa: Building African Cities That Cope With Climate Shocks - Experts Outline What It Will Take
The international climate change negotiations began almost three decades ago when many were still hesitant to accept that human activities were changing the planet. Now the… Read more »